I need to figure out my New Year’s Resolutions. I love a reset, but I’ve crammed so much into the back half of 2024 that I’ve spent zero minutes considering next year. Maybe I’ll hide away and do some thinking while escaping the New York cold for Florida.

BUT ANYWAY, let’s talk about social media.

—Jack Appleby

2025 Social Media, Creator, & Content Predictions

We both know you opened this email for that smoke on a TikTok ban and a seemingly rooted for Twitter downfall. I promise we’ll get to both (and both earned full sections and multiple takes), but there are so many things I hope you consider when thinking about your 2025 social media plans.

Hysterically, a couple of my predictions throw water at the most common predictions I’ve seen—a little too easy to get hyperbolic when guessing the future, and I don’t want everyone chasing trends that aren’t actually trends.

But hey, you don’t need this preamble! Below are 35 predictions on social media strategy, the industry, the platforms, influencer marketing, hiring, and a whole lot more. A bunch are from me, but you’ll notice handfuls from the wonderfully-smart readers of Future Social who bravely contributed their takes for your consideration. If you like what they’re thinking, click through and let them know!

Let’s get to the good part.

Social Media Strategy & Industry Predictions

More episodic content, series content, and “mid-form” content. Storytelling’s the hottest buzzword right now, and I believe enough social pros have seen Creators win through episodic & series content that we’ll see brands try their hand. I think it’s a smart play–it gives people more reasons to follow brands than typical one-off content. The “mid-form” note is a phrase I’m throwing around to describe short-form that’s more in the 60-90 range, usually with more narrative—that stuff’s gonna get traction for brands.

I actually don’t think brands are gonna make much long-form. It’s a prediction I see a lot, and I actually do believe brands could really run the YouTuber playbook into great engagement & sales success, but… I’ve been doing this a long time, and asking social teams to spend time learning a new content style, on a platform they don’t know, on content that’s 3-10x longer than what they’re used to? With a format that’ll take them a while to see success, because it’ll take them awhile to learn? That just doesn’t sound like the industry I know.

In-house content creators will become a standard job. This is another repeat from my 2024 predictions—it’s slowlyyy happening, but I think it’ll pick up speed this year. I saw an ad agency LinkedIn job post for “Senior Content Creator” the other day. Brands are gonna get better results hiring people who specialize in social video than re-training traditional creative directors or social media managers.

Millennials reaching senior leadership titles will mean bigger social + influencer budgets. Us millennial folk get the power of social media! Watch for traditional advertising budgets to shift towards content marketing, be it organic, paid, or influencer. You’re gonna get more brand content than you know what to do with.

Creative consistency on social becomes mainstream. As brands observe the success of creative consistency for Duolingo and Nutter Butter, we’ll see a rise in longer-term content strategies and storylines on social, less quick hits and trend-chasing. Think using a product as a character over a 6 month period, or AI-generated sets that serve as a backdrop for a year’s time. - Dakota Rae Lowe, VP of Social Strategy at Edelman

Social platforms transform from spectator sports to choose-your-own-adventure experiences. TikTok and Instagram are becoming interactive marketplaces. One moment you're watching a makeup tutorial, the next you're buying the lipstick with a single tap. Videos aren't just content—they're living, breathing shopping malls. With the platforms introducing enhanced live-streaming and collaborative tools, we’ll see "social theaters," where viewers interact in real-time, influencing the narrative. This fusion of storytelling and community interaction will create deeper emotional connections. Serialized formats allow brands to weave evolving storylines tailored to specific audience segments, creating a sense of inclusion. Social TV's interactive elements (live voting, real-time polls) let audiences co-create, fostering brand loyalty. - Danielle Johnson Karr, Social & Creative Strategy Lead

Keyword-rich captions are gonna matter a lottttt. Social media leaning more on SEO than hashtags especially with Instagram announcing they are removing the ability to follow hashtags. What’s in the caption for a post will matter more than what hashtags are shoehorned at the end of it. - Erin O’Donnell, Social Media Specialist

TikTok Predictions

TikTok either will or won’t get banned. All of us marketing thought leaders have our takes out there, but none of us really know. Me? I tend to believe banning an app beloved by 150 million Americans would massively alienate the people, regardless of whether you think it’s a security threat. I suspect it’s not going anywhere, but we’ll see.

The TikTok ban scare will make TikTokers become YouTubers. Most TikTokers already copy/paste their content onto Instagram, but I’m seeing more and more short-formers dip into long-form as a means of telling deeper stories. YouTube extending Shorts length to 3 minutes is a great gateway, too, since you can start building a subscriber base with the same TikTok-to-Reels copy/paste strategy now.

(caveat on the next two—both dependent on, you know, TikTok not getting banned).

