With the constant development of technology and changes in user behavior, social media marketing is witnessing new potential trends. Facebook, Instagram and TikTok will not only continue to play an important role in marketing strategies but also bring about great improvements.
From enhancing AI technology, developing new interactive features, to optimizing in-app shopping experiences, these platforms are opening up new opportunities for advertisers and businesses.
Still the world's largest social platform, despite losing some of its appeal, Meta's flagship app continues to have the most active users, by a wide margin, and remains an important bridge for many communities.
Although not as popular with global youth as before, Facebook is still the world's largest social network with an outstanding number of active users, playing an important role in connecting the community.
Meta is actively investing in AI technology to reshape the future of its owned platforms, especially Facebook.
One of Meta's strategic directions is to encourage users to integrate AI into their posts and attachments.
Mark Zuckerberg's emphasis on the importance of AI in Facebook's future further clarifies Meta's goal: to leverage AI-generated content to enrich the user experience, thereby increasing engagement on the platform.
A key sign that Meta is truly investing in AI is the hiring of Michael Sayman, who has developed a social app made entirely of AI bots.
Meta has upgraded digital avatars to be more realistic and customizable, making them more accurately reflect the user's presence.
Upcoming experiences may include games that allow users to participate as avatars, digital social spaces such as Horizon to interact through personal images, and expansive VR environments where both VR and non-VR users can connect.
Additionally, Meta will continue to add customization options, such as branded clothing, to strengthen this digital bond and deliver richer experiences across its app ecosystem.
Videos are becoming the most prominent trend on Facebook, especially short clips similar to TikTok. Reels followers increased by 20%, turning them into an important factor helping Facebook strongly revive.
To take advantage of this trend and attract young people to spend more time on the platform, Facebook is rolling out a series of new updates. Reels, Marketplace, Groups and Events.
On the advertising front, Meta continues to encourage advertisers to use the option Advantage+ automatically, currently delivering better results than manually targeted ads.
While it may feel uncomfortable to let machines build advertising campaigns, including creative, goal setting and budgeting, if they deliver better results, users can definitely experiment.
Instagram is now becoming a multi-purpose platform, taking on many functions but lacking a distinct focus.
Meta is working to expand and upgrade its AI tools to strongly compete with platforms like TikTok and Sora AI, especially in improving the content creation experience on Instagram. “Movie Gen”, a tool that uses AI to change and enhance recorded videos, allowing users to easily edit videos with highly customizable, creative, and interactive elements.
This is especially important as Instagram tries to stay competitive with TikTok, which stands out for its short video features and powerful creative filters.
Compared to OpenAI Sora – a rapidly growing platform in the AI and video fields – Meta is likely to face fierce competition.
If Meta continues to aggressively develop these AI tools, especially when combined with Instagram's existing social interaction features, they will likely create a major transformation in the way users create video content, while also stepping up competition with competitors in this space.
Instagram is expected to increase integration with Meta's Ray-Ban glasses, supporting features like live streaming and cross-posting of content from the device.
The app's visual focus lends itself well to this type of cross-promotion, and it's possible that Instagram will find more ways to showcase the functions of the glasses, with Meta's goal of launching AR glasses in the future.
Meta wants to stay away from news and politics and the scrutiny they bring.
While it's understandable to steer clear of these issues, on Threads, which provides real-time information on conversations and discussions by topic, this strategy may not be optimal for driving growth.
Following the US election, with concerns about the divisiveness of restricting “political” posts, Meta may seek to reduce the reach restrictions on these posts on Threads. Many users criticized the platform on Election Day for difficulty keeping up with the latest information, which showed limitations in its current strategy.
Real-time topic discussions will make Threads a more engaging experience.
TikTok is betting big on growing its commerce ecosystem and technological innovation, not only to increase revenue but also to expand the online shopping and interaction habits of its users globally.
TikTok is focusing on developing in-app shopping features, learning from Douyin - its Chinese version, which has reached revenue of 500 billion USD by 2023, while TikTok only reached 3.8 billion USD.
The push for in-app shopping is not just about convenience but also a change in user habits.
Additionally, Douyin has expanded its in-app market with the “Mini Programs”, allows users to order food, hail rides, buy tickets, and perform many other transactions right within the platform.
Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, already has an in-video search feature, allowing users to select a specific part in a video and use it as the basis for a search query.
TikTok is currently testing an in-video search feature, allowing users to select specific parts of clips to perform searches, supporting more effective product discovery and encouraging brands to upload product catalogs to the platform.
In addition, TikTok is also researching AI-powered search technology through AI chatbots, aiming to expand discoverability not only in the app but also across the entire web.
According to Social Media Today
