Social media marketing was once an exciting new tool for brands to explore. Businesses set up social media account profiles, gathered followers and began posting regularly. However, today’s social media marketing has grown more sophisticated and nuanced, with new tools, platforms and interaction trends.
Brands are aggressively vying for consumers’ attention on social media, and users’ behavior and preferences have evolved. We’ll look at how social media marketing has changed and how you can leverage this powerful tool for brand awareness, customer service, increased sales and much more.
How has social media marketing changed?
In the early days of social media marketing, brands were content to cross-post generic content across all social channels and sit back and wait for results. Many resorted to blatant advertising in their social posts.
Things have changed dramatically. Today, to be successful at social media marketing, you must adopt a more strategic approach. A results-driven marketing plan for social platforms should include the following components:
- Platform-specific social media marketing: Brands must run campaigns tailored to their target audience’s preferred platforms.
- Creative social media marketing content: Brands must produce highly creative content that’s unique to each social platform, even if it requires them to set up multiple social media accounts.
- User-generated social content: Brands must find unique ways to encourage their followers to produce user-generated content (UGC).
Consider the following social media marketing trends and best practices that can drive results for your business:
1. Video content boosts social media marketing engagement.
Social media users like video content. According to Sprout Social’s 2024 Content Benchmarks Report, 42 percent of consumers said they’d like to see more short-form videos (shorter than 15 seconds) from brands on social media, while another 39 percent want to see short-form videos that last up to 30 seconds.
Additionally, according to Wyzowl, 91 percent of businesses use video marketing to drive sales, while 88 percent view it as a crucial part of their overall marketing strategy.
Clearly, brands must prioritize video content for social media marketing. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok present ample opportunities for creating and posting videos. For example, Facebook Live Q&As are ideal for product demonstrations, TikTok business videos can help you connect with a younger audience, and a YouTube channel is a great way to engage and educate your audience.
Jason Mudd, CEO of Axia Public Relations, noted that certain platforms are ideal for showcasing marketing videos. “Short-form video content dominates, with platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels leading the charge,” Mudd said. “Authentic, relatable content now outperforms overly polished, corporate-style posts.”
2. Social media marketing should include in-app sales.
Social commerce is a booming trend that’s expected to become even more prevalent. Many platforms include in-app purchase options. Advertisers can sell their products directly through Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and Pinterest.
According to Datareportal’s Digital 2024: Global Overview Report, nearly 53 percent of internet users said the primary reason they use social media is to find products to purchase or inspiration for purchases. Social selling makes it incredibly easy to cement sales as users scroll through your feed.
Social selling shows no signs of slowing down. According to
Statista, global social commerce revenues are expected to top $1 trillion by 2028.
3. Influencer social media marketing must be on-brand and authentic.
In the early days of influencer marketing — before it was even called “influencer marketing” — you could drive ridiculously high volume by having an account with a large following promote your product or service in a post. A well-known person promoting a brand was a novelty back then, so the method worked well to generate sales leads and purchases.
Several direct-to-consumer brands launched and scaled dramatically using only influencer marketing. Fashion Nova is a great example. This brand went from obscurity to a nearly $2 billion company by outspending other brands on influencer marketing.
However, times have changed, and follower count alone is now irrelevant. Today, brands succeed by identifying “microinfluencers” with highly engaged followings that are ideally matched to their target audience. To succeed, influencer promotions must be organic and authentic.
Using influencers to grow your business requires long-term partnerships with creators who value your brand. It’s best if the influencer’s audience is introduced to your brand organically as the relationship evolves.
4. UGC is vital to social media marketing.
Consumers are exposed to numerous advertisements daily. Social media feeds are often riddled with ads, and many users have become so accustomed to them that they scroll past with barely a glance. Users can identify a hard sell immediately, so if your social media advertising campaigns are too “salesy,” your results will be dismal.
User-generated content is a valuable social media marketing tool that can boost brand awareness while demonstrating social proof. A marketing message that features someone who uses your product or service is often more effective than a creative ad with professional photography and high-budget video.
Gabriel Tay, director of customer solutions for Emplifi, emphasized UGC’s effectiveness in growing sales. “According to Emplifi’s research, UGC helped drive 63 percent year-over-year revenue growth, underscoring just how compelling authentic content from real customers can be,” Tay explained. “For small businesses, this is especially beneficial, as UGC costs nothing to produce but can drive measurable outcomes across social platforms.”
It’s wise to incentivize your customers to create UGC for your brand. Consider launching a campaign using a brand-specific hashtag that rewards customers with free products, discounts or other special offers. Highlight standout participants on your social media accounts to gain momentum and encourage others to create UGC.
Positive customer reviews are a well-known form of UGC. Other types of valuable user-generated content include social media posts, blog posts and podcast discussions.
