Is your business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) cannabis brand investing time and money into social media marketing but still following outdated tricks and practices? If you publish more content about your brand than any other type of content, then the answer to that question is yes – and you need to make some changes quickly if you want to succeed in social media in the new year.

Since social media platforms debuted, their purpose has never been to be a broadcasting tool, yet brands in all industries continue to use them as such. Turns out, they’re wasting a lot of time, money, and effort chasing results that will never come simply because they’re too busy talking about themselves.

Let’s take a look at five critical social media marketing trends that cannabis brands should know to be successful and generate positive returns on their investments in 2024 and beyond.

1. Admit You Don’t Know What Your Target Audience Wants

The number one thing that causes consumers to think negatively about brands on social media is when brands are too focused on self-promotion according to Hootsuite’s Social Trends 2024 research report. But guess what? Hootsuite’s researchers found that 48% of marketers publish product or brand updates and news more than once every week.

Can you spot the problem?

Brands across all industries are not giving consumers what they want. Instead, they’re spending too much time self-promoting and talking about themselves, their products, their services, and how amazing they are.

The lesson to learn is simple. You’ll never get the engagement you need to drive a positive social media marketing return on investment (ROI) if you’re not giving your audience what it wants. Stop talking about yourself all the time!

2. Prioritize Relationships, Not Transactions

The first step to giving your audience what it wants on social media is to understand that social media is about building relationships.

That’s one of the main reasons why social media is so perfect for cannabis brands. In a digital world where many promotional opportunities aren’t available to businesses operating in and with the cannabis industry, platforms that allow brands to build authentic relationships with their target audiences are the place to be!

Social media is about relationships, not transactions. However, you need to understand that relationships can lead to transactions.

Rarely can a brand invest in social media marketing and generate massive sales overnight. But if you look at social media as a long-term brand-building strategy that will lead to awareness, recall, sales, and loyalty over time, you’ll win.

3. Commit to the 3 Es of Social Media Marketing (and Stick to Them)

The second step is to stop publishing so many self-promotional posts (even if they’re indirectly self-promotional), and start publishing more content that adheres to the 3 Es of Social Media Marketing:

1. Educate
2. Engage
3. Entertain

Educational content is informative and useful to your target audience. Be a thought leader and share your expertise! Engaging content is intended to jumpstart conversations. This type of content could ask questions, invite comments, tag other accounts, and jumpstart sharing. Entertaining content is – you guessed it – entertaining and enjoyable to the target audience.

The Hootsuite study found that 56% of consumers think brands should be more relatable on social media. You know how to do it? Educate, engage, and entertain.

4. Truthfully Evaluate What You’ve Been Doing

Time for a truthful social media marketing review. Analyze what you’ve been publishing on social media and the results you’ve gotten from that content. What are your best and worst performing posts? What has worked well for you in the past to generate engagement?

Be honest and put yourself in your target audience’s shoes. Remember, you probably haven’t been giving them what they truly want, so now is the time to try to find the instances when you did get it right. Use those successful posts as a foundation to build your social media marketing strategy for 2024.

5. Use Artificial Intelligence but with Caution

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the hottest thing in social media marketing (and so many other areas) as we head into 2024. AI can save your social media team a significant amount of time brainstorming, doing cursory research, creating content outlines, and even writing content drafts. However, it should never replace human beings.

Why? Because your audience values authenticity over your budget. They’re also not entirely sold on the idea of AI. According to the Social Trends 2024 report, 62% of consumers are less likely to engage with and trust content if they know it was created by an AI application.

Older consumers are more likely to have an aversion to AI-generated content than younger consumers, so it’s critical that you understand your target audience and use AI accordingly.

However, you don’t want to lose the relatable human touch that comes with human-generated content. You have to give your audience what they want, and it’s probably not content created by a robot (at least not all the time). Authenticity matters a lot!

Key Takeaways about Social Media Trends Cannabis Brands Should Know in 2024

Social media marketing is evolving as consumers get savvier and as they get more inundated with low-quality, irrelevant content. Cannabis brands will need to step up their social games in 2024 to get noticed and stay in good favor with online audiences.

That means your 2024 social media strategy should focus on relationships, education, engagement, entertainment, and the cautious use of artificial intelligence. Most importantly, commit to the long-term, and stop talking about yourself all the time.