Hootsuite just released its 2025 Trend Report and, if we’re honest, has played it pretty safe in its predictions. No jaws were on the floor here in the RBH Social team – sorry Hootsuite.
Let’s take a closer look at its three main predictions:
1. Content experimentation
TikTok pipped this in its own 2024 trends report, noting brands and creators would need to show “creative bravery” and push the boundaries of current content trends to cut through.
So, there’s not much ‘new news’ in Hootsuite’s primary prediction that “social teams will ditch brand consistency to push creative boundaries” in 2025.
Most decent social teams have understood for years that content needs to entertain, educate or inform – and with the push to make brands branch out of their content comfort zones has come a bevy of video content, which means you must be quicker, smarter, and more unhinged than the next team to stand out and cut through.
Examples of brands escaping the constraints of their brand guidelines and, instead, creating a brand identity for each social channel include, among many others: Currys (think the Gen Z script writing trend, which RBH copied to our IG audience’s delight), The RSPB’s ‘Birds of Slay’ TOV on TikTok, or even the National Gallery on Threads.
Outbound engagement (aka commenting as a brand account)
Social teams have long been aware that the comments section in posts, especially on TikTok, Instagram, and Threads are where you can maximise engagement, hopefully win some positive visibility, and to stay out of conversations where they’re not welcome – aka avoid a “How do you do, fellow kids?” moment at all costs.
Its three rules of engagement – 1) Is the conversation relevant to our brand? 2) Does our comment add value? and 3) Is our timing right? – are useful reminders for anyone starting out in social, but again, there’s little here that hasn’t been known and actioned by most teams for years.
That said, there is some useful data to be found, which could help social teams’ community management strategy. For example, we learn that social agency ‘Social Element’ found from two years’ research that comments between 50-99 characters receive most engagement, with 10-49 coming second highest. They also found data to show that comments posted 1-2 hours after the original post went live receive more engagement than those posted in the first hour.
2. Social listening
We can’t deny social listening has been having a moment in 2024. With few ways to measure ROI on organic social, Hootsuite gives some solid suggestions for how social listening can improve brands’ reporting. I think there will certainly be a surge in brands investing in this in 2025.
Social trendjacking
Here’s where it gets a bit more tenuous. Hootsuite says it wants you to use social listening to discover how your audience feels about a trend before jumping on it. A bit of a reach? I think so.
For huge corporations, I can see how this could give assurance and confidence to nervous stakeholders. However, in most cases a good social media manager knows their audience and should be trusted to know if a trend is worth jumping on. And, with the speed at which social content today moves, anything that slows down trends-based content need weighing up.
Again, there are useful takeaways too. Hootsuite notes it found that consumers want brands to get involved in cultural moments/trends, in its 2024 Social Consumer Report. A rare moment of assurance for social teams when it comes to creating their 2025 strategies!
Another helpful point Hootsuite makes is encouraging social content creators to have enforced breaks from trendjacking to see what unique, original content they can come up with instead. Essential if you want to create a moment for your brand that truly sets it apart.
3. AI
Overall, the report seems to recommend a similar approach to the one RBH is taking with generative AI – what it calls the sandwich approach – which is starting and ending the creative process with humans and using AI at touchpoints in the middle to help. However, it has not included any caveats around rights and ownership.
In fact, one of the most interesting statements is: “Even organizations in heavily regulated industries like government, finance, and healthcare have hopped on the AI bandwagon. And get this: These industries now use AI more than loosely regulated industries, which is surprising given their strict compliance rules, regulations, and privacy policies. This time last year, the opposite was true. So, the swap says it all — AI for content creation has become standard practice in social media marketing.”
Is it wise for Hootsuite to be so pro-AI for content creation without including any warnings to users that they may risk copyright infringement or even legal action if they don’t have full usage rights?
Overall, while it definitely includes some useful stats and thinking points, we found TikTok’s 2024 Trend Report much more progressive, daring, and insightful than this from Hootsuite. In comparison, this one felt like it should have been written at the start of 2024 if it wanted to make social professionals think.
