Posts from May 2025

 
We’ve reached the end of May, which means it’s time for another social media & digital marketing roundup. 
 
Here’s a look at all of the news from the last month. 

Threads Active User Base 

Threads has revealed their active userbase has now reached 350m users – bringing them closer to X. Threads saw an increase in active users around October 2024, and it has kept growing month by month. X claims to have 600 million active users – which whilst still a way ahead of Threads, does show that the gap is beginning to grow – especially with X continuing to lose users, especially in Europe. X has lost over 11 million users since August 2024 in the EU, and is also losing users in the UK – casting doubt on its apparent growing active user’s figures. That being said, Threads, which is also making an effort to separate itself from Instagram, has firmly positioned itself ahead of Bluesky as the viable alternative to X. 

Updates To Edits 

Instagram’s Edits app has been updated with new features. Over 100 new fonts have been added, animations, beat markers and an inspiration section have also been implemented - as well as new vocal effects and an ‘apply to all’ option for tools. Instagram are aiming to keep the app updated with new features weekly, but whilst it’s free to use for now, there is a chance the app will have to introduce paid options – especially when they begin to roll out AI powered tools. 

Meta Ad Updates 

Meta have announced Ad updates at NewFronts 2025, across Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. 
 
Instagram wise, Meta have started to test Reels trending ads - these act a little like TikTok’s Pulse ads, displayed amongst other, trending reels. They’re also testing Trends in Instagram’s Creator Marketplace, which will, as per Meta, “allow advertisers to discover real-time culturally relevant insights on Instagram”. Creator Marketplace API will give businesses the ability to connect with high-quality creators and make data-driven decisions about their partnerships. 
 
Video ads are being tested on Threads, letting businesses “expand their reach and engage with their audience in a familiar way across multiple platforms”. 
 
Facebook Reels will see a roll out of video expansion, which helps advertisers get better outcomes from their videos. New ad formats will also be applied to Facebook and Instagram, now allowing Partnership Ads with one partner in the ad’s header and Facebook Live Partnership ads. 

TikTok Live DMs for Customers 

If you use TikTok live to sell your items, then this may be helpful for you. TikTok are rolling out an option to switch on DMs during livestreams, allowing you to generate leads directly from broadcasts. There’s now an option titled LIVE setup for client acquisition, and it gives you an option to include a message CTA button on your livestreams so viewers can quickly get in contact if they’re interested in what you’re advertising. 
That’s all for May! Have a great June and keep an eye out for more updates over the coming month. 
 
Finally, your social media tip this month is: You do not need high production to make video work in your ads. 
 
In fact, sometimes a simple video filmed on your phone outperforms everything else. 
 
The goal is not perfection, it is connection. 
 
Show your face. Talk directly to your audience. 
 
Explain what you offer and why it matters, clearly and calmly. 
 
Keep the video short. Thirty seconds can be enough. 
 
Use captions so people can follow along with the sound off. 
 
And always end with a clear call-to-action. 
 
Video builds trust. It makes you feel real. 
 
That alone can drive more clicks and conversions than a polished graphic 
 
 
The 2020s has seen a huge increase in the development and usage of AI – and in 2025, the majority of social media platforms and search engines, especially Google, have made sure to implement AI features in some way. 
 
But is AI the way forward for digital marketing? Whilst there are benefits to the AI boom, there’s also concerns about the impacts it will have on digital industries, as well as ethical and environmental issues that may arise. 
 
In this blog, we’ll look at the pros, cons and future of AI in the world of digital marketing. 

Pros Of AI In Digital Marketing 

Predictive Analytics: AI can have valuable impacts on your analytics, by predicting future outcomes of campaigns by collecting and analysing your current data quickly. It will allow you to make faster, better decisions about the content you’re creating and boost your response to future trends. 
Time-Saving: Starting with the pros, AI can be a time saver for businesses who are looking to post on social media but don’t have enough hours in the day to sit down and create content themselves. Whilst there are drawbacks to this (which we’ll get to later), AI can provide a helping hand to those who want to create a digital presence online quickly. Giving some information about your business and style of post to an AI system such as ChatGPT will help it to create a post that’s relatively branded to your business’ message – and can speed up the launch of your campaigns. 
 
Customer Experience: AI Chat Functions allows your audience to get instant answers 24/7 to frequently asked queries, but also with a chance to provide human interaction if it’s still required towards the end. On Meta platforms, simply set up Business AI in Meta Business Suite, select which topics you want AI to help with, connect your business portfolio and set up AI. You can then add further recommended information to make responses more accurate – when using Messenger, you can view and manage AI chats in your inbox in Meta Business Suite, and will be able to see when an AI chat is happening as it will be labelled as AI active. Messages will also be labelled as "Generated by AI". 
 
