2024 Trends: Content and Publishing Trends to Watch
2024 is already looking to be an exciting year. We have drawn insights from industry-leading reports, our internal data, and experts in the SHE Media Collective to bring you the content and digital trends that will dominate in the coming year. As you plan and start to implement your editorial and content strategy for the year, don’t ignore these high-performing content trends and predictions across various publishing niches in 2024.
Watch the Webinar: 2024 Content and Publishing Trends + 2023 Recap
2024 Content Trends
See the dominating content trends for major publishing niches. These predictions show the direction of user interest in 2024. What will people be searching for on the web and what are the most popular interest and topic areas? As you write and create don’t ignore these topics as they are a good way to keep your content fresh and also serve as keywords to insert into your articles and overall content strategy.
Food & Recipe Trends
Recipe mashups
Gummy candy kabobs
Carbonara ramen
At-home coffee stations
Mindful eating “healthspan”
Nostalgic dining (reviving old brands)
Convenience yet healthy options
Non-alcoholic fancy/fun drinks
Innovative snacks
Rise of global flavors and ingredients
Interesting spice combinations
Sustainability in cooking/eating
Women’s health supplements and food products
Beauty & Fashion Trends
Bows and Bow aesthetics
Metallic/Silver accessories and clothing
Pops of Color
Red as a statement color
Blue hues
Bigger and Bolder
Chunky hoops
Big braids
Sculptural jewelry
Big hair
Bucket boots
Maryjanes
Colorful Sneaker Trends
Lifestyle: Home & Decor Trends
Kitschy kitchen
Eccentric kitchen
At-home coffee stations
Retro design
Dopamine furniture
Fun lamps/lampshades
Timeless decor/and neutrals
Nature in the home
Turtle terrarium ideas
Fish tank theme ideas
Lifestyle: Wellness Trends
New and niche sports (pickleball, badminton)
Combat sports and workouts
Meaningful connections/ conversations
Bodycare/Body skincare routine
Digital tracking of physical and mental health
Probiotics
Decline of restrictive diets
Mindfulness and Meditation
A wellness and mental health approach in every niche/for every brand
Parenting Trends
Gentle parenting names
Eco-conscious parenting
Healthy boundaries on social media usage
Vintage baby names
Entertainment Trends
More Streaming services will emerge
Streaming platforms will consolidate
Podcasting will continue to rise in popularity
Anticipated Movies: Dune 2, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Kong vs Godzilla: The New Empire, Inside Out 2.
AI in various facets of entertainment
UGC (User Generated Content) competing with traditional media platforms
Continued rise of social video
Notable Entertainment Events
Golden Globes
Emmys
The Grammys
Super Bowl
Mardi Gras
BAFTA Awards
SAG Awards
Oscars
Notable Dates and Events Jan/Feb/Mar
MLK Day (January 15)
Black History Month (February)
Lunar New Year (February 10)
Mardi Gras (February 13)
Valentine’s Day (February 14)
President's Day (February 19)
Women’s History Month (March)
SXSW (March 8-16)
St. Patrick's Day (March 17)
Equal Pay Day (March 15)
Easter (March 31)
Ramadan (March 11-April 9) and Eid-al-Fitr (April 9)
Trends and You! How to Use Trends to Your Benefit
Stay in your chosen content niche and find trends that bring new perspectives to grounded topics.
Insert a trend in intervals into your content calendar (monthly, weekly, etc).
Pick a trend with recurring tendencies and create a content cluster on the topic.
Make your content voice search-friendly and use properly sourced/licensed quality images.
Be flexible in your approach and experiment.
Be watchful and stay up-to-date on new developments in your niche.
Create content that answers common questions in your niche and provides educational value.
Create content for notable dates weeks ahead. E.g if you want to create Valentine’s Day content like tips, recipes, activity recommendations, etc, publish weeks before Valentine's Day as that’s when people begin their search.
Be excited about and embrace new changes not *fearful*.
2024 Social Media Trends
Social media will rise as a search engine.
Social platforms will shift to increase engagement and monetization of DMs.
A creator’s authority and credentials will matter more and more on social platforms.
Vertical Video content is key across all platforms.
“Number of Shares” will matter more as an engagement metric.
Threads and WhatsApp will provide increasing value to publishers.
Social videos will take off and compete with mainstream video platforms.
Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Whatsapp) Trends
Meta has suggested that it will pivot its strategy from Reels to Video more holistically.
Facebook - Facebook will continue to deprioritize link traffic in favor of video
Threads - Referral traffic from the Threads platform now appears as l.threads.net rather than consolidating within Instagram. Users can also now tag a topic in a Thread—and it’s a lot more flexible than a traditional hashtag. These changes make Threads more favorable to Publishers.
Instagram - In 2024 Instagram will do more with Direct Messaging. Expect more engagement opportunities with new DM features. Instagram Broadcast channels will also be on the rise this year.
WhatsApp - The newly launched Whatsapp Channels shows promise for content distribution for publishers.
Linkedin Trends
LinkedIn’s algorithm will favor creators with authority and credentials who produce ample content in their subject areas of expertise.
LinkedIn will deprioritize personal content and personal updates for more educational & expert content.
There will be features and opportunities for more professional networking for business growth.
LinkedIn Newsletters will continue to bring value to creators for self-syndication and reaching a wider audience.
TikTok Trends
Tiktok will host longer vidoes (15 min videos)
TikTok is chasing super-app status and looking to expand its uses
A lean into Search and Affiliate marketing (TikTok Shop)
Increased competition with Amazon while offering a different approach to shopping. TikTok shopping will be powered by Inspiration/Trends vs Amazon which is powered by Ease/Convenience
“by ending its Creator Fund, Tiktok will pay creators only for videos longer than 60 seconds—another sign of short-video monetization problems” - Insider Intelligence
Pinterest Trends
Pinterest remains a top traffic source and reliable content distribution channel
2024 Advertising and Publishing Trends
Third-party cookies are going away in 2024 (Google has twice pushed out the timeline)
AI will continue to grow and supercharge ad tech (post cookie world for contextual targeting)
E-commerce will grow and spread to more platforms
Ad-funded streaming on the rise (CTV ad spending will rise, AVOD)
Short video craze is cooling (in favor of longer videos) /Meta/YouTube shorts/TikTok
Generative AI will supercharge Search
Upgraded virtual assistants for more voice search
More and wider search formats for more content types and mediums
Demand for Ebooks and Audio content will continue to rise
AI-powered insights into content performance
Watch the Webinar: 2024 Content and Publishing Trends + 2023 Recap
SHE Media Has a Seat at the Table
E-commerce - SHE Media continues to revolutionize the e-commerce experience for both publishers and users through detailed personalization and native shopping integrations.
SHE Media Cohorts - Providing advertisers with enhanced audience segments increasing the value of inventory.
High-Level Advocacy - SHE Media and Penske Media involvement in AI-related conversations as a publisher advocate at the industry level with AI innovators such as Microsoft, Google, Open AI, etc.
SHE Media continues to be focused on the sustainability and growth of the independent web.