Social media marketing was once an exciting new way for companies to market their products and services. Businesses set up social media account profiles, gathered followers and began posting regularly. Before social media platforms were oversaturated with brands, it was relatively easy for a company to stand out. Today, however, with seemingly every business on social media, social media marketing has grown more sophisticated and nuanced. There is also a steady flow of new tools, best practices and trends.
Similarly, as brands compete for consumers’ increasingly fragmented attention, users’ social media behaviors and preferences shift. To succeed at social media marketing today, companies need a clear understanding of the latest trends and technologies — and the know-how on leveraging both for brand awareness, sales, customer service and more. Business.com is breaking down how social media marketing has changed and sharing advice from experienced marketing and sales professionals.
How has social media marketing changed?
In the early days of social media marketing, brands were content to cross-post generic content across multiple social media accounts and sit back and wait for results. Many resorted to blatant advertising in their social posts and focused more on their company than their audience.
Things have changed dramatically. Today, to be successful at social media marketing, you must adopt a more strategic approach that combines site-specific campaigns tailored to your target audience’s preferred platforms with highly creative content that’s unique to each social network.
Below, see how social media marketing has changed and the evolving trends and best practices that can drive results for your business.
1. Social media users today prefer short-form videos over long-form content.
Today’s social media users like video content — and they like it short and sweet. According to a Sprout Social report, 42 percent of consumers would 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.
“Short-form video content dominates, with platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels leading the charge,” said Jason Mudd, CEO of Axia Public Relations.
Additionally, a Wyzowl survey found that 98 percent of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a specific product or service. These data points suggest it’s not enough to simply post videos. It matters what videos you post, how long they are and where you share them. For example, Facebook Live Q&As are ideal for product demonstrations, TikTok’s short clips can help you connect with a younger audience and a YouTube channel is a great way to engage and educate your audience.
Video can
enhance your marketing strategy in several ways beyond social media usage. Adding video content to your website increases the time visitors spend there, and showcasing video testimonials from customers can foster
brand trust.
2. Social media marketing today drives in-app sales.
Social commerce is a booming trend that’s expected to become even more prevalent in the years ahead. Many social media platforms now facilitate in-app purchase options. Businesses can sell their products directly through Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and Pinterest.
According to a recent report by DataReportal, 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 convert sales as these users scroll through their feeds.
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 today must be on-brand and authentic.
In the early days of influencer marketing — before it was even called “influencer marketing” — driving high volumes of traffic and sales was easy. It used to be enough to partner with a popular social media account to endorse your product or service in a single post. A well-known person promoting a brand was a novelty back then, so the method worked well to generate sales leads and drive purchases. In fact, 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.
Today, times have changed. A high follower count is less relevant these days. Brands succeed by identifying “micro-influencers” with highly engaged followings that are ideally matched to their target audience. It’s not about partnering with the influencer with the most followers; it’s about partnering with the one most likely to reach and convert your customers.
These influencer promotions must be organic and authentic. Using this strategy to grow your business requires long-term partnerships with social media creators who value your brand. It’s best if the influencer’s audience is introduced to your brand subtly as the relationship evolves.
“Authentic, relatable content now outperforms overly polished, corporate-style posts,” Mudd said.
4. UGC breaks through today’s advertising clutter and builds trust.
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.
In contrast, user-generated content (UGC) is a valuable social media marketing tool today that can boost brand awareness amidst all the advertising clutter while demonstrating social proof. A marketing message that features a real customer 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, a social media management platform, 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.”
If you incentivize customers to create UGC for your brand, you can deepen your relationships with those clients while also attracting new ones. Consider launching a UGC campaign using a brand-specific hashtag that rewards customers with free products, discounts or other special offers for submitting videos or imagery showcasing your goods. Highlight standout participants on your social media accounts to show why customers trust your brand and encourage others to create UGC.
Positive
customer reviews are a well-known form of UGC. Other types of valuable user-generated content include unboxing videos, blog posts and podcast discussions.
5. Social media today welcomes experimentation.
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 are using social media as an experimental sandbox where they can test creative ideas, even if they deviate slightly from brand guidelines. In the increasingly competitive world of social media, where users are constantly scrolling for entertainment, bold or unconventional posts can help businesses stand out.
Because social media feeds move quickly, they provide a relatively low-risk environment for companies to try something new, playful or even outrageous with their audience. These experiments can capture attention, drive engagement and make a brand feel more relatable and dynamic.
According to
Hootsuite's Social Media Trends 2025 survey, more than 60 percent of social content is meant to entertain, educate or inform without directly selling a company's products or services.
6. Social media marketing today includes on-platform customer service.
Company social media accounts aren’t just promotional sales channels. Today, they’re also customer service resources. When customers have issues with a product or service, 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 nowadays serve as customer service forums where you can personally respond to users’ questions and needs.
>> Learn More: Using X as a Customer Support Channel
Providing outstanding customer service on social media can play a huge role in your brand’s customer retention success. Take time to ensure all inbound customer service requests on social media are handled quickly and satisfactorily. Additionally, use social listening (learn more below) to monitor social media networks for brand mentions to see when someone airs their grievances about your company publicly. CRM software features often include social media integrations that make it easy for your sales, marketing and customer service teams to monitor social media messages and mentions.
