Top 10 Social Media Trends to Watch in 2025
Discover the biggest social media shifts of 2025—where AI powers everything, video rules the web (82% of traffic!), and social commerce breaks $100B. Plus, why micro-influencers now deliver $1,000 returns from just $50 in products.
At one point, not so long ago, social media was mostly for posting vacation photos and connecting with old friends. Those days are long gone. Or at least that's how it feels.
In 2025, social media will become an AI-powered ecosystem where we shop, search, and socialize.
If we've learned anything about social media, it's that what worked yesterday might be obsolete tomorrow.
With that in mind, these are the most interesting social media trends you can expect to see this year.
Key takeaways
- 70% of marketers now use AI tools to simplify their daily work.
- 82% of internet traffic is expected to be video by 2025.
- Social commerce will exceed $100 billion in US sales for the first time in 2025.
- Consumers crave authenticity, with 77% more likely to engage with genuine and relatable content.
- Micro-influencers offer better ROI than celebrities. They generate over $1,000 in returns from just $50 in free products.
1. AI has taken over social media
If you spend time on any social platform these days, it's not long before you come across AI-generated images on your feed. The telltale signs are everywhere. Unnaturally perfect lighting, slightly distorted hands, and scenes that look almost real but not quite right.
And while most AI images may leave a bad taste in our mouths, AI can be an invaluable tool in the hands of a savvy marketer.
According to data from Everypixel, internet users have created more than 15 billion AI-generated images from text descriptions since 2022. Clearly, this technology is no fad.
AI is one of those topics you’ll be hearing about every time for the next few years. It’s everywhere, and social media is no different. It's completely changing how brands approach social media.
AI gained momentum in 2022 and will keep growing as development and adoption continue.
Just how many marketers are for AI?
According to the latest stats, 70% of marketers now use AI tools to simplify their daily work.
And no, image generation is not the only way marketers use AI.
- More than 40% of social media managers rely on AI to write their captions
- 36% use it for content brainstorming when creativity runs low
We’re also seeing brands using AI chatbots to respond to customer comments and DMs on social media to ensure immediate feedback.
For example, tools like ManyChat make automated DMs and comment replies possible without constant monitoring.
Video content hasn't escaped AI's influence either.
Platforms like Synthesia and ElevenLabs now create AI videos and voiceovers so realistic that they're nearly indistinguishable from human-made content.
Brands like Coca-Cola have jumped on the AI trend and are now creating imagery and videos from AI—or, more accurately, augmenting their creative work with AI. Like this interesting video promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGa1imApfdg
“... Everyone was so skeptical about AI, gen AI, OpenAI. It was with a relatively unknown company [but] we believed in that technology, and we knew that it was going to be big. We put together a team of six people—including legal, public affairs and communications, and tech people—and we created a sandbox. We brought DALL-E, their image creation tool, and GPT together, and we launched “Create Real Magic.” It worked out very well.” Pratik Thakar, global vice president and head of generative AI at Coca-Cola, told Marketing Dive in an interview.
However, the best brands know that AI is a tool, not a complete replacement of humans.
Coca-Cola understands this, too. Thakar says, “… it's not like you input one prompt saying 'create an ad' and it pops out an ad. A lot of creative decisions are all made by humans.”
The bottom line?
AI is here to stay, but humans (marketers) are needed to keep it on track.
2. Social media platforms embrace AI brains
Marketers are not the only people embracing AI.
Social media companies are testing and integrating artificial intelligence into their core products.
Meta has gone all-in on AI across its apps. On Facebook and Instagram, users can enhance their photos with AI that fixes lighting and colors in seconds.
On Instagram, users can type written prompts to create custom stickers that match their aesthetic perfectly.
The platform's AI can also search through images and videos within your account and even on your device and generate entirely new Reels from scratch.
However, most of these features are available in a few countries.
Users can now edit photos using AI while on Instagram and Facebook.
