10 Social Media Marketing Trends to Watch: How To Stay Ahead of the Curve in 2025

The year’s top social media marketing strategies harness trends, content types, and engagement best practices to put your brand front and center. Building a following and increasing your presence on social channels isn’t as straightforward as it used to be, but it also isn’t as limited. Today’s brands have countless ways to connect with consumers to earn their trust and their business. Every company should be capitalizing on social media to win business by delivering click-worthy content, creating effortless shopping opportunities, and prioritizing users’ needs for engagement. 

If you need inspo for your 2025 social campaigns, these 10 trending marketing strategies can help you crush this year’s goals.

1 | Make Authentic Content King

People’s desire for genuine stories and impactful content isn’t going anywhere in 2025, so user-generated content remains essential to social success. Companies must prioritize content for their social media marketing strategies on every channel—paid and organic, on TikTok or YouTube, and blog posts. Strategies that rely on reused content without regard for channel-specific needs are outdated; if brands haven’t come to this conclusion yet, their lagging engagement numbers ought to help. Leveraging user-generated content from customers who love, share, and highlight products can help your brand deliver, without overtasking your team or sacrificing clicks and conversions.

2 | Consider AI Integrations

Expect brands to adopt artificial intelligence into their social media marketing strategies for 2025. AI helps companies accomplish more with smaller budgets and fewer resources, but there are pitfalls to making this your go-to tactic. Use AI to interpret data, segment audiences, and automate manual tasks, but consider stopping there. AI hasn’t mastered it all, and until these bots can add an authentic ‘human touch’ to your content, you should outsource videos and visuals to content creators and social media marketing agencies.

3 | Invest in Social Media Advertising

The LocaliQ small business marketing report anticipates that about half of businesses that are already investing in social media ads and search advertising will increase their spending this year. With bigger budgets and tighter competition, it’ll be more important for brands to generate visually impactful, engaging ads that convert. If you can’t up your ad spend, invest in help from social media marketing agencies that can optimize campaigns with fine-tuned calls to action to make every dollar do more.

4 | Capitalize On Momentous Marketing Opportunities

Culture-specific moments will reign supreme in 2025, and brands should be prepared to capitalize on these strong—yet fleeting—opportunities. Most people still recall the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge fondly, and we don’t need to remind you of the ‘demure’ storm that swept social channels. Trends like this that align with a brand’s voice can catapult companies into users’ consciousness—if they have the resources to capitalize. Marketers must be on top of social media discussions, memes, and pop culture moments to stay relevant and increase their reach.

5 | Optimize for Social Search

New Year … New search engines? It’s time to admit that people are using social platforms in place of Google and Bing (was anyone still using Bing anyway?) to find answers, products, and solutions. Put social media insights and analytics to work to help you capture entertainment-driven searchers turning to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for questions they used to entrust solely to Google.

Here’s where to start optimizing your social channels for 2025:

• Align your profile handle and account name with your brand and utilize link-in-bio tools to route users to your site.
• Integrate relevant, researched keywords into your profile, posts, and product descriptions to support searchers’ queries and improve your brand’s visibility.
• Add relevant, descriptive alt text and captions to improve accessibility and increase social posts’ performance.
• Use hashtags smartly to amplify the reach of your posts and increase low social engagement (but be careful not to overdo it; #hashtagfatigue is real).

6 | Personalize Social Media Experiences

According to Salesforce’s State of the Connected Consumer Report, 73% of consumers expect companies to address their individual needs and interests. How do brands tailor social media marketing strategies for this? Listening to what consumers watch, like, and share—aka analyzing insights and data—and responding. Cross-channel ad strategies can place an abandoned cart alert on your Instagram feed, and engagement metrics can influence content marketing decisions, providing the customer-driven experience users crave.

7 | Support In-App Shoppers

We can thank TikTok for changing the way people shop. More consumers are hitting social platforms to buy the latest must-have product, and social media marketing agencies are seeing this trend grow exponentially. According to Statista, U.S. social users making purchases via these platforms is expected to swell to 118 million in just two years. Incorporating shoppable posts in your social media marketing strategies will be key for 2025, supporting consumers on their preferred channels. Watch for more companies dabbling in livestream shopping, unscripted product demos, and other immersive experiences for consumers.

8 | Play With Campaigns and Concepts

Brands experimenting with new products, pop-up shops, and events can yield impressive results by providing something extra and unexpected. If these initiatives are part of your 2025 plan, your social media marketing strategy must be equally innovative. This is no time for creative burnout: Brands must collaborate with influencer marketers or a social media marketing agency to conceptualize stunning, on-point, and effective campaigns that support ambitious ideas and out-of-the-box launches.

9 | Prioritize Customer Service on Social

Engaging with customers has always been a pillar of social media marketing, but consumers expect more in 2025. Consumers aren’t going to dig around for a customer care email or phone number to report an order issue when Instagram and Facebook are at their fingertips. When a complaint lands on your social feed or in your DMs, users expect a response quickly. An effective social media management plan can help you stay on top of shopper questions, issues, and even their kudos—and you can lean on platform tools, like AI-powered chatbots, to assist.

10 | Consider Micro Influencers for Niche Markets

Influencers offer jaw-dropping campaign results, and micro-influencers let brands of any size or budget seize these opportunities. As more companies try collaborations and partnerships, expect to see smaller-scale influencers permeate social media marketing strategies. Companies shifted the importance of audience metrics to engagement-related key performance indicators—including impressions, likes, shares, and comments—and they’ve seen loyalty, interest, and conversions increase from prioritizing customer connections.

Make this year one for the record books. Harness trending technology, collaborators, and successful content marketing strategies to make meaningful customer connections that translate into conversions. If you’re ready to push your marketing to the next level, let’s talk.