By Erin Roberts

2024 was no exception to the social media game with the continued growth of TikTok, Elon Musk making even more controversial changes to ‘X’, and the introduction of new buzzwords such as ‘brat’, ‘demure’, and ‘rizz’ for creators to get to grips with.

As we enter Instagram’s 15th anniversary in 2025, this year is set to bring yet more twists and turns for both personal users of social media and brands. As experts in everything social media and property PR, here are some of our predictions for 2025:

TikTok continues to lead the pace – despite USA ‘ban’

With over 1 billion active monthly users of TikTok, the social media platform has cemented itself as a big player since its merger with ByteDance Ltd in 2018, with little chance of its popularity slowing down anytime soon.

Despite the recent temporary shut down in the US after a law banning it on national security grounds came into effect, which later saw the app reinstated again, competition on this platform remains incredibly high, and brand and content creators need to work hard to cut through the noise.

Therefore, a focus in 2025 should be less on ‘viral’ content and more on showcasing expertise, creativity and brand awareness by capitalising on trends and newsworthy stories, as well as evergreen content.

Out with follower growth and in with engagement

Follower growth for creators and brands has been the main focal point for many years when it comes to measuring success. This is looking to shift however, with creators prioritising the ‘social’ in ‘social media,’ shaping content to be more conversational and homing in on quality followers who engage consistently.

Videos to be more commonplace on LinkedIn

Video content is king and drives the majority of engagement on social media as seen on TikTok and the introduction of Instagram and Facebook reels in recent years.

According to Personify, some stats suggest that over 80% of traffic comes from video related content. This reaffirms that creators have just 1-3 seconds to grab users’ attention, and with B2B focused platforms such as LinkedIn with often grittier, more focused content, all the signs are that video will grow in 2025.

A focus on authenticity through UGC

In 2025, we’ll see a rise of authentic news on brands’ social media profiles which speaks to their audiences and puts a strong focus on employee advocacy.

Employee advocacy or user-generated content (UGC) comes from personal accounts of companies and should be central to all plans in 2025. It is free, helps employees’ own personal brand and according to the Tribal Impact, 92% of people trust employee advocacy over brand profiles , even if they don’t know them.

More terms to be coined

We’ve had ‘slay’, ‘demure’ and ‘brat’, so what’s next? Social media trends will always be at the core of content on TikTok and across all social media platforms, but these will continue in the form of new terms / words throughout 2025.

Previously, trends were formed around dances or challenges. This was seen with the early 2010’s Harlem Shake and cinnamon and mannequin challenges, however creators trying to coin phrases is the new phenomenon. So much so, that both ‘brat’ and ‘demure’ were named as Collins Dictionary’s and Dictionary.com’s words of the year respectively.

If you are interested in growing your social media services in 2025 in the property PR space and beyond, please contact Erin today on erin@building-relations.co.uk