It seems like social media platforms are evolving almost every day, with new ones arising and shifting consumer behavior in the process. While marketers seek to find balance in this unpredictable landscape, the process can be overwhelming and confusing. Thankfully, we don’t have to rely on guesswork.
Earlier this year, Hootsuite released its Social Media Trends 2025 survey, which takes a look at the hard data to help marketers decide where to take their future campaigns this year.
We’ll be diving into a few key points from this report that can help take your marketing campaign to the next level.
Breaking the Mold
Creative Disruption
Marketers are tired of the “tried and true methods of strict brand guidelines. Instead, some have opted for a more creative approach. No more of the same rigid tones and visual style—some brands are choosing to be more playful!
This trend is proving to be successful, as social media teams that embraced this strategy reported a “very positive impact” on their business compared to campaigns that avoided more creative approaches.
We’re already seeing just how successful these mold-breaking campaigns can be. Just take a look at Duolingo’s latest major move! Throughout the month of February, Duolingo’s creative social media team took to their platform to fake their owl mascot’s death, and it went on to be a trending topic for weeks. Duolingo is a prime example of how attention-grabbing brands can be if they allow their creative team to think outside the box and post something totally unexpected.
Outbound Engagement
Brands are no longer hands-off. Instead, they’re jumping right into conversations with their followers with 41% trying it out on their own platforms. It’s proven to be a helpful strategy as these brands have seen 1.6x more engagement than brands that don’t. However, Hootsuite’s report found that this requires a balance.
“Engagements decrease dramatically if you comment on an original post that’s more than 24 hours old. As for comment length, keep it short — but not too short. Comments between 10 and 99 characters drive the most engagement; anything more or anything less, including emoji-only comments, are a total bust.”
—Hootsuite Social Media Trends 2025 Survey
The Social Performance Trend
There is a plethora of metrics when it comes to tracking social media success, but some brands have found one strategy is the most helpful of all. Many of the marketers who were reporting success in this survey cited using social listening to prove their return on investment (ROI). Hootsuite found that 62% of social media marketers were using social listening tools, and across all social platforms, brands that utilized social listening were more confident about their ROI overall.
Social listening may have been just an option or a nice-to-have in the past, but the success social marketers are seeing with this strategy is shifting its place in the world of social campaigns.
AI As a Strategy
It’s no secret that marketers have been using AI to assist the content creation process, but that’s not all it’s good for. In fact, AI has made its way up to the C-suite! Hootsuite found that more than 75% of executives responsible for creating strategies are using AI to support social media tasks more than the social marketers responsible for executing those strategies.
With so many marketing leaders relying on it for success and as a tool to quickly adapt their campaigns as trends change, AI has become, as Hootsuite describes, a “thought partner.” For brands that want to stay competitive this year, it is essential to leverage AI-driven insights as a way to tailor and refine their campaigns faster than ever before.
Hootsuite’s Social Media Trends 2025 survey highlights key strategies that will define the future of social marketing, from breaking brand consistency to leveraging social listening and integrating AI strategies. The marketers who take these insights to heart are sure to see a positive impact on their upcoming campaigns this year.
Access the report here.