7. AI-created content on social media 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 on social media and elsewhere. According to the Hootsuite survey cited above, marketers are using AI in social media primarily to write and edit posts. However, it’s also increasingly being used to repurpose content, develop new ideas, and generate and modify images.
The need to generate text and imagery for multiple posts across numerous platforms simultaneously is a significant factor in AI’s growing usage in social media marketing. Hootsuite’s research indicates that the ideal number of posts is between 48 and 72 each week, an amount that can become unmanageable for a small staff doing everything manually.
Another factor driving the rise of AI in social media marketing 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.
Lee Gentry, founder of Mood Magic, specializes in creating AI-generated photos and has seen its benefits for clients, many of whom use the imagery in social media campaigns.
“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.”
8. Marketers today are relying on social listening to take the pulse of their followers and the broader community.
Marketers used to struggle with gauging consumer sentiment efficiently and guessed on how best to connect with audiences and boost sales. Today, social listening has emerged as 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. Marketers can track specific keywords or brand mentions, count hashtag shares and understand what people are saying about their company.
Social listening turns social media marketing from a cost center into a revenue center where brands can measure and improve marketing ROI thanks to the insights uncovered via social media monitoring. It can even help identify potential public relations nightmares before they gain social media traction so businesses can counter negative sentiment effectively and salvage their reputations.
Our free guide to
high-quality email marketing services explains the value of optimizing your multichannel marketing efforts by integrating your social media accounts with your email marketing software.
9. Social search is becoming more important today.
Internet users are increasingly turning away from general Google searches for products and instead are embracing social search to access product reviews, user comments and advice, and influencer opinions. Research shows it’s especially common for younger consumers — Gen Z and millennials — to seek product information via social media instead of using search engines.
Tay said 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,” he advised. “Creating educational and informative content that directly addresses consumer queries will be a crucial strategy.”
10. There’s increased regulatory control governing social media marketing today.
Social media is no longer the Wild West of marketing; there is now increased regulatory control governing how companies promote their products and services on social platforms. Brands also must be aware of the legalities surrounding influencer and partnership disclosures.
For example, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) now has specific disclosures for social media influencers. If you hire influencers, you must ensure they follow the rules; failure to do so can lead to legal consequences. 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. In short, it’s more important than ever to lead with transparency when marketing on social media.
What is the future of social media marketing?
Although nothing is guaranteed and technology is changing rapidly, emerging trends can give us an idea of what the future of social media marketing might look like. Here are some trends worth watching.
Chatbots and AI
Because social media has become a popular customer service channel, more brands are using AI chatbots on their social channels to answer common customer questions and route more complex inquiries to customer service representatives.
AI-powered chatbots can give customers basic product information, direct them to product pages and answer general questions. This technology is easy to implement and significantly reduces incoming customer service calls and emails.
Many of the
best CRM systems now integrate AI chatbots into their platforms either directly or via third-party plugins, as do
highly rated call center software solutions. The latter are increasingly being used for omnichannel communication, allowing businesses to easily connect with customers on social media, among other channels.
Employee brand advocates
Businesses that don’t have the budget to hire established influencers are starting to turn to their employees. When workers promote their employer on social media, they have immense credibility. After all, who is in a better position to understand the company’s products or services and know about their quality and efficacy than the people dealing with them every day?
When your team promotes your business’s products and services via their social accounts, your followers will assume they’re happy and well-paid, which can foster positive sentiment about your brand. Of course, all of this must be true for this strategy to work. Happy, motivated employees in a strong company culture are more likely to participate in a brand advocacy program.
Closed groups
Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram allow you to facilitate open and private groups. While many groups are centered around a particular topic (e.g., weight loss or single parents) and allow anyone to join, you could move toward invitation-only closed groups. Closed groups are a rising trend — think of them like a membership community that doubles as a focus group for your brand.
With this strategy, you invite social media users who meet specific criteria to join the group and provide their honest feedback on your company and its products. Because invitation-only groups are relatively small and have an exclusive feel, they tend to create brand trust and spark high engagement. As a bonus, this method is a great way to nurture future brand ambassadors. If you have a luxury or exclusive brand, consider using closed groups as a key part of your strategy.
Using an increasingly popular community platform like Circle — which takes a social-media-like approach to a private forum with direct messages, live streams, etc. — can make the experience feel even more special. The program integrates with other social media marketing sites and tools like Meta Pixel, Google Analytics, Instagram and X, amplifying its benefits for businesses.
Live video events
While evergreen videos are cost-effective, live videos create excitement and immediacy. In addition to generating buzz for new product offerings, these videos boost brand authenticity by showing your team in a live and unedited way. You can hold live events on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, X, Twitch, Instagram and TikTok. Live video events can boost your social media engagement and provide valuable customer insights.
However, with TikTok’s long-term future in the U.S. up in the air, check out business.com’s guide to TikTok alternatives for additional video platform options. With a diverse platform strategy, you’ll have all your bases covered.
Jennifer Dublino contributed to this article.
