As of Q3 of 2023, Face­book had 3 bil­lion active month­ly users, and it’s not going to drop in pop­u­lar­i­ty any­time soon. Face­book has been a pow­er­house for years. It’s a dense cen­tre point of engaged users where busi­ness­es of all kinds can reach out to their audiences.

Unsur­pris­ing­ly, it’s one of the main plat­forms that mar­keters use to reach leads. How­ev­er, new tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ments have changed Face­book into a dynam­ic space for busi­ness­es, pos­ing new chal­lenges and goal­posts for them to overcome.

In 2024, there are going to be sev­er­al changes that mar­keters and busi­ness own­ers will need to be aware of if their strate­gies are to be fresh and suc­cess­ful. So, let’s dive into the main Face­book trends of 2024:

AI Facebook trends

Face­book already uses AI to help with review­ing con­tent and remov­ing inap­pro­pri­ate or offen­sive posts. In fact, it’s been doing so for years. So, it’s not sur­pris­ing that Face­book is keen to use the lat­est devel­op­ments in AI to improve its service.

The numer­ous oppor­tu­ni­ties offered by AI are reshap­ing how busi­ness­es inter­act with cus­tomers dig­i­tal­ly. In 2024, we can expect to see Face­book har­ness­ing AI in sev­er­al ways – to ele­vate user expe­ri­ences, dri­ve busi­ness effi­cien­cy, and cre­ate a net­work that’s more engag­ing and personalised.

So, here are four trends relat­ing to AI that we can expect to see from Face­book this year:

1. AI targeting in advertising

AI is rev­o­lu­tion­is­ing Face­book’s adver­tis­ing mod­el. AI algo­rithms now play a cru­cial role in tar­get­ing ad cam­paigns, opti­mis­ing them to reach high-val­ue cus­tomers with min­i­mal input. This change fol­lows the pri­va­cy and trans­paren­cy adjust­ments in iOS 14.5, which impact­ed the use of third-par­ty cook­ies for ad targeting.

The AI algo­rithms in place can analyse user behav­iour to opti­mise ad deliv­ery, ensur­ing that your busi­ness’s mar­ket­ing efforts yield bet­ter results with few­er resources. This AI-dri­ven approach to adver­tis­ing means that busi­ness­es can now direct their mes­sages to the right audi­ence with­out the heavy lift­ing tra­di­tion­al­ly asso­ci­at­ed with ad targeting.

This trend will like­ly be appre­ci­at­ed by small­er busi­ness­es, which so far may have strug­gled with ad targeting.

2. Better content discovery for users

Con­tent dis­cov­ery is anoth­er area where AI is mak­ing a sig­nif­i­cant impact. Face­book’s AI sys­tems are increas­ing­ly adept at rec­om­mend­ing rel­e­vant con­tent to users, span­ning var­i­ous for­mats such as Reels, pho­tos, and writ­ten posts.

This not only enhances user engage­ment but also increas­es the reach of con­tent pub­lished on the plat­form. For busi­ness­es and mar­keters, this trans­lates into a more robust and intel­li­gent sys­tem that brings their con­tent to the fore­front, con­nect­ing them with audi­ences who are most inter­est­ed in what they have to offer.

3. AI-driven content creation tools

Face­book’s invest­ment in AI for gen­er­at­ing cre­ative tools, images, and videos is like­ly to be a game-chang­er. This includes AI-pow­ered capa­bil­i­ties for craft­ing short-form copy, such as catchy social media cap­tions, which can be an advan­tage for busi­ness­es look­ing to quick­ly engage with their audi­ence. By lever­ag­ing these tools, con­tent cre­ation becomes less about man­u­al effort and more about strate­gic creativity.

4. Chatbots and AI elements in customer interactions

The advent of AI-pow­ered fea­tures such as stick­ers, image edit­ing, and chat­bots has sig­nif­i­cant­ly improved cus­tomer inter­ac­tion on Face­book. Chat­bots, in par­tic­u­lar, are a pow­er­ful tool for man­ag­ing cus­tomer queries and engage­ment efficiently.

They pro­vide a respon­sive and con­sis­tent avenue for cus­tomer ser­vice, capa­ble of han­dling a high vol­ume of inter­ac­tions which allows busi­ness­es to main­tain a per­son­al touch with cus­tomers with­out over­whelm­ing their human staff. The use of AI in these inter­ac­tions ensures that the cus­tomer expe­ri­ence is smooth, swift, and satisfactory.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)

The realm of VR and AR is quick­ly becom­ing a key part of social media, and Face­book is get­ting involved.

By invest­ing in VR and AR tech­nolo­gies, Face­book is craft­ing a future where dig­i­tal inter­ac­tions are more immer­sive. This will rev­o­lu­tionise user engage­ment, offer­ing a glimpse into a world where vir­tu­al prod­uct demon­stra­tions and events become the norm:

5. Try before you buy experiences

This tech­no­log­i­cal leap will not only enrich the way users inter­act with con­tent but also open up avenues for mar­keters to show­case their prod­ucts and ser­vices. By har­ness­ing the pow­er of VR and AR, busi­ness­es will be able to pro­vide cus­tomers with a ‘try before you buy’ fea­ture, enhanc­ing the buy­ing expe­ri­ence offered by Facebook.

Video content trends

Video con­tent has been surg­ing ahead for years, and there’s no sign of it slow­ing down. In 2024, we’re expect­ing Face­book to enhance its video capa­bil­i­ties – offer­ing busi­ness­es excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for mar­ket­ing strate­gies and user engage­ment. But first:

6. Shorter videos

The grow­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty of Face­book videos can con­fi­dent­ly be attrib­uted to Reels – cap­tur­ing the atten­tion of audi­ences in an unprece­dent­ed way. The poten­tial audi­ence for adver­tis­ing via Face­book Reels has been esti­mat­ed to be 697 mil­lion users.