Major brands join TikTok Shop. I bought my last two pairs of Nike basketball shoes directly on Instagram, but many of the big names have held back on making their products available on TikTok Shop. I do think the current iteration feels a little too Temu-y right now, but I bet TikTok will actively go for bigger brands and assist in onboarding, along with some free media spends. And really, I think most brands should be jumping at the opp.

TikTok Collabs will prove to be the most effective Collab feature. I’m quietly not a big fan of Instagram Collabs. I think it’s rare a piece of content is ideal for multiple accounts, I think brands collabing influencer posts makes the influencer post look like an ad, and I’ve never seen a collab post generate significant follower growth or virality. That’s where TikTok Collabs are more valuable, in my opinion. Their UI is less intrusive, boosting content to multiple audiences more seamlessly on a network where we’re more used to seeing content from accounts we don’t follow. I suspect TikTok Collabs will generate notably better results than Instagram Collabs

A couple predictions I worry about

More brands are gonna get sued for using copyrighted materials. I keep trying to tell ya—stop using unlicensed art, memes, celebrities, and music in your content. 14. NBA teams got sued. Chili’s got sued. Hell, now influencers are suing each other just over aesthetic. Please, just make original content with materials your brand owns.

Employee-Generated Content will become common… but will flop. I get the idea—if you’re a low-budget brand or a social team of one, and you know video content is king, getting the folks on salary to star in content is free! But I promise you, Joe Marketing Manager isn’t a good actor, and being on-camera talent is a true skill. EGC usually comes off quite amateur, rarely moves the needle, and the employee content that does find engagement usually doesn’t actually help the company find the right customers.

Brands will overfocus on Gen Z in social marketing & risk losing their Millennial consumers. I know it’s easy to overindex on what’s new, but I can’t believe how every single lead magnet & social report is solely focused on Gen Z right now. Millennials are 28 to 43 years old right now, and represent the wealthiest internet-savvy consumer base we’ve ever had, yet we see so much focus on “Gen Z marketing tactics.” It’s also the first time a generation of 30-to-40 year olds will have 15+ years of social media comfortability. Brands will have stronger results if they stop worrying about generations and become more interest & cohort focused.

Social Platform Predictions

Instagram growth skyrockets if TikTok gets banned. It’s already a giant, but it’s also the most natural app to take all the freed up screentime if we’re not Toking. I’d venture to say the majority of TikTok scrollers already have IG—they’ll just move their carpal tunnel over to Meta’s offering.

YouTube Shorts will become a key channel for brand social. I actually called this one in 2024, but I think I was early? This is the year, though, especially since fan favorite Duolingo has started using the strategy. Those Reels & TikToks you’re making can go right up on YouTube Shorts, bringing more attention to that channel that’s only hosted your TV spots the last few years. Watch Shorts become quite effective in driving brand awareness without much customization time from brand teams.

LinkedIn’s gonna get a lot more like Facebook and Twitter. I’m not rooting for it, but I suspect we’ll see more selfies and life updates in our LinkedIn feeds next year, along with some of Twitter’s signature snarky takes. I’m all for a little more personal touch on LI, though I hope things stay happy go lucky—I’ll take corny over sassy.

YouTube will cross 3 billion monthly active users in 2025. I really feel like they’re doing all the right things right now, especially with their move to win over TV viewers. I find YouTube’s algorithm far more likely to recommend me content I want than Netflix or streaming services (which is really saying something, I’m a big movie guy). They’re already at 2.7 billion, and I think that extra bump won’t be hard at all.

Partiful gets a little more social networky. Facebook owned Events for so long, but new dedicated entrants like Partiful finally became normalized, largely for their ease of invite + text-based comms options. I’m betting we’ll see more casual hangs, group dates, and company happy hours noted via that app than basic group texts and emails, and more in-app communication options emerge as they try to own the events space.

Personal Brand & Employee Marketing Predictions

More employees will become Workplace Microinfluencers, and companies will need to re-write their media policies. When I was a full-time strategist, about half of my employers loved my personal brand (it brought it money to my agencies!), and half didn’t know what to think of it. But now, manyyy young employees are posting on LinkedIn about their careers, making themselves unofficial representatives. Forward-thinking companies should get ahead of the trend and actively work with their employee influencers, not limit them… but I do think there’s gonna be some tension as it all shakes out.

Ghostwritten personal brands will fail. I don’t need to see another CEO “write” a piece on the future of hybrid work. I want more leaders making content and teaching their wisdom to the next generation of marketers, but I want their wisdom, not some agency writing the content and ideas for them. What’s more? Ghostwritten content isn’t gonna generate results worth the $$$, since it’s not authentic at all. If C-suite wanna build personal brands, they’ve gotta be personal.

