Are you looking to up your social media marketing game in 2024?
Then read on to find out how interactive and user-generated content (UGC) will help you create thumb-stopping posts in the year ahead, and how social SEO will help you reach a bigger audience.
Trend 1: Social SEO will be even more powerful than hashtags
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the Holy Grail when you want Google to love your content, but did you know that it is becoming increasingly important for social media marketing?
Google’s own research suggests that 40 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds are now using social media like a search engine – looking towards user-generated content for everything from restaurant and holiday recommendations to health and career advice.
Audiences are also looking for bite-sized content that answers their questions quickly, which is why TikTok has become the platform of choice for Gen Z.
This shift in user behaviour, coupled with the fact that users are also ditching hashtags when searching, highlights the growing importance of SEO for social media.
What is SEO for social media?
Social SEO means using keywords – the words and phrases your audience are using to search for content – and optimising your social media posts to ensure they can be found.
Research from Hootsuite shows that this approach is effective for increasing engagement rate. Its analysis of social media posts found that those with good SEO have an increased engagement rate of 30%.
Based on these findings, keyword research should be used to inform your social media strategy for 2024 and influence the content that you are creating.
How to optimise social media content
To make your content discoverable to users, try the following tactics.
1. Find relevant keywords via free tools, our favourites include:
2. Optimise the titles and captions of your post using your keywords.
3. Incorporate relevant hashtags.
4. Include an image alt tag in your post – this is a written description of what the image or graphic depicts, which is picked up by screen readers for the visually impaired. It is also crawled by search engines, so try to include your keyword.
* These tools limit free accounts to three searches per day, so plan your research time carefully!
Trend 2: Increasing User-Generated Content (UGC)
Most business-to-consumer (B2C) brands have become experts at utilising UGC to provide their audiences with authentic content and third-party endorsement.
But so far, business-to-business (B2B) brands haven’t caught up with this trend.
In 2024, we expect to see this change as more brands begin to incorporate UGC and utilise brand advocates as a way to increase customer trust.
Word of mouth marketing is incredibly powerful; after all, what your customers say about you holds a lot more weight and is much more credible than what you say about your own business.
How to create UGC
Any type of content that is created by your customers or your audience is classed as UGC.
An easy first step into UGC is to approach your most loyal customers for reviews and testimonials, which can be used on social media and your website.
Examples of UGC include:
- Reviews or customer feedback
- Images of products or services
- Video – e.g. unboxing products, screen recordings of software, video testimonials
- Case studies – these can be written or video content, or incorporate both
To encourage more of your audience to participate, you may want to incentivise the sharing of UGC by entering customers into a prize draw or offering a discount.
Trend 3: The rise of B2B influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is a key tactic for consumer-facing brands, particularly those in ecommerce, but this is another area where B2B has lagged behind.
Influencer marketing can enable you to reach new audiences and it offers a good return on investment (ROI), making it hugely beneficial to B2B marketers.
As more and more of Gen Z enter the workplace, we expect to see an increase in consumer-facing tactics being implemented for B2B marketing.
LinkedIn is already seeing a change in the type of content that is shared on the platform, with users sharing a more personal side to their working lives than their day-to-day roles.
Conversations about mental health and work-life balance have become much more prominent in recent years.
How to find influencers for your brand
To identify the most suitable influencers for your brand, think about who the thought leaders are in your industry.
Who has the loudest voice and holds the most influence?
Tips to help identify B2B influencers you may want to work with:
- Use LinkedIn to find the most vocal people in your sector
- Check conference line-ups for keynote speakers
- Listen to podcasts and webinars from industry experts
Be sure to consider the relevance of their audience to your brand, their level of expertise and how trustworthy they are when choosing an influencer to work with.
How can influencers share and promote your products or services?
Reviews and demos are a good place to start when dipping your toe into B2B influencer marketing, but webinars are the preferred medium for most B2B marketers.
The 2023 B2B Influencer Marketing Report from TopRank Marketing found webinars to be the most popular form of B2B influencer marketing content, favoured by 81% of marketers, followed by social media (74%) and blog posts (71%).
You don’t just have to stick to LinkedIn, either. TikTok remains largely untapped by B2B influencers, but again, as more of the digitally native Gen Z enter the workplace, the more we expect to see more B2B content on the platform.
Trend 4: Boost engagement with interactive content
Users are bombarded with content on social media platforms, so how can you make your posts stand out in 2024? With interactive content.
B2B content doesn’t have to just be informative or educational, it can also be entertaining and by creating an immersive experience, users have an opportunity to be a participant.
Content that encourages users to take action or engage with it is much more likely to be remembered than content that is passively consumed.
This type of data collection can also be used to create follow up content that reveals the audience’s opinions or knowledge.
How to create interactive social media content
Quizzes and polls are the easiest ways to introduce interactive content to your social media channels.
These can be used to reveal something interesting about your industry, or to test the knowledge of your followers, in order to increase engagement and boost customer loyalty in the long-run.
Brainstorm ideas around the following:
- What are the biggest topics of conversation in your industry?
- What would audiences be surprised to know?
- What is up and coming in the sector?
- Are there any national days or events that you can link your poll to?
Remember to keep the topic relevant to your business.
Trend 5: Even more video content
Video content has been a social media must for years, but right now, B2B brands aren’t making the most of it.
If you’re looking to cut through the noise on social with B2B content this year, then video should be your number one priority – whatever platform you’re on.
Research from Wyzowl found that people watch 17 hours of online video content per week, on average – that’s more than two and a half hours per day!
And 89% of those surveyed said that watching a video had convinced them to make a purchase.
Meanwhile, HubSpot Blogs research shows 66% of consumers have watched video content to learn about a brand or product, including product demos, reviews, FAQs and unboxings.
If you haven’t started using video content to communicate with your audience then now is the time to start.
Creating quick video content for social media
Additional findings from Wyzowl reveal that 30% of marketers lack the time to create video content, while 18% don’t know where to start with creating it.
Video content for social media doesn’t have to be expensive or of blockbuster quality.
Here are our tips for making video content:
- Transform written content into videos with captions – at R&Co Communications, we share our monthly round-up via video on social, which includes still images and captions to update our followers on our latest campaigns.
- Capture talking heads – swap blog posts for recordings of your business experts talking through the latest industry news. This approach doesn’t have to be expensive, all you need is a phone, ring light and microphone to get started.
Do you need a social media marketing agency to help you implement the above tactics? Contact our team for support with your social media in 2024.