Ad Campaigns: Struggling with Ads? Sites like Facebook offer something called Advantage+, which is made to ‘improve efficiency’ and help you reach your business goals by applying AI across your campaigns. Whilst this can be helpful for businesses looking to quickly put out an ad campaign, it can have it’s set backs if you’re not familiar with how to use it alongside human-created campaigns. 

Cons With AI In Digital Marketing 

Personalisation: Whilst AI can be great for creating content, it also removes authenticity and personalisation – which can get you lost in a sea of other businesses using the same AI methods to create their content. Being able to produce content yourself, whether you do it in house or outsource it, can help you stand out from the crowd and attract an audience who are looking for a business that genuinely is talking to them, understanding their needs and helping to provide a solution to a problem that they’re having. Adding a little human emotion can aid in making content feel less generic, and can be the thing that hooks in an audience member, rather than leaving them scrolling on by. AI driven content can save time, but that doesn’t always mean it’s the best available option. 
 
Ad Campaigns: We’ve spoken about the pros of using AI in ad campaigns, but what are the cons? Well, ad-campaigns have been able to be successful prior to the roll out of AI applied systems and sometimes, these systems may not get things 100% correct. You should know your audience demographics the best, and if you already have a content style that matches with your business’ branding then you shouldn’t need to use AI at all, or too much, when you’re creating an Ad. There’s also the ethical concern of trust – when it comes to your ad creative, you need to ensure that your graphics and accompanying text represents your business 100% truthfully, and makes no false claims or shows no false or enhanced products. Your audience need to be able to trust that what they’re being sold is the real deal. 
 
Brand Voice: Heavy reliance on AI for your content can dilute your brand voice – making you fall behind other businesses in your industry. What makes you different? What makes you stand out? Your brand voice can help to assert this to your audience, giving your content a unique style and personality in a highly competitive digital landscape. 
 
Environmental Concerns: People are becoming more environmentally conscious – and AI systems use a lot of energy and creates electronic waste, which can have significant impacts on the environment. Sustainability has risen in recent years, with PwC research finding four fifths or people are willing to pay more for sustainable goods – so, if your products are sustainable, using AI can directly go against potential practices that your pride your business’ products or services upon. 
AI isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and as more and more platforms begin to introduce it into daily social media habits, creation and searches, it can be difficult to avoid it altogether. Whether you fully lean into using AI, decide against it completely or want to find a happy medium – there is a role for it building in the digital marketing space, but where it will end up is yet to be seen in the future. 
 
Picking the right platform for your business can be tough, especially when you’re first starting out. 
 
Facebook and LinkedIn both have huge audiences that are actively awaiting a business just like yours to come into their lives – but which one is best for your business in 2025? 
 
Let’s take a look at both platforms in more detail. 

Audiences 

First, we have to look at each platforms intended audiences. Facebook has an active user base of 3 billion people monthly, whereas LinkedIn has just under 2 billion a month. Facebook is one of the worlds biggest social media platforms, and has a diverse, worldwide audience from all age groups – although Millennials and older seem to be more frequent users than the younger generations who frequent TikTok and Instagram more often in 2025 – leaving the likes of Facebook behind. 
LinkedIn may have a smaller audience, but it’s full of industry experts and companies – the perfect audience if you’re looking to network and you’re catering your content to a more professional audience. 

B2B vs B2C 

Facebook is perfect for B2C Marketing (Business To Consumer). If you’re running ads, advanced targeting features make Facebook the perfect place to promote your products and services directly to your ideal customer. If you’re using it for general marketing, you can begin to create posts designed to attract and convert the audience members, driving high engagement from consumers. 
 
If your content is more for B2B audiences, then LinkedIn is the platform you should choose. It’s tailored for you to build business connections, and LinkedIn ads allow you to target by job title, industry and company size and more professional demographics. 

Content Styles 

Facebook content can be a mix of many styles including entertainment, education, sales and engagement posts. Photos and videos, live content, text-based and polls all work depending on the type person your audience members are. Storytelling and creating emotional connections work well on Facebook, as does showing behind the scenes content, user generated content and hosting contests. Brand voices can vary on here too – making the platform better for broader range of business. 
 
