What: Adweek’s 2024 Social Media Week three-day conference digging into the latest social media trends, tools and strategies.

Who: The crowd was a mix of brand marketers, agencies, creators, platforms (reps for Reddit, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Instagram were all there) and Megan Thee Stallion — Adweek’s current covergirl, artist and entrepreneur in her own right.

TL;DR

• Nobody likes ads, everybody likes to be entertained

• Social listening is where the magic happens

• Niche communities are the future of social 

• Brands and creators are going to get pulled into politics this year, whether they want to or not

• Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Facebook, were the event’s unexpected MVPs

• There was more conversation around creators than there was around Gen AI

• Duolingo shared how keeps its social content at a PG-13 level

• BTS details of why Lil Yachty added 11.3M followers to his Close Friends list 

KEY THEMES

👉🏻 Make entertaining content; not ads

The theme of the week: Entertainment is good. Ads are bad. The term “ad fatigue” was used and there was even a workshop titled Gen Z Hates Your Ads. 

But it’s not just a feeling. Or vibes. This tracks with hard metrics. 

“What we actually found was that entertaining content was the biggest driver to conversions on the site,” said Dash Hudson CMO Kate Kenner Archibald, during her panel: From Entertainment to Engagement: Unlocking Social Media’s Revenue Potential. 

Of course, that doesn’t mean ignoring brand for the sake of entertainment and engagement. 

“One of the things we say internally is, ‘Community first but not brand lost,’” said The Inkey List CEO Stephanie Davis Michelman in conversation with Archibald and Adweek’s EIC Ryan Joe. 

The Inkey list is a knowledge-led brand, said Michelman. If the UGC content is entertaining but doesn’t deliver on the skincare brand’s mission to educate their community and help people understand how the products relate to their own journey, then it’s a miss. 

“Sometimes I hear people say, “Oh, everything's got to be funny.” Or, “Everything's got to be following some sort of trend,” said Michelman. “We found that that's not the case at all. Knowledge is important to us. Myth busting is important to us because it's important to our community. So what we consider entertaining, may be very different then what another brand considers entertaining.”

It’s a combination of the right content reaching the right community, says Archibald. “That’s when the clicks and conversions will come.” 

👉🏻 Social listening is where the magic happens

Whether it’s identifying and partnering with relevant content creators for brand campaigns, searching for new audiences and cultural conversations to join, or reintroducing a discontinued product based on social listening feedback, there is gold in the comments. 

Remember Duolingo’s 5-second BBL SuperBowl spot? That ad was actually inspired by tweets reacting to a new Duo widget, according to Duolingo’s Global Head of Social Media, Katherine Chan on her panel: Why Social Listening Informs Brand Relevance. While Duo got famous on TikTok, the team uses Twitter for feedback from their broader audience.

Active listening and being responsive to the social fan base is also critical when it comes to building a sports brands, said Perry Mattern, senior Social Media manager for the New York Jets, on a panel titled: On the Court, On the Field, On Social Media.

When wide receiver and, at that time, free agent Mike Williams visited the Jets facility, a fan used DoorDash to send him a Taylor Ham, egg and cheese sandwich (a local specialty). The social team intercepted the sandwich and turned it into a follow-along adventure. “We took a picture of it at the front of the facility, like, ‘We got the sandwich.’ And the fan base went nuts.” 

👉🏻 The future of social is niche communities 

Take your pick: Slack, Substack, Discord, WhatsApp and Facebook Groups. Brands and their fans are looking beyond social to escape the algorithm. 

“Social media used to be a distribution channel in and of itself and you had your website and your SMS and everything else. Now, social media is an entire ecosystem,” said Link In Bio’s Rachel Karten during her panel: Scrolling Into the Future: Unpacking Social Media Trends of 2024. 

“Instagram and Twitter will always exist, but I think that brands are wanting to funnel their communities down a little bit more within that social media ecosystem.” 

Brands like Tory Burch and others are taking those broad social audiences and really leaning into the actively engaged superfans on platforms where they can connect without an algorithm getting in the way. 

“It just gives another layer of connection for your communities,” said Jayde Powell in conversation with Karten, strategist Peyton Dix and Adweek’s Sami Lambert.

👉🏻 Things are about to get political for creators and brands, whether they’re ready for it or not.

This is such a timely and critical topic, I’m going to cover the panel: Gen Z and Navigating the Digital Divide in the 2024 Election, with creator Kahlil Greene, Blue State’s Megan Malloy, Betches Media’s Bridget Schwartz, and political analyst Emily Amick, next week — along with their suggestions for how you can navigate Gen Z’s expectations and the importance of combatting disinformation. Plus, an interview with DC diplomacy influencer Andreas Sandre from my trip to Washington, DC.

