Where Is Social Media Headed in 2025?

December 23, 2024

If you have time to read only one forecast of where social media is headed in 2025, check out Hootsuite’s “Social Media Trends 2025” report.

Our agency has used Hootsuite software as a social media management platform to publish and monitor social networks on behalf of clients. Victoria and I are Hootsuite-certified social media marketing professionals.

The report offers a number of observations and recommendations, but two jumped out at me:

• In a world where content is king, sometimes branding can and should take a backseat to irresistible content, especially if it’s user (customer or member) created. In simple terms, this means sometimes subordinating or setting aside organizational brand standards, including colors and graphics, if the organic content doesn’t conform.
• The real value of social media is not its “push” capabilities, but its power to produce interaction; in other words, community building with stakeholders.

I’ve long held that view — that marketing per se just scratches the surface of what social media can deliver. The highest and best use of the medium is to forge deeper bonds with customers (or members), identify new customers, and join discussions and debates within the circles an organization operates. Of course it takes resources to listen in on and participate in conversations on social networks, but the payoff can be worth it.

-Cary Brazeman @CRELIX