ICYMI: 2024 Social Media Predictions 💬
ICYMI: 2024 Social Media Predictions 💬
Your survey results!
✨ Your 2024 Predictions ✨
In late October, I asked the ICYMI community to help me crowdsource the tech and social trends we’ll carry through to 2024 and what should be left in 2023. Your insights were amazing, thank you!
Over 110 people responded, mostly made up of marketers (76.8%), people who identified as creators (50.9%) and a smaller mix of founders (24.1%), educators (9.8%), tech employees (6.3%) and journalists (6.3%), among other professions.
I tried to incorporate as much feedback as possible so you’ll hear from Taylor Loren, Kristen Bousquet, Radu Oncescu, Debra Williamson, and many more.
This newsletter is dedicated to:
📲 Your choice for top platform and content formats
💬 Your commentary on 2024 trends
🚀 Your most popular influencer tier in 2024
🎟️ Your picks for the best conferences to attend
🧰 Your picks for the best AI tools
This email is packed with info, so you’ll miss out if you don’t read the web version. Click “view in browser” on the top right.
And I’ll be back in your inbox Monday for a regular recap of social news.
📲 What is the primary platform you are focusing on for 2024 as a creator or brand?
Instagram (48.6%) took this one by a landslide, with TikTok (20.2%), LinkedIn (13.8%), YouTube (11%) and Facebook (2.8%) rounding out the top five. Because I limited the response to a single priority platform, there was some pushback about not being able to select multiple platforms or alternates to the main social networks.
“Discord, or any algo-free hub like Guilded, offers all kinds of tiered support for community building and creators/influencers or devs to interact with fans and build brand affinity. I’ve seen a few movie companies try it out. I think it was the Sonic movie that was pushing Discord for their hub of info. These platforms are making larger pushes to be hubs of niche fandoms as free/standard social as we know it is changing in our face.” -Anonymous
📲 What content format are you focusing on for 2024?
Short-form video (64.9%) was the winner here but there wasn’t really a clear consensus on the runner up between long-form video (12.6%), images (10.8%) or text (10.8%). Again, the singular option proved challenging to survey respondents. Several people wrote in to say livestreaming was an integral part of their strategy, in addition to other types of video they planned to produce in 2024.
“We're devoting significant energy to live-streaming in North America and Europe as viewers find themselves indoors in the cold, winter months. We are also closely monitoring the rising popularity of platforms like Kick (including securing contracts with rising talent on the platform), which has the potential to disrupt the live-streaming landscape as we know it today." -Eric Calouro, Managing Director, Dalton Street
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📈 The tech or marketing trends we’ll STILL be talking about in 2024
Here’s what people expect to still be talking about next year versus the things we’ll leave behind in 2023: Generative AI and TikTok Shop top the list of things everyone expects to be talking about even more next year. Ad-free platforms will carry through but no one has any interest in discussing them, while people hope to leave the X drama in 2023.
✨ Your Predictions ✨
Here’s a recap of the top themes that emerged from your trend responses:
📣 TREND: SONIC BOOM
Let’s start with audio marketing. About a dozen responses pointed to audio-first experiences: podcasts, video podcasts, audiobooks, dubbing, branded audio, etc. Basically, “anything in entertainment that requires voice,” said fractional CMO Cindy Qiu. Not to be too corny, but I hear you loud and clear.
“Branded audio. Expect to see more creators and/or brands creating original audios in the hope of gaining growth through trending audio instead of videos.” -Taylor Loren, Brand Builder and Marketing Consultant
“Whether in private (DMs) or in public, I’m seeing voice messaging as an authentic way for both creators and companies to deliver their (brand) message to the masses, especially to new audiences. Some good examples to follow in the area are Telegram, WhatsApp, Twitter (X), and Threads, the last of which also allows voice replies to all types of posts, not only simple voice posts. Yeah, Mosseri and the whole Instagram team nailed it with this.” -Radu Oncescu, Digital Media Commentator
“Video podcasts! Audio-only will be seen as an old fashioned way to podcast. Podcast companies who bet on C-list celebrities to carry their shows will continue to fold, but YouTubers who branch out into video podcasting specifically on YouTube where their audience already is will continue to flourish. Spotify will continue trying to buy up YouTube's most popular shows (Emma Chamberlain, Joe Rogan, etc.)” -Anonymous
✍️ TREND: PRINT, NEWSLETTERS + TEXT
Even as artificial intelligence dominates headlines, tangible keepsakes like print art and zines will be “social intimacy builders” wrote communications consultant, Kayla Naab. We saw examples of this earlier this year with Colin and Samir’s anniversary newspaper and a recent collab custom newspaper from Adidas and High Snobiety. The approach here: IRL as a bespoke solution to the onslaught of AI.
“The shift to experiential as marketers prioritize marketing activities that can't be replaced by AI.” -Jennifer Dingman, Head of Digital Communications, Approach Marketing
Multiple people also pointed to the rise of newsletters as influencers look to branch out from their core formats into other mediums to reach niche communities:
“Substack for niche audiences because the broad, lifestyle influencer will fade.” -Dmitri Cherner, Head of Influencer, One Skin
Of course, context matters. It makes sense that newsletter readers would be in favor of the format, but given Gen Z’s distaste for email, I don’t know if this is a macro trend or one that’s particular to this moment in time.
