2025 Social Media Trends

A new year paves the way for new mar-tech and ad-tech offerings, and social media platforms are no different. According to a recent study by Kepios, there are currently 5.2 billion social media users worldwide, representing ~64% of the total population and 94.5% of the total internet users.

Given the proliferation of social media use, it’s worth exploring trends likely to influence paid and organic social media efforts in 2025.

#1 Increased Short-Form, Purpose-Built Video Content

While social media use continues to grow each year, the length of media consumed is much shorter: more content viewed at much shorter engagements. Most of social media is viewed on mobile devices, with 98.5% of Meta’s active users accessing its platform on a mobile phone.  Social media users prefer video and average view lengths of less than five seconds, so it’s imperative that advertisers adapt to mobile-first, short-form video content to achieve their marketing goals. At MediaOne, we recommend mobile video creative as part of your social strategy, introducing the brand name within the first three to five seconds of the video and adding animated captions. Additionally, if you create videos, invest in ads to get them seen or they may only get a few views. 

#2 Creative Storytelling, Audience Segmentation and Testing

Some brands do a great job of running multiple, complimentary creative to tell their story. This means, creating more granular audience segments paired with specific ad/landing page combinations should drive better performance in 2025. Additionally, using videos in place of still images will continue to grow. With travel brands, you could have segments like hiking, biking, and foodies plus retargeting audiences segmented by the most visited sections of your website with a specific creative for each segment.

#3 Influencer Usage and Monetization

A 2024 Hubspot report noted that “51% of marketers say their company worked with creators or influencers in 2023.” This percentage is expected to increase in 2025 given the effectiveness of this tactic. In this same report, Hubspot found that 53% of marketing efforts that were effective had used influencers, compared to only 25% that found it ineffective. (13) As of 2024, the global market valuation for influencers was ~$24B, almost twice that of 2021. Brands are finding success with influencers by utilizing their reach and authenticity, resonating with their target viewers. Niche influencers will be key for 2025, matching your product to an influencer’s interests.

#4 Usage Demographic Trends

According to research from Oberlo, (breakdown of social networks by age groups is below) – YouTube leads the way with the highest percentage of users from each age age group followed by Facebook, excluding the 18-29-year-old group. The youngest group spends more time on Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. The older age groups spend more time on Pinterest and LinkedIn.

#5 TikTok’s Place in the Social Media Ecosystem

The TikTok platform may be banned this weekend. It’s up for debate if the app will just stop working or instead, not allow new downloads to start. Then it’s possible that existing users would still be able to use it for a given period of time. There is a chance a group of investors in the U.S., led by Kevin O’leary (Shark Tank) could purchase the app and decouple it from China. If the ban is resolved, TikTok is projected to have north of 2.35 billion users in 2029, making its reach potentially attractive to some brands. TikTok users spent ~$3.8B in 2023, with roughly $1B spent in Q1 of the same year. Combine this with TikTok’s latest push for brands to use TikTok Shop, a shopping experience in-app, and TikTok will have a differentiator to better serve brands and creators. A looming Supreme Court decision and law banning the app will go into effect on January 19th if the China-based company does not sell its ownership. While 2025 trends are likely too early to tell, it’s certainly worth a topic for brands to monitor.

#6 Social Commerce

In the U.S., social commerce sales are expected to hit nearly $80 billion by 2025. With 4.89 billion people using social media, it’s a no-brainer for brands to get noticed by more customers. Social commerce is about buying and selling goods or services directly on social media platforms. Tourism organizations have the opportunity to utilize social commerce by selling tickets for attractions or the ability to book hotels directly on social media platforms.

#7 AI Generated Content and Impact

Artificial Intelligence started trending around 2020 and has impacted nearly every market and industry – including social media. AI has been transformative in helping brands create highly customized content (ad copy from an image, or vise versa). Platforms such as Meta have integrated these features directly into their platform. While these features can be useful, at MediaOne, we continue to recommend a human review to mitigate AI errors, that continue to happen. In Q4 of 2024, a fake AI-generated Facebook page posted a notification for a Halloween parade in Dublin, Ireland, that wasn’t real, generating thousands of in-person visitors and a need for Ireland’s police to dispel the event notification. It’s predicted that AI will continue to aid brand’s social media efforts into 2025; however, with the distrust of AI accuracy with the younger generations, it’s likely that authentic human-generated content will shine.

#8 Data Privacy and Impacted Targeting Options

We expect to see more special ad category targeting limitations in 2025. Meta limits targeting for housing, financial products, and related services. While these changes help prohibit discriminatory practices from brands, advertisers should plan for less granular targeting and measurement strategies throughout 2025. Similarly, data privacy concerns will continue to rise.  A Pew Research study states that, roughly “77% of Americans do not trust social media CEOs to publicly admit mistakes and take responsibility.” With platform usage increasing yearly and a projected $88B in paid social media ad spend, it appears that users globally are willing to accept this risk as a trade for convenience.

#9 Content Moderation and Political Shifts

Social media opens opportunities for unwanted comments and communication on a brand’s pages to go viral almost instantaneously. X’s (formerly Twitter) H1 2024 “Global Transparency Report” disclosed that its content moderation relies heavily on community feedback on posts and AI first, then human review for more egregious content violations. In a somewhat surprising move, Meta announced in January of this year (2025) that they were ending their third-party fact-checking program and moving to a content moderation model similar to X, where the community of users can flag what they deem misinformation. With the “community notes” model, it appears that the political pendulum is moving towards a more centrist approach.

#10 LinkedIn Shifts to More Social Engagement

In late 2024, the professional career-based platform LinkedIn announced changes to how users will engage with content to mimic other leading social platforms like Meta, X and TikTok. Features include carousel-slideshow ads, larger video display and short-form video, and a “Premium Company Page.” A new feature and differentiator for LinkedIn is their integration with Hubspot’s Smart CRM, which will likely help boost the platform’s B2B solutions with seamless targeting and lead nurturing. For brands posting organically, boosting posts is now a great option to get your content seen.

Article written by:

Matthew Irish

Senior Director of Digital Performance