Marketers, Pay Attention: Social Media Focus is Shifting

The social media marketing landscape is undergoing significant changes as platforms continue to fine-tune their algorithms and strategies in response to various factors.

Over the past year, Meta, for instance, has taken a clear stance against news content—a shift from its previous approach of promoting such material. Simultaneously, changes at X have triggered noticeable shifts in social ad trends.

As a result, publishers and marketers are exploring new ways to diversify their social media marketing and promotional efforts. This trend may indicate a growing interest in previously overlooked platforms, opening up fresh opportunities for brands.

One notable example is Reddit, where organic referral traffic has reportedly increased sevenfold in the past nine months, following a new data-sharing and discovery partnership with Google.

According to AdWeek, Reddit's readership nearly tripled between August 2023 and April 2024, surging from 132 million to 346 million monthly visitors.

Reddit’s deal with Google is primarily focused on data sharing, in order to help Google develop its Gemini AI models. But there’s also a provision within the arrangement to develop more “content-forward displays of Reddit information” within Google search.

That’s clearly had an impact, and that rise in attention has also driven more interest from publishers, which AdWeek says are now driving notable traffic gains from the app.

LinkedIn, too, is seeing steady increases in engagement, with LinkedIn newsletters, in particular, helping to drive more direct engagement, both for creators and publishers alike.

Again, Meta’s decision to move away from publisher content, by effectively penalizing the reach of link posts, has forced publications to look at alternative opportunities, and that could spark a broader shift in news engagement, in different forms.

Though it’s not only Meta that’s now penalizing link posts.

X has also moved to make link posts less prominent, as a means to keep people in the app for longer, while even LinkedIn is now looking to push publishers to take up LinkedIn Premium subscriptions by reducing the prominence of links posted by non subscribers.

Which, again, forces publishers who are looking to drive traffic to consider alternative sites, which could see more focus on other platforms over time.

There’s also been a notable shift in social marketing budgets as a result of platform updates.

As X continues to suffer from its worsening advertiser exodus, it seems that a notable proportion of that budget is shifting to Snapchat and Reddit, which have both seen significant increases in SMB spend.

In its Q1 performance update, Snapchat reported that SMB ad spend is up 85% at the app, while Reddit has more than doubled its revenue growth rate by, among other things, focusing on SMBs.

The broader changes at X have lead to a splintering of ad budgets, which is now seeing other platforms attract more interest, as marketers try out new opportunities, to see whether they can drive similar response from other apps.

And the broader context, again, is that the social media marketing landscape is shifting significantly, as platforms revise their focus, and look to new options.

That’s not to say that Meta’s apps are not as viable an option as they’ve always been, while Meta’s also updating its ad tools with new AI capabilities which will eventually deliver better results without you having to do anything.

Indeed, the data suggests that Meta’s evolving Advantage ad tools are worth considering. But in terms of broader expansion, it seems that many brands are now trying to find new opportunities, and new communities to reach in other apps.

Maybe you should too. Maybe, these platforms are seeing more opportunity because they’re delivering results, and as such, maybe it’s worth exploring these alternative platforms now, ahead of the Black Friday and Christmas marketing rush.

The data suggests that this is where people are turning, and if other businesses are seeing results, it could be worth looking into what kind of reach opportunities you can get from other apps.