Keeping up with new social trends serves as a valuable tool for the business, marketing, and customer care activities of enterprises. Drawing on its research findings, Meta has recently identified five social media trends that businesses should pay attention to and capitalize on in 2024.

According to Mr. Khoi Le, Country Director of Meta in Vietnam, with constant scrolling, messaging, shopping, and sharing on mobile devices, these activities have become the driving force behind commerce.

First of all, Meta highlighted Gen Z Rising. Gen Z are becoming more pronounced as they enter the workforce and participate in business activities. In the Asia-Pacific region, where over 500 million people are Gen Z, they are projected to constitute a significant proportion of the population by 2025. According to Meta, Gen Z is going to be an influential segment when it comes to digital-centric lifestyles in Southeast Asia, with 82 per cent of those surveyed saying they are part of an online community.

Secondly, Meta underscored the rise of the solo economy. Smaller and single households are increasing rapidly across the region. This shift leads to higher levels of pet ownership, demand for single-serve products, and more time spent online.

The third notable trend is AI, which is driving performance for advertisers across Meta’s platforms as it uses AI to power advertising products that provide increased automation to advertisers. Meta’s report indicates that 45 per cent of consumers frequently make purchases on e-commerce platforms after viewing information on Facebook or Instagram, and 20 per cent directly buy products on Facebook. “We are seeing strong traction with our Meta Advantage+ solution, and more than 50 per cent of our advertisers are using our Advantage+ Creative tools to optimize images and text in their ad creative,” Mr. Khoi noted.

Fourthly, strong emphasis is placed on Business Messaging. People and businesses are turning to messaging to get things done, with 600 million conversations happening each day on Meta platforms. According to research conducted by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Meta, one out of every three Vietnamese consumers sends messages to businesses at least once a week. Moreover, Vietnam stands out as having among the highest utilization of Business Chat, with 73 per cent of survey respondents employing the feature for engaging with businesses. As per advertisers’ assessments, Meta’s Business Chat solution leads to a 22 per cent boost in order value, demonstrating superior effectiveness compared to conventional channels such as SMS, email, or others. According to Mr. Khoi, in 2024, people and businesses will want to get even more done within chat, such as booking travel, making appointments, receiving support, or buying a product. The explosion of AI assistants will further fuel this boom in business messaging.

And last but not least, short-form videos like Reels have become increasingly popular in Vietnam, especially among Millennials and Gen Z. The findings from Meta and Factworks indicate that the Millennial demographic is strongly engaged with the Reels feature, while the percentage of Gen Z individuals who decide to follow business activities on digital platforms, tag brands or products in posts, and make purchases after watching Reels is higher. Creator content on Reels is also influencing how Vietnamese consumers shop, with 67 per cent of shoppers discovering relevant brands or products on Meta platforms weekly.

Taking note of these trends, Mr. Khoi underscored that 2024 is poised for a substantial transformation in conventional marketing methodologies. The era characterized by one-way awareness, consideration, and purchase is gradually fading away due to the impact of digital transformation. To sustain growth, marketers must adopt a more flexible and comprehensive approach. Thus, 2024 is anticipated to usher in a new era for the marketing industry.