Social Trends to Watch in 2025

Polarization, Regulation, and Personalization Are Set to Disrupt the Landscape

Report by Jasmine Enberg  | Dec 19, 2024

Top Trends to Watch in 2025

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Need-to-Know Trends Across 12 Industries and 6 Regions

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Table of Contents
Political polarization will disrupt an already fraught social landscape
The 'TikTokification' of social media will outlast the potential TikTok ban
Messaging will be a new front in the monetization wars
Social media will squeeze traditional search budgets as shopping gets more social
Social will go local in a quest for incremental growth—and to ward off regulators
Sources
Media Gallery
About This Report
As social media strengthens its grip on consumers’ digital lives in 2025, political polarization, regulation, and a desire for deeper personalization will shake up the landscape.
Topics
Social Media Usage
US
Table of Contents
Political polarization will disrupt an already fraught social landscape
The 'TikTokification' of social media will outlast the potential TikTok ban
Messaging will be a new front in the monetization wars
Social media will squeeze traditional search budgets as shopping gets more social
Social will go local in a quest for incremental growth—and to ward off regulators
Sources
Media Gallery

Social marketers will have their work cut out for them in 2025. Social media usage is becoming more polarized and personalized, while a possible TikTok ban threatens to shake up the landscape. With or without TikTok, social video is here to stay. But social search and messaging will also demand marketer attention, especially as shopping gets more social.

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Table of Contents

  1. Political polarization will disrupt an already fraught social landscape
  2. The 'TikTokification' of social media will outlast the potential TikTok ban
  3. Messaging will be a new front in the monetization wars
  1. Social media will squeeze traditional search budgets as shopping gets more social
  2. Social will go local in a quest for incremental growth—and to ward off regulators
  3. Sources
  1. Media Gallery

Charts in This Report

Only YouTube, Facebook, and Snapchat Are Used by Roughly Equal Shares of Trump and Harris Voters (% of US presidential election voters who use each social platform, by candidate, Nov 2024)US Advertisers Will Spend Over $10 Billion More on Social Video Than Linear TV in 2025 (billions in US TV/digital video ad spending, by format, 2019-2025)
Direct Messages Are the Top Method for Contacting Brands on Social Media (% of US/UK social media users who contact brands on social media using each method, Oct 2024)Meta AI Could Surpass ChatGPT in Monthly Users Thanks to Its Built-In Audience
Social Networks and YouTube Are Strong Contenders for Shrinking Linear TV Audiences (millions of US YouTube viewers, social network users, and linear TV viewers, 2011-2025)

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authors

Jasmine Enberg

Contributors

Rahul Chadha
Director, Report Editing
Vladimir de Leon
Chart Editor
Madan Kumar
Copy Editor
Penelope Lin
Director, Data Visualization
Minda Smiley
Senior Analyst, Social Media
Tracy Tang
Senior Researcher
Emman Velasco
Chart Editor
Paul Verna
VP, Content