SMS marketing is another way to tap into those niche communities:
“More people are interested in that intimate connection. And text messages are something I really only do with my family and my close friends. So I think it's a cool way to have a little exclusive group where I share specific things, especially with my very loyal clients and customers to give them something that feels a little bit more intimate than a Broadcast Channel where they can't respond or a DM where I can't reach a bunch of people. It checks a bunch of boxes for me being that I can talk to multiple people, but it still feels intimate.” -Kristen Bousquet, Founder Soulcialmate
🎮 TREND: GAMING CULTURE
Another space that could be ideal for targeting specific communities is gaming:
“Brands will (or should) start to reach out and partner with gamers in the coming years, especially with how Gen Alpha is very online and honed into gaming (Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite, etc). Also Five Nights at Freddy’s, which was a video game, did so well in the box office and Nintendo just announced a Zelda movie and I can see that tapping into pop culture. It also ties into the push for long form content. Gaming is very long form, whether it’s streams or talking to to your community." -Cristina Lopez, Creator
💔 TREND: TRUST IS LACKING
There’s a general weariness and mistrust of platforms and influencers when it comes to the proliferation of misinformation:
“I found it more confusing than ever to follow social coverage and conversation around the Israel-Hamas conflict, which has made me more weary than ever about anything shared on social. Heading into an election year with everything else going on around the world makes me wonder if more people than ever will start to turn away from social media platforms.” -Anonymous
“Misinfo/disinfo and social network's role in just moderating content or are they public squares with a responsibility to do more. e.g. Meta's blocking of Covid-19 terms and sending people to CDC.” -Anonymous
🧰 TREND: HARNESSING AI TOOLS
There’s a sense of inevitability about Meta’s celebrity chatbots and the rise of AI influencers but the real enthusiasm in the responses was reserved for the transformative potential of AI tools for marketers and creators, including YouTube’s AI-powered video editing tools:
“We are now entering the social AI era. There will be a flood of new tools, resulting in a huge increase in the number of AI-created ads, videos, images and posts. This transition is poised to be even more momentous than previous shifts -- bigger than the transition to mobile or the rise of short video. Emerging AI-based social platforms will challenge established ones, heightening concerns about regulation, consumer privacy, and brand safety.” -Debra Williamson, Independent Tech Analyst
“The cultural impact of AI dubbing software. I think this shift, especially for Youtube, could have the same global impact as Hollywood movies did in the 20th century. American YT culture multiplied by big production budgets will come to every screen in the world. I think what MrBeast did with audio dubbing is only the beginning.” -Konstantin Kanin, Founder Overheard by a Creator
“YouTube's host of AI features that they released in bulk. People just started talking about it, but I feel like it will boom into actual productivity next year.” -Praveen Anand, Co-Founder, Sequel Media
🚀 Who will dominate influencer marketing next year?
Micro-influencers (31.8%) got the most votes and the most write-in comments, though UGC creators (26.4%) and celebrity influencers (18.2%) weren’t that far behind, with Nano (10%) and B2B (10%) influencers rounding out the top five.
Influencer marketing isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, and it seems there’s a wide range of opportunities for all types of creators in 2024 — especially the opportunities influencers create themselves. Creators who run their brands like a business will “shift from brand partnerships to creating their own,” predicted JT Sprague, Partnerships Development Manager, Lenus.
“I think we'll see an increase in popularity for micro and niche influencers. They can provide highly targeted exposure to a specific audience that is already interested in a product or service. Their ROI is just as — if not more — valuable as that of a "celebrity" influencer.” -AJ Feuerman, VP Communications, QYOU Media
🎟️ What is the best marketing and/or creator conference you attended?
The top 3 events are listed in order of votes they received. All the other events were mentioned only once so they’re listed in random order:
The Top Three:
Other conferences attended and appreciated by the ICYMI community:
🧰 What is your favorite AI tool we should all know about?
The first batch of AI tools are listed in order of votes they received:
ChatGPT: chatbot
ChatGPT4: chatbot pro
Canva: graphic design
MidJourney: image generation
CapCut: video editing and graphic design
Claude.ai: chatbot
Google Bard: chatbot
The following AI tools were submitted once and are listed in no particular order:
Google Search Labs: search experiences
Microsoft Bing: chatbot
Wordtune: copywriting
Riverside.fm: podcast and video production
Adobe Podcasts: audio tools
Adobe Express: video editing and graphic design
Photoshop: photo editing
Otter.ai: transcription tool
Opus: text to video generator
Trudy: influencer marketing analysis
Fireflies.ai: transcription tool
Captions app: content production
Perplexity: research tool
LinkedIn AI: career coach tools
Copy.ai: copywriting
Descript: video editing
Video Highlight: video summary and notes
Great issue! Really interesting the results from the polls! 👏