As 2024 winds down, it's time to reflect on the social media landscape that's been shaping the way we connect and do business. If you're in marketing, you already know how essential it is to stay on top of these trends to keep your brand relevant and your strategies sharp.
But here's the thing—what's hot today becomes old news tomorrow. The social media world moves fast, and keeping up with these shifts is key for savvy marketers, business owners, and everyday users like us. It's how we communicate, connect, and consume—the three C’s that drive everything we do online.
To make sure you’re not missing a beat, we’ve rounded up 12 must-watch social media trends that are defining the tail end of 2024 and shaping what's coming next in 2025.
12 Social Media Trends That Ruled 2024
If you want to be ahead of the curve in 2025, familiarize yourself with what worked and what didn’t in 2024. Here are the top trends you need to know about:
1. Social Media Algorithms Promoting on User Experience
Social media platforms place user experience at the core of their operations, pushing their algorithms to become more attuned to users' interests, preferences, and online behavior patterns.
Gone are the days when merely getting more likes or shares would guarantee higher visibility. Instead, social media algorithms now focus on:
- User engagement: To provide users with an optimal experience, algorithms now emphasize meaningful interactions, such as high-quality comments, post shares with personal messages, and reply threads. Metrics like likes or clicks remain relevant but play a lesser role in shaping content visibility.
- Personalization: Platforms use machine learning to create personalized content feeds. They consider factors like your previous interactions, interests, and even how long you spend looking at a post, resulting in unique content feeds for each user.
- Relevance over popularity: Rather than prioritizing the highest-liked posts, newer algorithms aim to surface relevant content that aligns with a user's interests. Jumping on trends without considering their relevance is a very common example of what not to do on social media.
For business owners, this trend requires adapting their content marketing strategies. Focusing on high-quality, engaging content that leads to meaningful user interactions is becoming increasingly important. It might be time to rethink the traditional approach of large content volume and prioritize content that genuinely resonates with your target audience.
2. Short Videos are the New Norm
The rise of short videos on social media is hard to miss. Thanks to platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, these bite-sized clips are becoming the go-to way for people to consume content because they’re quick, engaging, and get straight to the point.
In fact, recent studies back this up—73% of consumers say they prefer short-form videos when searching for products or services. Gen Z is especially into it, with 57% choosing short videos to learn about products. Marketers are catching on, too—90% worldwide plan to increase their budget for short-form videos in 2023. That says a lot about how both content and marketing strategies are evolving.
This trend is also fueling a boom in user-generated content. Creating these short videos is easy and accessible, and it’s exactly what businesses need to deliver fast, captivating content that connects with audiences. For brands, it’s a powerful way to engage and grow their target market. Use video downloader tools to help businesses easily capture and repurpose user-generated content.
3. Authenticity Reigns Supreme
More than ever, consumers are increasingly critical of marketing tactics, and authenticity has become a top priority. Now more than ever, consumers value accurate, trustworthy content over highly polished, gimmicky advertising.
Authentic content connects deeply with audiences, fostering an environment of trust and loyalty. By sharing genuine experiences, stories, and behind-the-scenes insights, brands humanize themselves. This allows them to build meaningful relationships with their consumers.
Moreover, authenticity also affects business credibility positively. The more transparent and honest a brand is, the more respect and trust it gains from its audience, eventually leading to stronger consumer-brand relationships.
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4. Nano-Influencers Take the Stage
Nano-influencers, with fewer than 1,000 followers, are becoming a powerful force in influencer marketing. Their smaller, more intimate followings create a sense of trust and closeness that larger influencers often can’t match.
Hubspot reports that micro-influencers—who are slightly more popular than nano-influencers— drive up to 60% more engagement than their larger counterparts. This shift highlights the growing effectiveness of smaller creators in marketing strategies.
Additionally, 44% of marketers say the biggest advantage of working with micro-influencers is the lower cost. It's safe to assume that nano-influencers offer similar cost benefits, thanks to their smaller scale but highly engaged audiences.
As businesses look for more affordable and impactful ways to connect with consumers, nano-influencers are stepping into the spotlight. Their authenticity, high engagement, and cost-effectiveness make them an essential part of modern marketing strategies.
5. User-Generated Content Enhances Brand Credibility
User-generated content (UGC), including reviews, social media posts, and images featuring products or services, is potent in strengthening brand credibility and engagement. Staying on brand is a great way to capitalize on trends in social media. This form of content thrives on its authenticity and relatability, which builds stronger trust between a company and its consumers.
Statistics show the importance consumers assign to UGC, expecting brands to integrate it across their digital and physical touchpoints. Given the demand and effectiveness, it's no surprise that 82% of brands and retailers are either shifting or considering reallocating their paid media budgets towards owned and earned content creation, including UGC.
6. Storytelling Comes to the Forefront
In marketing, storytelling is the art of weaving a compelling narrative around a brand or its product. It serves to forge emotional connections, enhance message retention, differentiate a brand from its competitors, and humanize brands.
Data from a 2023 survey underscores the rising importance of storytelling in marketing tactics. In this survey, 78 percent of marketing decision-makers from the United Kingdom agreed upon personal, human-first messaging as a crucial element of compelling storytelling.
Essentially, "human-first" storytelling puts people, their experiences, and emotions at the center of a brand's narrative. It helps the audience connect with brands at a deeper, emotional level — a connection mere product features or statistical facts cannot achieve.
As the trend suggests, prioritizing a personal, human-first approach to brand storytelling will likely be a cornerstone of effective marketing strategies moving forward.
