July 30, 2025
Summer’s not slow, but it’s just quiet enough to hear yourself think. With fewer meetings, fewer emails, and half the team in Cornwall, you finally get to lift your head from the day-to-day mess and take a proper look at what’s working, and what isn’t (well that’s what we hope eh?).
This isn’t a banal ‘beach reads’ list. It’s your chance to catch up on the most useful, stats-rich, and strategy-sharpening reads of 2025. And not just so you can sound smart in September. But so your next three campaigns actually land.
We’ve grouped them into themes, explained why they matter, and pulled out the must-do advice and standout stats.
Know where your audience actually is
Audience habits are shifting fast. Here’s what to rethink before you brief another campaign.
The basics aren’t basic anymore. Users are shifting, shrinking, searching, and lurking. If you’re still planning based on 2023 behaviour, you’re two scrolls behind.
- Gartner – Mass Consumer Social Media Exodus Gartner predicts that up to 50 percent of consumers will actively reduce their social media usage in 2025. Not by deleting apps, but by disengaging emotionally. That means less attention, less trust, and more selective scrolling.
- Build content that earns interaction. Focus on posts that help people solve problems, learn something useful, or feel something real. Review your publishing frequency and tighten it around value. Even small shifts in approach can improve retention, engagement, and trust.
- GWI – The Social Media Report 2025 This year’s data shows that social platforms are no longer just for entertainment or connection. They’re a critical part of how people research, discover, and decide what to buy, especially among Gen Z and Millennials.
Review how visible your brand is at the start of that journey. Optimise your profiles for search, create content that answers real buying questions, and make it easy to take the next step, whether that’s clicking through or saving a post for later.
- Smart Insights – Global Social Media Statistics Summary 2025 With 5.24 billion global users spending an average of over 2 hours a day on social, the opportunity for brand engagement is still huge. But it hinges on showing up where and how people want to engage.
Match format to platform. Short-form video on TikTok, swipeable carousels on Instagram, polls and opinion on LinkedIn. If your content feels out of step with how people actually use the channel, it gets ignored. A quick audit of the last month’s posts can help you course correct.
What the platforms are telling us (loudly)
This year’s benchmarks show exactly where social is delivering, and where it’s falling flat.
The numbers don’t lie. They tell you where the eyeballs are, what content works, and where brands are still blindly spending.
- Sprout Social – Social Media Benchmarks 2025 Facebook (39%), TikTok (36%) and Instagram (29%) are now the top platforms for social purchases. This is a major behavioural shift, users aren’t just browsing, they’re buying.
Make sure your shoppable content is part of the feed, not a side hustle. Build product discovery into storytelling, use native features like product tags and stickers, and test what drives action, not just reach. The brands making sales from social are the ones making it easy.
- LinkedIn Performance Benchmarks by Metricool The latest benchmarks show LinkedIn video delivers +73% more impressions, and polls generate +206% more reach. That’s not a minor lift, that’s a platform signalling what it wants more of.
Test opinion-led video, even if it’s lo-fi. Share a point of view, not just an update. And rethink your poll strategy, make them specific, relevant, and designed to spark thoughtful replies. These are performance drivers when used well.
· This Is The New Fintech Buyer Based on fresh data from LinkedIn and Forrester, this piece unpacks the rise of multi-stakeholder decision-making in B2B fintech and how trust, AI, and emotional relevance now influence purchase decisions.
Rethink who your social content is actually for. You’re not just targeting the CMO, you’re influencing a web of advisors, analysts, and procurement teams. Build credibility across every post. Focus on clarity, not cleverness. And remember: trust isn’t built through ads. It’s built through consistency.
- Rival IQ – Social Media Industry Benchmark Report 2025 Engagement is slipping almost everywhere this year, but Instagram carousels are bucking the trend, outperforming Reels in several sectors. Revisit your creative planning. If your Reels are seeing diminishing returns, try turning them into carousels instead. Break down your message into swipeable frames. Focus on clarity, value, and momentum across each card. It’s a small tweak that could unlock stronger results.
Create smarter, not just faster
Creative isn’t about ‘being fun on social’. It’s about cutting through noise with consistency. The good news? The reports are showing us how.
- Hootsuite – Social Media Trends 2025 One of the standout themes for 2025 is the rise of micro-virality. In other words, smaller bursts of attention, built from quick, repeatable content that fits the moment.
Focus on building flexible content formats that can be refreshed and reused. Think series, not one-offs. A recurring format makes it easier to test what works, build memory structures, and stay visible without reinventing the wheel each time. Start small, stay consistent, and use data to guide iteration. That’s where sustained performance lives.
- Talkwalker – 128 Must-Know Social Media Stats for 2025 The data points clearly to niche communities delivering stronger ROI, with micro-creators outperforming big-name influencers in engagement and relevance.
