Key takeaways:
- Many large companies are expecting to maintain budget and tech/service spending in 2024, with more money allocated towards LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram.
- TikTok is yielding positive results for many social teams, but keeping up with the required content lift can be challenging.
- Twitter’s rebrand has undeniably impacted content performance and, as a result, many companies’ presence on the platform. Yet, other channels have yet to fill this space.
With 2023 nearly in the rearview, corporate social media leaders are putting the final touches on next year’s budget.
It may be an annual task, but flexing your spending to account for the ever-evolving social media landscape is never easy.
Let’s dive into where enterprise social leaders are focusing their efforts and dollars in 2024.
Budgets and Spending Aren’t Changing, but Your Strategies Should Be
Despite persistent economic challenges, a significant majority of corporate social media leaders are gearing up to maintain budget in 2024.
According to SocialMedia.org’s 2024 State of Enterprise Social Media report, a survey of 166 leaders revealed that more than half anticipate no change in their budget, while a substantial minority is optimistic about an increase.
This trend extends to tech and service spending, with over half of the respondents expecting status quo and a noteworthy 34% projecting an uptick in spending.
However, the apparent stability in budget allocations doesn’t translate to a business-as-usual approach. In this industry, where trends and algorithms can rapidly change, maintaining your strategy year-over-year is not an option.
Thom Lytle, Senior Director of Social Media at the global cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, emphasized the importance of this mindset during a panel discussion on 2024 planning, where he advised leaders not to “copy and paste” their previous year’s plans.
Director is in my title, but I would tell you that the director of our social media is the audience. They’re going to tell us where we want to go.
Thom Lytle, Senior Director of Social Media at CrowdStrike
He went on to advise leaders to tune in closely to their audience and leverage data to make better-informed decisions to determine if they should de-emphasize one thing to emphasize another.
Social Teams Are Dedicating More Dollars to TikTok, LinkedIn, and Instagram
SocialMedia.org’s report also surveyed leaders on where they’re allocating more budget in 2024, and three platforms emerged as the front runners: LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok.
Privately, SocialMedia.org members came together to benchmark their 2024 LinkedIn strategies, and 76% of those in attendance reported seeing good results on the platform.
This is perhaps due to the rollout of newer functionalities, including LinkedIn newsletters and Thought Leadership ads. On the organic side, polls, and document shares have also proven effective.
TikTok is Yielding Positive Results, But the Content Lift is No Small Effort
TikTok continues to be a hot topic heading into 2024. As per the latest available data, TikTok now has a staggering 1.1 billion monthly active users, with a majority calling the U.S. home.
During SocialMedia.org’s panel discussion, Kristi Daraban, Associate Vice President of Social Media at Nationwide, shared some of the noteworthy success her team achieved on the platform.
They launched their TikTok presence in 2023, which Kristi admitted was a big lift for such a regulated brand, but they’re already seeing promising results.
“For those of you who know what’s been happening in the space, our jingle has been viral for over a month,” Kristi said.
We’ve been really excited to be able to capitalize on that and see the growth that otherwise wouldn’t have happened.
Kristi Daraban, Associate Vice President of Social Media at Nationwide
But sustained success requires more than a stroke of luck. Kristi said the team took a year and a half to build a full TikTok strategy.
Given that Nationwide’s audience typically skews older, there were questions about their place on the platform.
As of November 2023, 60% of U.S. users were between the ages of 16 and 24, according to TikTok.
However, Kristi said they’re strategically leveraging TikTok to build brand awareness among future consumers.
While Nationwide is seeing good results, Kristi also mentioned that the content lift is a lot of effort, and Carolyn Cohen, Senior Marketing Manager at H&R Block, echoed this sentiment.
“You just have to crank out a lot of content,” Carolyn said.
Today, she said H&R Block is experimenting with their TikTok presence and working to really nail what content will resonate best with their audience.
James LaCorte, Social Media Manager at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, also shared that his team is still in the experimentation phase. And while they’re still planning their strategy, James shed light on TikTok’s impact on the elevation of video content across all platforms.
What TikTok has really done is forced other social channels to highlight video more.
James La Corte, Social Media Manager at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina
Twitter’s Rebrand Isn’t Landing, But Other Platforms Haven’t Filled This Space
There’s no greater present example of social platform evolutions than Twitter’s recent rebrand to X.
In light of these changes, SocialMedia’s report found that leaders aren’t prioritizing spending on X in 2024. Twitter/X ranked in the bottom two, ahead of Snapchat, for forecasted spending increases.
Similar sentiments were expressed by panelists when discussing their 2024 plans, with Kristi saying, “X is something we’re starting to shift a little bit away from.”
Kristi shared that for Nationwide, X is still valuable for sports-related content, but most organic content isn’t performing like it used to.
In November, SocialMedia.org members came together to benchmark their presence on the platform moving forward. While a majority of members said they planned to have an organic social presence on X in 2024, 30% said they’ve already significantly scaled back.
Notably, one member shared they were considering fully leaving because the risks outweigh the benefits, as they’ve dealt with a lot of volatility and negativity since Elon Musk took over.
Carolyn agreed that from an investment standpoint, X is not what it used to be, but Twitter’s absence has been hard to replace.
We used to do a big conversion push around tax day. That’s something I can’t say today because it’s in a few months, and I would be hard-pressed to see any other platform have quite as much traction as Twitter.
Carolyn Cohen, Senior Marketing Manager at H&R Block
When Threads launched in July, many pointed to the platform as a potential Twitter challenger. But roughly five months after its launch, there are still many questions.
Thom told the panel that CrowdStrike certainly has its eyes on Threads, but there are improvements to be desired.
“Right now, the API doesn’t allow it to be scalable,” Thom said. “We made the choice not to go into Threads because it just didn’t look like something that could be repeatable at the time.”
Other panelists, including Kristi, agreed and said that once paid is enabled and Threads is able to connect to social management tools like Sprinkler, more companies may look to expand their presence.
Benchmark With Your Peers Leading Social Media at Large Companies
Navigating platform uncertainty and incoming trends isn’t easy, but you don’t have to plan alone.
From platform rebrands to major cultural or social events, SocialMedia.org members have a confidential space to benchmark their strategies and reactions in real time.
Find out how a membership could be your most valuable resource in 2024.