7. Stronger, Smaller, Tighter Communities
Stronger, smaller, and tighter communities are niche audience groups genuinely engaging with a brand's values, products, and services. These communities offer members enriched interaction, open dialogue, and personalized experiences. They are usually built around shared interests, resulting in more meaningful discussions and engagements with the brand.
The benefits of concentrating on smaller and more involved communities include a more focused understanding of customer needs, higher customer retention, and stronger brand advocacy. As audience members find a sense of belonging and receive tailored solutions, they are more likely to become satisfied and long-term customers, spreading good word-of-mouth about the brand.
To cultivate these communities, brands might use channels — such as private forums, social media platforms, webinars, and live events — to communicate directly and cater to the unique needs of their audience.
They may also encourage user-generated content, collaborative projects, feedback, and virtual events to strengthen connections within the community.
8. Brands Tuning in with Social Listening
Social listening refers to brands monitoring digital conversations to understand what customers say about them online. It goes beyond tracking likes or comments on their posts; social listening involves observing and analyzing conversations across numerous platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, blogs, and forums.
This strategy allows brands to gain insight into customer sentiments, emerging trends, and competitor tactics. This information can be invaluable to refine marketing strategies, improve customer service, and innovate product offerings based on direct customer feedback.
Active social listening can help brands identify potential crises before they escalate by picking up on negative sentiments early.
Social listening allows brands to stay ahead of the curve, improve customer relationships, and ultimately develop a more customer-centric business approach.
9. Highly Personalized Ad Content
In today's highly competitive digital landscape, highly personalized ad content has emerged as a powerful marketing technique to engage consumers at an individual level. Gone are the days of static, one-size-fits-all advertisements—brands looking to make a lasting impact are embracing personalization as a critical differentiator.
Highly personalized ad content involves creating marketing messages tailored to individual consumers' unique interests, preferences, and behavior patterns. This is one of the best practices on social media advertising.
It considers information such as browsing patterns, purchase history, geographical location, and preferred channels of communication to deliver adverts that cater specifically to the needs and wants of the target audience.
10. Social Media for Customer Support
Social media platforms have become valuable tools for customer support as brands recognize changing consumer behaviors and expectations. Customers increasingly prefer using social media for immediate communication and anticipate quick, responsive brand service. A survey found that 75% of Twitter, 59% of Facebook, and 34% of Instagram users engage with brands on social media. About half the time, it is used to address customer service issues.
There are pros and cons to social media, yet one major benefit is using it as a channel for customer support, allowing real-time interaction and quick problem resolution, improving customer satisfaction. Leveraging social media platforms enhances a brand's visibility and reputation, as effective public responses to issues demonstrate a commitment to customer service.
Additionally, social media interactions can offer valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and pain points, contributing to improving products, services, and communication.
To optimize this approach, brands should actively monitor and respond to social media queries with consistent, sympathetic, and constructive communication.
11. AI Will Rise: Impact on Social Media Strategy
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing social media strategy. From content creation to data analytics, it's one of the trends in social commerce to look out for. The use of AI enables marketers to tailor content for their target audience, improving personalization and engagement. AI-powered algorithms allow for optimized scheduling of posts to boost visibility, while sentiment analysis tools help gauge audience emotions and adjust communication strategies accordingly.
For example, to refine your brand, you can craft your product pitch using an AI-driven tool that assists you in outlining your product's characteristics, establishing your brand tone, and creating a personalized pitch.
AI-driven analytics provide insights into campaign performance, helping marketers refine their tactics and allocate resources more effectively. Powered by AI, predictive analysis forecasts market shifts and consumer preferences, allowing social media strategies to evolve and adapt quickly to changes.
Although AI significantly impacts social media marketing, marketers must address potential challenges like data privacy, security, and brand authenticity.
You can leverage it in the right way with Highperformr. Here’s how:
- Content Personalization
HighPerformr's AI allows marketers to tailor content for their target audience, improving personalization and overall engagement.
- Optimized Scheduling
AI-powered algorithms help schedule posts to maximize visibility and reach, ensuring the right content is delivered at the right time.
- Deep Analytics
HighPerformr's AI-driven analytics offer insights into campaign performance, enabling marketers to refine their tactics and allocate resources more effectively.
Although AI significantly impacts social media marketing, marketers must address potential challenges like data privacy, security, and brand authenticity.
12. Shares Matter More Than Likes and Comments
When users share content, it implies they find it highly relatable, informative, or compelling enough to disseminate among their networks. This action amplifies the content's reach and visibility, potentially attracting a larger and more diverse audience to your brand.
Unlike a simple 'like' or comment, shares involve a level of endorsement. They suggest that the user aligns with the content on some level and considers it worthy to share with their connections. This can, in turn, influence their network's perception of the brand and its credibility, often leading to an enhanced reputation and increased brand authority.
While likes and comments contribute to social media engagement, shares are a more potent signal of content approval and audience alignment, making them a highly valuable aspect of any social media strategy.
Crush Your Social Media Game in 2025 and Beyond
As we wrap up 2024 in just a few months, it’s clear that keeping up with social media trends is a must for brands wanting to stay ahead in this fast-paced digital world.
Looking ahead, get ready for AI-driven strategies, a shift in engagement metrics that puts shares in the spotlight, and an emphasis on authentic, personalized content. These trends—and others we’ve covered—bring both exciting opportunities and unique challenges.
However, don’t just step with 2025 with knowledge. Take the right social media tool with you as well. And we’ve got the perfect one.
Highperformr is an all-in-one social media management platform and Social CRM that streamlines every aspect of social media, be it content creation and optimization to multi-channel publishing and scheduling. Highperformr’s Social AI analyzes customer sentiment and content trends and helps you generate social media-ready content that users actually want to see and interact with.
Book a demo today.
