Let’s talk about future trends. 2024 is almost here and for some months already, there have been talks about predictions and upcoming news.
Exa Futures will try to suggest you some of them: these are predictions based on our personal and professional experience, on the way our clients’ channels are going, about the current climate in our agency and on the news we are reading online or in the magazines. We are not magicians, but we are trying to give you some valuable tips.
Let’s start.
We are going to speak about the world of social networks, a sector that – does it even need to be said? – that is continuously growing. And looking at 2024, this trend does not seem to want to stop. Platforms always more populated by brands, companies, creators, influencers, media companies, will be facing big digital innovations and transformations again.
- Social as sources of information
The social channels, we talk specifically about Instagram and TikTok, will become – even more than now – real search engines. For this reason, it will grow the attention given to tools and instruments, such as SMO (the social media optimization) that will ensure good visibility for one’s page and content. So, optimization of keywords, descriptions, but not only.
If social media will move from being a medium of pure entertainment to being a true source of information, it will be necessary for platforms to have a method against fake news and at the same time for brands to use a tone of voice that is sincere, transparent to their audience, and that guarantees a high level of news and content service. - The end of cookies?
People are beginning to talk about a possible end of cookies. We cannot be certain, but we certainly know that users are increasingly resistant to allowing their data to be tracked. That is why cookies are becoming less and less tolerated. Some solutions? We could see the rise of social listening, a technique of listening to users’ online conversations through various tools that leverage artificial intelligence, as is well described in the online report by the Milan-based agency Trasparenze Adv.
One alternative that never gets old and is almost impossible to replace is website data analysis. In fact, with the help of monitoring tools such as Google Analytics, it is possible to obtain detailed reports, analyze metrics and acquire concrete data on performance by having, even if without cookies, access to a large number of useful elements to monitor users’ actions and behavior. Another interesting technology to keep an eye on is Digital, or Browser, Fingerprinting: a method that allows users to be identified by fingerprinting, even without cookies being activated (as the Next Web article explains well). This saves visitor data, creating user profiling; but, as you can imagine, it will be important to monitor and manage this technology as well as possible, so as not to run into privacy or blocking problems.
But let’s take a step back. If you’re wondering what we mean by social listening, here you’ll find some useful insights to explore the topic further. Social listening is the set of methods for intercepting online conversations about a particular product or service. In this way a brand can study people’s needs, entertain conversations, respond to posts and content despite not being tagged, respond to negative comments, influence conversations, and discover new industry trends.
Let’s look below at some useful tools for this type of monitoring.
- Sprout Social: it’s a tool for social media planning platform, it also allows you to do social listening, setting up custom filters for specific keywords, locations, and hashtags on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram; and this allows you to engage your audience in different ways;
- Hootsuite Insights: this is a powerful software that allows you to do social listening and monitor brand reputation with data and infographics updated in real time;
- Buzzsumo: it’s a useful tool for moving with agility not only within social media but also among blogs, news, and other sites. By activating notifications for keywords, authors, or external links, you are able to monitor conversations related to your business.
- Social commerce
Social commerce, as you can guess, will stand as the preferred method of shopping. So, the challenge for 2024 is in the domain of platforms, and it will be to be able to smooth the way for shoppers by making the user-experience immediate and user-friendly. For example, live streaming shopping, social commerce, with virtual storefronts, digital shopping carts, and catalogs integrated into platforms will grow.Shopping experiences will be characterized by loyalty programs, simplified payments, and multiplatform to make the process of the shopper agile and fast.
This is a sector that has been growing constantly in recent years: just think of the fact that in 2022, 71% of users visited e-commerce sites from mobile and 61% of purchases were made from mobile. - Attention to the environment
The importance for companies to make their business increasingly sustainable and environmentally conscious is growing, as is the attention of consumers, especially among those of the younger generation, to prefer companies that care about environmental causes.
The secret for companies? Being able to communicate and act in this area in a transparent and authentic way, otherwise a storm is just around the corner. - Artificial intelligence
During 2023, several functions using artificial intelligences have already been implemented and tested, and in 2024 these technologies will see further developments, both when it comes to functions in the areas of design and creativity, as well as intelligences for text generation.
Augmented reality may be implemented in platforms such as Instagram to enable testing of products or services. This broad panorama predicts an exponential increase in user engagement in their virtual experience.
While the use of AI will make it possible to automatize often repetitive and monotonous jobs, facilitating daily work in a great many roles, we will also be faced with ethical and regulatory problems. Indeed, it will be necessary to implement rules and place controls and not be faced with an inordinate and uncontrolled use of these means. The real challenge, however, will be to be able to remain human. So being able to take what is good in these technologies and knowing how to govern them to our advantage, implementing all the functions and emotional input that distinguish us as humans.
As the Accenture report states, artificial intelligence in 2024 will drive a real “the great interface shift,” that is, it is expected that technologies will enable people to feel more emotionally engaged, digitally understood, than ever before. People will have the ability to ask AI, “I would like to do…” rather than a more passive “I would like a….” Accenture’s study of 2024 trends shows that 39% of people between 18 and 34 are enthusiastic about conversational responses compared to standard Internet searches. 42% are comfortable using conversational AI to get product recommendations. A couple of advice directly from the global consulting firm? For companies, it recommends thinking about common pain points for users across digital interfaces that will become opportunity spaces for brands and platforms, from search to visibility to service. Things to do: Dive right in but remember that this is about more than just technological innovation. The change in human behaviors and expectations will be a significant and rapid shift that companies will have to adapt to.
In conclusion
These are just a few of the most important innovations that we are expecting for the new year. It will be for sure a year of big changes and full of news and we can’t wait to discover them all.
If you have read till this point, probably we have made you curious so, explore our blog to read all the articles of Exa Futures about the latest digital and marketing news.
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