Top 6 Social Media Marketing Challenges in 2024, According to 1,500+ Marketers [+ How to Face Them]

I’m not sure which social platform is winning the algorithmic gymnastics competition this year. Is it Instagram? Maybe TikTok?

Either way, it seems like all of our favorite channels are actively competing for gold, which presents quite the range of social media marketing challenges for us.

From algo updates to unpredictable trends, we’re always left wondering: Which platforms will provide the highest return? Where's our audience hanging out now? And how can we create content they’re actually interested in?

These are all fair questions. In fact, our latest social trends report shows that they’ve manifested into the biggest challenges social media marketers are facing this year.

Here’s what the data says.

Top 6 Social Media Marketing Challenges in 2024

1. Creating engaging content.

As someone who creates content, I can tell you firsthand that creating good content is hard. And the standard for good content is always changing.

It looks like I’m not alone in this thinking because our survey shows that 17% of marketers said creating engaging content would be their biggest challenge this year.

The key to high-quality content creation is meeting your audience at the intersection of what they care about most and what’s trending on their favorite platforms.

Sprinkle in a few fickle social algorithms, and you’ve created one of the most complicated recipes of all time.

That’s why it’s no surprise to me that this feels like a pressure point for marketers.

How to Overcome This Challenge

Rachael Samuels, director of social media at Sprout Social, believes dedicating time, resources, and headcount towards social media is vital for long-term success.

As she puts it, “The social landscape is becoming increasingly saturated with new networks and seemingly endless potential audiences to engage. Social teams of one are no longer enough to keep up with the demand.”

Samuels adds, “As consumer preferences and expectations continue to grow, social marketers require greater investment in their teams and resources to be successful.

Brands must ensure social is prioritized as a critical communication tool and provide their teams with the resources needed to produce creative, relevant, and authentic content.”

As a former social media team of one, I wholeheartedly agree that lack of time and resources are blockers for content creation.

However, if you’re not in a position to increase your social media headcount, here are a few more ways you can beat the engaging content challenge:

Repurpose content across channels to get the most bang for your buck. For example, take one of your 1,800-word blog posts and rework it into punchy short-form content for channels like Instagram or TikTok. HubSpot’s free AI paragraph rewriter is great for this. Use social media AI tools to streamline content planning, creation, and posting across your social channels — and to open up time for more creativity. Pull tips from the video below on how to create an effective social media content calendar:

2. Keeping up with features and algorithm updates.

I already mentioned the fickle social algorithm, and here it is again, rearing its not-so-pleasant head in challenge number two.

Our data shows that 16% of marketers are having trouble keeping up with new social media features and algorithm updates.

After looking at just one example of Facebook’s algorithm from Meta, I get it. (Not the algorithm, but why this is giving social media marketers a headache.)

Source

And coming from a blogger who has been quietly beefing with Google over their all-too-regular algorithm changes, you can trust and believe that I understand the struggle.

How to Overcome This Challenge

As marketers, we can’t stop the algorithms from changing. But we can take steps to be proactive, stay informed, and adjust our content to meet new demands. Here’s how:

Get to know the algorithms on your most frequently used channels. It’ll be easier to navigate the changes if you already know the basics about how things operate. Stay up to date on the latest algorithm changes. Sources like HubSpot (cough, cough) Sprout Social, and Hootsuite are great resources here. Create content your audience wants to engage with. Content relevance is a big ranking factor for most algorithms, regardless of platform. Post on social media at the right time. The more engagement, the better your chances of showing up in-feed — so catch your audience online early and often.

3. Finding ideas for new content.

Based on our survey, 16% of marketers also reported that finding ideas for new content is a big challenge this year.

Why? It can be exhausting (and tricky) to consistently pitch new ideas for social platforms, especially when they already feel overcrowded with content.

Luckily, we’re at a point now where we can tap AI to help generate new content ideas if we’re feeling stuck. In fact, the below ChatGPT prompt is one of my favorites as a writer:

“Give me [number] of [content type] ideas about [topic] that would appeal to [target audience].”

Here it is with the blanks filled in: “Give me five blog post ideas about social media that would appeal to marketers in 2024.”

And here’s the response I got:

I also talked to an expert about this challenge — let’s see what she recommends.

How to Overcome This Challenge

Christina Garnett, former principal marketing manager at HubSpot, suggests researching what already exists when looking for new ideas.