Facebook and Instagram have also introduced Meta AI chat. It’s similar to ChatGPt but is powered by Meta’s Llama 3 model.
This feature is an intelligent search bar within Meta apps (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) that can answer questions directly from text prompts. Users can ask Meta AI for creative ideas, travel recommendations, advice, or anything else they might need.
3. More need for authentic content on social media
Polished, perfect, and filtered are not themes people want to see on their feeds in 2025. Realness, authenticity, and behind-the-scenes shots are the themes working now.
Internet users want brands to keep it as real as it can be.
According to Sprout Social, 64% of consumers want brands to connect with them on a deeper level.
Even more telling, 77% of consumers are more likely to engage with content that feels genuine and relatable.
So, how do you start being more authentic?
Consumers connect better with brands when they see the real people involved.
In fact, 70% feel more connected when a CEO is active on social media.
Similarly, 72% feel this connection when employees share about the brand online.
This craving for authenticity explains why user-generated content has become so dominant.
UGC now accounts for 55.7% of TikTok's content, and 18% of creators earn their primary income from it.
Fortunately for us, consumers revealed precisely how brands can be more authentic in a study by Sprout Social:
- 55% want brands to like or respond to their comments
- 45% want to see the brand's personality in posts
- 45% want brands to support causes they care about
- 44% want brands to participate in relevant conversations
- 40% want brands to highlight industry or category trends
- 39% want brands to create strong online communities
- 39% want brands to invite and showcase user-generated content
Brands like Chipotle and Duolingo have grasped this approach.
Chipotle regularly posts UGC content and lots of relatable posts that resonate with their target audience.
Such marketing might be ‘unhinged’ for some brands, but it’s quite relatable to their target audience.
On the other hand, Duolingo's TikTok account features their owl mascot in unpolished, often silly situations that feel spontaneous rather than carefully scripted.
For example, in February of this year, Duolingo published a viral post announcing “the death” of their owl mascot (shown below).
It generated massive engagement because it broke all the rules of traditional corporate communication.
The tongue-in-cheek announcement claiming the owl “probably died waiting for you to do your lesson” perfectly captured the brand's cheeky personality while also gently nudging users about their language learning habits.
This kind of content works because it feels like it comes from real humans with actual personalities rather than a corporate marketing department.
Duolingo understands that humor and personality create stronger connections than perfectly polished content ever could.
However, authenticity doesn't necessarily mean you should abandon quality or professionalism.
It simply means consumers prefer content that feels human rather than corporate. They want to see the personality behind the logo and the people who make your brand what it is. Or, more specifically, a peak behind the corporate veil.
4. Micro and macro influencers over big-name celebrities
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, 11% of companies in the US allocate over 40% of their marketing budget to influencer partnerships.
And based on the latest social media trends, much of this budget is going to smaller-scale influencers.
Why is that?
New research from Bocconi University shows that smaller influencers deliver significantly better ROI.
After studying nearly 2 million purchases and hundreds of influencer campaigns across Europe, researchers found that nano influencers (under 10,000 followers) generate over $1,000 in returns from just $50 in free products.
Meanwhile, macro-influencers (over 100,000 followers) cost more than $1,000 but only bring in about $6,000 in returns.
This ROI makes perfect sense, considering the authenticity craving we just discussed.
Smaller influencers typically have more engaged, trusting communities that view their recommendations as coming from a friend rather than a paid promotion.
AI influencers are yet another surprising social media trend we'll see this year.
Yes, completely digital personalities with their own followings.
Get this: brands are collaborating with virtual influencers like Lil Miquela, who now has more than 2 million followers.
The 21-year-old Robot ‘living in LA’ has already partnered with luxury brands like Prada and Calvin Klein, and consumer products like Liquid I.V.
Some brands are even considering creating their own AI mascots as recognizable brand ambassadors. However, experts urge caution with this approach.
“It's a slippery slope to bring in AI influencers as 'the' or even 'a' face of your brand,” Dean Trevelino of Trevelino/Keller told Forbes. “That's not to say it can't be done, but it must be done thoughtfully and not just for utility.”
