ICYMI: 5 Things to Focus On In 2025
Save this for Monday if you just can't even this week
Welcome to the first ICYMI newsletter of 2025 💌
To ease you into the “circle back” season, I’m mashing up the monthly recap newsletter I would have sent out for December with some ideas for the new year.
Also, I’m so excited to launch a new paid subscriber series on Monday, written by some of the most trusted voices in the industry, including MIT’s social lead Jenny Li Fowler, briefcase app influencer Jayde Powell, fandom expert Dr. Georgie Carroll, executive Jamie Gutfreund and more.
The series will kick off with Kendall Dickieson and her guide to running a social media audit, because how better to start the year than with a fresh look at your social accounts!
⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
Meta plans to introduce AI-generated users on Facebook
YouTube is cracking down on clickbait content that doesn’t deliver on the video’s title or thumbnail
The Supreme Court will hear TikTok’s challenge to the potential ban on January 10
Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to delay the TikTok ban deadline
Video posts get 1.4 times as much engagement on average as other posts on LinkedIn
Start thinking of employees as influencers — and other things to focus on in 2025
Q1 creator and social marketing events to add to your calendar
2025 marks the start of the Gen Beta era
💻 ROADMAP | DECEMBER’S BIGGEST HEADLINES
📲 TikTok Updates
The Supreme Court agreed to hear TikTok’s challenge to the potential ban on January 10.
Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to delay the TikTok ban deadline of January 19th so he can work out a "negotiated resolution" that would save the app.
📲 Meta Updates
Meta says it will unleash AI-generated users on Facebook in an effort “to attract and retain a younger audience.”
Why this one is important: It’s too early to predict how brands and creators should react to this but it could signal an official end to the “social” part of social media. If the Gen Z group chat decides there’s no real difference between content created by humans or bots, a steady flow of AI-generated content might just become the safer business bet. Meta could engineer its platforms to be more like shareable content hubs, rather than places to connect and chat with friends and family.
Instagram launched Trial Reels, which gives creator and brand accounts the option to share and test Reels with people who don’t follow them.
Instagram confirmed you can now schedule DMs.
Spotted: Threads could soon let you change your display name, allowing you to establish an account that’s not directly associated to your Instagram profile.
Adam Mosseri announced they would soon start testing scheduled Threads posts.
Threads is rolling out an easier way to reshare photos and videos from posts you see on the platform, while crediting them to the original poster.
Meta announced that affiliate links on Facebook “will now be more prominently displayed” on Reels, videos, photos, and text posts.
📲 YouTube Updates
YouTube is starting to crack down on clickbait content, “where the title or thumbnail promises viewers something that the video doesn’t deliver.”
YouTube made auto dubbing available to educational channels in the Partner Program and plans to expand to other types of content soon.
YouTube tops the list of the online platforms for teens, according to the latest Pew Research Center survey — followed by TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.
YouTube used Gemini-powered insights to examine the most successful YouTube ads of the year.
📲 LinkedIn Updates
Video posts get 1.4 times as much engagement on average as other posts on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is testing a new, more prominent way for videos to show in the feed.
📲 Reddit Updates
Reddit launched Reddit Answers, an AI-curated summary of relevant conversations and details across the platform in response to queries.
📲 Snapchat Updates
Snapchat launched a new monetization program for creators based on Spotlight videos longer than 1 minute.
💡 🧠 5 THINGS TO FOCUS ON IN 2025
Here’s some unsolicited advice from me on five elements of social media to focus on in 2025. Please note, social strategy is never a one-size-fits-all solution so don’t consider any of this as official guidance from me, these are just some helpful hints about what I’d focus on if I were a brand marketer or creator looking to understand where the opportunities are.
1. Don’t make ads, make entertainment
I’m obsessed with the term: content is the new cold email. If I’m a brand marketer, I would take a big chunk of my social ad budget and put it into creating high quality content series that people actually want to consume, like a video podcast or storytelling series. Barbie got a lot more mileage out of last year’s feature film than any social ad campaign. And Forbes contributor Jamie Gutfreund just covered how Amazon delivers branded content that people actually want to watch.
Creators, this applies to you too! Creator Owen Holt told me a series he produces for Reels where he gets surprised by a long lost family member is his best performing content of all time. “Someone records me freaking out. And of the seven or eight videos I posted in that style of video on Trial Reels, I've gotten million of views in the last few weeks.” People love recurring series!