5. Social media is the perfect place to play with creative content.
Traditional marketing wisdom holds that companies must keep brand marketing consistent across all channels. Although a consistent voice conveys authenticity and helps with brand trust, consistent doesn’t have to mean dull.
Today’s brands use social media as an experimental sandbox where they can test creative ideas, even if they deviate slightly from brand guidelines. In the competitive world of social media, where users are constantly seeking engaging and entertaining content, bold or unconventional posts can help brands stand out.
Because social media feeds move quickly, they provide a relatively low-risk environment for brands to try something new, playful or even outrageous. These experiments can capture attention, drive engagement, and make a brand feel more relatable and dynamic.
According to the
Hootsuite Social Media Trends 2025 survey, more than 60 percent of social content is meant to entertain, educate or inform without directly selling the company's products or services.
6. Social media marketing includes customer service.
Your social media accounts aren’t just promotional sales platforms. Today, they’re also customer service channels.
When consumers have issues, they often turn to social media to contact brands. They also share their experiences, complaints and compliments — privately and publicly. Instagram, X, Facebook and TikTok serve as private and public customer service communication channels.
Your commitment to customer service on social media plays a huge role in your brand’s success. Take time to ensure all inbound customer service requests are handled quickly and satisfactorily. Additionally, monitor social media for brand mentions to see when someone airs their grievances publicly. CRM software features often include social integrations that make it easy for your customer service team to monitor social media messages and mentions.
7. AI-created content is here to stay.
Artificial intelligence (AI) was once considered an experimental marketing tool, but now it’s here to stay — and it’s quickly becoming indispensable. According to the Hootsuite survey cited above, marketers use AI in social media primarily to write and edit posts. However, it’s increasingly being used to repurpose content, develop new ideas, and generate and modify images.
Lee Gentry, founder of Mood Magic, specializes in AI-generated photos and has seen its benefits for clients. “Our customers come to us to augment or replace their traditional photo production pipeline with generative AI to save time and money,” Gentry explained. “Some of our customers report up to 99 percent cost savings and 91 percent time savings. The quality and accuracy of the technology are already at a point where synthetic content is indiscernible from analog.”
The need to generate multiple posts across numerous platforms simultaneously is a significant factor in AI’s growth in social media marketing. Hootsuite’s research indicates that the ideal number of posts is between 48 and 72 each week, which can become unmanageable with a small staff.
Another factor is the continual quest for creative content. AI can quickly create illustrations or photorealistic images without the need for artists, photographers or models. It can also produce scenarios that are difficult or impossible to stage in real life, thereby enabling greater creative freedom.
8. Marketers are listening in to take the pulse of their followers and the broader social network community.
At the beginning of the social media marketing revolution, marketers experimented to discover new ways to connect with audiences and boost sales. Today, social listening has evolved into a powerful method for monitoring customer satisfaction, tracking trends and protecting brand reputation.
Social listening tools such as Reputation, Sprout Social, Meltwater and Brandwatch can help marketers monitor online discussions, track brand mentions, count hashtag shares and understand what people are saying about their brand.
Social listening turns social media marketing from a cost center into a revenue center where brands can measure and improve marketing ROI. It can also help identify potential public relations nightmares before they gain traction so brands can counter negative sentiment effectively and salvage their reputation.
9. Social search is becoming more important.
Internet users are increasingly turning away from general Google searches on products and embracing social search to access product reviews, user comments and advice, and influencer opinions.
According to a Forbes Advisor survey, 24 percent of respondents prefer searching for product information via social media instead of using search engines. This trend is especially pronounced among younger consumers, with 46 percent of Gen Zers and 35 percent of millennials opting for social searching. Additionally, 24 percent of respondents said they discover new brands on social media daily, which shows that social search is an excellent brand discovery tool.
Tay emphasized that the shift toward social search highlights the growing importance of social search engine optimization (SEO) for brands. “To win on social media marketing [in the future], businesses need to ensure their content is both discoverable and searchable on social platforms,” Tay advised. “Creating educational and informative content that directly addresses consumer queries will be a crucial strategy.”
10. There’s increased regulatory control in social media marketing.
Social media is no longer the Wild West of marketing; there is now increased regulatory control. Brands also must be aware of the legalities surrounding influencer and partnership disclosures. In short, brands must lead with transparency when marketing on social media.
For example, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has specific disclosures for social media influencers. If you hire influencers, you must ensure they follow the rules. Failure to do so can come back to bite you.
Also, as the FTC investigates consumer data collection, it will likely change the number of data points you can use to target paid ads. If paid ads on Facebook and Instagram are a big part of your marketing strategy, consider pivoting toward more organic strategies.
