7 Game-Changing Social Media Trends For Business Growth In 2025
By Sohel Ansari • January 14, 2025 • 16 mins read
From standing out in saturated markets to reaching the right audience at the right time, businesses today face numerous challenges. They struggle to cut through the noise and connect with their audience. This is where the power of social media comes to their rescue.
But, social media trends are constantly evolving and businesses that fail to adapt, risk falling behind.
With 90% of businesses using social media for brand awareness, 77% for reputation management— ignoring trends in social media will leave them behind their competitors.
Trends in social media shape how businesses connect with customers and influence consumer behaviors because traditional marketing methods are no longer enough. These trends, ranging from short-form video dominance to interactive content, not only create new opportunities for engagement but also boost visibility, customer loyalty, and sales.
In 2025, adapting to these trends will be more crucial than ever. Let’s dive into the key trends of social media that are set to transform businesses and can help accelerate growth in the coming year.
7 Key Social Media Trends For 2025 That Influence Marketing Decisions
As a brand, creator, or marketer always keep an eye on social media trends in marketing to get ahead of the curve. Check out these popular social media trends that a business must use:
1. Short-form Video for Long-term Success
In 2025, short-form video will continue to dominate with platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn by capturing the audience’s attention and increasing engagement. Due to the reduced attention span and well-crafted scrolling habits, the audience wants content that’s engaging, quick, and easily shareable.
Adults in the US spend an average of 69 minutes. per day on TikTok and Instagram users spend 34 minutes. per day on the platform. Short-form video content is growing rapidly and it isn’t just for B2C.
To inform and connect with your audience in seconds, you can create videos that go beyond entertainment no matter your industry type.
Using short-form videos can help you grow your business on social media. But don’t blindly participate in trends just to be trendy. You can follow these tips instead:
- Create videos with a focus on value (educate, entertain, or inspire)
- To get the viewer into the customer funnel, a clear CTA is a must.
- Plan strategically about the target audience, what is the goal of the video, and which platform it should target.
Here are some platform-specific tips to cater to social media trends with short-form videos.
- TikTok- To build an emotional connection with the audience, prioritize the storytelling. Use trendy sound clips in the video but keep your brand goal in mind.
- Instagram Reel- For engagement and what your video motivates people to do: educate, entertain, or escape.
- YouTube Shorts- To promote longer videos on YouTube, repurpose them into Shorts and share them with your target audience.
- LinkedIn Videos- Make crisp and concise educational content related to your brand.
Short-form videos have endless possibilities making them the leading trends on social media.
2. The Rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Social Landscape
Delivering a range of abilities from automating routine tasks to generating creative ideas, AI is here to stay. To streamline content creation and refine every process part, social media platforms and marketers are embracing AI these days by analyzing audience demographics and engagement patterns.
For businesses, AI tools are becoming more essential as they refine their approach, generate content, analyze audiences, and manage posts more easily. Let’s take a look at it:
- AI-driven content generation- There is a high demand for engaging, personalized, and quality content with the rise of social media platforms. This is where AI-driven content steps in, allowing marketers and business owners to generate content quickly saving time and resources.
To compete with the current social media trends, there are several AI-powered tools available in the market for content generation to help marketers. ChatGPT, Gemini, Synthesia, etc. are some of these tools. - AI-powered personalization- Use AI to analyze preferences and personalization, enabling it to tailor content recommendations and boost user experience. However, AI-powered customer support chatbots can respond to inquiries around the clock, increasing customer satisfaction.
Meta, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and Canva have their own AI tools, they train them for a better user experience and customer satisfaction
Everyone is suddenly using AI, flooding feeds with content that can feel robotic. The question for social marketers isn’t just how to use AI—it’s how to use it differently. To stand out in a sea of AI-generated content, brands must focus on adding a human touch.
Use AI as a tool, to inject personality, creativity, and authenticity into your content to keep it feeling fresh and uniquely “you.” By combining AI’s efficiency with your brand’s distinct voice, you can create content that feels innovative, not automated.
3. Social Commerce: Shopping Directly on Social Platforms
When it comes to social media trends in business, social commerce is the latest addition to the marketing ecosystem. The integration of social media and e-commerce— social commerce in recent years has experienced significant growth and transformation. In this social media marketing trend, brands, and social media channels work hard to find the correct way to club social media networks into sales platforms.
Let’s understand this through statistics-
- According to Forbes, around 24% of consumers use social media to find new brands. However, 46% of GenZ users don’t use search engines, instead they use TikTok and Instagram as their primary search engines.
- Around 46% of consumers report purchasing products directly through social media which is 21% higher than in 2019.
What do all these above social media trends for business indicate here?
As a brand or marketer, you must provide easy ways for customers to buy from social media platforms. As purchasing online becomes increasingly common consumers use social media networks either to buy or provide reviews.
You need to minimize any potential buying frustration and provide them with easy shopping experiences available through social media apps like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, etc. This strategy will provide a better user experience along with a higher ROI.
– Read- Social Media Marketing Strategies to Grow ANY Business
4. The Power of Community Building
The success of businesses on social media won’t only depend on attracting followers in 2025 but it’s also about engaging your current audience deeply. However, strong community building on social media around your brand is a necessity for the latest social media trends.