5. Short form video is the new king
Short-form videos have taken over our feeds. In fact, 82% of internet traffic will be video by 2025.
About 72% of consumers admit they'd rather watch a quick video than read about products, and brands are getting the message.
As expected, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are the #3 top platforms where users spend time watching short-form videos.
For instance, 60% of the time people spend on Facebook is dedicated to watching videos, and half of the time users spend on Instagram is dedicated to watching Reels.
Fortunately for brands, this investment in short-form video is worth every dime. Reel ads get 35% higher click-through rates than other video ads.
We'll continue to see brands pouring money into TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube videos in 2025.
If your 2025 social media strategy doesn't include short-form video... well, good luck competing with the brands that get it.
The scroll stops for nobody, except maybe that 8-second reel that makes your target audience laugh out loud.
6. Social shopping is on the rise
If there's one social media trend businesses can't afford to ignore, it's social shopping. Already making up 19.4% of all E-commerce, industry analysts predict social commerce will balloon into a $1 trillion industry by 2028.
We're seeing this play out in real time.
Facebook Shops has over one million monthly active users, while Facebook Marketplace serves one billion users monthly.
And these users are buying, not just window shopping.
More than half of all consumers (52%) have purchased something directly through social media. Among younger Americans aged 18-34, about 34% are making weekly purchases this way.
While Facebook is one to contend with in the social commerce market, we can’t leave out TikTok.
TikTok Shop has become a social shopping giant nobody saw coming. By late 2023, over 500,000 US merchants were selling on the platform.
Monthly sales have consistently topped $1 billion since July 2024. Impressively, TikTok Shop generated an estimated $50 billion in merchandise volume across all markets in 2024 alone.
Instagram is yet another platform taking social commerce seriously. According to Capital One, it has built a shopping ecosystem used by 1.4 billion people worldwide.
In the US alone, social commerce sales are expected to be more than $100 billion for the first time in 2025.
7. Social media is the new search engine
When people want to know the best tourist sites in Europe, social media is now part of that search channel.
Specifically, we're seeing people choose TikTok videos for these kinds of searches.
Why?
Because they're created by everyday people, they feel more authentic, and users don't have to scroll through what is, in most cases, a flood of keywords fitted through an article on Google SERPs.
Social is now so key to search that 76% of consumers use social media to find or learn about new products and brands.
What’s more, 69% have bought something after seeing it on a social platform.
Unsurprisingly, Gen Z is leading the move from traditional search to social search. About 46% of Gen Z internet users prefer social media to Google searches.
Among millennials, 35% now prefer social platforms for search.
Marketers are catching on.
About 87% of marketers now say social search optimization is vital to their social marketing strategy.
However, TikTok is not the only player in social search.
Other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest have their place too.
For example, 62.30% of Instagram users follow or research brands and products on Instagram. Also, Instagram is the top platform for product discovery, with Facebook coming in #2nd.
A simple search for ‘medspa in New York’ on TikTok brings up helpful videos showing real experiences at different locations. That kind of authentic content helps users make confident decisions, which is why social media has become such a key part of search.
8. A new hunger for private communities on social
Where are these communities being built?
Facebook, of course, but we're also seeing communities on platforms like Discord, Slack, and Skool growing fast.
For example, by 2023, there were an estimated 19 million active Discord servers where users gathered and interacted.
On Facebook, the trajectory is also going up. More than half of all Facebook users are members of five or more groups. Facebook Groups have reached 1.8 billion users who are actively engaging in various communities on the platform.
Brands are responding by building their own communities rather than just focusing on public social feeds.
For example, Purple, a mattress and bedding company, runs the subreddit r/LifeOnPurple, which is quite active and effectively brings current customers and potential buyers together into a unified community.
9. AI-powered ads that adapt to every user
Businesses are using AI to create dynamic, personalized ads that adapt based on user behavior, location, and preferences.
