This includes roughly a quarter or more on each site who say they extremely or fairly often see inaccurate news. For example, Democratic news consumers on most sites are more likely than their Republican counterparts to get news from advocacy or nonprofit organizations. Some of these sources are more likely to be used by different groups regardless of what platform they are using. For TikTok news consumers, these types of accounts are the most common news source.
Here are the top 15 social media trends you need to know heading into 2025 — and actionable tips to help you bring them to your social media content. Welcome to social media marketing in 2025, where trends go from brat to demure in a matter of days. Then ask yourself which platforms you would be comfortable using and creating content for. Consider first which platforms your audience uses most. But what I’ve learned is that it’s less about being everywhere and more about the content quality and knowing your audience. After digging into the data and hearing from social media experts, I’m convinced that the social media landscape is more fluid and changing than ever.
- So, which apps grew the most between 2024 and 2025?
- These updates aim to increase visibility for content creators while safeguarding original material against unauthorised use.
- For perspective, we already have six platforms that reach more than 1 billion active users each month, and a total of 15 platforms that reach at least 500 million people.
- Google Discover is now including content from X, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts in its personalized feed, allowing users to follow their favorite creators and publishers.
Perfect for creators and businesses who want to give a video a push without diving into full ad campaigns. Instead of a full-screen vertical layout, LinkedIn is experimenting with a carousel-style video tab—think horizontally swipable content. Threads now lets users add up to 10 bio topics, limit replies to followers only, and enjoy a more polished video player experience. Why this mattersThis brings a dynamic layer to content without needing video. Pinterest has released its first trend report analyzing how male users engage with the app and the topics resonating with them.
That means Reddit’s reported global total has more than doubled since October, with an increase of 342 million taking the global total to 606 million. For perspective, the US is still TikTok’s largest market, and with close to 136 million active adult accounts, the United States accounts for roughly 8½ percent of TikTok’s global ad audience. However, YouTube is so dominant that it still accounts for a greater share of time than TikTok and Instagram… combined. But to offer an ever more vivid sense of the scale involved when it comes to TikTok, it’s worth considering that the 6.6 billion TikToks tagged with “#FYP” attracted an incremental 24 trillion views in 2024 alone.
More strikingly, data.ai’s intelligence suggests that the average Indonesian TikTok user spent almost 45 hours using the app in November 2024. And if we take a moment to digest the implications of this data, it seems as though the average TikTok user opens the app at least once every 90 minutes, and then spends close to 6 minutes using it. The latest figures show that the typical user opened TikTok’s Android app an average of 360 times in November 2024, which equates to an average of 12 sessions per day.
This shift toward smaller, purpose-driven online spaces highlights the growing demand for more personalized social media experiences. These platforms not only reduce customer support costs but also boost sales through peer recommendations . Here’s a closer look at how major platforms are enabling these communities with specialized features. Similarly, Spotify’s “Wrapped” campaign uses listener data to create shareable, personalized insights that fans love . Nike’s 2024 Instagram campaign used data from its Nike Training Club app to deliver workout plans and product suggestions.
But for added perspective, it may be interesting to learn that 3.2 percent of adult users still identify X as their favourite social media platform. And amongst the options included in this question in GWI’s survey, Instagram comes out top, with 16.6 percent of adult social media users identifying it as their favourite social platform. However, for reassurance, data from Statcounter indicates that Android powers close to three-quarters (73.5 percent) of all the smartphones in use today, so data for Android handsets is representative of the vast majority of the world’s social media users. Our analysis of data from various third-party sources indicates that YouTube is the most used social media platform at the start of 2025.
For example, data.ai’s figures show that barely 1 in 5 active users opened the Bluesky app each day between September and November, which is less than half the daily open rate enjoyed by X. That’s 25 times less than Instagram users spent using the Instagram app on Android devices, and 7.6 times less than X users spent using X’s Android app during the same period. For example, data.ai’s figures suggest that barely 1 in 4 of the platform’s active users logged in on a daily basis between September and November 2024. And these figures are corroborated by third-party intelligence from data.ai too, which shows similar active user figures for the platform’s mobile app. Indeed, data suggest that barely 1.1 percent of YouTube’s users are unique to the platform, despite it being the world’s largest platform by active users. WhatsApp and Facebook rank third and fourth, respectively, with both platforms capturing roughly the same amount of total user time each month.
TikTok, in partnership with Booking.com, now lets users book hotel stays directly within the app. This allows the creators to tag the business, choose tasks (e.g. video promo), and earn rewards when those tasks drive bookings or sales. Instagram has introduced a new Instagram Map feature, appearing at the top of users’ Direct Message (DM) inboxes.
YouTube: AI Tools and Enhanced Creator Support
Telegram is a community-based messaging app. Similar to WhatsApp, you can place ads on Facebook and Instagram that direct users to Messenger. When people click on the messenger icon, it’ll instantly start a conversation with you. Brands often use it to create chatbots, offer real-time customer support, and send regular updates.
