If you have a team that handles social for your business, you are probably counting on them to keep an eye on social media trends. Even though you “have people for that”, there are a few shifts that have changed what good social media looks like for your company, and you need to know what to ask about. While none of these changes require you to become a social media expert, they do warrant a conversation with your team.
The TikTok Effect is Happening on Every Platform
TikTok creators are some of the most skilled short-video producers in the world. They have spent years learning what makes people stop scrolling, watch all the way through and come back for more. When TikTok faced a potential U.S. ban, millions of these creators moved to Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn, bringing their style with them.
You may think this won’t affect your business, but this matters for almost every type of business. In this era, you are not just competing for attention with other companies in your industry, but with full-time content creators who are very good at what they do.
LinkedIn introduced a vertical scrolling video feed on mobile in early 2025 to compete with Tik Tok – the kind you flip through with your thumb, in the same vertical format TikTok popularized.
As a result of this social media trend, the bar for video content has gone up on every platform. This does not mean you need a professional film crew, but it means your team needs to understand what is working in this new environment and how to make your company stand out. Ask them directly: how are you adjusting our social strategy to address the rise in vertical video?
People are Searching on Social Media
Here is something that has also become a real issue for businesses: a growing number of people, especially younger consumers, are using social channels as their primary search engines. When they have a question or want to find a product, service or company, they are going to YouTube, Instagram, Reddit and TikTok instead. This is called social search, and it means your social media content needs to be findable, not just shareable.
The good news is that most social platforms now have built-in tools that let your team make content more searchable. Things like captions (written descriptions of your videos), alt text (a short description of an image that helps search tools understand what is in it) and hashtags (words or phrases that group your content with related posts) all help your content show up when someone is looking for what you offer.
Ask your team: are we filling out all the searchable fields on every post? If they are not sure what you are asking, you will want to direct them to learn more about social search.
This is a meaningful change. Social media used to be about being seen by people who already follow you. Now it is also about being found by people who have never heard of you, and searching by keyword. Do a quick search for some of your primary keywords on social platforms so see who comes up. Is it you or is it your competition?
Reddit is Growing Fast and Your Customers are Probably There
Reddit is a platform built around communities organized by topic. Think of it like a giant collection of online forums or discussion boards where real people ask questions, share experiences and have candid conversations with no filters and no sales pitch.
A few numbers worth knowing:
- More than 60% of U.S. adults use Reddit as a social search engine
- Nearly 43% of Reddit users are not on LinkedIn at all, meaning this is not a duplicated audience
- Reddit is one of the fastest-growing platforms for paid advertising (targeted ads you pay to place in front of specific audiences)
This is not a suggestion to run out, start a company Reddit account and start posting company news. That approach would backfire badly on a platform where people are deeply skeptical of brands.
What it is a suggestion to do: create an account, search for topics related to your industry and read what people are saying. What are your potential customers struggling with? What questions are they asking? What do they think about companies like yours?
If you find that there are real discussions happening about your industry or products, Reddit is a place you might want to invest more time into.
AI is Being Built into Every Platform Your Team Uses
You are probably wondering how AI is affecting social media. As you can imagine, it is being built into every social media platform and management tool that your team already uses every day.
These tools can now do things like rewrite a post in three different tones with one click, suggest the best time to publish based on when your audience is online, or automatically generate ideas for an entire year at the click of a mouse. This is not about replacing your social media team. It is about helping them work faster and more consistently.
If your team is not already using these features, they are leaving time on the table. Ask them what AI tools they are currently using and where they think there is room to do more.
What to Do With All of This
You do not need to act on every trend. But the ones mentioned above are significant enough that they deserve a real conversation with whoever manages your social media. Here are three questions to start with:
- How are you using video as part of our social strategy?
- Are we treating our social content as searchable? Are we filling out captions, alt text and other searchable fields on every post?
- Have you looked at Reddit? Are there conversations there that we should be aware of or part of?
You do not need to be a social media expert. But your team should be able to answer these questions.
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Lara August is the Founder and CEO of Robot Creative, a marketing and branding company in San Antonio, Texas. She has worked with hundreds of small businesses over 30 years and consults, speaks and writes on marketing and social media strategy, brand development and what it actually takes to grow a business. If you want help evaluating your social media approach, reach out. Robot Creative can help.
