The top social media trends for 2024

Over the past few years, our advice has remained consistent: take advantage of social media, use the platforms that best meet your needs and your audience, do not spread yourself too thin trying to master every platform, and so on. But in 2024, for the first time, we are suggesting that organisations might want to divest from social media, or at least completely shift the way they invest in socials.  

Traditional forms of social media are in decline, according to an article in The Atlantic. Facebook users are slowly jumping ship and advertisers on the social behemoth are reducing overall spend. The platform previously known as Twitter, now known as X, feels increasingly chaotic, but the general downward trend preceded Elon Musk’s takeover. Musk, it seems, simply accelerated the decline. 

TikTok, while still growing, has seen that growth slow down. But larger problems loom, with the risk of countries banning the platform. Instagram no longer looks like a social networking site at all, but more closely resembles an entertainment platform, like YouTube or even Twitch.  

The companies behind the platforms are struggling. Big tech organisations are going through various transformations, reacting to an increasingly hostile economic and regulatory environment. We saw mass lay-offs throughout 2023. Meta lost billions, laid off 11,000 people, and the fantasy of the Metaverse appeared to be just that: a fantasy. Musk’s X also saw substantial and all-too-public lay-offs, alongside huge reputational damage, marketing woes, and a shocking drop in advertising revenue.  

But, despite the above, socials will not disappear. They will simply shift: new platforms will rise and some may stick, users will favour new content forms, social responsibility will become paramount, authenticity will rule the day, and artificial intelligence will have its say.  

In short, the age of social media is certainly not over, as some commentators have suggested. It is just changing and we should track the changes. So, with that in mind, here are five social media trends set to dominate 2024.   

Skip to: An increasing emphasis authenticity 

Skip to: The growing popularity of short-form video  

Skip to: Eco-conscious and socially responsible users 

Skip to: The rise and fall of new social media platforms 

Skip to: A.I. will provide benefits and cause problems

An increasing emphasis on authenticity on social media 

BeReal was a success story of 2022 and 2023. The app beguiled users and mystified marketers, with its emphasis on the ephemeral and its rejection of common assumptions. BeReal did everything differently: it failed to incentivise constant use, inverted notions of the ideal self, placed authenticity above projection. BeReal undermined long-standing presumptions of what made socials successful.  

TikTok’s success arguably stems from a less pronounced embrace of the authentic, encouraged by the speed with which people post short-form content and the fact that TikTok content is often filmed on phones with filters, no edits, no bells and whistles. The authentic adds personality, allows people to interact with the ‘real’ version of ourselves rather than the projected version.

BeReal and TikTok are symptoms of changing perspectives of what social media should be. In recent years, users have found the over-reliance of filters and the ability to edit and airbrush tedious at best, damaging at worst. The inauthenticity, the projected form of the ideal self, has lowered self-esteem and undermined self-image, even dangerously affected social norms. The impact was so severe, in fact, that the issues have been debated in the political sphere at both a national and international level.  

The age of authenticity is now upon us. Many users do not want to be perpetually online, nor feel constantly incentivised to engage, so it makes sense that apps like WeAre8 are thriving. Users expect brand accountability and greater transparency. Consumers are increasingly driven by values, as we’ll explore below, and transgressions such as performative activism and platitudes of allyship are now met with increasing scepticism – therefore it is no wonder that apps like Supernova are resurging.  

Performance and perfection are demoted on social media. Users want to see the authentic individual or brand, not the manufactured ideal. That means more user-generated content, more livestreaming, more honesty, more action, and less slogans. The year 2024 will see authenticity dominating social media, so charities and organisations should avoid performance, stay value-driven, and always centre users. 

The growing popularity of short-form video content on social media 

Mimicry is a permanent feature of social media. Platforms copy each other so frequently that they often look the same. Snapchat has Spotlight, which looks very similar to Instagram Reels, which ripped off TikTok. The platform formerly known as Twitter had their fleeting Fleets, ripping off Instagram Stories, which ripped off Snapchat. The copying and mimicry is so widespread it’s easy to ignore. All major platforms have news feeds, disappearing posts, private messaging, live broadcasting, video options, and so on, and we just accept such similarities. In fact, we expect the similarities. 

Despite slowing growth, TikTok’s popularity is undoubtable. It has become so popular, in fact, that it’s the go-to platform to copy. TikTok laid the foundations of short-form video content, boosting overall engagement by reducing length, incentivising users to only spend a few seconds with each content creator. And the short-form continues to evolve, on TikTok and elsewhere, with new interactive features such as shoppable videos, real-time reactions, alternative and virtual reality integrations. 

Two strands dominate short-form content. Authenticity has become popular, with low budgets and little editing. But so has the high-tech and interactive. The forms are contrasting and contradictory but that does not matter: both are booming. According to HubSpot’s latest marketing strategy and trends report, for example, the popularity of short-form video continues to drastically rise, with 90% of global marketers increasing or maintaining their investment in short-form videos in the next year.  

The benefits of short-form video are obvious. In an era of declining attention spans, short-form videos tend to grab and hold the viewer’s attention. Consumers like short-form videos and donors do, too. Almost three-quarters of users prefer to watch short-form video to learn about a product or service, for example.

Short-form videos are easily shared and easily digestible. They do not demand much from audiences, but quickly start conversations and raise awareness. And, because a lot of them are off-the-cuff, short-form video content generally takes advantage to the abovementioned trend of authenticity.

But perhaps the biggest benefit of the short-form video is cost. Short-form videos are quick to make and require very little equipment. In fact, most are recorded on smart phones, with no need for specialist lighting, actors, camera equipment, teleprompters, microphones, or anything else. You can create quick and shareable content, packed with information, that will likely succeed on socials.

