Social media 2024: Key trends
On February 21, Planning Media had the privilege of attending the Social Media Management Summit, organized by RDV de la création de contenu. This exclusive event brings together industry experts to discuss best practices.
For those of you who weren't able to attend, we'll sum it all up here!
Social media strategy
In this first panel, Marie-France Gosselin talks to Laura Goulet and David Trang about social media strategy. We talk mainly about the importance of this strategy, and what it entails.
The problem with strategy is that many companies launch themselves on social networks without having one. Yet, without a strategy, you're quickly caught out by poor results and bad management.
Why have a social media strategy?
First of all, a social media strategy is an indispensable tool for the social media manager (SMM). Building a strategy makes it possible to understand the company's business objectives and how to translate them onto social media. The strategy also makes it possible to realize that certain content may be missing or needs to be adjusted.
What is social media strategy?
There is no perfect recipe, but here are the key elements to consider when developing such a strategy.
Business analysis: This involves understanding the environment in which the company operates, including market trends, consumer behavior and technological developments.
Competitive analysis: Examining what competitors are doing on social media can provide valuable insights into strategies that work (or don't work). It can also help identify niches or unique approaches to standing out in the marketplace.
Know your audience: Understanding who your current and potential followers are is fundamental. This includes their demographics, interests, online behaviors, and content preferences. An effective strategy is always focused on the target audience.
Consider their corporate objectives: Social media objectives need to align with overall corporate objectives, whether they're to increase brand awareness, generate leads, improve customer engagement, or drive sales.
Brand image: A company's visual and verbal identity on social media. Brand image must be consistent across all channels to build brand recognition and loyalty.
Editorial tone and brand personality: Defining a tone of voice and personality for your social media communications can help make your brand more accessible and "relatable" to your audience. This should be in line with your overall brand image and corporate values.
Why you want to go social: Identify the specific reasons why social media is important to your business. Is it for engagement, brand awareness, customer service, or lead generation? Your goals should guide content strategy and platform selection.
Content strategy
The discussion quickly moved on to content strategy. Content strategy is about determining guidelines or pillars of content to address on our social platforms. Three questions caught our attention because they come up frequently with our customers.
Is content recycling a bad practice?
The answer the guests were able to agree on: No! For accounts that have been publishing for several years, some content remains relevant year after year. Reuse it! Many of our customers have websites overflowing with blog content. Why not reuse them on your social platforms? It's a perfect example of content recycling that's highly recommended.
Is it wrong to post the same content on all platforms?
All the guests quickly agreed that it wasn't bad! We understand the budget constraints. It's better to make the most of your time and money.
A good example would be Pizza Salvatore, who publish all their content on LinkedIn, no matter what it is. As a result, they are always present in LinkedIn news, and this technique is proving to have very good results for them!
Program publications in external software or directly in social platforms?
Answers vary. Many prefer to go directly to social platforms, given the many "bugs" with external software. It's true that many publishing software features are missing.
On the other hand, they can be useful for social media managers who have several accounts to manage. In an agency context, it's a very useful tool, especially for client approvals.
How to stand out in 2024? The future of formats and platforms.
According to Mahika Bujold, Social Media Manager, to stand out on social networks in 2024, you need to make good use of 4 main elements:
The different platforms
Different content formats
Community management
Clear, predetermined content pillars.
What are the different content formats on social networks?
When content formats are well used, we guarantee a pleasant experience and greater consumer influence.
Static format
The static content format performs better when used as a carousel. Indeed, the Instagram algorithm tends to push posts with multiple photos more than those with a single photo. A 4:5 ratio (1080 x 1350) is also more popular, as it's a more phone-friendly format that covers a larger surface area. With informative content and a good description that encourages interaction, we have a winning recipe.
Video
As we now know, it's video content that performs best. Since the rise of TikTok, longer video content, found mainly on YouTube, has seen a significant decline in popularity. For many months, if not years, short-form video content reigned supreme, but rumor has it that long-form videos will be making a comeback by 2024! A return to content more akin to what we saw in YouTube's heyday.
Another important point is that, to stand out from the crowd in video format, content must be "relatable". To build a community, people need to be able to identify with you and/or your brand. Video is the best format for this.
Story
The story is a format that needs to be used. Instagram users are less and less inclined to scroll through the News Feed. They are much more likely to view stories. That's why it's so important to share every post as a story.
Print publication
Written publication is reserved for platforms such as Facebook, X or Threads. It's an excellent format, especially for more humorous uses. The text can be very short, but very relatable. STM is an example of a company that makes very good use of this type of format.
We have retained 2 interesting questions from the public:
What would you recommend for a company on TikTok: keep a personal profile and use the trendy sounds/songs OR have a corporate profile, and not use the sounds, but have access to the statistics?
The guest and the host were of two minds. In her opinion, companies always benefit from having a company profile. Since companies are the ones who spend money on the platform, the TikTok algorithm would benefit them. They also add that, in any case, going for "trendy" TikTok sounds is no longer the key.
Should I use hashtags?
They all agree that hashtags don't have the same impact as they used to. They remain relevant when they are precise. They also stress the importance of having a branded hashtag.
💡 Tip from Jasmine, web content specialist at Planning Média: I'd add that hashtags can also be used from a more SEO. Determine which keywords are dominant in your content, and make sure they're all present in your description. If some are missing, add them as hashtags.
The synergy of organic and paid content
In this panel, guest Anaïs Boisvert took time to stress the importance of combining organic and paid marketing. This is because social, organic and paid strategies go hand in hand. While organic content reinforces brand authenticity and credibility, paid advertising efforts enhance and extend the reach of content.
2 questions that catch our attention:
What content should be boosted?
She responds by saying that she always prioritizes organic content that already has good engagement. We know it's content that interests the audience, so we maximize that engagement with a boost.
How do I deal with negative comments on ads?
She begins by pointing out that engagement reported as negative on TikTok costs more. However, comments, whether negative or positive, are still signs of engagement. Deleting messages is therefore not recommended.
The guest concludes by talking about the importance of advertising visuals. "One of the worst advertising faux pas on Meta is not putting enough time into the creative. Creative is responsible for 50% of your impact," she says.
Humor on social media
The rest of the day was reserved for humor on social networks and the art of creating "memes". Around the table were companies that stand out for their use of humor on social networks:
LG2 agency with Maxi
Dreww Agency with Lafleur Restaurants
Vincent Houde with the Memes Fruiter page
Questions that caught our attention:
How do you go about creating humor? Do you have any tips?
They recommend the use of common referents. Another technique is to collect the brand's lexicon and try to find puns or wordplay. Finally, it's important to keep abreast of current events, and always jot down the ideas that pop into your head.
For the creation of "memes", is it legal to use images that are not free of copyright?
This was the long-awaited question from all the content creators attending the Summit - the legal side of memes. Vincent Houde, being the reference for all things memes, didn't have a clear answer.
For large companies, it's often the legal team that has to approve the publication of a meme that includes an image that is not free of copyright. For smaller companies, it says to publish the meme without worrying too much. In the worst-case scenario, the owner of the image files a formal notice, the post is deleted, and in the meantime, you've probably benefited from a nice engagement. The majority of photos used in "memes" go viral. The owner can't take the time to issue a formal notice to everyone who uses them.
Where can I find inspiration for creating memes?
They recommend exploring websites like 9Gag and Giphy (which you can add to Canva). And don't forget to follow the Quebec memes pages, which will quickly inspire you.
In short, humor on social media has proven its effectiveness. It's the perfect way to show that you're human, and above all it meets a consumer need on social media: to be entertained.
