2024 Social Media Trends with Arik Hanson

I had the chance to attend the Minneapolis Social Media Breakfast this morning. Arik Hanson presented his ten social media trends for 2024.

This was interesting because this was not a prediction event nor a how-to guide on building your social media plan for the year, but it was a practical guide about what to be mindful of, what to watch, and where to invest your time (and money).

10 Social Media Trends for 2024

1. Channel hyper-focus becomes a big priority

2. Tug of war between authenticity and AI rages on

3. Brands finally start investing more in "dark social"

4. LinkedIn becomes even more personal

5. From engagement/traffic -> awareness/discovery

6. Nothing fills the Twitter void

7. Entertain then Educate

8. Long-form content is anything but dead

9. It's all about the comments (again)

10. YouTube shorts: Repurpose, but don't expect much (yet)

Here are a couple of additional thoughts on a couple of the trends:

Investing in dark social

--step one, of course, is understanding what dark social is. Dark social is the private side of social media. So think Messenger, WhatsApp, Discord, emails, etc. 

--Your potential customers live on dark social. It is where they communicate with their friends and family, and it will soon be where they communicate directly with the brands that they love.

--What does dark social investment look like? A lot of dark social marketing will happen organically, but the need for community curators and community builders could be a major and needed investment. 

-- -One of the reasons that dark social will be a significant trend is that people want to feel like they are a part of something bigger, and the brand has the potential to facilitate that community. For example, if you love Peloton, they have an exclusive member site that builds community around the product. 

--Another upside of building this community is that people opt-in to hear from you. You aren't forcing them to be involved. You are creating a user-driven community that they have chosen to belong to. 

--The potential downside of making substantial investments in dark social is its murky analytics. It is hard to say how many purchases or sales are driven by involvement or communications in these communities. As dark social grows, you will need to be able to provide more substantial analytics to leadership to create continued investment.

Nothing fills the Twitter void

--The argument was made that other platforms like Threads, Bluesky, and CounterSocial won't fill the Twitter void. This, of course, begs the question of whether or not Twitter is dead, but I agree that these probably won't fill the void of up-to-date news and current commentary on events that Twitter once provided.

--However, I might be bold enough to predict that Elon Musk will either be driven out or leave on his own accord, and Twitter may be revamped into something meaningful again. 

--At this point, Twitter, in its current state, is probably not a valuable place to spend your time and resources, but there also is not a competitive replacement. 

Long-form content is anything but dead

--There is a constant insult to the younger generation's lack of attention span. Studies show this statement is true, but the reality is probably closer to the idea that "the younger generation doesn't have an attention span for bad material."

--If we look at some of the most popular video creators, we see people like MrBeast, the Dude Perfect team, and Like Nastya. Their videos regularly exceed 10 minutes and often push into the 20-30 minute range. 

--We can also look to the popularity of long-form podcasts like Smartless, Joe Rogan, and nearly anything The Ringer produces and see that long-form content clearly has a place. 

--The medium obviously matters when it comes to long-form content, but if you're willing to invest in doing it right, telling great stories, and making it look like a quality presentation, people will watch.

--The downside, of course, is making content and not taking the time to do it well and having a 30-minute video that doesn't resonate with your target audience. 

Arik had an excellent presentation, and I look forward to continuing to learn from him. What areas of Social Media do you think will be most important to focus on in 2024?