As users spend more time in private DMs, stories, and comments instead of scrolling the feed, community-building will be essential. By being authentic and engaging with your followers, build your social media community in 2025.
To engage the community, develop interactive content like Q&A sessions, AMA (Ask Me Anything), polls, quizzes, or virtual meetup sessions (Live streams). People don’t want to be just a number for your business growth, they want to feel valued, heard, and connected to the brand.
Let’s take a thought here! Why having private social media communities are crucial in 2025?
Its because—
- Decline of user engagement due to social fatigue and oversaturation.
- These communities provide trust and belonging to the users in a dedicated space.
- Private communities provide higher engagement rates.
To get success with the communities on social media, as a brand or marketer use the following tips:
- Develop exclusive groups on different social media platforms and offer value through offers and premier content.
- Encourage user participation by inviting members to share their thoughts, insights, and experiences.
- By building a smaller but loyal member base, focus on quality over quantity to facilitate deeper connections.
Success on social media in 2025 is about building an abode for your audience rather than chasing numbers.
5. Influencer Marketing Evolution
Regarding social media marketing trends for brands, influencer marketing continues to be a valuable tool to increase brand awareness and reach new heights. However, the focus of brands is shifting towards small influencers, those with a following of between 1,000 and 10,000 followers.
In 2025, the focus on working with micro and nano-influencers will become even more prevalent. Both micro and nano influencers offer a level of trust and engagement that big influencers often can’t produce. Compared to big influencers, these smaller creators often provide better ROI as they tend to have more dedicated and engaged followers.
Another type of influencer marketing called B2B influencer marketing is on the rise to become one of the pivotal social media trends in 2025.
- To promote their products and services, brands are starting to turn to thought leaders, especially on LinkedIn. In 2025, B2B influencer marketing will only increase as more brands start to realize the power of thought leadership and how it can influence purchasing decisions.
In 2024, the influencer marketing market reached a record of 24 billion U.S. dollars and is expected to grow more in 2025.
So, to make your brand stand in the global market as a leader, influencer marketing is a way to go.
– Read- How Influencer Marketing Has Changed Consumer’s Decision-Making
6. UGC Creators are the Trendsetters
Acting as the ultimate proof of authenticity, user-generated content (UGC) is the trendsetter in social media trends for business growth. Businesses can build trust, develop community, and increase engagement by blending UGC with authentic and brand-created content.
Hold on! But what is user-generated content (UGC)? UGC is any content that can be created by users instead of a brand itself. Any images, videos, text, reviews, etc. can be termed as a UGC.
UGC creators don’t need large followings or personal brands, unlike traditional influencers. To create content, they’re regular social media users who are paid by brands that look and feel organic. These partnerships often include tutorials, unboxings, or lifestyle videos featuring a product like beauty routine videos or cooking.
As a brand, here are some reasons to give UGC a marketing shot-
- UGC provides a cost-effective and authentic alternative to traditional influencer marketing.
- As creators handle content production, it saves your team’s time.
- With content that feels genuine and user-driven, audiences tend to engage rather than heavily branded content.
Around 86% of consumers mentioned that they trust a brand that publishes user-generated content as opposed to influencers.
So, how can a brand incorporate UGC in its social media marketing strategy? Well,
- Motivate customers to share their experiences using branded hashtags or challenges.
- Feature UGC across channels like website, social media, ads, etc.
- Partner with micro-influencers so they can encourage their audience to create UGC for your brand.
7. Concepts Of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
The integration into social media platforms represents a significant shift in our online interactions otherwise AR and VR are not entirely new concepts. Thanks to AR and VR technologies which provide immersive and engaging solutions to businesses and individuals to reach new heights.
In the real world, AR overlays the digital world, enhancing our visual, auditory, and sensory experiences. However, VR creates fully immersive environments for users to explore. In recent years with social media trends and challenges, both technologies have experienced rapid advancements and increased adoption.
According to Statista, revenue in the AR & VR market worldwide is projected to reach $46.6 billion in 2025. This exponential increase showcases the tremendous possibilities these technologies possess.
AR & VR technologies have transformed the global landscape by upgrading the technology. Let’s take a look at these points to understand:
- To allow customers to try on clothes, makeup, and accessories virtually, brands like Amazon and Shopify are already integrating AR features.
- On social media, platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat have included AR features that allow users to incorporate digital elements in their photos and videos.
- Brands took VR technology to the next level. For example, the Horizon Workrooms by Facebook is a VR space where users can meet, collaborate, and socialize using VR headsets.
As a brand, you need to understand the use case of AR and VR in your business and then invest in the technologies.
How Social Media Trends Can Boost Your Business?
Everyone uses social media for business in some form or other, whether it’s a trendsetter on Instagram, an expert on LinkedIn, or a newshound on X. Here are four important points that will make businesses understand how social media trends and strategies drive success.
1. Enhancing Brand Visibility and Reach
Social media platforms provide you exposure to billions of potential customers globally. To a broader audience, you can display the products, services, and culture of your business helping to increase brand awareness around your brand.