These bite-sized videos cater to the con­sumer pref­er­ence for quick, con­sum­able con­tent. As more and more busi­ness­es catch onto this trend, so should yours (81% of busi­ness­es share videos on Face­book). Reels are unde­ni­ably an essen­tial com­po­nent of most suc­cess­ful con­tent strate­gies, and we’ll like­ly be see­ing more of this in 2024.

7. Greater visibility for businesses that share videos

The impact of video con­tent on fol­low­er growth and engage­ment can­not be over­stat­ed. As the algo­rithms favour video con­tent, busi­ness­es that adept­ly utilise Face­book’s video fea­tures can expect to see a sub­stan­tial increase in their online vis­i­bil­i­ty and inter­ac­tion rates.

Busi­ness­es that lever­age these trends can expect to not only keep pace with their com­pe­ti­tion but also to stand out in an increas­ing­ly crowd­ed dig­i­tal space. The era of video dom­i­nance on Face­book is already here, and for busi­ness­es look­ing to make an impact, it’s a trend that can’t be ignored.

8. Better quality features

This year, it will be eas­i­er for busi­ness­es cre­at­ing video con­tent to engage audi­ences. With Face­book enhanc­ing its video capa­bil­i­ties, (includ­ing intro­duc­ing live stream­ing in 4K and new sophis­ti­cat­ed edit­ing fea­tures) busi­ness­es will be able to reach leads in fresh and inno­v­a­tive ways.

New trends in advertising

Did you know that 93% of social media mar­keters use paid Face­book ads? Clear­ly, the plat­for­m’s sig­nif­i­cance is well-known. But how is it going to evolve its adver­tis­ing land­scape in 2024?

9. New ad formats

Face­book is con­tin­u­ous­ly refin­ing its adver­tis­ing offer­ings to pro­vide mar­keters with cut­ting-edge tools. New ad for­mats like immer­sive AR ads and click-to-What­sApp ads are at the fore­front, offer­ing much more engag­ing options for users. AR ads, for instance, offer inter­ac­tive expe­ri­ences that can sig­nif­i­cant­ly boost user inter­ac­tion and cam­paign performance.

The advent of new for­mats such as carousels, instant forms, and inter­ac­tive expe­ri­ences pro­vides fresh avenues for cre­ative expres­sion and audi­ence engage­ment. These for­mats not only cap­ti­vate users but also encour­age direct inter­ac­tion, whether it’s swip­ing through a prod­uct carousel or engag­ing with a brand via instant forms embed­ded with­in the ads themselves.

These oppor­tu­ni­ties are no doubt some excit­ing aspects of 2024 that mar­keters should get involved in.

Changes to Facebook’s features

10. Messaging

This year, we can’t under­state the pow­er of direct mes­sag­ing: peo­ple are 53% more like­ly to shop with a busi­ness they can mes­sage.

This per­son­al touch can rev­o­lu­tionise cus­tomer ser­vice, mak­ing plat­forms like Mes­sen­ger and What­sApp indis­pens­able for busi­ness­es. In 2024, we may see Face­book hon­our this by intro­duc­ing advanced chat­bot inte­gra­tions (e.g., per­son­alised shop­ping assis­tants and trans­ac­tions com­plet­ed with­in the chat interface).

Mes­sen­ger and What­sApp serve as hubs for cus­tomer inquiries. Pow­ered by AI chat­bots, this will help busi­ness­es stream­line sales sup­port. If Face­book deploys more sophis­ti­cat­ed chat­bots, they’ll be able to han­dle much more com­plex cus­tomer queries.

11. Seamless shopping experiences

Social com­merce is also on the rise, with Face­book at the helm of inte­grat­ing shop­ping into user expe­ri­ences. Fea­tures like shop­pable posts and the ded­i­cat­ed Shop Tab make it effort­less for users to browse and pur­chase with­out leav­ing the plat­form. This inte­gra­tion offers con­ve­nience to con­sumers and cap­ti­vat­ed audi­ences for businesses.

Face­book Mar­ket­place has also emerged as a thriv­ing dig­i­tal bazaar. It’s an increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar chan­nel for busi­ness­es to reach a broad audi­ence, pro­vid­ing a space where

com­mu­ni­ties can dis­cov­er and pur­chase prod­ucts with­in the famil­iar envi­ron­ment of Facebook.

Face­book’s con­tin­ued invest­ment in e‑commerce can be seen in the roll­out of Face­book Shops and new direct-buy options. As these fea­tures evolve, they are poised to rede­fine how we view and engage with e‑commerce on social media.

Final thoughts

The way in which Face­book trans­forms as a plat­form offers good and bad. With the devel­op­ment of sev­er­al excit­ing tech­nolo­gies, busi­ness­es will be able to engage with cus­tomers in new and com­pelling ways. How­ev­er, if busi­ness own­ers and mar­keters choose not to engage with Face­book’s mod­ern updates, they may be out­shone by fresh­er competition.

By embrac­ing these trends, from AI to adver­tis­ing, video to VR, com­pa­nies can enhance their con­tent strate­gies, stream­line their adver­tis­ing, deep­en rela­tion­ships with cus­tomers, and dri­ve engage­ment rates on the plat­form. To help your busi­ness reach its fullest poten­tial, it’s vital that you wel­come these changes and adapt your strate­gies accordingly.