Read more: Social is the new TV
2. Hurry up and get on LinkedIn
It’s giving TikTok, circa 2019-2020. This advice applies whether you’re a creator, employee, entrepreneur, executive or brand. Gen Z is the platform’s fastest growing cohort and there’s a ton of opportunity for growth right now.
Along with regular updates, consider launching a LinkedIn newsletter and producing short-form video for the platform — again, this applies to business pages and personal pages. Newsletters offer great exposure to your network and key decision makers. For example, when you launch the newsletter, LinkedIn invites your entire network to subscribe and they’ll send out a notification every time you publish one. As for video, it’s the fastest growing format on LinkedIn, with uploads up 34% year-over-year.
Read more: Guide to elevating your LinkedIn content
3. Embrace a “Social-First” approach
(That means putting your audience at the heart of everything you do)
If you just started working in brand social, please familiarize yourself with the terms social monitoring (monitoring brand mentions), social listening (monitoring the Internet for relevant conversations) and community management (engaging with your audience across the Internet).
Ignoring online conversations or bungling responses to complaints can be disastrous (we’re looking at you Kraft), but a solid community management and proactive outreach strategy can rectify brewing controversies (good comeback, Cetaphil) and reveal amazing opportunities for collabs (hello, Gap hoodie that hoodies!).
4. Get in the game
Tapping into the popularity of gaming isn’t exactly new or novel advice. Remember when all the brands joined Animal Crossing during the pandemic? But creating immersive integrations is becoming ever more relevant. This year, Mariah Carey partnered with with Fortnite, Netflix joined Roblox and the recent Game Awards had more global viewers than the Super Bowl (thanks to Ali Kaltman for flagging this one).
If you’re a brand, determine if there’s a gamer on your team or a gaming creator who can advise you on potential opportunities. Because it’s time to think about where and how you can show up for the 87% of Gen Z who play video games weekly.
Read more: Guide to video game advertising: Trends, tactics, and opportunities for marketers
5. Start thinking of employees as Influencers
The definition of who gets to be an influencer — someone who has credibility, clout and an online audience — continues to evolve. That’s going to be especially interesting as we see the rise of people in hybrid employee-influencer roles.
Brands: It’s time to rewrite the employee handbook and revise the social media guidelines as more people at work emerge in the following categories: Hired Talent which brings creators in-house; Homegrown Talent which nurtures and grows people within the organization; and Side-Hustle Talent which taps into employees who have already built their personal brand and audience alongside their professional role.
Employees: This is your sign to generate opportunities for yourself through content creation. If it’s not appreciated (ahem, Chik-fil-A), find a company that does appreciate and support EGC (employee-generated-content).
EXAMPLES OF HIRED TALENT
Olipop's Senior Soda Consultant
John Deere's Chief Tractor Officer
Slice Pizza's Pizza Influencer
EXAMPLES OF HOMEGROWN TALENT
Mohawk Chevrolet's dealership cast
Duolingo's Zaria Parvez
The Washington Post's Dave Jorgenson
EXAMPLES OF SIDE HUSTLE TALENT
Southwest’s Captain Matty Mo
The Army’s Sergeant Tyler Butterworth
Coach’s Brandon Nguyen
👀 ICYMI: JUST THE HEADLINES
Was Elon Musk’s burner account just exposed? -UserMag
Here's how TikTok creators are preparing for a TikTok ban -NPR
Replicating TikTok’s success will be harder than it looks -Bloomberg
More Americans get their news from YouTube -The Hollywood Reporter
A YouTube exec explains what types of videos people are watching on TVs -Business Insider
Adobe Creative Trends Report 2025 -Adobe
2025 marks the start of the Gen Beta era -NBC News
🪩 🏢 🚕 UPCOMING EVENTS
CES 2025, January 7-10 | Las Vegas, NV
1 Billion Followers Summit, January 11-13 | Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Creator Economy Live, February 4-5 | Las Vegas, NV
SXSW, March 7-15 | Austin TX
The Platform, March 21 | Pittsburgh, PA
Note: The new 2025 ICYMI Event Database is live. It’s still light on events and dates, so let me know if you have something in the works!