The old approach of creating dozens of individual ads is fading. Instead, marketers now use adaptive ad templates that automatically update with different text, images, or offers depending on who's seeing them.
Tools like Cropink can help create product feed-based ads for Meta, but they work just as well for image-based ads on TikTok or Snapchat.
These dynamic ads deliver more relevant experiences that actually convert. That’s why we're seeing more e-commerce brands turn to this approach in 2025.
10. Social media ad budgets are climbing
Ad spending in the social media advertising market worldwide is estimated to reach US$276.72bn in 2025.
By 2030, 83% of all money spent on social media ads is expected to come from mobile devices. No surprise there. We're all glued to our phones, and advertisers know exactly where to find us.
Social media ads make up 30% of all digital advertising spending, meaning for every $10 spent on digital ads, $3 goes to social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
With organic reach becoming harder to achieve, brands will be forced to open their wallets wider to stay visible in increasingly crowded feeds.
The social ad gold rush is far from over.
FAQs
AI is taking over, short-form videos are on the rise, and authentic content is more important than ever. Social shopping is also growing, and more people now use social platforms as search engines.
Yes! However, brands are turning toward micro and macro influencers instead of big-name celebrities. These smaller-scale influencers have more engaged audiences and deliver better ROI.
Absolutely. Social media ad budgets are growing, and brands are spending more to stay visible. Organic reach is harder to achieve, so paid ads and influencer partnerships are becoming essential.
Wrapping up
As platforms continue integrating AI and commerce capabilities, the line between scrolling and shopping grows increasingly blurred. Brands that welcome authenticity, use the right influencers, and optimize for social search will thrive in this new market.
If your business adapts to these social media trends, you’ll win over your target audience and generate a good ROI from your investment in social.
Sources
- Everypixel Journal. AI Image Statistics
- Statista. Generative AI in Marketing
- Digiday. As More Brands Use Generative AI to Create Social Content, Agencies Are Changing How They Measure Its Success
- Marketing Dive. What Coca-Cola Learned About Generative AI
- Sprout Social. Social Media Connection
- Sprout Social. Social Media Index
- Notta AI. TikTok Statistics
- Influencer Marketing Hub. Influencer Marketing 2019 Benchmark Report
- Harvard Business Review. When It Comes to Influencers, Smaller Can Be Better
- Forbes. 17 Expert Insights Into the Rise of AI Influencers
- Firework. Short-Form Video Statistics
- Cropink. Facebook Statistics
- Statista. Social Commerce Share Worldwide
- Statista. Social Commerce Global Market Size
- Statista. Key Figures on Facebook Marketplace
- AfterShip. Shopper Sentiment Report 2024
- Forbes. TikTok Shop Is Attracting Millions of Consumers: 7 Facts About Who They Are
- eMarketer. TikTok Shop and Livestreaming Momentum
- Modern Retail. A Court Upheld the TikTok Ban. Here’s What It Means for the App’s Social Shopping Ambition
- Capital One Shopping. Instagram Shopping Statistics
- TINT. Social Media Is Now a Search Engine
- eMarketer.Social media overtakes search engines for discovery among Gen Z and millennials
- Forbes Advisor. Social Media Is the New Google
- HubSpot. Social Media Trends Report
- Sprout Social. Facebook Stats for Marketers
- Statista. Discord Monthly Active Servers
- Analyzify. Facebook Statistics
- Statista. Social Media Advertising Worldwide
- Sprout Social. Social Media Statistics: Advertising and ROI
Damaris is a Digital Marketing Specialist who writes about digital marketing and performance marketing. At Cropink, she creates data-driven content to help businesses run better ad campaigns for better performance and ROI.
Leszek is the Digital Growth Manager at Feedink & Cropink, specializing in organic growth for eCommerce and SaaS companies. His background includes roles at Poland's largest accommodation portal and FT1000 companies, with his work featured in Forbes, Inc., Business Insider, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, BBC, and TechRepublic.
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