Abstract
- A shift in strategy. Marketers will be reevaluating their plans as Q2 transitions into Q3.
- Benefits of automation. AI tools reduce the workload and increase the efficiency of campaigns.
- Engagement insights. Instagram leads the way in user engagement across all age groups.
The mid-transition period between Q2 and Q3 is often when marketers are tempted to plan a mini vacation. But marketers are too busy to let that temptation take a back seat. The transition period is a great opportunity to evaluate how well social media platforms are driving consumer interest. You can use this information to adjust your campaigns before the holiday season begins.
Let’s take a look at some social media marketing trends.
Timing is key this year as marketers look for ways to lighten their campaign workload, and two studies from Sprout Social reveal social media marketing trends that put strain on marketing teams and provide insight into where the most potential customers are spending their time on social media by demographic.
One interesting finding from the study is that Instagram has quietly become the go-to platform for US and UK users, regardless of demographic.
What does this mean for social media marketers? You'll need to realign your resources to maximize the effectiveness of your campaigns and avoid becoming overwhelmed.
Social media marketing trends revealed in survey: What marketers are saying
To explore team productivity issues, Sprout Social surveyed over 500 social media marketers in the U.S. and U.K. The study explored what tools marketers use and how their current workflows impact their business.
Two big trends in social media marketing emerged from the survey: First, 48% of respondents sometimes or almost never feel they have enough time to get their work done. Most respondents said they struggle to find more time to respond to customers, develop strategic plans, create content, and analyze marketing data.
The second social media marketing trend is that 63% of social media marketers believe manual work prevents them from doing high-impact work.
A time crunch means an opportunity for automation, especially when AI-based content tips and tools lurk within. But smart automation is key to reducing backlogs and the number of overworked marketers. Understanding where to apply resources is essential to making smart automation work effectively.
Related article: How social media marketing is changing this year
Social media trends (hint: Instagram is leading the way)
Marketers' feelings of being overworked can cloud their perception of customer behavior on the platforms they manage. Luckily, Sprout Social has explored the latest behaviors through a recent quarterly consumer pulse survey conducted in collaboration with global market research firm Cint. The survey recorded the behavior of 2,059 consumers in the U.S. and U.K. in Q2 2024. CMSWire obtained preview access to some of the data.
Participants were evenly split by region and divided into four main age groups: Gen Z (18-24 years old), Millennials (25-40 years old), Gen X (41-56 years old) and Baby Boomers (57-75 years old). All participants have at least one social media account and follow at least five brands on social media. The survey ranked frequency of usage and highlighted the top 10 platforms.
Survey participants cited Instagram and Facebook as the platforms they use most frequently, with Instagram used by 65% of all participants and Facebook used by 64%. TikTok came in third with 46% overall, followed by YouTube at 36% and Snapchat at 23.5%.
Examining the survey responses by generation reveals differences in platform popularity among certain generations: for example, Snapchat ranked in the top five among Gen Z participants, but only ranked ninth among Baby Boomer participants.
The shift in rankings is not surprising: each generation will naturally choose its preferred platforms: TikTok and Snapchat ranked highly among Gen Z survey participants, while YouTube was in the top three choices among Gen X and Baby Boomer participants.
A relatively stable platform is Instagram, rated as the top choice among Gen Z and Millennials, ranked second among Gen X, and third among Baby Boomers. It's interesting to note that Instagram ranked higher than TikTok across survey segments given its popularity in attracting younger social media users.
Related article: 12 Social Media Trends Emerging in 2024
(IG) Stories about User Engagement
The survey also asked participants which platform features they had used most in the past six months and which features they planned to use in the next six months.
According to the results, Instagram Stories and Reels were the format choice used by the most respondents. The format ranked either 1st or 2nd among the most engaging formats in the past 6 months, beating out TikTok posts and stories. Instagram Stories and Reels also beat out X by a large margin.
In the category where Facebook appears to be most popular among Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, only Facebook Video beat out Instagram Stories and Reels. Over the past few years, Facebook has seen a steady increase in the average age of its users, as younger social media users migrate to newer platforms with the latest app features and video formats.
The study notes that interest and usage in Instagram will continue over the next six months, with the same being said for most platforms, with Facebook usage expected to increase among Gen X and Baby Boomers and continued interest in TikTok across all generations.
Related article: Social media trends predicted for 2023
Notes about IG Live and Threads
One Instagram format that didn't resonate as well was IG Live, which lagged behind TikTok Stories across all generations. Part of the problem may be the nature of the live format; many people believe that recording videos is better suited to casual needs. Livestreaming may be more appealing to users with business communication needs, such as influencers.
Looking at Instagram’s performance brings to mind observations about another meta platform, Threads, which ranked last across most groups.
However, Threads' ranking among the platforms surveyed is not surprising, as it was only released a year ago. This is a relatively short adoption period. The public's adoption of social media platforms mirrors Gartner's technology adoption theory. Nevertheless, Threads is off to a great start, gaining 30 million users within a day of its release, beating the previous record set by ChatGPT. Threads is experiencing faster growth than any other platform to date.
Related article: 7 Emerging Social Media Marketing Trends to Watch
Marketers need to adjust their workload to where the customer experience happens online
The topics in the Marketer Survey and Customer Pulse Survey are obviously different, so combining their results to draw direct correlations or conclusions doesn’t provide immediate insight. However, social marketers’ sentiment about platform activity and workload highlights the importance of constantly checking the alignment of your marketing team’s allocations with where customer contact is actually taking place.
Surveys of marketers indicate a challenging environment in which identifying optimal allocations of campaign media and budgets is difficult. If your target customer persona matches the demographics of a platform, your campaign investment should reflect proportionate exposure to that platform.
This percentage is determined by analyzing your social media traffic. Is there a consistent frequency of conversions attributed to the platforms your brand and team touches? The answer will help you rank which platforms your marketing investment should be on depending on your sales and branding goals, and determine how to better align resources if your marketing team is overwhelmed.
The breakdown of platform exposure should also indicate the degree of platform risk that may impact campaign choices. For example, Meta is facing several legal disputes that affect its operations in Europe. The latest ruling is that the company's “pay or consent” advertising violates recent EU legislation on competition. This ruling will impact the features Facebook can offer in that market.
Navigating the social media shift: How marketers can stay ahead
A competent marketing team needs to stay well informed of news and issues for their platform, just as a professional would track market news for a stock they care about. All social media platforms are subject to disruptions in their environment. X's ad exodus was the first major disruption, and the ongoing debate over TikTok's presence in the US is the latest. These issues show how quickly the environment around a platform can change. Marketers can manage this by monitoring relevant issues and understanding the timeline of events and their outcomes.
The Sprout Social Q2 2024 Consumer Pulse Study is not the only study looking at consumer behavior by demographic. eMarketer recently shared a review conducted by agency Captiv8 that explored how influencer programs should adapt to newly formed demographic trends. While the study didn't break down platform usage across generations, the media giant noted that shopping behavior by demographic reveals further opportunities for engagement. According to the results, 79.8% of Gen Xers and 53.9% of U.S. Baby Boomers use social media for e-commerce. While influencer marketing is often associated with Gen Z and millennials, these numbers suggest there is huge potential to appeal even more strongly to Gen Xers and Baby Boomers.
Digital commerce goes hand in hand with social media usage, so studying people's interest in the platform is crucial to crafting a marketing strategy that stays relevant but doesn't overwhelm your team. With an increased focus on conversions, analytics become essential to derive competitive insights and make predictions. Your team needs to integrate all this platform insight to align workflow adjustments with the social media activity of your potential customers.