LinkedIn content is more professional and driven by value – articles, industry news, business updates – all of this can help users over there to understand a little more about you. It can also improve other’s industry knowledge and enhance their careers and provide insights to users. Longer captions that are thought-provoking can work incredibly well in this type of setting, but don’t hesitate to show emotion – in 2025, people are really starting to move towards authenticity rather than very straight-forward pitch style posts – so consider this too when creating content for LinkedIn. 

Audience Relationship 

Facebook allows you to build personal relationships with consumers – replying to comments, messages, live chats and driving conversations lets you build up brand trust and cement great relationships with your audience. You have the opportunity to create a brand experience for audiences that have them coming back for more – and having a great relationship with the brand itself is part of this. 
 
LinkedIn relationships require a much more long-term strategy – you’re still building credibility and trust, but you’re also establishing industry authority. It’s ideal to nurture leads, develop partnerships and recruit talent and is best used for thoughtful, dedicated outreach rather than a fast-paced conversations. 

Groups 

Facebook Groups can be a huge part of your marketing strategy – nearly 2 billion people are actively using groups every month, and you should be too. Groups are communities usually dedicated to a specific topic, and your business can create one to build up a loyal community offering exclusives, support and giving other customers a dedicated place to talk to each other and to your business. 
 
LinkedIn groups are more focused on industry-specific conversations and networking, and are great for finding niche B2B communities where you can participate and add value to the discussions that are ongoing within these specific groups. 
In 2025, the two also can work interchangeably, as long as you have distinct strategies tailored to both that can bring success on LinkedIn and Facebook. There is no one-size-fits all approach to marketing, but hopefully this blog has given you some idea as to which platform fits your business the best, whilst also giving you enough insight into the other to craft a great strategy that can be applied to both, if you choose to use them alongside one another. 
 
Your social media posts need good copy if you want to draw in engagement. Having impressive graphics but poor copywriting makes your campaigns disjointed, and can lose the attention from your audience if they’re not hooked in straight away. With users scrolling passively online you need to create an impact instantly and your copywriting is a key component in getting people to engage and follow your call to action. 
 
Here's how to master copywriting on social media. 

Know Who You’re Writing For 

As with most elements of social media marketing, you have to know who your audience are – or who you want them to be. Your copy needs to resonate with the people you want to target – for example, you wouldn’t use Gen Z lingo if you’re after engagement from Boomers or Gen X, or you wouldn’t use the professional style language you do on LinkedIn on TikTok. 
Each platform needs different approaches to copywriting – as mentioned, on LinkedIn you need to more professional, Facebook and Instagram are platforms you can explore storytelling and emotion, whereas X and TikTok are platforms that are to the point and less formal. Before you start writing copy, consider what platform it’s for and who it’s for – this’ll help you figure out a structure and tone of voice that can then be replicated in your future campaigns. 

Sound Human 

Make sure your copywriting sounds like it’s coming from a human, not a brand. Corporate language isn’t enticing to your average audience member – authenticity is. If they feel like there’s a belief and passion behind the business, then making a connection with that business will be easier. Be relatable and ensure your brand voice remains consistent – reflecting your brand identity. Even if you’re aiming more for B2B marketing, you can still add a little personality into your posts whilst maintaining a professional image. 
 
Your message has to be clear and obvious – each point has to mean something to an audience member, and being passive or using too much padding can lose their interest. Active words and phrases are best, especially if you’re writing copy for ads

Intention 

Your call to action is important – but what does it ask the audience to do? You have to think of this before your put a post out. Make it clear to the audience what you want them to do next – is it to click a link, engage with the post in some way, watch a video? You don’t have to sell constantly with your posts – mixing things up and simply having posts that drive engagement in between sales posts can be helpful for building awareness and trust in your brand. 

Encourage Conversation 

Writing copy that makes your audience want to engage means that you’re speaking to your audience and not at them. When this brings in comments, reply and join in with conversations that your audience are already having. Building a relationship with members of your audience helps to turn them into returning and loyal followers and customers, so when someone leaves a comment, acknowledge it and get involved. 

Use Emotion 

Emotion can be the key to powerful copy – whether it’s making people curious, happy, tugging at the heartstrings or making them nostalgic, evoking a feeling that aligns with your brands message but doesn’t over-load your audience member is important. Pairing information with an emotional aspect can help to drive conversions – you’re offering a solution to a problem that your audience member has, so show AND tell them how your product or service will solve this problem. Remember, it’s about adding value to the life of your audience member from the moment they read your post to the moment they receive and use the product or service that you have to sell them. 
Social media is filled with distractions, but it also provides opportunities when you fully understand how to use it to your advantage. Demanding attention in a crowded space isn’t always easy, but great copy is one step towards drawing people in and getting them to engage and buy from your business. 
 
