How to use social media in marketing: the 8 biggest trends in 2025

2. Collaborations with nano and micro-influencers

Sometimes, to get big results, you need to turn toward small-scale collaborations. That’s what the marketing trend of User-Generated content (UGC) shows. UGC is based on the difference of engagement between micro (10-100K subscribers) and macro-influencers (100-500K subs).

Traditional or general influencer marketing is about 88% efficient for companies that use it. However, the specific trend of UGC made by influencers with small communities is the trend that presents the most satisfying results.

How can we explain the rise of this trend?

First, nano and micro influencers have a greater proximity with their subscribers, which increases their trust towards them. Also, UGC creates more authentic content, which is another factor that contributes to the trust of subscribers. In turn, this answers consumers’ need to get sincere opinions on products. As shown in the screenshot below, consumers who follow these nano and micro influencers are very engaged with their communities and tend to leave positive comments (often compliments) aimed at the influencers. 

This kind of content promotes consumers’ trust towards the brands of the products used by the influencers. Trust is built because these brands interact with the influencer’s especially engaged audience.

In terms of paid ad campaigns, UGC content also offers many advantages:

• Targeted sponsored ads: The content produced by micro-influencers can be amplified via paid campaigns to reach similar audiences;
• A better ROI: Depending on the agreement, it’s possible to reuse the influencers’ UGC authentic content in ads to reinforce the credibility of your brand;
• A qualified audience: UGC partnerships allow you to target niche audiences with a higher level of engagement.

3. AI and Social Media Marketing: an increasingly important role in SMM

In marketing campaign creation, AI is being used more and more. Indeed, 75 % of marketers plan to use AI to edit and rewrite texts in 2025, which is an increase of 103% compared to 2023 (Source: Exploding Topics). Also, 52 % of them use AI to create visuals, an upgrade of 136 % over the previous year.

Why such a massive embrace of AI?

The main reason is the following: AI is a multifaceted and efficient creative tool. Indeed, AI allows you to automate the creation of advertising copy (including headlines and descriptions). It also allows you to create visuals faster.

On top of its creative abilities, AI is also useful as an analysis tool: it can analyze data in real time to identify emerging trends. Taken as a whole, these attributes make AI a useful resource to reduce costs and increase productivity in SMM advertising.

The right content for every audience

Another quality of AI in ad creation is that it can tailor content for different audiences. This Heinz ad made with AI shows off this versatility very well:

AI campaign by Heinz: What does AI think ketchup looks like?

When it comes to paid ads, here are the main ways that AI has impacted SMM:

• Campaign automation: AI allows you to generate customized headlines and visuals matching the intended audience and placement;
• Ad bidding optimization: AI can also be used to adjust your ad bidding in real time and maximize your ad budget;
• An advanced customization: AI allows for the creation of dynamic advertisements that adapt to users’ behaviour to increase the conversion rate.

4. For Gen Z, TikTok dominates

TikTok triumphs; Facebook stagnates. Indeed, 78 % of Zoomers use TikTok, including 66 % who do it every day. However, less than 18 % of people under 25 use Facebook, and the decline should continue beyond 2025.

TikTok: the reasons for its domination

The platform is based on fast-paced entertainment, viral trends and authenticity: three pillars that the members of Gen Z look for in their content. These unique features make TikTok a gold mine of marketing opportunities for brands that know how to adapt their content to it.

For example, Duolingo has known exponential growth thanks to its humorous videos on TikTok, engaging directly with young generations. The following examples show very well the kind of chaotic humor that reigns on the platform:

As you can see, the brands that want to excel on TikTok need to be ready to not take themselves seriously and to risk not being to everyone’s taste with their humor. When this method works, as with Duolingo, it leads to an exceptional level of engagement.

Here is the impact of TikTok on paid ads:

• Increased investments in TikTok Ads: Brands can now go with immersive ads adapted to TikTok’s native format;
• Viral creativity: Companies can make use of popular trends and challenges to generate a higher level of engagement;
• Targeting the Gen Z audience: By taking advantage of the creative and interactive formats of the platform, brands can reach a young audience more easily than ever before.

5. Customer service, social media and AI chatbots

In our world of faster and faster interactions, 72 % of consumers expect immediate responses from brands (Source: Promodo). The use of chatbots, powered more and more by AI, allows a 24/7 service on social media to meet this increased demand head-on. 

AI-powered chatbots are also becoming more and more essential for another important reason: social media and company websites are more than ever the first point of contact with clients. In these conditions, offering support to customers at all times and answering their questions swiftly generates a good first impression, improves their satisfaction and helps build their loyalty.

