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Changes to Social Media Marketing in 2025

Social media platforms continue to evolve, introducing new algorithms, functionalities, and user experience updates that redefine how brands engage with their audiences. Staying ahead of these changes is essential for businesses aiming to maintain a strong online presence and maximize the performance of their social media marketing efforts.

While the future of social media is constantly in flux, here’s what you can expect from the biggest platforms in 2025 and how to adapt your strategy effectively. 

More Authenticity 

How social media algorithms work depends heavily on user preferences. Social media algorithms in 2025 increasingly reward authenticity, prioritizing content that resonates with users on a personal level. As 2024 closed out, more and more users on platforms like Instagram and TikTok gravitate towards genuine, relatable content over overly polished, sales, brand-centric posts. While there is room for product and service-focused content, users want to experience more connection to the brands online, especially as the platforms get more saturated.

For brands, appearing authentic can be a challenge, especially when building content from the brand perspective, but depending on your industry and operation, you can find creative and unique ways to build relatable content.

Brand Voices/Mascots

A consistent tone and style in your content can help humanize your brand. Whether it’s witty, professional, or casual, a well-defined brand voice makes your content more engaging and relatable. Whether it’s a literal mascot or a relatable representative of your business like an employee, a face associated with the business can help strengthen the relatability of your brand. 

User Generate Content (UGC)

UGC showcases real people interacting with your products or services, offering social proof that’s far more impactful than traditional advertising. It’s perceived as more genuine and relatable, making it highly effective at driving engagement and conversions.

One of the most effective ways to showcase authentic voices is by sharing user-generated content. Creating UGC requires creative marketing strategies, including hashtag campaigns, email campaigns and online contests. To explore how you can apply these strategies to your social media strategy, partner with an experienced digital marketing agency such as Xi Digital. 

Less Artificial Intelligence

The prevalence of Artificial Intelligence online and in digital media has found its way into many layers of marketing. While AI can help navigate some challenges, its use in everything from image generation to social media captions can make it difficult to stand out. Artificial intelligence can start to produce redundant content that takes away from brand identities. To humanize social media marketing, it helps to work with a digital marketing agency that tracks and analyzes your performance. The social media marketing team at Xi Digital goes beyond artificial intelligence to explore graphics and content that help define your brand and maintain its distinct identity on crowded platforms. 

Hashtags are Changing

Some creators proclaim hashtags are fading or dying, but in fact, they are simply evolving. Platforms like Instagram that popularized the use of the hashtag have constantly changed how they are used on the platform and how they affect the algorithm. In the earlier days of social media marketing, hashtags were one of the most important tools for gaining organic visibility of content, but now more and more users find hashtags to be distracting or spammy, which means that brands need to be more particular about their choice in hashtags and how many are being used in every post. 

Hashtag research should be conducted on a platform-by-platform basis and should. The same hashtags shouldn’t be used on every post. Understanding user behaviour as you move from LinkedIn to TikTok and Instagram can help you choose the right hashtag strategy. 

Microinfluencers

Influencers are an undeniable part of social media marketing. As trusted on-platform representatives, influencers are a great way to put your brand, services, or products in front of relevant users with the testimony of a trusted personality. While the importance of influencers won’t fade, the type of influencer that users trust will no longer be the users with the highest followings on the platform. With trends toward de-influencing online, brands would have higher impacts and better online conversion rates from microinfluencers, creators with just tens of thousands of followers (or less) and niche audiences. There is more trust in these communities, which can help users relate more to what is benign presented to them.

Testing and Monitoring Performance

Like all digital marketing strategies, social media marketing allows you to track key performance indicators that you can use to tailor your performance and content production. By keeping an eye on impressions, engagement rates, conversion rates, followers, website visits and more, you can monitor the value of your content and make adjustments to improve how it resonates with your audience based on your social media goals. 

Explore the Possibilities of Social Media Marketing in 2025 with Xi Digital

The changes to social media marketing in 2025 reflect a broader shift toward authenticity, personalization, and meaningful engagement. Social media continues to be a valuable place for brands to market their businesses and connect with their audience. The more effectively you can leverage the platform, the more ROI you will see. From organic posts to paid ads, social media is here to stay, and you can maximize your performance by adapting to new trends and evolutions online. To learn how social media fits your business, book a consultation with a leading digital marketing agency near you, like Xi Digital. 

Make an Impression & Get Creative with Xi Digital

The key to successful marketing online is creativity and strategy. At Xi Digital, we blend both aspects to deliver tailored strategies that work for your business. Make the most of the holidays with digital marketing, from social media to search engine optimization and paid ads. Contact us today to get started!

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