As news feeds continue to get more saturated and consumer behaviour with social media changes, brands are going to need to engage consumers in much more considered ways. And with a TikTok ban looming in the USA, over the past few days we’ve seen users flock to Xiaohongshu (translated as “Little Red Book”, though often called “RedNote”) – and the interactions it’s presenting are wholesome, with netizens using external translation apps to provide content in both English and Chinese to make communication more accessible.

And while it’s still too early to say if Xiaohongshu will become a top social media app outside of China, this shift in user behaviour is notable and reinforces much of what I’m expecting to see in 2025 –

1. Influencers over owned social

One of the biggest changes we’ll see is brands will stop prioritising their owned feeds to push messages, and will start prioritising individuals to share messaging on their behalf.

Why? Two reasons –

First, as we start to see more and more AI slop on newsfeeds, and as it get harder to cut through the noise, consumers are going to prioritise word of mouth recommendations and people they trust over everything else. How else will consumers know for certain that the new product we’re looking at is real or fake? Which is exactly what happened with the crystal mug scam on TikTok during the 2024 Christmas holiday period, where people believed AI-created imagery was real and were tricked into buying a product that couldn’t exist. (Watch a recap by MARKIE about that story on YouTube.)

Second, as the social media landscape becomes more fragmented it will be more difficult for brands to keep up – and collaborating with influencers to reach their audience will become crucial.

So in 2025 expect to hear new brand news from your favourite celebrities, TikTok creators, and Instagrammers as they lend their credibility, authenticity and integrity to brand announcements. Yes brands will follow up with their own messaging – but they’ll lead with influential voices so audiences know this is a message to trust.

And brands are already experimenting with this approach – such as TIRTIR, who launched the expanded shades of their cushions foundation in collaboration with influencers, getting them to review & tease the product before it was available to purchase.

2. Social CRM as a priority

Since late 2010s video has dominated brand social media content – and I don’t expect that to change. But as we get more and more story-led content on every social platform by brands, influencers and new creators, there’s only so much one can do to stand out daily – especially if the resources to consistently create high-quality content (not to be confused with high-quality production) isn’t there.

Which is why in 2025 I expect to see brands who continue to manage an owned social presence shift from storytelling to creating content that centres customer service and experience with more functional messaging that meets us where we’re at. (Which is bored while scrolling in a queue, probably.)

These brands will increasingly leverage social listening to predict future buying needs and provide us with content that meets those needs. We’ll get exclusive discount codes and re-purchase offers. And these brands will use all of this data to create buyer personas that generate new leads and further improve the offers and experiences we’re seeing pop up in our feeds.

When this is done well, consumers won’t notice it happening; we’ll appreciate getting relevant information at the right time, bookmarking that discount code before scrolling to the next piece of content.

3. Shifting metrics for reporting

And as the above changes, so will our priority metrics.

Total impressions, follower counts, and likes / engagement rates? Those will be less important than metrics that measure interest:

• Shares: how many people want to tell their friends about your content?
• Bookmarks: how many people want to revisit your content?

And if you want your brand to be discovered through social media, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok seem to be prioritising highly shared and / or bookmarked content for suggested feed content, regardless of how many followers someone has or likes they’ve received.

And with that context: what does it say if an account has 1,000,000 followers and 500,000 likes on the latest post if 0 people want to see it again and 0 people wanted to tell their friend about it?

4. Goodbye, hashtags

This one may be a bit premature, but hashtags have become nearly irrelevant on Instagram, Facebook and X. Over the past year or so algorithms seem to have deprioritised hashtags as a data point to surface content, and when people seek out hashtags the search results are not ranked in chronological order, but rather in prioritisation of popular content.

And I haven’t even mentioned TikTok’s algorithm yet, where regardless of the hashtags one includes in their post, the “suggested content” seems to be based on the popular keywords from commentors – or the keywords they search immediately after watching a video.

What does this mean for brands? I don’t think it’s time to ditch the hashtags just yet – but certainly get clear on your priority keywords for social media so your content surfaces in relevant search results.

5. The rise of community

This one has been bubbling away in the background for a while. Now with the increased questioning about how Elon Musk engages on his platform X, combined with the reactionary critiques of Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Meta is changing approach to moderation and fact checking, and the looming TikTok ban – 2025 is already giving us shifts in user behaviour on social media. I believe this shift will primarily come from two demographics: 1) people in Western countries who don’t want to lose their TikTok style user experience, and 2) individuals concerned for the safety of minority groups, such as LGBTQIA+, as well as people seeking out like-minded individuals they feel safe with because studies show that people are less likely to trust fact-checking by counter-partisans.

And while Xiaohongshu has already seen a spike in downloads this week, this landscape is also creating opportunities for platforms such as Reddit (which focuses on interests and information exchange) and Discord (which is all about conversation and connection in closed groups) to move from niche to mainstream.

For brands, there are already opportunities – both consumer and corporate – to tap into these channels. From audience insights on Reddit (where I’m certain your brand is already being talked about!) to dedicated communities of superfans on Discord who can provide real-time feedback at scale. Check out what the gaming industry is doing with Discord if you need some inspo!

As for Xiaohonshu? Well, if that’s where you audience goes, you may want to go with them… or find an influencer who can help you connect with them through their content.

Image description: white hearts inside red social-media style speech bubbles against a light blue background. Image created by LinkedIn’s AI image generator.