Executive brands, executive brands, executive brands. More CEOs, C-suite folks, and especially historically underrepresented corporate leaders (women, people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ, neurodivergent) will build their voices online through social (LinkedIn especially), internal and external podcasts, Substacks, etc. More executive communications teams will be beefed up or built (I’m seeing it happen now) to support this work. - Katie McKiever, Social Media & Communications Consultant

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• The Year-Long Brainstorm: an exercise to help you plan a year of content in advance

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Twitter, Threads, and Bluesky Predictions

Twitter won’t fail. I know many hate the current state of tweets. I’m still publishing there since I have followers, but I’ve deleted the app from my phone and never scroll, which I’ve found makes my day better. But Twitter is still the top platform for written peer-based social networking, both because of its established lead and the competitors’ failures to make a product more compelling. I expect the people who left Twitter to spend more time on the established social apps, or even to come back.

Bluesky won’t succeed. I know the numbers have looked good—they’re up to 25 million users—but that’s a fraction of the major social networks, and unless every major Twitter creator runs there, the network won’t have the content it needs to succeed. Remember, 10% of Twitter users are responsible for 92% of all tweets, so unless that 10% all flock to Bluesky, and get the engagement they’re used to getting on Twitter, Bluesky won’t last.

Threads is the only legitimate Twitter competitor. Meta’s dominance can’t be ignored, and everyone has Instagram, the gateway to Threads. I think if Meta can making some compelling Threads marketing, they have the best shot to win over Twitter users. Think they’re battling some corniness + Meta perception issues, and their attempts to avoid spicy topics were big mistakes (more on that later).

LinkedIn will benefit most from the Twitter exodus. I really believe a huge % of those recent BlueSkyers will leave when they’re not getting the content nor engagement they’re used to. I’ve already heard from a significant number of Twitter personal brand creators that they’ve focused on LinkedIn for the platform’s engagement and better positive energy. If you learned or taught on Twitter, I’d encourage you to hit LinkedIn.

Meta will re-prioritize political commentary on Threads. Not putting political content in the algorithms felt like a colossal miss for Meta. The election could’ve been a chance to gain huge audiences who wanted to talk politics without Twitter’s toxicity—instead, Meta punted the entire topic and let Twitter have a damn near monopoly on presidential chatter. With Trump elected, I expect those rules to change and for Meta to zuck it up to play ball.

Someone will attempt to buy Twitter away from Elon. While I don’t think it fail, I do think the negative press and user bleeding will be causes for concern, and I think Elon’s interest in owning the platform could be a lot different post-election. I doubt he sells simply because it’s too good of a rich guy flex to own a social network, but I bet we hear about very serious bids to from other wealthy folks to buy it.

Influencer & Creator Predictions

B2B and SaaS companies bring in B2B Creators in as true spokespeople. My dear friend & YouTuber Dara Denney makes fantastic content about making great social ads, so Motion brought her in as “Chief Evangelist” for a long-t

erm public partnership that’ll include all the normal influencer plays, but also company & product advisement. I expect more digital product companies to seek out long-term deals with creators who fit their mold—they’re effective, easier than hiring bunches of influencers, and create more consistent messaging.

Real-time influencer marketing will become a favorite brand tactic. When creators experience a surge in fame and attention, successful brands will partner quickly for rapid-response influencer activations—they’re too good to pass up on (Jack note, I wrote a case study on an example here). Marketers can maximize results by dedicating more budget and resources for compelling open brief influencer collabs and surprise & delight customizations, capitalizing on short-term cultural virality and winning audiences by supporting their favorite creators. - Sean Donnelly, Senior Social Strategist at DEPT

Brands will begin to rely more on UGC more than on influencers. Rates continue to be inconsistent and many brands don’t have the budget for influencer campaigns. Some have experienced little ROI, lack the staffing capacity to manage campaigns at scale, or need to redirect funds to priorities like events, AI, SMS, and UX. The difference between “inspirational” and “aspirational” is significant, which is why we’ve seen a shift toward creators who produce consumable content rather than influencers focused on selling. - Shayna Macklin, Social/Brand Strategy at Playboy

“Faceless” Content Creators will get more brand love. Traditional mega influencers often come with a hefty price tag, but there’s been a rise of “faceless” creators (just as it sounds, influencers who actually focus more on helpful products or lifestyle improvement, often without showing themselves) that are more efficient for influencer spending. The product stays the star and the emphasis is more on an average person’s lifestyle, not a famous celeb’s day to day. - Brooke Richardson, Social Revolt Agency

Influencer campaigns will have more influencers per campaign. With SaaS tools continuously improving, companies are now better equipped to scale large, diversified influencer programs. It’s a strong way to offset rising customer acquisition costs, mitigate risk, and achieve more predictable results. Big bets on major influencers will still occur, but might become more strategically calculated and less frequent. - Joshua Weidling, The Creator Economy Guy