"When trying to find the new you must consume and see what kind of content is already available and then look for gap opportunities.

Are there questions not being answered? Different perspectives not being shared? Maybe the content exists but not in a format that is tailored for a specific learner or audience," says Garnett.

She adds, "Once you determine what you can create, you need to determine who needs it, and how it can best be packaged to improve their experience. Content has the same need to find product-market fit as products and solutions do.”

4. Reaching their target audience.

Up next, 15% of marketers also identified reaching their target audience as one of their top social media challenges.

Creating engaging content and finding new content ideas are great, but what’s the point if your audience never sees it? (Like if a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it … )

The good news is we already have a great piece on the blog that explains how to find your social media target audience. I’ll summarize a few of the action items below.

How to Overcome This Challenge

Identify or create buyer personas. Think about who your current customers are. What are their jobs? Age? Income? Find out where your audience is most active. This will help you prioritize which social media platforms to focus on. Look at your competitors. Who are they appealing to? Who's responding to their posts and engaging with them? Survey your customers. Ask what type of content they consume, what social media sites they like, or who they follow.

Then, use all of this info to meet them where they are on social.

5. Creating content that generates leads.

Lead generation is also proving to be a hurdle in 2024. 14% of those surveyed report creating content that generates leads as a top social media challenge this year.

Lead generation is a job all on its own. Group that with content creation, trend monitoring, and community management, and you’ve just described the duties of the quintessential social media marketer.

To take some of the pressure off, here’s how you can build a strong social media lead gen strategy.

How to Overcome This Challenge

To start, consider driving your audience from certain social platforms back to dedicated landing pages, or track clicks on specific CTAs for each of your social media campaigns.

Let’s say you're running a campaign aimed at driving revenue towards a new product offering, create a product landing page and link to it on each of your social profiles. That way, you can track how many clicks come from each page, and alter your strategy accordingly.

For example, if you’re seeing most clicks coming from Facebook, that may indicate that it’s a good idea to put paid advertising behind your Facebook strategy.

Speaking of paid advertising, social media ads and influencer marketing are also powerful ways to generate leads through social media.

Talkwalker's former CMO Elena Melnikova emphasizes the importance of reading the room when creating ads for social media:

“Too commercial, and this young audience will scroll past your brand, looking for the next dance routine. Read the room. Follow the trends. Be spontaneous,” notes Melnikova.

And when it comes to influencer marketing, Melnikova says:

“Savvy brands will work with influencers to create content. And with the majority of TikTok influencers being Gen Z, they‘ll understand how to ensure their content stands out, and increase a brand’s engagement figures.”

6. Keeping up with new trends.

Last but certainly not least, our data shows that 14% of marketers cited keeping up with new trends as one of their top challenges for this year.

At this point, almost everything materializes as a trend — whether it’s a new platform, an old meme, or even just a sound (I’m looking at you, TikTok).

But the reality is this: Every trend isn’t a good fit for every brand.

Sometimes the most popular social platform isn’t the right place to find your audience. Or maybe your customers aren’t familiar with, and therefore wouldn’t appreciate, that trending phrase that everyone is using in their videos this week.

(For example, I said “sometimes, you need to eat an entire cucumber” to my mom yesterday, and she had no idea what I was talking about. Shoutout to @logagm on TikTok.)

The constant struggle between what’s current and what resonates with your audience makes it difficult to determine which trends to tap into.

How to Overcome This Challenge

I have two nuggets of advice for this one.

First, find a way to keep a pulse of the latest social media trends.

Follow industry leaders like Sprout Social, sign up for expert newsletters like The Marketing Millennials, or see what your audience is currently talking about on forum sites like Reddit.

Also, track the latest news and releases from your favorite social media channels (or curate a network of insiders like Annie-Mai Hodge on LinkedIn) to be the first to know about new features and algorithm updates.

The second is to choose the methods with the highest ROI. And if you don’t know how, take a look at HubSpot's free lesson on How to Measure Social Media ROI to learn more.

Like I said earlier, it’s not worth it for every brand to hop on every trend. If it can tie back to your audience’s interests and your biggest business outcomes, you’re in the right place.

Challenge(s) Accepted

There you have it! The six biggest challenges that social media teams are facing in 2024.

Now that you know which challenges you’re up against, take the time to brainstorm solutions that will help you level up your social media strategy — for next year and beyond.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.