Get Social: January Edition
Social media trends, updates and content ideas to fuel your inspiration
Hey friends 👋 Welcome to the first issue of GetSocial of 2024!
For anyone new here, this is your monthly newsletter designed to simplify the world of social media marketing. Giving you;
The most important new social media trends, data and updates you need to know
Content ideas and inspiration to help fuel your creativity
Tips to help you create content faster
Ready? Let’s do it.
View on web for the best experience.
📣 The social media stats, trends and data you need to know
Here’s the slide deck, giving you a network-by-network run through all of the most important updates you need to now for December and January.
If you’d like to watch a replay of the walk-though of the updates, check out the below video ⬇️.
TL;DR
Four themes that have dominated this month...
1️⃣ YouTube is a source on untapped potential for many businesses. The growth of Shorts, the continued relevance across all demographics, the creator monetisation potential and the new tools to cut long video into shorts make it a very appealing platform.
2️⃣ TikTok are going to have an interesting 2024. They are fighting battles on all fronts. They taking on YouTube with long-form video and Amazon with consumer shopping. The ever-shifting search habits towards TikTok will make it a compelling proposition for many businesses, especially consumer-facing ones.
3️⃣ X is not going anywhere anytime soon. X remains the worlds 3rd most visited social media site.
4️⃣ Meta have shown what an AI-assisted social media future might look like. Chat bots/ assistants will likely change how users discover content on social media. As brands, we should consider the impact this will have.
🚨 Stat of the month
Latest data is showing that the average number of views on Instagram Reels is beating TikTok.
As you can see in this chart, longer Reels actually outperform all other Reels lengths, with short Reels (under 30 seconds) earning 6,145 median views and medium-length Reels (30- to 90-second) earning a median of 7,830 views.
So, what does this mean for us?
As a general rule of thumb, IG Reels are great for reach, but TikTok still has typically higher engagement rates. Both platforms can play an important role in a social strategy. Personally, I’m just happy to see the return of Instagram organic reach…
📣 New feature of the month
YouTube makes it easier to create Shorts from our Long-form content. ✂️
Personally, I’m doubling down more on long-form content (like webinars and podcasts) this year. There are now so many tools out there that make what used to be a very painful repurposing process so much easier.
By repurposing content like this we can extend the use of a single piece of content, helping us maximise the reach of our message and whilst reducing the effort of creating (yet another) new piece of content.
👉 Tip of the month
Social media is changing, and this shift is being most acutely felt on Instagram. Less content is being shared in the feed as social sharing is shifting to DM’s and Stories.
You can see this trend also reflected in the growth rates of other private community platforms like Reddit, Discord and Substack.
Instagram is leaning into this shift with new features like Flipside, which allows users to have a public persona, and a private one to share with a close circle of friends.
We talk about the importance of ‘authenticity’, but being ‘authentic’ in public, facing the judgement of the masses, is sometimes not an enticing prospect.
This shift to private communities, driven by younger users is taking social media full circle to where it started. Back to Private chat rooms. (Sadly, I’m old enough to have been using those in the late 90’s…)
Where does this leave us as brands?
Whilst this shift does mean that more effort is required - you can’t just run an IG ad targeting your audience and be confident of reaching everyone now. BUT, this does give those without the largest ad budgets a unique advantage.
The relationships you create on social media will be your competitive moat.
Our job is to find out where our audience spend time, the platforms they hangout on, what communities they are part of and who they follow. This gives us a unique opportunity to build relationships with the leaders of these micro communities and influencers.
Access to these communities is a prized asset, it’s in these communities that word of mouth spreads - and that’s what social media marketing is all about.
Another approach could be through an ambassador-led strategy - using genuine advocates to become a part of the community and evangelise your product. All of these approaches should be focussed on community value, so this no quick-win conversion-oriented play. This Digiday article gives some other interesting perspectives on how brands can adjust to this emerging trend.
🗞️ In other news…
Adobe Express Content Scheduler is now free to use for everyone!
We have been on a mission to lower the barriers to social media marketing, and I’m so thrilled to be able to share this with you.
Check it out and let us know what you think!
📬 See you next month!
That’s it for this week, we so hope you found this useful 🙌
Don’t forget to share this newsletter with your friends 😊
We always love chatting about and helping on all things social media. Feel free to connect and message us at @jordandeneellis and @andyrlambert
Made with ❤️ by Jordan and Andy