The world of social media never stands still. It feels like a new feature pops up every month—only to disappear just as quickly as it arrived. We took a deep dive into the vast World Wide Web to uncover the latest features, updates, opportunities, and trends as we head into the new year. Let’s get started!

Instagram

Instagram’s priorities for 2025 focus on creativity and connectivity, with artificial intelligence (AI) playing a central role. Meta is investing in Meta AI and the Llama model, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently introduced. Meta AI already has over 600 million monthly active users and aims to become the world's most-used AI assistant. It enables Instagram users to search for content more quickly, automate communication, and create high-quality content with ease.

New AI features include:

• Sync feature for Reels

• AI-based editing tools

• AI-generated story backgrounds

Currently, AI-generated story backgrounds are not—or not yet—available in Europe.

Instagram kicks off 2025 with a new feature that is exciting for both businesses and creators: "Test Reels" or "Trail Reels." This feature allows users to analyze a Reel’s performance before officially posting it. Initially, test Reels are shown only to users who do not follow the account, ensuring a neutral evaluation. If the performance is strong, the Reel is then released to the creator’s community.

The reason behind this? Instagram’s Head, Adam Mosseri, wants to create more space for creative experimentation while reducing the pressure of sharing content. A backlash from one’s own community can escalate quickly, and this new feature is designed to help creators feel less anxious about their audience’s reactions.

Additionally, Meta aims to reward unique and original content more heavily, improving its ranking. Already in spring 2024, an algorithm update favored smaller creators, while reposted content was removed from recommendations to increase visibility for original content. This also renewed Instagram's appeal for newcomers.

However, the increasing use of AI tools could lead to more copied or heavily optimized content, potentially jeopardizing originality on Instagram in the long run. While this doesn't necessarily contradict the promotion of creativity, it could result in a flood of generic content that fails to engage users.

To counteract this, users can now reset their recommendations, helping to filter out unwanted content. This is particularly relevant since Meta replaced content moderation with Community Notes, which may allow more disinformation and hate speech to spread. Furthermore, Instagram users will soon start seeing political content again—even if they don’t want to.

Instagram offers various ways to interact with content: liking, commenting, saving, sharing, and more. The platform wants to strengthen the connection between creators and their communities, making shares a key ranking factor. In fact, shares have now surpassed likes and comments in importance.

Messaging is also becoming a stronger focus, with DMs remaining the most important channel for sharing content. Quick Sharing, introduced in 2024, has been further optimized.

Clearly, Instagram is far from slowing down, and keeping up with these changes is essential for anyone wanting to boost their content's visibility.

TikTok

Let’s jump over to the next platform—and right into the video business. Naturally, things are evolving here as well, because, as we've seen with Instagram, competition never sleeps.

Here are some things set to dominate TikTok in 2025:
TikTok is ramping up AI-powered content creation, improving search and discovery features, and enhancing its live shopping experience.

Interactive AI tools, such as virtual creators, text-to-video generators, lip-sync features, and generative effects, are designed to help brands tell stories in completely new ways. At the same time, TikTok is increasingly becoming the preferred search engine for younger generations. To remain visible, brands must optimize their content for SEO much like they do for Google and align with the new discovery mechanisms.

In e-commerce, TikTok is poised for a strong comeback in Europe after initial struggles, thanks to a personalized, AI-driven live shopping format. Community-driven campaigns will also play a crucial role. Subcultures like BookTok or FitnessTok provide companies with opportunities to target micro-communities with hyper-relevant messages.

For long-term success on TikTok, authenticity remains the key factor. Brands must act like creators and produce content that naturally fits into the platform's fast-paced flow. Storytelling is essential—content should tell genuine stories and resonate with subcultures. At the same time, brands must leverage trends cleverly without coming across as forced or intrusive. A consistent content strategy, combined with the flexibility to react quickly to new developments, is a must.

Ultimately, brands on TikTok don’t succeed with loud advertising messages but by becoming part of the digital conversation and actively engaging with the community.

Facebook - or META

Now, let's shift our focus to advertising. 2025 will be a pivotal year for Meta Ads, as AI, machine learning, and augmented reality transform the digital advertising landscape. Meta has responded by developing powerful tools to help advertisers reach their audiences more effectively while lowering costs.

The AI-powered ad system plays a central role, dynamically adjusting ad content to increase relevance and conversion chances.

With digital marketing increasingly relying on data-driven decisions, companies are investing more in first-party data to reduce dependence on third-party data. Meta supports this shift with the Meta Conversions API, bridging the gap between privacy and effective campaigns—a crucial advantage for e-commerce and SaaS businesses.

AI is also automating complex processes like bidding strategies and audience segmentation. Particularly innovative is the use of Predictive Audiences, allowing advertisers to reach potential customers before they even interact with a brand.

Interactive ad formats are another major trend. AR and 3D ads allow brands to present their products in entirely new ways—think furniture brands using AR to show how a sofa would look in a specific room. This not only boosts engagement but also increases purchasing intent.

Meta Ads has also improved its analytics and tracking tools, providing advertisers with real-time insights into KPIs like click and conversion rates, along with customizable reports for specific campaign goals.

Overall, automation, AI, and interactive content will define Meta Ads in 2025. Those who adapt early and use these tools strategically will create more efficient advertising campaigns and remain competitive in the long run.

LinkedIn

Of course, the largest business social network also has some updates.

The LinkedIn algorithm for 2025 is causing massive changes:

• Many content creators are experiencing a 50% drop in reach, and growth is slowing.

• Paid content is becoming more dominant, pushing organic content into the background.

• Success on LinkedIn is now more about quality than quantity, though regular posting and interaction remain crucial.

The best strategy?
Three posts per week, spaced at least 24 hours apart, to avoid posts cannibalizing each other’s reach.

Certain formats perform particularly well:

• Polls

• Document posts (slideshows)

• Text-image combinations

• Videos

• Pure text posts

Company pages continue to struggle, with their reach now making up just 2% of the feed. External links also significantly reduce reach.

Engagement remains the most important factor—those who interact strategically will still be able to build reach in 2025.

More about LinkedIn can be found in this article: LinkedIn Algorithm Update. 

Summary

That wraps up our Social Media News for 2025! Of course, a lot will change throughout the year— there will probably be new updates next month already.

If you want your content to be seen, you should regularly check where, when, and how to optimize it. Also about the “basic” rules, like when and how much to post you should be informed. 

For more content, check out the F7 Blog.