This project was designed to understand how people’s experiences and views differ across social media sites and apps. Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand how TikTok users, X (formerly Twitter) users, Instagram users and Facebook users experience news on these platforms. Leading social media platforms in Hong Kong 2025, based on market share Usage of the major social media platforms varies by factors such as age, gender and level of formal education. YouTube and Facebook are the most widely used social media platforms in the United States.
YouTube holds second place with around 2.5 billion users. Facebook is the largest social network in the world. Plan, manage, & analyze posts for every social channel in one spot with Later.
LinkedIn continues to grow
The platform is a great place for connecting with Millennials and Gen Z users. Impressively, the social platform earned a revenue of $1.34 billion in Q alone, a 9% increase year-over-year. Despite attempts to ban TikTok in the U.S. and being banned in India, as of 2024, the app had been downloaded 825.5 million times in 2024, making it the most downloaded mobile app for the same year. However, a report from Bloomberg suggests the parent company generated somewhere in the ballpark of $155 billion in 2024 – and the social app accounts for a percentage of that.
- If you haven’t fully explored these new features yet, now’s the perfect time to get started.
- It can help you stay responsive, boost interaction rates, and keep your brand voice consistent, even on a tight schedule.
- Instagram has rolled out Reels algorithm control, a feature that lets users influence how often they see specific Reels.
- Like monthly active users and audience demographics.
- TikTok is testing a new feature (in China’s Douyin app for now) called the “V Project.” It could let creators make AI versions of themselves to create videos, even when they’re not filming.
Additionally, the platform also saw meaningful drops in Brazil – where it lost nearly 20 million accounts – as well as in France and Australia. Our analysis of the data indicates that the biggest drops have affected countries across South-East Asia, with Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia all seeing a drop of more than 30 percent, and Vietnam’s reported total falling by more than 40 percent The company’s own figures still allude to 2 percent year-on-year growth in global ad reach, but these recent corrections mean that TikTok’s ad reach now equates to less than 20 percent of the global population. Indeed, the global potential reach figure delivered by Bytedance’s ad planning tools points to a drop of almost 100 million accounts between October 2024 and January 2025, resulting in a quarter-on-quarter decline of 5.7 percent. Having said that, Instagram remains a top choice for marketers in 2025, so these reviews should focus on improving is efficiency and effectiveness.
Taking a Strategic Approach
However, on a relative reach basis, figures suggest that YouTube is most popular in Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Singapore. And if you should happen to find yourself in that unlikely position, please do get in touch – I’d love to know your secret. In other words, only when you’ve completely exhausted all of the opportunities on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok do you need to start worrying about that shiny new platform you heard about in the media.
Digg launches its new Reddit rival to the public
Increasingly, people also use Instagram for shopping directly from storefronts. Partner with influencers in your niche to expand your reach and drive more sales. It has evolved into the world’s second-largest search engine after Google, with more than 61 million creators worldwide. It has a 30,000+ strong Facebook community to support its users. Bringing people together in a community can nurture a sense of belonging and foster loyalty. This high usage underscores the potential of building a community on this platform.
YouTube – Platform Updates and Features
Meanwhile, you can reach 99.3 percent of Facebook users on other platforms, and that figure rises to 99.9 percent for TikTok, Snapchat, X, and Telegram. And the key takeaway here is that you can reach almost all of the users of any given social platform on at least one other platform. However, there’s another dataset that’s well worth considering when you’re exploring the role of different platforms, and that’s the extent to which their audiences overlap. That rich collection of data should already help you to make sense of which platforms dominate today’s social landscape. This data is again informed by intelligence from Sensor Tower’s data.ai, and it shows that YouTube takes the lion’s share of the world’s social media time.
YouTube has Published Seven Tips for Creators
Also, the safety & age-based restrictions help protect users while expanding functionality. It has also increased the number of images/videos you can attach (up to nine per message), from either the camera roll or via the TikTok camera. TikTok now lets users send voice notes up to 60 seconds in one-on-one and group chats.
Instagram’s DM Overhaul
Returning to the data, Facebook ranks third, with data.ai’s latest intelligence suggesting that the platform’s user base is roughly 82.2 percent the size of YouTube’s. Social media platforms also adopt different metrics and varying levels of “secrecy” when it comes to active user numbers, so we can’t reliably compare the companies’ own numbers. After years of working in print and digital publications, she transitioned to a full-time marketing career in 2021. Before joining Hootsuite in 2022, Liz worked as a brand strategist, content editor, and digital campaign manager.
No fluff, only first-hand expert advice & useful marketing trends. HubSpot uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. I’ll keep experimenting, testing, and checking the data to see where things are headed — and I hope this breakdown helped you feel a little more equipped to do the same.