Focus on strategies that boost engagement and expand your reach to maximize the impact of your social media efforts.
Here are some tips you can use:
- Cater to new social media trends by creating engaging content to reach a wider audience interested in what you do and what you offer.
- To get your content in front of a large audience pool, leverage branded hashtags.
- To increase your visibility, engage with other’s content by liking, commenting, and sharing.
– Read- Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Business
2. Building Consumer Trust Through Social Proof
To build trust and loyalty, create a two-way communication channel and support your brand identity without having to go out and find new audiences. Customer loyalty and social proof go hand-in-hand as it can be a powerful tool to market your business.
Businesses can build trust and credibility with potential customers by using social proof which can lead to increased sales and conversion rates. It’s this transparency that creates emotional connections with your audience and helps humanize your brand.
To boost sales and conversion rates, here are a few ways that social proof can be used:
- By sharing behind-the-scenes content and providing customers a peek into your company culture by using social media channels.
- On social media channels, by showing customer reviews and testimonials, you can display to potential customers that others have had a positive experience with your business.
- Businesses can demonstrate that they are of high quality by displaying badges and certifications from third-party organizations.
3. Choosing the Right Platform
To seek prospective customers, there are majorly five social media platforms that businesses use in high numbers to cater social media trends.
(a) Facebook
Globally, Facebook is the most-used social channel, however, its demographic may have shifted away from Millennials and GenZ, but it’s still immense. For most businesses, Facebook’s broad reach makes it a natural choice.
Let’s walk you through what Facebook is best for.
- Small or local businesses wanting to connect with nearby customers.
- Brands with diverse customer demographics seeking to expand.
- Businesses focus on community building.
(b) Instagram
Compared to Facebook, Instagram successfully covers multiple demographics and is the hub for new social media trends. On this platform, businesses can upload long and short-form videos, photos, and everything and publish them at the same time on the other.
It is a visual-first platform, which makes it great for businesses with strong visual and video content. The shopping feature on Instagram makes it a better choice for eCommerce than Facebook and X.
What is Instagram known for?
- It is best for food, fashion, beauty, and travel brands.
- Brands targeting Millennials and GenZ easily.
- Brands that flourish with photogenic products or services.
(c) LinkedIn
For B2B marketing, professional networking, and client lead generation, LinkedIn is the top platform. When you get to know how one social media post on LinkedIn can catapult your brand, you’ll be surprised.
LinkedIn flourishes on knowledge, so, businesses only need to explain how they work, the challenges they’ve faced, and their success stories to make an impact.
Who can utilize LinkedIn best?
- B2B businesses, HR professionals, and recruiters.
- Companies that offer professional services.
- Industry experts and thought leaders.
(d) X (Formerly Twitter)
X, formerly Twitter, is best for providing real-time updates and public conversations. The short-form content on X suits brands that can create timely and engaging posts regularly.
This means businesses use X to build a strong online presence more than rely on it for sales. Businesses like news corporations, cultural influencers, and magazine brands are more likely to succeed when doing business on X instead of brands that deal with consumables.
Who can use X best?
- Companies that want to join public conversations
- Tech and startup companies
- Businesses offering customer support
(e) TikTok
In recent years, TikTok has grown rapidly, especially among young users and brands have also steadily caught up with TikTok social media trends.
TikTok became the home of influencer advocacy and product placement, where celebrities are created from the success of their quality content. The format of TikTok encourages authentic, fun content and is great for brands willing to be creative and tech-savvy.
Who can utilize TikTok efficiently?
- Brands targeting young and GenZ audience
- with creative video ideas
- Companies in entertainment and education
(f) YouTube
YouTube is the second largest search engine and is famous for its long-form style videos. Brands can also target their audience using its latest short-form feature called YouTube Shorts.
Businesses can make their product or service videos to increase brand awareness or collaborate with influencers to make videos for their brands.
What is YouTube best known for?
- Musicians, news channels, and sports
- Tech-savvy brands and startups
- Brands that want to cater to a large audience pool
4. Posting Regularly To Engage Audience
To determine how frequently to post on social media, each business has to define its specific goals and audience. To match with the social media trends on different platforms for a brand, posting regularly to engage an audience is a must.
Some ideal target ranges to post on social media according to Hootsuite research are:
- Facebook- One to two posts per day which includes posts, videos, lives, etc.
- Instagram- Three to five posts weekly including stories, posts, reels, carousels, etc.
- LinkedIn- One to two posts daily.
- X (formerly Twitter)- Two to three posts daily but don’t forget to include hashtags.
- TikTok- Post three to five times weekly.
- YouTube- Post once a week.
Social Media Trends- A Key To Success For Businesses
In conclusion, adapting to the aforementioned 7 social media trends in 2025 can redefine how brands connect with their audiences. Social media is continuously evolving and staying flexible ensures your strategy remains new and compelling to increase engagement, visibility, and trust.
Using the right social media platforms and posting frequently is the best way to help your business grow significantly and generate leads.
So don’t wait any longer, get in touch with the experts at Mastroke—and see how they can help with these insights to promote actual growth.
About The Author
