Challenges and Goals in Social Media Marketing 2025

New year, new challenges: in 2025, the social media world is still on the move. While artificial intelligence is establishing itself across channels, some platforms are gaining in importance for marketing, while others are losing ground. With Threads and Bluesky, two young networks are competing with X to succeed Twitter.

In this post, we take a look at the key challenges and goals in social media marketing in 2025. We present some of the results of our major social media report for the DACH region and embed them in international studies. We also discuss major social media trends and their significance.

These are the goals companies pursue on social media

Brand awareness and reach: These two goals were already at the top of our last report. However, they have swapped places.

Social networks do indeed open up great opportunities to make brands and their products known. One challenge here is the decline in organic reach over the years. That’s why ads will be an integral part of social media strategies in 2025 in the vast majority of cases.

These social media platforms will be important in 2025

Facebook remains the largest social media network worldwide in terms of user numbers. However, in many countries, the younger generation is turning away from the platform and towards Instagram and TikTok. Our survey results show that companies are responding to such shifts.

• As in the previous year, Instagram is the most important for companies’ social media marketing.
• TikTok has continued to gain in importance, as has YouTube.
• LinkedIn is in third place after Instagram and Facebook. This shows that the platform is now much more than just a career network.
• X has clearly lost out. It remains to be seen whether Threads will become the successor to Twitter instead, or whether Bluesky, which was included in the “Other” category in our survey, will.

We also asked in our survey which social media channels companies want to add to their marketing mix. The most frequently mentioned by the participants were TikTok, LinkedIn and Instagram.

By way of comparison, in a global survey, marketers indicated that they particularly wanted to expand their organic marketing on YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn in the near future.

Tips:

• The decisive factor for choosing a channel remains where your target group is. In addition, available formats and your resources play an important role.
• If your company appeals to younger target groups, TikTok has potential. But familiarize yourself thoroughly with the platform’s mechanisms before you get started, and keep an eye on current legislation.
• Threads and Bluesky have emerged as X’s main competitors. Both have different focuses. You can find out more about this in our comparison of Bluesky, Threads and Mastodon.
• Do you (also) do B2B marketing? Then LinkedIn 2025 is a must-have.

Which formats should companies use in 2025?

Are short videos the format of the moment?

TikTok clips, reels and shorts were among the most frequently used social media formats in our survey. However, the frontrunners are image posts. Carousel posts and stories came in third and fourth.

Good to know: several studies confirm that short videos have a higher reach and interaction rate than other social media formats. However, they are often more time-consuming to create than image posts. What’s more, you don’t reach all users everywhere with videos. That’s why we recommend using a mix of different formats in 2025 too – with a focus on videos if possible.

Lack of resources as a major hurdle

It’s not just creating videos for Instagram, TikTok or YouTube that costs resources. Anyone who wants to be successful on social media in 2025 has their hands full.

It’s therefore not surprising that a lack of resources was cited in our survey as the biggest challenge for the current year. Planning and creating content came in second, followed by “staying up to date on new trends”.

This result is not a local phenomenon. In a global survey by Meltwater, those responsible also complained about a lack of resources for social media marketing, especially a lack of personnel.

AI as a challenge and solution

AI tools are an effective tool against a lack of resources. Social media teams in the DACH region have also recognized the potential of artificial intelligence for their work. Last year, only 50 percent of respondents said they used AI in their work, but this time it was already 87 percent.

This development also reflects a global trend. Whether in content creation, strategy development or community management, AI tools are on the rise. Social media platforms themselves are increasingly integrating AI features into their offerings at multiple levels.

In the face of this development, social media managers are faced with several challenges: they need to stay up to date with the rapid developments in the field of artificial intelligence, select the right tools for their needs and integrate them meaningfully into their strategy. The better they manage to do this, the more they benefit from more efficient processes.

Social SEO – Visibility beyond Google

Until recently, it was still said that anyone looking for something on the internet uses Google. But the number one search engine seems to be losing its monopoly. A survey by Adobe concludes that members of GenZ in particular are increasingly using TikTok for research.

What does this mean for social media managers? In short, social media activities will become even more important in the future as a potential traffic generator for websites and online shops. This means, first and foremost, creating content that inspires your own target group and serves the platforms’ algorithms. In addition, it makes sense to look into search functions, for example on TikTok, and to enrich content with relevant keywords. Classic search engine optimization and SEO are therefore combining, and social SEO is one of the most important social media trends for 2025.

Brands need to appear professional and authentic

Dull, glossy visuals are becoming less and less in demand. In 2025, the trend will continue towards authenticity. At the same time, users expect professional image and sound quality.

For companies and other organizations that present themselves on social media, this means

• The more relatable they are to their target audience, the better. This includes behind-the-scenes glimpses, interviews with employees, and videos of the annual team outing.
• (Micro-)influencers help brands show their human side and avoid overt advertising. On LinkedIn, corporate influencers are gaining in importance.
• Spontaneous video recordings should also be easy to consume. This means, for example, that the actors are easy to understand and there is no background noise. It also means that the lighting is right.

Virtual influencers are taking off

Shudu is a supermodel and influencer who has worked with Versace and regularly posed for Vogue, among others.

So far, so good. What’s remarkable about this is that Shudu is not a human, but a virtual influencer. Computer-generated brand ambassadors will be seen more often in 2025. It’s worth smaller companies taking a look at this, too. While supermodels like Shudu are expensive, platforms like TikTok and various AI tools are opening up new possibilities for cost-effective creation of AI avatars and for using them to engage with their own community. It is unlikely that virtual influencers will replace their human colleagues in the near future. But they are set to become an exciting addition.

Conclusion: existing trends are accelerating

A look at the goals and challenges of social media marketing in 2025 confirms many of the trends that were already apparent a year ago. These include Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn continuing to gain in importance for companies and videos being the format of the moment. In addition, AI tools have rapidly established themselves as important tools. They could help solve the number one challenge in many companies – the lack of resources.

It is currently difficult to predict what role threads and bluesky will play in social media marketing in the coming years. It also remains to be seen how the topic of social SEO will develop. One thing is certain: even in 2025, things will not be boring.