On top of all that, some brands use chatbots to offer products directly via the chat. Here is the example of the Sephora chatbot, which offers products on Facebook Messenger after having asked a few questions:

Here are the main opportunities brought by chatbots to paid ad campaigns:

• Interactive ads: Integrating CTA buttons oriented towards customer service (direct chat, FAQ, etc.) allows for an easier engagement;
• Personalized Retargeting: Some ads can now target users who have asked questions or interacted with customer service to convert them more easily;
• Improved reactivity: Some chatbots can also be used directly in Messenger ads to offer instant responses.

6. Social media as a search engine

This new reality is a big change: social media has now become a search tool in its own right. For example, users search for products or services directly on TikTok and Instagram.

What does this mean for brands?

It brings with it two important objectives to accomplish for brands:

1. Optimizing keywords, descriptions and hashtags to appear in these platforms’ search results;
2. Creating trending content is now more important than ever.

This new reality also brings with it new opportunities. For example, brands now use comment sections to engage with consumers and answer them directly. That strategy leads to much more direct customer interactions, which makes it an ideal tool to reinforce loyalty and humanize the brand. TikTok is also used to search for tutorials or product recommendations, which represents an important opportunity for UGC marketing.

Here’s an example from one of our clients: a video of the COMMODORE restaurant appears in a search for the best restaurant in Montreal on TikTok:

More generally, here are the ways that searches directly from social media impact paid ad campaigns:

• Native targeted ads: It’s now possible to create ads that are optimized to answer users’ requests directly in the search results;
• An increased visibility: Brands can now dominate search results by combining organic content with paid ads.

7. LinkedIn and live events: a goldmine of opportunities

Here’s a new trend that’s niche, but very pronounced: there was an increase of 14,4 % in live events streamed on LinkedIn between 2023 and the end of 2024 (Source: Social Media Today). 

Live events on LinkedIn: what are the benefits?

Live events are strategic marketing tools for many reasons: first, LinkedIn already positions itself as an educational and informative platform. These attributes are reflected on the image of brands that take part in expert events on the platform.

Also, live events attract professionals looking for updates about their field. Attracting such an audience of experts develops your brand’s credibility even as it generates new high-level recruitment opportunities for you.

Live events are also very interesting for B2B businesses who want to circulate their knowledge in webinars or livestreams to engage their audience. B2B businesses can then use livestreams to give their potential clients a glimpse of the kinds of services they offer.

Live LinkedIn events also have a strong impact on paid ad campagains:

• Improved event promotion: Using Sponsored Posts and LinkedIn Event Ads can maximize subscription and participation rates for events;
• Precise B2B targeting: Using paid ads allows brands to reach professionals with specific offers before, during and after live events to maximize their chances of conversion;
• Enhanced content: recirculating key excerpts from live events in a sponsored format allows brands to attract new audiences.

8. Threads: an important addition to Meta ads is on its way

Let’s end this article on new SMM opportunities by looking to the future! With more than 275 million active users in November 2024, Threads could represent a very important new advertising opportunity for businesses. Although there are no ads running on the platform for now, Mark Zuckerberg wants to integrate them in 2025, and the first tests started at the end of January.

Threads: what are its potential advertising advantages?

One of the particularities of advertising on Threads is that it’ll be native and very well integrated to the core experience. Indeed, the first ads are meant to be discreet and contextual, integrating naturally with the Threads feed to preserve the user experience.

Threads offers a space that’s favorable for community engagement, where brands can connect with audiences in a more authentic and conversational way. This format is inspired by Reddit, a platform known for its authenticity and its community spirit. Through these strengths, Threads could become a powerful tool for campaigns centered on engagement and direct responses.

The planned evolution of Threads doesn’t stop there, as evolving ad formats are also on the horizon. After sponsored ads, more dynamic options should appear, such as interactive ads or videos.

Here are the estimated impacts of Threads on paid digital ad campaigns:

• All-new ad placements: Native ads and sponsored ads will be integrated directly in the Threads feed;
• An important new opportunity: Brands will be able to capitalize on an already engaged and rapidly growing audience by being among the first to invest on the platform.

Conclusion: the importance of experimenting with new SMM technologies

Of course, the large amount of new social media technologies and platforms can seem intimidating. However, it’s important to see these new opportunities as exciting experiments instead of as chores piling onto your to-do list. Whether it’s TikTok, AI or the many promises of Threads, SMM growth opportunities are especially important this year. It’s time to step up and find out how you can make these new tools work for you!