Social for brands: 5 ways to keep up in 2024

Written By Emily Daniels

Today’s consumers are spending more and more time online (Baran, 2023) and dedicating an increasing amount of that time engaging with brands on social media (Karlovitch, 2023). In fact, a majority of people say they mostly use social media to be informed on new products and services (Karlovitch, 2023). Interactions with brands on social media build or break customer loyalty, driven by content that inspires, entertains, and informs (Park & Jiang, 2021). To harness the power of social media, brands need to constantly evolve their practices to keep up with changing digital landscape, trends, and technologies that impact their engagement with customers.

5 ways brands can keep up in 2024

5 ways brands can improve their social media in 2024:

  1. Be relatable: If your brand uses social media influencers to promote your products or services, be sure that your brand ambassadors are relatable to your customers. A study on influencer marketing showed that influencer marketing increases engagement with social media users who identify or relate to the influencer (Bu et al., 2022). When it comes to choosing ambassadors, brands should choose people who are generally less aspirational, and more relatable to their audiences.

  2. Optimize your social SEO: Social media users are researching brands and their products at higher rates on social media than ever before (Finneran, 2023). Google may be the world’s biggest search engine, but for some customers, social media search is their preferred method of information gathering, citing social media’s more ‘'unbiased results” (Huang, 2022). Young consumers in particular are using TikTok’s powerful algorithm to surface search results for topics as simple as restaurant reviews and as complex as medical information (Caron, 2022). This means that brands need to devise strategies to ensure their brand names and hashtags are being utilized to their fullest extent to enable better search on social platforms (Finneran, 2023).

  3. Build customer loyalty with organic content: Modern marketers are using both organic content and paid promoted content to reach their audiences. However, a study on brand loyalty showed that organic social media reach was more successful in building brand loyalty when compared to paid social media reach, which did not correlate to customer brand loyalty (Goolsby, 2020).

  4. Support social shopping journeys: Social shopping is the act of purchasing a product directly within a social media platform and it is projected to increase dramatically in the years to come (Mileva, 2023). Brands can improve their shopping experience by investing in social media platforms that ease social media purchases in-app, building trust with their customers by embracing their shopping preferences.

  5. Invest in social customer service: In addition to providing interesting or informative content, a key service that brands can provide on social media is customer service. A recent survey showed that 74% of social media users said they anticipated using social media to contact a brand over the holiday period in 2023 (Wood, 2023). Providing a platform to communicate one-on-one with customers is one of the strongest ways brands can use social media to interact with their audiences. A recent survey showed that 70% of respondents expect brands to respond to customer needs via social media: 30% expect a response the same day (Karlovitch, 2023).

A challenge for brands in 2024 is meeting the fast-paced rate of change within digital communications and the changing strategies needed for individual platform optimization. For example, Google updates its search engine algorithm 3-4 a year (Paine, 2021), which means digital marketing professionals need to constantly evolve their practices to keep up. In 2008, with the emergence of social media marketing, even marketers questioned the role social media would play in brand communications (Drury, 2008). Challenges cited by marketers more than fifteen years ago included the risk of alienating customers through overtly branded and “brash product placement” as well as the customizing of bespoke content types on digital platforms as opposed to more traditional media like magazines and television advertisements (Drury, 2008).

These questions are still valid today as advertisers and marketing professionals debate these issues as they adapt to emerging technologies and trends with new and compelling ways to reach their customers.



References

Bu, Y., Parkinson, J., & Thaichon, P. (2022). Influencer marketing: Homophily, customer value co-creation behaviour and purchase intention. Journal of Retailing & Consumer Services, 66, N.PAG.

https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102904

Caron, C. (2022, October 29). Teens turn to TikTok in search of a mental health diagnosis. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/29/well/mind/tiktok-mental-illness-diagnosis.html

Drury, G. (2008). Opinion piece: Social media: Should marketers engage and how can it be done effectively? Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 9(3), 274–277. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.dddmp.4350096

Finneran, K. (2023, December 21). The Top Social Media and digital marketing trends to watch in 2024. Forbes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/katyfinneran/2023/12/21/the-top-social-media-and-digital-marketing-trends-to-watch-in-2024/?sh=79893ded2f17

Goolsby, L. S. (2020). A Correlation Study of Consumer’s Social Media Interactions with Brand Social Media Pages and Brand Loyalty (Order No. 27739900). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (2359457527).

https://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fdissertations-theses%2Fcorrelation-study-consumer-s-social-media%2Fdocview%2F2359457527%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D3783

Huang, K. (2022, September 16). For gen Z, TikTok is the new search engine. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/16/technology/gen-z-tiktok-search-engine.html

Karlovitch, S. (2023, September 22). Brand Interactions Evolve on social media: Here’s what the numbers say. Marketing Dive. https://www.marketingdive.com/news/how-consumers-interact-brands-social-media-changing-numbers-statistics/694402/

Mileva, G. (2023, October 25). The state of social shopping in 2024. Influencer Marketing Hub. https://influencermarketinghub.com/social-shopping/

Paine, S. (2021, December 31). Complete list of Google updates and algorithm changes. SISTRIX. https://www.sistrix.com/ask-sistrix/google-updates-and-algorithm-changes/

Park, H., & Jiang, Y. (2021). A human touch and content matter for consumer engagement on social media. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 26(3), 501–520. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1108/CCIJ-01-2020-0033

Wood, C. (2023, October 24). How consumers are contacting brands on social media this holiday. MarTech. https://martech.org/how-consumers-are-contacting-brands-on-social-media-this-holidays/

Emily Daniels
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