From political noise to micro-influencers: 2024 social media and digital marketing predictions

Fasten your seatbelts, Mainers — 2024 is going to be a wild ride in the social media and digital marketing worlds. To help businesses make sense of it all, we asked six experts for the trends they expect to see this year. 

Marnie Grumbach, Fluent IMC

“Social feeds in 2024 will be overflowing with political content leading up to the presidential election. Expect to see misinformation, hate speech and campaign propaganda mixed with AI-generated fake content. Add in audience profiling and increased costs for ad space — it’s going to be a wild ride. Brand keepers and communications managers will have new challenges to navigate in terms of their organic and paid advertising content. All brands will need to be mindful of how they react and respond to political conversations on social channels.”

Meranne Behrends, Words from the Woods

On diversity, equity and inclusion: “DEI is imperative for any marketer. But not in the sense of checking boxes; more so, marketers need to ensure their DEI efforts are authentic, organic to people’s lives and representative of what people see and how they live. Utilization of social on a personal level is a reflection of gen pop, so when brands don’t follow suit, audiences will sniff out the B.S. right away.”

Social media as identity: “Younger generations share their social handles before their email or phone number. Embracing this behavior of ‘social as identity’ will be important to any company with a social presence.”

Rich Brooks, flyte new media

“As more companies come to rely on AI to generate engaging posts on social media, the platforms themselves will use AI detection software to limit the reach of those AI-created posts … unless you use one of their AI-creation tools to create that post.”

“Most task-specific AI tools by small players will fade away, and most marketers will find themselves using general use tools like ChatGPT or they’ll use the AI baked into tools they are already using, like Adobe, Canva, Google Docs and Microsoft Office.”

Meredith Strang Burgess, Burgess Advertising & Marketing

“Brands and businesses are finding it difficult and time-consuming to maintain a presence on all the various social platforms. Therefore, we predict that brands and businesses will continue to hone in on a few that deliver the best results. As for content, video is still king, and consumers are becoming less engaged with brands on social platforms that are too focused on self-promotion. So, in 2024, brands should instead focus on authentic content that connects, sparks emotion and shows they know their audience.”

Nancy Marshall, Marshall Communications

Influencers are going to grow in influence, but we will see more micro-influencers and nano-influencers. So instead of someone who has influence on all food and wine, for example, we might see someone who is an expert on making food with Maine seaweed or wines with grapes grown on the Maine coast. The riches are in the niches.”

“Social media algorithms will become smarter so businesses will be able deliver highly personalized content to their audience. And audiences will begin to expect to receive relevant content.”

​Becky McKinnell, iBec Creative

“Brands who will win in 2024 are consistent with their content schedule, take the time to produce thoughtful content, take risks, and pay to play.”