What will social media look like in 2024?

Plus, the biggest brand reputation hits in 2023 [View this email in your browser]( What will social media look like in 2024? The internet is becoming a fractured place again. Social media has been trending away from the monolithic ‘one big story’ for a while now. It used to be a weekly occurrence that there would be a water-cooler moment that went viral on social media that everyone had seen, but now smaller versions of these moments are happening for different groups based on their interests. Charlie Warzel at [The Atlantic]( and Ryan Broderick at [Garbage Day]( have both written compellingly about the internet diverging away from what we knew it to be until very recently, and I’m inclined to agree with the take that the internet of pre-2020 may be gone. Some of this is just due to competition as much as anything else. New, highly successful platforms have emerged in the form of TikTok and Instagram — both solidifying their position as not only visual sharing apps but cultural and newsgathering touchstones. So what does that mean for the social internet as we know it? In short, it’s going to fracture, and it’s going to be crucial to understand platforms and communities on their own merits, with no monoliths in sight. As noted in the Atlantic piece I mentioned above, many people were shocked when Netflix released its list of top shows this year, which many claimed never to have heard of, let alone watched. That’s going to be true on social media too — there will be whole cultural events happening on TikTok, Reddit, X, Facebook, and Instagram that look nothing alike, but will be of crucial importance to those participating in them. As always, for brands and anyone interested in how content is engaged with on social media, it’s going to be important to understand the conversation on different platforms, and decide when and where to engage with those self-constructed audiences and communities. We’ll have more 2024 predictions coming before the end of the year, so stay tuned and keep an eye out over on [our blog](. The biggest brand reputation hits in 2023 2023 has been a year of brand reputation issues, with some of the most memorable brand damage of recent times happening in the past 12 months. Our latest [report]( is a lookback at the ones that seized attention and have had a lasting impact. The big one that made its way onto everyone’s radar was the fallout from Bud Light’s partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, which caused a firestorm in conservative media and sparked months of coverage. Being one of the longest running crises to occur this year, we decided it deserved a three part analysis. To start, In the three months following Mulvaney’s partnership video, the 13.9k articles about her and Bud Light received nearly 9.4 million engagements. Bud Light, owned by Anheuser-Busch, said that it was meant to authentically connect with different demographics, although the company released a statement intending to calm the storm, but was then met with criticism from liberals and progressives on the other side for not standing by its word. While summer saw engagement to the crisis taper off slightly, conversations online became more centered around Bud Light’s reputation and revenue loss. Dylan Mulvaney continued to be a topic of interest though, as the influencer spoke out about the bullying she had experienced and was met with even more criticism from podcaster Joe Rogan for doing so. You can find the full Bud Light analysis along with all the reputation crises we looked at in [our report](. 2023 IMPACT REPORT Our commitment to improving the media ecosystem [Read report →]( 2023 BRAND REPUTATION REPORT The biggest brand reputation hits of this year [Read report →]( NEWSWHIP’S AI DIGEST Stay ahead and save time with NewsWhip’s AI Digest [Read blog →]( NOBODY KNOWS WHAT’S HAPPENING ONLINE ANYMORE Why understanding what’s happening on social media is harder than ever [Read article →]( [Website icon]( [Twitter icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( Copyright (C) 2023 NewsWhip. All rights reserved. You're receiving this email because you opted in for the NewsWhip blog newsletter and updates. Our mailing address is: NewsWhip 42 Pearse Street Dublin, D02 YX88 Ireland Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe](