Your final social media update for 2024...
Social media trends, updates and content ideas to fuel your inspiration.
Hello 👋
In your final newsletter instalment this year, I want to sign off by giving you five key insights that can help shape your 2025 content strategy.
The most important social media updates you need to know.
My prediction for Bluesky in 2025.
How buyer behaviour is shifting.
How brand awareness impacts performance marketing.
How to unlock influencer and community marketing at scale.
I hope you enjoy this edition and thank you for taking the time to read these updates, if there’s anything I can do to help further, just let me know!
Right, let’s get to it.
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📣 The social media data, trends and new features 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 know for November.
TL;DR Here’s the four key themes that dominated last month.
LinkedIn video is hot right now. Reach rates are significant, which seems to be driven by dwell time and re-posts. Videos under 2 minutes perform best (but make sure it’s over 15 seconds long). Also be sure to include a caption, with a strong hook and an overall caption length of 50 words or more.
The battle between Threads and Bluesky is heating up. I feel that we'll start to see an increasingly stark divide between algorithm-driven, entertainment-first platforms and more conversational, community-driven platforms. (More on that below)
Facebook continues to invest in Reels. Now that Facebook has its own ‘Explore’ page, perhaps this is a way to reverse the decline in organic reach on Facebook pages.
YouTube and TikTok continue to understand the power of creators. With TikTok making affiliate marketing easier and YouTube’s focus on simplifying brand partnerships, it demonstrates how these platforms expect brands to lean more into creator and influencer partnerships in 2025.
🔮 My prediction for Bluesky in 2025
We’ve been here before. A new social network comes along, us marketers get all excited, only for the buzz to fade and we all go back to the ‘traditional’ platforms.
This time, I think it’s a bit different.
Unlike Clubhouse or BeReal, there’s little novelty factor to Bluesky, and I see that as a good thing. It’s social networking as everyone understands it. Which says it’s got value as a platform for real conversation. They also have timing on their side. Anecdotally, I’ve been surprised at how many requests we’re getting at Adobe to integrate Bluesky into our products, suggesting that people are seeing it as a platform to market their businesses.
But there’s a bigger macro shift that I find even more interesting.
There’s an increasing divide between the passive consumption on Instagram and TikTok and the more active, conversational style of Bluesky and Threads. I don’t see this as a case of one being better than the other, I see them as two equally important parts of a marketing strategy; Instagram/TikTok/YouTube short-form video for reach and awareness (aka breadth) and Bluesky/Threads for engagement (aka depth).
That said, it’s still early and other than claiming my handle and lurking, I’m not doing much else right now. But as more celebrities flock to Threads and Bluesky and bring their audience with them - I expect that to change.
👀 How buyer behaviour is shifting
70% of decision-making is driven by emotional factors rather than rational ones. Businesses often obsess over product specs and features and fall into thinking that the 'best' product is the one that wins, but that's just not the case.
What truly matters to buyers is:
1. Trust in your ability to deliver
2. Confidence that you understand their actual needs
3. The belief that you'll do right by them
Strip away the technical jargon and feature lists - at its core, marketing is about human connection and understanding. The most successful deals happen when we focus less on product attributes and more on building genuine relationships, empathy and understanding. This is why working with creators, influencers, and communities will only continue to grow in importance.
👉 How brand awareness impacts performance marketing
There’s been a continual battle in marketing, especially in B2B, where our obsession with ROI and fixation on short-term results has led us to over-rotate towards performance marketing.
However, performance marketing is severely limited when brand marketing is underinvested in. In fact, according to TikTok and Tracksuit there’s a magic number in which brand awareness contributes most heavily to performance marketing outcomes.
The study reveals an interesting trend: as prompted brand awareness grows beyond 37%, conversion efficiency (click-throughs) continues to improve. However, the rate of improvement becomes more gradual. This means that while brands consistently benefit from increased awareness, the incremental gains in conversion efficiency become more subtle as awareness rises above this 37% threshold.
So, 37% prompted brand awareness. That’s the goal. Make sure there’s suitable budget for brand building until that point.
🚀 Finally, how to unlock influencer marketing at scale.
I often talk about how businesses ‘should’ be working with influencers and communities, but Erika Robinson, the UK GM of Constant Contact is demonstrating how it’s done.
Rather than traditional influencer marketing, which is often seen as a short-term transaction, akin to a media buy, Constant Contact are fostering genuine, long-term relationships with industry experts who share their passion for empowering small businesses. Through educational initiatives and community events, they're creating mutual value.
What sets these partnerships apart? Their partners genuinely believe in Constant Contact's product and its impact on small businesses. It's about creating meaningful connections, not just transactions.
The buzz around Constant Contact and growth in their branded search volume is a testament to both a deep understanding of their audience and the communities and ecosystem in which they operate.
Listen to the full conversation with Erika and I here.
📬 See you next year!
With all that said, I hope you manage to turn off those notifications and get some time to unplug from social for a bit over the holiday period. You deserve it. 🙌
Made with ❤️ by Andy