Now’s the time to map your niche. Identify the voices already shaping opinion in your space and build meaningful partnerships with them. Co-create content that taps into their audience’s mindset, not just your messaging. These creators bring context, not just reach.
· Hashtags Are Dead – What Works In 2025 This straight-talking piece busts the myth that hashtags still work the way they used to, and explains what you should focus on instead.
Forget chasing trends with dozens of hashtags. Shift your focus to smart metadata, strong copywriting, and platform-native features like alt text and auto-captions. If you’re not using social SEO principles and structuring your posts like a mini headline, you’re being skipped.
- Sendible – 12 Social Media Trends for 2025 Short-form video still leads, but the bar has shifted. It’s not just about being on trend, it’s about delivering value from the first second.
Plan tighter. Treat every short-form post like a headline: what’s the hook, what’s the payoff, and what do you want people to do or feel next? A good video doesn’t just entertain. It builds memory, drives action, or starts a conversation.
Format ROI trends to watch
The formats pulling their weight in 2025, based on platform data and engagement benchmarks.
Strategic shifts you can’t ignore
Social doesn’t sit at the edges anymore. It sits in the middle of your funnel, your brand, and your bottom line.
- Forrester – Predictions 2025: Media & Advertising 10% of performance media budgets are being redirected into social commerce, globally.
Social commerce is no longer just a trend to watch, it’s where budget is actively shifting. If TikTok Shop or Instagram Checkout aren’t already in your testing pipeline, now’s the time to get started. Even a small pilot can help you learn what drives action, where friction lies, and how your audience prefers to buy. The sooner you start, the faster you’ll get ahead.
- WARC – Marketer’s Toolkit 2025 Big theme: AI meets sustainability. But also, social teams need tighter integration across brand, media, and comms.
Use social as the space to learn fast. It’s where you can refine your messaging, spot what resonates, and gather real-time feedback before rolling anything out wider. Let the insights from your posts guide the story across every channel.
· HubSpot – 2025 Social Media Trends Report Social is fast becoming the first place people encounter your brand,whether they’re actively searching or simply scrolling. HubSpot’s 2025 trends report confirms it’s overtaking search and email as the top channel for discovery.
Think of your feed as a living, breathing brand experience. It needs to stop the scroll, earn trust, and give people a reason to click through. That means sharp creative, clear positioning, and content that answers real customer questions.
Review your last nine posts, do they explain who you are, what you offer, and why anyone should care? If not, start there. Because first impressions on social are driving first conversions.
AI and Search – Social Snapshot: AI and Search This blog dives into the convergence of social search and AI search, and why marketers need to optimise for both now, not later.
Start rewriting your social captions with AI summarisation in mind. Prioritise clear product language, keywords users are actually searching, and formats that get surfaced in results. Use social listening tools to identify intent-based queries, then build content that answers them. This is where discoverability meets performance.
Stack, track, optimise
It might not get the glory, but your tech stack is the engine behind every smart move on social. Without the right tools, benchmarks and data flows, you’re guessing. And in 2025, guessing’s a risk your CFO won’t fund.
- Gartner – Digital IQ: Social Marketing Benchmarks 2025 This report helps you benchmark your digital maturity, across social, email, web, and search, against peer organisations.
Run the scorecard now with your senior team. If social is lagging behind web or CRM, it’s time to reallocate focus. Pay particular attention to content performance vs goals: are your organic posts helping meet brand or demand targets? If not, it’s not just a creative issue, it’s a structural one.
- Gartner – Best Social Marketing Management Software Reviews 2025 A side-by-side comparison of top social tools like Sprinklr, Sprout, and Emplifi, including user ratings on campaign automation, A/B testing, and analytics.
Audit your current tech setup. Can it handle dynamic creative testing? Pull search trends? Surface sentiment from comments? If it’s just scheduling posts and reporting likes, it’s not fit for 2025. Build a requirements list and get ahead of renewal season.
· Talking to CFOs – How to Talk to CFOs About Social Media A pragmatic guide for marketers needing to make the case for social with finance leaders, translating engagement into commercial language. Learn your CFO’s priorities: pipeline, efficiency, and risk. Then connect your social performance to those outcomes. Ditch the jargon. Present impact in terms they care about (conversion rates, cost savings, and competitive advantage). Frame social as the insight machine, not just the megaphone.
Time To Think
This is your chance to take a breath, get clear, and start stronger.
These reports are practical prompts to get your social working harder and smarter. Choose two insights that hit home. Turn them into actions. Brief your team. Try, test, tweak.
Pick one theme each week and use it to spark a discussion. Review a campaign, shape a new idea, or challenge what you thought you knew. It doesn’t take long, but it gets everyone thinking forward.
If you want help turning these insights into a proper plan, we’re here. You can book a workshop, browse the blog, or just drop us a note. Start where it suits you.
— PS. Share this with your strategist or content lead. Trust me, they’ll thank you.