It is no surprise that social media is awash with short-form video content. The trend of short-from video content will likely dominate 2024 – and no doubt 2025, and 2026, and so on.

Eco-conscious and socially responsible users on social media 

The rise of the eco-conscious and socially responsible consumer is well-documented. Social media is often seen as a forum on which individuals and brands position themselves, showcase their values, and practicing transparency. The positioning allows organisations to forge a sense of shared values, find community, and connect with supporters, advocates, and service users.

2024 will see a further growth of eco-conscious and socially responsible users. Organisations should strive to establish their position on social media – even if that position is apolitical, or anti-political, and vendor neutral – and practice consistency and accuracy. And, importantly, actors in the social sphere should avoid performative positioning and the over-reliance on slogans rather than action. 

One consequence of the rise of eco-conscious and socially responsible users is increased authenticity, as mentioned above. We will see more user-generated content on social media, likely in short-form video, likely from the position of service users to drive home impact. We will see a lot more narrative, with an emphasis on storytelling, taking audiences on journeys to heighten awareness of a cause. 

Another consequence is caution. Brands and individuals will need to be particularly careful when posting online, not simply because of the substance of the content but the perception. Tone of voice will become increasingly important, as posts that fail to read the room, trivialise important issues, or fail to consider marginalised or minoritised communities will rightly lead to reputational damage.   

Organisations can establish an authentic and considerate tone of voice by taking certain steps. First, you’ll want to carry out research, speaking to colleagues and service users and members of your audience about your desired tone of voice. Then you’ll want to link tone of voice to your brand: Are you informal or formal? Playful or serious? Should you use precise, academic, or colloquial language? 

Establish your values in written form. Write down exactly what you stand for and ensure that your tone of voice feels consistent with those values. Then, take the above information, and write a guide about your tone of voice, including specific guidance for writing with written examples to follow. 

And, importantly, you need to share with other members of staff and train them in executing tone of voice. A good editor can be helpful here, showing other staff members potential issues, areas where the tone deviates, and generally giving constructive feedback that can lead to improvements. 

You can learn more by taking a look at Shelter and Macmillan’s tone of voice guides. And you can read our more detailed guide to tone of voice, or check out our podcast on tone of voice below.  

The rise and fall of new social media platforms  

Here are the platforms that were poised to boom in 2023: Mastodon, BlueSky, Counter.Social, T2 (rebranded as Pebble). Mastodon proved too complex for many, Bluesky too exclusive. Counter.Social perhaps lacked the ease of navigation and T2, or Pebble, is very much a work in progress. Only one platform provided a serious alternative to X and Threads was an almost direct copy of X.  

Each of the above platforms were the next big thing, until they weren’t. The platforms seemed to resonate in the short term, in some instances, but struggled to get returning users. The rise was often followed by a fall. We are in an age of saturation on social media, with various platforms clawing and competing for space created by failings of old platforms. X created a Twitter-sized gap in the market, for example, as users looked for a platform with the user experience they once found on Twitter.  

The problem was that they did not find that experience, or perhaps no longer wanted the same experience. It seems that new platforms aim to do the same thing as the old platforms. But, in reality, users seem more interested in unique and intriguing platforms, platforms that offer something new. 

A.I. will provide benefits and cause problems on social media 

Artificial intelligence (A.I.) was the most talked about issue of 2023 and the tech creeped into every part of our lives, often without us knowing. A.I. systems may determine whether you get a loan, whether you are eligible for government support, whether you get pushed through to a second-stage job interview. A.I. is used to support surveillance, to track healthcare, to monitor dietary needs. 

But it is not just everyday tasks. A.I. is going much further, delving into various sectors in ways that court controversy. The tech is helping to solve some of the hardest problems of mathematics and science, without much human oversight. A.I. plays an increasing role in finance, with huge firms now relying on A.I.-based algorithms to dictate investment choices. The global economy, to an increasing degree, has become reliant on A.I. The criminal justice system depends on A.I. to predict recidivism rates and make bail recommendations and, in the U.K., lawyers are increasingly depending on A.I. systems to conduct and apply legal research. A.I. is also used in the armed forces, with threat monitoring, drones, automated target recognition systems, autonomous vehicles, and much more. 

In short, A.I. is everywhere. And social media is no exception. A.I. recommender systems determine what you see on social media, the ads that appear on your Facebook page, the recommendations you see on YouTube, the pop-ups you get on X, the people you might want to follow on Instagram. Facebook uses A.I. to power so many of its core features, including its news feed, ad targeting, and image recognition – consider, for example, Facebook’s DeepFace A.I. system. X (or Twitter) uses A.I. to filter out spam and abuse, and to recommend trending topics to users. And Instagram uses A.I. to recommend photos and videos to users, and to identify objects and people in photos. 

In short, A.I. already drives a lot of social media functionality. The difference in the future, largely beckoned by generative A.I., will be the way users depend on A.I. In 2024, A.I. will change the way we interact with social media, the way we post. The changes will include, among other things: 

It is also worth keeping abreast of regulation. Regulation of A.I. prior to 2024 has been virtually non-existent, with a lot of talk and barely any action. But 2024 may well see the introduction of more complete and binding regulation, as the E.U. proposes more stringent oversight with the introduction of the A.I. Act and the U.S. may finally put partisan issues to one side.  

But regulation has proved notoriously hard to enact, partly because of philosophical disparities, partly because the tech evolves at a rate that traverses legislative interventions.