by Meagan D. Saxton, Social Media Specialist, ddm marketing+communications
The social aspect of social media is at an all-time low. Friends engaging with friends has been supplanted by a torrential downpour of ads and organic posts from brands, squelching the casual conversations and independent creators who attracted users to social media platforms in the first place.
So where can people go to be social with each other? And if you’re a business, where are your customers going? The answers are interrelated, but not straightforward. More critical thought is needed to approach the challenge of social media marketing than ever before — particularly as users abandon traditional platforms.
TikTok might go somewhere, short-form video won’t
After being unavailable for weeks, TikTok downloads resumed on the most popular U.S.-based app platforms. In February, President Donald Trump delayed a ban on the social media app and assured tech giants Google and Apple they would not be fined for distributing or maintaining it. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company.
The threat of banishment hardly put a dent in TikTok’s popularity among its loyal users, including many big brands. Since it was introduced in the U.S. in 2018, the video-based social platform has helped establish the value of educational marketing videos. While B2C ads have the most potential for virality, MailChimp, Square and Adobe have enjoyed success launching B2B video campaigns on TikTok.
Although TikTok has native editing capabilities, non-native tools such as CapCut are useful for creating videos outside the app, then uploading them to the platform. For marketing professionals concerned about a TikTok ban going into effect, save the videos to your phone/device before uploading them to LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, or another platform if migration is necessary.
Is Facebook dead?
Facebook (owned by parent company Meta) remains the world’s most-used social media platform, with 2 billion active daily users. Demographics have shifted, however, as younger audiences reduced engaging with Facebook even as their parents and grandparents have remained loyal.
That’s good news for brands whose customer base tilts older. For others, any Facebook marketing strategy in 2025 needs to account for the fact that younger users might only visit to keep in touch with older relatives. One other constant source of engagement for Facebook has emerged: special interest groups.
Whether they formed around a particular product, a sports team, a genealogical society, or a defunct television series, Facebook groups have maintained their popularity even among users who seldom engage with the platform otherwise. Group administrators can either allow or disallow business pages to join a group, but branded pages shouldn’t bank on being able to advertise to members in this setting. Business pages can create groups themselves, and if these groups continue to show positive ROI in 2025, keep it going. If not, 2025 probably isn’t the time to A/B test your ROI in Facebook groups.
Other trends
The Guardian reported in December that X (formerly Twitter) was losing millions of users each month. The trend was hardly without warning, as X executive Elon Musk’s role in the White House accelerated the trend, but the lesson is enduring regardless of whether or not the mass X-odus continues: be prepared to deploy a versatile social media marketing plan in a world where these kinds of stark trends continue.
Facebook use-cases might become more limited. TikTok might disappear in the U.S. More niche platforms might pop up with smaller but highly engaged user bases. Don’t be afraid to de-emphasize traditional platforms and spend time optimizing for one where you haven’t spent in the past, whether that’s Mastodon or Bluesky or Rednote.
Before launching a bigger investment strategy, get to know who’s on the emerging platforms and pivot where it makes sense. If you’re selling software or something that pertains to developers, get off X and get on Mastodon. Wedding planners will find a large, ready-to-engage user base on Pinterest. Not every marketer will have the bandwidth to be on every platform, and that’s OK.
Looking ahead
There’s probably a platform that doesn’t exist, or maybe exists in beta today, that will be super popular with a particular demographic in a year or two or three. Try to anticipate changes in the social media landscape and be ready to pivot. At the same time, don’t completely abandon customers and clients who became loyal to you on a given platform — at least until regulators force the issue.
Meagan Saxton is a Social Media Specialist at ddm marketing + communications. She has several years of experience creating content and managing social media accounts for healthcare, higher education, and financial services organizations.
