Social Media

Gen Z drives marketing and branding trends: TikTok's influence and a blend of nostalgia and novelty shape consumer behavior and brand success.

On today's special podcast episode, we conclude our monthly contest where we discuss the biggest trends of the moment and the newest research, sprinkle in some analysis, and bundle it up into a quiz. Every month this year, three of our analysts representing their respective coverage area teams have competed against each other—now it's time to crown a champion. Today, we cover how X (formerly Twitter) will look in 2024, whether people will buy cars online, and what we can expect from the ad market. Tune in to the discussion with this month's contestants: our analysts Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf, Carina Perkins, and Yory Wurmser.

Meta’s Threads app faces declining engagement and challenges to differentiate, while Elon Musk’s Twitter rebrand to X struggles with user resistance and brand identity.

Earlier this month, Pinterest hosted its Pinterest Predicts pop-up event, a showcase in New York City combining trends, predictions, photo ops, and shoppable displays. The pop-up offered insights into what experiential social commerce can be, and how brands can offer retail experiences without needing to stock products.

TikTok faces ethical scrutiny over reported instructions to moderators: Favoring Amazon-related accounts could pose risks for platform integrity.

Gen Z embraces messaging, search, and shopping: Social media trend reports shed light on 2024 priorities.

33% of US Gen Z consumers have purchased a product from an influencer-founded brand in the past year, followed by millennials (29%), according to Morning Consult.

51.1% of US Snapchat users will come from Gen Z this year, according to our September 2023 forecast. TikTok is also dominated by Gen Z, with 44.7% of users coming from that age group.

Snapchat+ keeps on growing: The subscription service now has 7 million subscribers, with AI being a key driver of interest.

EU expansion and new interoperability with Mastodon, Tumblr, and Flipboard can position Threads for continued growth. Meanwhile, X faces an exodus of advertisers and declining revenue.

Instagram debuts AI background editor, enhancing user creativity: Major advertisers shift spending from X to Instagram for safety.

Gen Z's preference for Pinterest influences retail strategies: The platform's positive, noncompetitive nature aligns with Gen Z's mental health awareness.

Creator content isn’t an experimental area for advertisers anymore. It’s an established, full-funnel channel that can deliver measurable results. Why is the channel so important right now?

The platforms’ short-video craze will cool. Reels is now revenue-neutral, but reports hint that Meta is struggling to convince advertisers that Reels can drive performance.

As TikTok continues to rise, Facebook craters: New Pew report finds major shifts in social media trends among teens.

In part one of this two-part podcast episode, we discuss some predictions for 2024 that are too specific to be 100% certain about but could still come true, including: which subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platform Apple will likely buy, where metaverse playgrounds will spring up, and what the ruling between Google and the US Department of Justice will be. Tune in to the discussion with our vice presidents of content Suzy Davidkhanian and Paul Verna and analyst Max Willens.

While in-store is the No. 1 way Gen Z discovers clothing, 39.0% of US Gen Z clothing buyers have used social media to discover new apparel brands or products over the last six months, according to our September 2023 survey.

The unstoppable retail media: Spending in this channel is going up as advertisers keen on first-party data shift more marketing funds to retailers

On today's podcast episode, we discuss the travel rebound and how tech is helping it out, how Black Friday football (with a side of online shopping) performed this year, will X (formerly Twitter) go bankrupt next year, a new way to stream NBA games post-cable, what to expect from ChatGPT next year, why your passport is the color it is, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our forecasting writer Ethan Cramer-Flood, forecasting analyst Zach Goldner, and director of forecasting Oscar Orozco.