There are many ways to grow your small business, but one of the best ways to do so in 2025 is through social media marketing. Choosing to go down this avenue can help drive engagement, boost sales and make you a competitive force in your industry, but you first have to work out how to make social media work the best for your business. 
 
Here are some top tips you can use to get your small business started with your social media marketing. 

Understanding Your Audience 

The key to your digital marketing is knowing exactly who your audience is. If you don’t know who your ideal customer is, then you won’t be able to target your content accordingly – potentially attracting the wrong audience to your social media pages.  
You should have an idea of the type of person you want to purchase your products, and you need to really focus in on their characteristics and traits – especially if you’re planning on running ads. Things to think about the gender of your audience, their age, income, location and their hobbies and interests. When you have all of this information, you should be able to build up a picture of your audience, which will then help you to create your content according to their wants and needs. You can pair your information on your audience with your branding, ensuring you have a cohesive style across your platforms which also attracts the specific audience that you are marketing to. 

Choosing The Correct Platforms 

It’s imperative that you select the right platforms to market your business on. There’s a plethora of choice out there, but platforms hold audiences that may better or worse for your business to post on, and you shouldn’t have to spend time on the ones that are less likely to perform and fail to hit your goals. Focus your attention and content onto the platforms where your audience is already spending the most time: 
 
If you’re all about visual branding, then Instagram is the perfect place for your posts – allowing you to create a feed that looks professional and inviting to new followers. 
If you’re more about engaging with your community, promoting to your local area and establishing yourself before running ads then Facebook is your go to – and it’s the most popular choice worldwide for businesses, with 86% using the site for marketing (Statista). 
LinkedIn is great place to go if you’re less about B2C marketing and all about B2B marketing. This is where you’re likely to find likeminded business owners who are interested in what you have to offer them, and is the best place to advertise any of your professional services. 
YouTube & TikTok are ideal if you’re creating video content. Whilst you can post longer videos on TikTok, it’s best to have these on YouTube – whereas TikTok is a much quicker paced app that requires you to instantly capture your audience’s attention. 
 
One thing to consider is the age group of your target audience, as this can help point you towards the right platform for your business. If your audience are Gen Z then TikTok, Reels or Instagram generally are the best to leverage. Millennials are also on TikTok, but they also form the most popular audience on a number of different platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and X. Gen X and Boomers are most likely to be found on Facebook, but also do crossover with YouTube. If you’re selling, then Sprout Social found Facebook, TikTok and Instagram to be the top 3 platforms for making direct purchases. 

Consistency 

Success isn’t something that’ll come instantly, and requires you to show up regularly. Content calendars and scheduling tools can help for peace of mind and ease if you aren’t able to take time out of your day to post on your account. Posting consistently allows your audience to begin to become familiar with your business and your content, keeping you at the forefront of their minds and feeds when they open up their social media. If you haven’t been posting already, then you may have to test different strategies with your consistency including frequency of posts and timing of posts until you find the one that brings you the most audience engagement. 

Quality Over Quantity 

That being said, you should prioritise quality over quantity. Having a lot of posts may sound like a good idea, but they also must provide value to your audience. If you’re aimlessly posting lots of content with no clear direction or strategy, you may have populated your pages with little engagement to show for it. Instead, focus on creating high-quality graphics, copy and videos that allow you to really show your how your business is an answer to a problem that your audience is having, give them more information about what your products or services do, and make them want to find out more. Your posts should be branded, and working alongside the goals and campaigns you mapped out before you started your social media marketing. 

Don’t Just Sell – Engage 

Social media is exactly what it says – social. It’s not a place for you to sell, sell, sell – even if that is the end goal to your campaigns and posts. When advertising products, you’re not just telling people to buy something, but you need to show or explain to them why they should be investing in your product/service. You need to build rapport with your audience, show them that you can be a trusted brand that delivers on your promises and that you’re happy to answer any questions in a prompt and professional manner. You have to warm up cold audiences, and by interacting with them, building a relationship and providing excellent customer service you can help to guide them in direction of a purchase after your post has already sparked interest. 
Social media may seem like a big task when you first start out, but hopefully these tips will help you to create a winning strategy that allows you to establish your business as a new force within your industry that knows exactly how to use digital marketing to its advantage.