2025 on social 👀

I may not have a crystal ball but I do have a wishlist of things I don't want to see after 2024

There are millions of 2025 trends decks milling about, and I doubt anything will be too surprising (AI, trust, inclusion and social commerce if you were curious). If you don’t have any of those on your agenda for 2025, you might want to have a peruse of these decks, or better yet, drop me an email.

Instead of rehashing what we all were expecting, I’ve put together a little list of things I wish we’d all stop doing.

1. Only being present on 1 platform when your audience is on 5

On average, UK Gen Z social users use around 4.8 different social platforms a week, which is actually less than the 6.4 of UK millennials. So tell me why you’re only looking at Meta.

Instagram(‘s algorithm) is slowly killing its’ users, Twitter/X/ElonMusk’s failure is losing users like a sinking ship, TikTok is getting morally greyer by the day and Facebook is becoming a crowded retirement home (at least in perception if not in reach).

Whilst I am all for not spreading your teams too thin across your marketing efforts, there’s no reason you can’t allocate a 10% or maybe even 20% test fund to try out a new platform that could work even better for you.

Reddit is my ‘platform to watch’ for 2025, sitting currently as the 5th largest social platform with a 47% YoY increase, and shows no signs of slowing down. It’s also the perfect place to understand how audiences see your brand, where you can align to the right verticals and how to do it in a meaningful way.

2. Having a Search team that doesn’t speak to a Social team

Social media has overtaken search engines for discovery with Gen Z. It’s where a huge amount of users now start their search journey. Ask yourself if your search team and your social team are working together closely enough, because they should be collaborating and sharing information regularly.

Whilst they both operate in very different functions, they just work hand in hand & cross platforms. Every 1 second there are 100 people that add “Reddit” to their google search. People are looking for real answers to a question, from a human who will either get to the point faster than Google will, or doesn’t want to sell you a product with it.

Which is exactly why some audiences skip Google altogether and start their search directly on platform, meaning your Social SEO strategy is what could make or break you next year. for Gen Z, Google is now third, behind TikTok & Instagram as preferred search enginges.

3. Not having anyone on your team understanding the culture you’ve sponsored

Subcultures are now niche (or a niche within a niche within a niche) but also mass, community-driven and self-initiated, deep and surface level, old and new. You can now be part of multiple subcultures, you can dip in and out, and they’re more accessible. Arguably, subcultures have always existed throughout time, and they haven’t gone anywhere. They just exist differently now (oN tHe InTeRnEt) and as a result, are more fleeting.

Now you may feel like slapping your logo on your favourite NFL team is a good use of your money, but unless you back it with a reason to be there then I fear you will blend into the saturated abyss of nothingness. It’s so important to understand the culture you join and understand what the role of your brand or product can play in it. If there’s no depth or underlying integration into the culture it becomes nothing more than awareness job that won’t perform as well as you were hoping. What are the insights of the subcultures within the subcultures that will help your audience to shift their perception of you (TIP: spend some time on reddit).

4. Going after celebrity talent when you’re budget doesn’t stretch.

No one gives a f*ck about the Kardashians anymore, so why do you? Just a few years ago, influence was measured by followers, where the better the aesthetic of your feed, the more you got. First gen influencers were selling us an inspirational dream but at some point, we stopped believing in it. The disconnect between their every day and our reality became wider, and we started scrolling past it.

Micro communities is a huge trend for 2025, and with that, comes micro influencers (1k - 100k in following), who are cheaper and more effective. Micro influencers are 10x more likely to encourage purchase over big names celebrities. They might not get as much reach, but they may be twice as relevant to work with for your audience and a quarter of the price. Audiences are putting are more and more importance, and just aren’t believing what mass influencers are selling.

5. Jumping on trends where you dont belong.

Call me crazy, but Pepe the King Prawn probably isn’t right for your brand (*except for you Nuuly). Are your social media managers armed with (if they haven’t made it themselves) a strategic framework to understand what trends or annoucements are relevant for you? There is a fine line between cultural relevance and cringe; if it doesn’t fit, you can do more damage to your brand then not doing anything. The key is building a cohesive brand world, with values and lore that align with the zeitgeist.

And if something is relelvant, is there a simple approval process that will get something out the door quickly before you’re late to the party? Trends aren’t everything, and with a shelf life of 90 days on TikTok, they’re a great way to bolster an evergreen content strategy.

Heinz is a great example of A* for effort with the Vodka pasta sauce, but unfortunately took 2 years to release it, well after the viral moment had passed. Whilst I appreciate the amount of nuance in logistics and operations of getting a new product from idea to shelf isn’t feasible within the timeline of a trend, but consider how to approach that within your marketing.

I will say Heinz more than made up for it with this year’s Seemingly Ranch. 10/10 no notes.

If any of this has caused an internal rage just remember you could have clicked off it at any point, you chose to stay here.

xoxo