Hottest social media trends for B2B in 2024

Hubspot recently released its "Global Social Media Trend Report" which contains this year's social media trends. We have taken a closer look at the report and picked out the most interesting trends for you who work with B2B marketing.

Hubspot regularly publishes various reports and trend analyses revolving around marketing, social media and sales. The latest report, the Global Social Media Trend Report, was recently released and is based on responses from over 1,500 social media marketers around the world.

Facebook and Youtube most popular

When it comes to which social media platforms businesses use most, Facebook is the most popular, followed by Instagram and YouTube. YouTube is currently the fastest growing channel, with longer films and video series considered the best way to build engagement over time.

Creating engaging content is difficult

82% of survey respondents said that their social media marketing had been effective in 2023, but that they had encountered some difficulties. One of the biggest challenges had been creating engaging content, but also keeping up to date with the new features and algorithms that platforms are constantly being updated with.

Most people use paid marketing

Using paid social media marketing was natural for most companies. 59% of B2B companies reported using paid advertising, while the same figure for B2C was 79%.

According to survey respondents, Facebook and YouTube were the platforms that offered the most effective audience targeting tools for brands, while Tiktok and X offered less good solutions.

B2B content has become more creative

72% of B2B companies reported that their social media marketing in 2023 had been effective. For B2B marketers, Facebook was the platform that provided the most ROI, and Instagram the platform that provided the highest engagement.

In B2B, the report also found a shift towards more creative marketing, with ads and content now more similar to what we are used to seeing in B2C.

"Emotional and creative ads used to feel like taboo for B2B. I'm glad to see that more and more companies are realizing why the rational is not always the only way."
Yael Miller , Director of Content & Creative Marketing, monday.com

3 key trends

In the report, Hubspot identifies ten strong trends in social media. We at Navigator have selected three trends that we think are worth paying extra attention to.

Marketers use AI to create more effective content
According to the report, 71% of respondents use AI to create content for social media. 71% of them also stated that content created with AI performs better than content created without AI.

The three most common uses of AI in social media are:

• Get ideas and inspiration
• Writing texts
• Repurpose content by adapting it to a different audience, format and tone.

Consumers use social media for research

Today, one in four consumers prefer to search for brands on social media rather than search engines. 22% said they search via social media more often than search engines, an increase of 47% since last year. This behavior is especially common among Gen Z and Millennials, who are also much more likely to use AI to find the information they are looking for.

Video fails to deliver high engagement

As in the past, video is the most powerful medium for creating engagement on social media. This year, short, fast-paced videos are the order of the day and are particularly effective with Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X.

When it comes to video on social media, it is important to always adapt it to the channel. Posting the same video on Youtube, TikTok and Instagram rarely works, but here both content and length must be adapted to the channel. For example, YouTube users like to watch longer tutorials, while TikTok users prefer quick behind the scenes videos.

Social media important for growth

Finally, HubSpot predicts that in the future, marketers will spend even more time creating content and ads on social media. The primary platforms for this effort are expected to be Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, where the focus will be on creating engaging, light-hearted and relevant content.

Overall, the report clearly shows that social media are important channels for the growth and profitability of a business, and that as a marketer it is important to constantly develop your content and explore new platforms.