With more consumers than ever using social media to shop, it’s no wonder businesses are turning to social commerce and content creation to capture audiences. Just look at TikTok, with its in-app TikTok Shop and a whole hashtag dedicated to buying trending products—#TikTokMadeMeBuyIt. Not to mention, Instagram’s Shopping feature and Facebook Marketplace.
But how do you capture the attention of audiences on social media networks, from baby boomers to Gen Z and beyond? More brands are turning to social media trends to reach many customers of varying demographics all at once. Ads built around a social media trend can be one of the more powerful tools in a social media marketer’s toolbox.
Benefits of leveraging social media trends
Social media experts and marketers use social media trends to bring brands into the spotlight with their target audience. Here are a few reasons to consider crafting content around social media trends:
- Reach more potential consumers. While algorithms can be a bit of a mystery, trending content tends to land on TikTok’s For You page or Instagram’s Explore tab. YouTube Shorts and TikTok reels that go viral can transcend small communities to reach social media users who would otherwise never have found you.
- Appeal to your audience. If you follow your target audience on social platforms, you may find trends unique to your specific online communities. Use these micro-trends to create entertaining content geared directly toward your audience—increasing the likelihood they’ll follow, share content, or make a purchase.
- Bond over shared interests and experiences. Trends offer a shorthand for relating with others on a personal level by showing viewers that you have similar experiences, laugh at the same jokes, or enjoy the same pastimes. By tapping into familiar trends, your content can generate more customer interactions and higher engagement metrics.
Top social media trends in 2024
- Social commerce
- Get ready with me
- Social SEO
- Dance challenges
- AI content
- Behind the scenes
- POV
- Social media customer service
- Travel content
If you want to boost your social media marketing to new heights, keep up with the top trends across your target social platforms. Let’s take a look at the top trends of 2024 to see what has been resonating with users across multiple platforms:
Social commerce
More than 40% of consumers shop through social media. This practice, called social commerce, has become easier in recent years—as apps have introduced options like purchase links you can overlay on content or hosted in-app interfaces like TikTok Shop. Plus, social commerce provides tons of data on what type of content is converting best and which products your audience is interested in.
Get ready with me
#GRWM is a heavy-hitting trend and hashtag in the beauty and fashion communities. Videos of fashion influencers and makeup content creators drum up massive engagement from followers curious to get more insights into how their favorite creators get ready for the day. Many creators pair get-ready-with-me videos with storytelling, music, or humor.
Social SEO
Social SEO is the practice of optimizing your social profiles and content to increase the likelihood of ranking high within social media search results. The fundamentals of SEO for social media marketers include using targeted keywords in your user name, bio, captions, and subtitles. These keywords should be related to your brand and products and draw in interested customers.
Dance challenges
A mainstay of TikTok, dance challenges continue to be a huge part of social media trends. You can search “dance challenge” on a social platform’s search engine to find any number of current viral dances. One of 2024’s biggest dance moments was the Tyla dance, with TikTok users typically emulating the choreography in sweatpants (hence its other nickname, the sweatpants dance).
AI content
Some AI video tools can help streamline and simplify the production process. AI tools offer smart editing and coloring, enabling you to convert raw video to produced content faster. Many apps have already jumped on this trend by providing their own AI tools for creators, such as augmented reality filters (AR filters) that create different aesthetic vibes or change a user’s face or voice. Some accounts even use fully AI-generated content to go viral.
Behind the scenes
Inside peeks into a business’s inner workings continue to be popular since audiences enjoy watching the daily goings-on of their favorite brands. One popular behind-the-scenes trend has been “pack an order with me,” where a business prepares and ships out a customer’s order from start to finish.
POV
Point-of-view videos are supposed to show an action as if you were living it yourself—think skateboarding videos from eye-level or going down a waterslide with a GoPro mounted on your hat. However, as the trend ballooned in popularity, many POV videos have strayed from the technical definition and simply show someone doing something interesting or amusing, making the format a solid catch-all trend for nearly any kind of video, topic, or brand.
Social media customer service
Social media customer service allows users to send your brand direct messages, comment on posts, or tag your brand to ask questions or share concerns. This practice is typically more convenient for users, but it’s extra public for your brand, which means it’s especially important to address concerns quickly (generally within 24 hours) while also solving the customer’s problem effectively.
Travel content
Travel content continues to dominate social media, with more than 750 million uses of the #travel hashtag on Instagram. Travel creators will give their final thoughts on trips they’ve taken, offer travel hacks they’ve discovered, and recommend places to travel or food to try in their favorite locales. This type of content offers plenty of opportunities for influencer marketing.
When to follow trends
While trends can be helpful, don’t rely on them all the time. In fact, packing your profile with video content built around trending topics can come across as inauthentic—and in a year or two, your content may have aged beyond use. There’s an important balance to a successful content strategy: content in dialogue with others, and content that’s uniquely you.
In fact, Mad Rabbit co-founder Selom Agbitor rarely relies on trends. He sums up his social media strategy like this: “Be as proactive as possible.” Selom works to come up with completely fresh content ideas, resulting in content production that feels fresher, more authentic, and more evergreen.
“We started seeing people in our space start to copy our ads,” Selom says. Rather than feel offended that others were mimicking his social media ads, he and his co-founder were thrilled. “We were like, ‘Well, we’re definitely doing something correct.’” By eschewing trends and creating clever original content (like this TikTok video), Mad Rabbit has amassed millions of views.
Social media trends FAQ
What are social media trends right now?
Major trends in social media include the shift toward social commerce (where consumers can purchase products directly from social media) and the proliferation of AI tools.
Is it helpful to follow social media trends?
Social media trends can be a great way to get your short-form videos out to wider audiences, grab the attention of your target demographic, and see a positive ROI. However, if your marketing team tends to focus on trends too often without creating original content, your brand may come off as inauthentic.
What’s an example of following a social media trend?
Following a trend on social media platforms can be as simple as using a trending text prompt for your next video. For instance, here’s a TikTok from Mad Rabbit using the POV trend.