🔥 PLATFORM HOT TAKES 🔥

When you get a few hundred social pros in one place, the opinions are going to be strong — especially when it comes to which platforms you should be spending your time on. Some of the hot takes shared onstage or overheard backstage include:

Pinterest. “You know what I really like? Pinterest. I’ve got a lot of stuff saved. I deleted Instagram and Twitter on my phone. I have TikTok and  I have Pinterest… Puppies, breakfast, workout videos, and bootie shorts. I see all the content I want to see,” Megan Thee Stallion revealed to Adweek’s Christine Lane during their fireside chat: Insights from the Hot Girl Coach.

Twitter. “I honestly think Twitter's a really great testing ground for brands to try changing up strategy,” strategist Peyton Dix said during the panel: Scrolling Into the Future: Unpacking Social Media Trends of 2024. “I've always said a tweet is a real TikTok… You see something take off there. What's the spoken version of that tweet? What's the, "I'm walking with my iced coffee" version of that?” 

That sentiment was echoed by Duolingo’s Global Head of Social Media, Katherine Chan, during a panel on social listening: “We find that listening on Twitter for negative feedback can be a good early indicator of how your brand has been reflecting across the broader audience.”

LinkedIn. “LinkedIn has a lot of thought leaders, people who cause… good trouble. And good trouble and things that move our society forward and push conversations that were not usually happening. That's what I'm starting to see new to the streets of LinkedIn,” said Corporate Baddie creator DeAndre Brown during his panel: Building Brand Presence on LinkedIn.

Facebook. “Facebook is not dead,” Sweetgreen head of social Bari Tippett told Jayde Powell during an Instagram Stories interview. “It ain’t dead. Post on it and you’ll believe me.” 

This tracks with anecdotal evidence we’ve seen recently, whether it’s an increase in Facebook Pokes attributed to teens; Facebook and its Marketplace being second only to TikTok in the number of US social buyers on the platform; or stories of tweens and teens who are posting to Facebook because parents assume only grandma and grandpa will see the posts. 

💜 CREATOR FAVORITES 💜

I wanted to pass the mic to my fellow Dash Hudson creators to get their feedback on the best stuff they saw, heard and did this week so I asked them: Person, place or thing — what was your best new discovery this week?

“Brandon Blackwood had so many insightful takeaways. The biggest one that stuck with me was his focus on collaborating with his audience in product development… balancing consumer demand and his own creative vision. He mentioned that he hates yellow bags, but he still makes them because he knows his customer wants them. But he makes them in a style or structure that speaks to him. I think every creator can relate to that balance — making what you love and care about, but making it in the “color” that your audience will actually buy. To me, that’s the essence of being a successful creator.”

-Katie Steckly, YouTube creator and entrepreneur 

“‘Creators are what bring our ideas to life.’ I loved how Taylor [Montgomery, Taco Bell CMO North America] highlighted the way Taco Bell works with creators of all sizes to help the brand evolve and tell new stories. Taco Bell has always been forward-thinking with their partnerships, and their early adoption of creator marketing was key to how they’ve continued to captivate audiences on social media. And I’m not just saying that because it’s my favorite fast food, but they’ve genuinely put the work in to build brand affinity.”

-Christopher Cox, TikTok creator, co-founder & CEO of Nebula Social helping brands and creators, like Pi by Inflection AI and the new Shine app from Marissa Mayer, tell their stories on social.

“I loved the overall theme of authenticity, whether it’s with content creation or working with influencers. When it comes to creators, I had so much fun getting to meet some of the people behind the brands I’ve interacted with on social media, like Poshmark’s Mavy Rodgers and HelloFresh’s Sydni Allen.”

-Hayli Moulton, TikTok creator and Superside marketer 

⚡️ QUICK HITS ⚡️

🥜 Nutter Butter got its flowers for the unhinged swag bag it sent out to creator Brian Jordan Alvarez, who shared the giant jar of “peanut liquid” with hand-printed label he received to social media. Everybody loved Duolingo, but it was nice to see other brands get recognized for their efforts, too. For example, Bratz and Barbie Style got snaps for doing a good job of tapping into pop culture and cultural moments. 

📱 Remember when Lil Yachty added his 11.3M Instagram followers to his Close Friends list? Instagram’s Brand Marketing Lead Arinze Emeagwali and Wieden + Kennedy Creative Director John Petty revealed that the viral stunt was actually a Meta campaign to promote Close Friends for Reels and Close Friends for Feed. “We know our target doesn't like ads. So, we didn't make any. And they loved it. To this day, people don't even realize this was all a campaign for Close Friends.”

🌐 People wanted to talk about creators a lot more than generative AI. Brands want to be humanized, AI does the opposite, said Sami Lambert, Adweek’s Direct of Social Media. In fact, the term influencer may even make a comeback as part of Gen Z’s response to generative AI. “It means that you actually have people to influence which I don't think robots do. It would be interesting because influencer became such a dirty word for a long time.”

📓 Legal will love this one: Duolingo has a standards and practices playbook created after an early social misstep. They developed a robust set of guidelines to keep things PG-13 with examples of what they consider OK and not OK then trained everyone on the team on them globally. “Since then we've definitely seen a decrease in the amount of negative incidents,” said Duolingo’s Global Head of Social Media, Katherine Chan.

*originally published in my newsletter ICYMI