The Future of Social Media: Trends to Watch Out For

Social media has not slowed down since its inception in the late 2000s. It has barely been a decade since social media filled our lives, and social media has changed and continues to change the world as we know it.

Social media continues to be the catalyst for the evolution of every aspect of contemporary life. Our lives and social media have been too intertwined that it is now difficult to imagine one without the other. Social media has had a profound influence on our lives, so you can say that the future of social media is the future of our lives.

That said, we should be aware that social media trends can affect your life, whoever you may be. Whether you’re a politician, a macro or micro-influencer, a social media marketer, or just an ordinary social media user, you will have to be aware of these trends and get ahead of them as if your life depended on them.

That may sound very urgent, but it just might be if your career relied on social media in some way or another. And let’s face it – not a lot of professions can get away with not using social media.

This is how powerful social media has become.

Short Videos Will Prevail

In 2016, short-form videos were thrust to the forefront by this then-little-known social media platform called TikTok. Back then, TikTok was only a niche app popular with the younger demographic. After just a few years, TikTok now has a massive global reach of 1.05 billion active users. That is a billion with a B.

TikTok remains the fastest-growing social media platform ever.

What does that say? That short videos have prevailed and will continue to be relevant. Short-form videos may have been nourished by the younger generation, but short-form videos have now transcended that. It is not just TikTok doing short videos now. Other social media giants have recognized their effectiveness and have joined in and embraced this trend.

Facebook, which has the biggest share of the monthly active user pie with 2.99 monthly active users now has Facebook Reels. YouTube with 2.1 billion monthly active social media users has YouTube Shorts. Instagram has its Instagram Reels.

Short videos may be a trend that all significant platforms have embraced and we’re sure that this trend will become the norm and will have no reason to go out of style anytime soon.

Entertaining Informative Content Will Prosper

Since time immemorial, educators have been trying to make learning fun. But not since the presence of current social media has this been more effective and more possible than ever. TV, print, and radio tried to make Math, Science, and Languages fun, sure. Anything else you had to learn the boring, hard way. 

Only social media has ever made learning about anything fun! Why is that? Social media has birthed this sort of renaissance where anyone can genuinely share their passions with everyone willing to learn.

Everyone is interested in something. And finding out things about our interests is our way of educating and enriching ourselves. This is exactly what entertainingly informative user-generated content caters to. Social media is our great library of every interest under the sun! Our sort of modern-day Library of Alexandria!

Create content knowing that everyone is on social media to find out more about their interests. Always approach content creation to educate your target audience entertainingly.

More Attention to Environmental Sustainability

We will not have much choice about this one. This prevalent and perhaps most pressing issue facing us as a species is an environmental one. Nothing else will matter more if we fail to address the impending end that is of our own doing.

The environmental issue concerns us all. This means all niches and every demographic should be a captive audience to content about environmental sustainability.

Whatever social network you use, you should make space for care for our planet in your content-creating priorities. This environmental niche could use all the help it can get, too.

Soon enough, if not yet already happening, content creators will do their part to drive awareness for environmental issues upward, and you would not want to get left behind on this one.

Creators will be rewarded in every way if we drive this issue to the forefront of the internet’s awareness. Join the battle and make environmental sustainability trending on Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and other social media channels.

Knowledge is power, they say, and what better way to use this power than by saving ourselves and saving the planet we live in?

AI Tools Will Stay Popular 

AI is here, and AI is now! There is this sort of prevailing fear with the onset of artificial intelligence. But that is just the norm with something unexplored. We say we fully embrace AI and incorporate this trend to reap the otherwise still unknown rewards of AI use and development.

Do not sleep on AI. Learn how to use it in every aspect of your content creation and be a pioneer in reaping the benefits that AI brings.

The Advantage Will Be Given to Original Content

Top Twitter trends, videos with millions of views, and content that garner tremendous engagement will always come from original content. Be pioneering with your ideas and make it a habit to not just follow trends and sometimes try to start them.

AI may be taking over but this is only true to an extent. User-generated content will remain king because we may come to social media for content but we stay for the creator’s personality, uniqueness, and quirks.

TikTok Will Get Bigger

TikTok has come to a point where it has surpassed and transcended its original niche of the younger demographic. More and more people way beyond the age of 18 years are being more comfortable with using TikTok. TikTok’s short-form videos, in an absolute sense, do not mean “social media content youngsters” as they are usually accused to be.

The secret to why TikTok videos are so popular is that TikTok is just so darned effective! Any message that completely communicates what it means in a few seconds will always be effective. With how fast people’s lives are today, short-form videos are just the way to go. Whatever you want to get out there, if done correctly, will surely fit in a short video just fine.

We understand that the more mature public tends to resist TikTok’s short video format, and we say that time is up. Embrace TikTok or risk falling behind and missing out on the benefits that the short video brings. TikTok is truly the next big thing. 

Only Change Is Constant

We tend to not welcome change. We are averse to what threatens whatever we have grown comfortable with, and change may come in the form of trends. We say it is time you take on a new relationship with change and trends.

Embrace change, embrace trends. You will have no choice anyway! It’s either you get with the times and evolve, or you get left behind and decay and get defeated by change.

Take good note of these trends you learned here, consider them for current social media strategies and social media campaigns, and we assure you that there will be nothing to lose and everything to gain.