What’s IN and OUT for social media in 2025 - I’m calling it… OUT: ❌ TikTok trends no one asked for. Unless your CEO actually wants to do the "Roman Empire" trend, let it go. ❌ Overpolished videos. If it looks like an ad for a luxury car, it’s already lost. ❌ Threads. You tried. We all tried. It’s fine. ❌ Ads with stock photos. If I see another “smiling handshake” guy, I’m uninstalling the internet. ❌ AI fatigue is real. By all means use it to brainstorm captions or automate admin, but please don’t let it write your entire personality. If your post reads like ChatGPT spat it out on its lunch break, we’re not clicking. ❌ Talking head videos. If it’s just someone droning on in front of a white wall… hard pass. And if there are no subtitles? Unforgivable. ❌ Asking for engagement. “Like if you agree, share if you don’t!” We’re not doing that. IN: ✅ Vertical video. LinkedIn’s immersive video feature is coming. If your content isn’t tall and scroll-stopping, it’s already behind. ✅ Subtle corporate gossip. A hint of “this is about a competitor, but I’m not naming names 👀” ✅ Actually knowing your audience. Stop targeting me with ads for local gyms on the other side of the country. ✅ Niche memes. Hyper-specific content > another generic post about “hacking the algorithm to boost visibility.” ✅ Live shopping is the new impulse aisle - part show, part sell, all about turning viewers into buyers in real time. My bank account is already hurting. ✅ Brutal honesty. "We spent our entire marketing budget making this ad. Please buy something so we can do it again next year." (Honestly, I’d click just out of curiosity.) ✅ Rogue LinkedIn polls. “Does pineapple belong on pizza?” No one cares, but we’re all voting. Prediction for 2025: The brands that win will speak human and stop trying to play it safe. Be bold. Be funny. Be the reason someone screenshots your post for the group chat. And if you’re still making talking head videos with no subtitles… we need to talk.
To support brutal honesty... be careful with vertical video (for ads). Over $100k in spend and 4 client accounts, we've uncovered that Vertical (and square) ads significantly underperform and are around 3-5x more expensive to run. Why? Our theory is that vertical is being done by everyone, and more UGC than ever. It's over-saturated. As a shock to us, 16:9's are now standing out, and getting view rates more than double vertical or square. Not saying you're wrong, as vertical is great for personal/thought leadership stuff... but performance and cost wise on the ads-side? It's becoming costly! What I LOVE most about your post is... "stop trying to play it safe. Be bold. Be funny." because you're 10,002% spot on. We're ALL humans. Humans like, want, and need entertainment. If you're not focused on being MEMORABLE, you will lose - full stop. You can throw a bajillion dollars at boring, but you threw a bajillion dollars at it. If you think the cost of fun is high, the cost of boring is 10x higher. Good post, subscribed! haha
Andy Ford
2w
Love all of this, but tough making blanket statements on this topic. You’ll make real video producers cringe with vertical video :) So for people that work where both aspects are needed, that's a tall ask when 16:9 (and the framing of the shot) will be beneficial for most other web uses and they won't be given proper time to do both. That leads to lower quality vertical social video, which can be unpolished but not poor. Threads needs to somehow work for businesses that want searchable conversations on a platform that isn't X/Bluesky and happen to have nonexistent influence on Reddit. Threads has good user count and for some businesses the niche is there. I say it gets another year, because with no-click searches and AI search on the rise, this is another area that businesses must fill to be seen.
Can agree with all except Threads being "out". I've had a ton of clients show much more engagements on Threads Vs X, especially in the realm of proactive community management. I used to think differently but the numbers don't lie!
I've always been a fan of spilling some tea on social media in a non harmful way but just in a spicy humorous way to promote a conversation or similar. Sadly most CMO's or CEOs in SMEs are scared to shit to stray of the beaten path. Generational Blockage is real.
I don't know; I think if the content is short but highly useful, I don't mind the talking head at all. Most of the ones I see don't have a white wall, but plenty talking into a microphone up close. I go into convulsions much more when it's someone in a moving car - nothing says safety quite like a guy talking into a camera while driving on the expressway. Agreed on the captioning - with the caveat that people could do a WAY better job of correcting the spelling in those rather than just accepting whatever is thrown up there as is. AI isn't going to spell it all to perfection. Take the time to do some quality control on that.
Also OUT: agonizing over algorithms and constantly chasing the next shiny thing that always and inevitably gets sold to the highest cringe bidder. Also IN: building your own priceless community-driven ecosystem filled with value on your own terms, on your own website, podcast, and good old fashioned newsletter which will outlive all the shiny things and — bonus points! — always align with your own personality and core values so you can sleep at night. 😉
Can I add an ‘out’ option - no more creepy robot head graphics on ANY AI article - what is this actually communicating? 🤷♀️
Executive Creative Director at 3rdspace
2wCan I add one to the OUT section? Talking about rebrands more than you talk about your own work. Are people that slow with their actual jobs they have time to whinge on LinkedIn? Must be nice to have that much spare time. 🤣 And no, pineapple doesn't belong on pizza.