Businesses can no longer afford to have an all-encompassing, or mass, approach to social media marketing and assume that everyone is homogeneous and will react to the same message in the same way.
Instead — and this is a trend that is now driving the industry — companies must really listen to what their customers want, and should respond in a way that is authentic, often entertaining, and enables a connection with their audience in a way that really resonates with them.
It may seem counterintuitive to target small, or niche, groups, yet almost a third of social marketers are adapting content to gain trust with specific segments of consumers that have shared characteristics instead of chasing “going viral”. This new trend is a key tactic, enabling companies to resonate with consumers through a more relatable, friendly brand.
People crave authentic connections because we have all been, in a sense, cut off from the world since Covid, which created an almost permanent new way or working: people now do that from home, have groceries delivered to them and attend meetings from behind a camera – which is often off.
Moving from targeting everyone to focusing on smaller groups is the difference between trying to please as many people as possible as often as possible to speaking with them on a one-on-one basis, applying the same principles that often form the basis of friendship: shared experiences, similar personalities and a sense of belonging.
However, to truly be this creative and disruptive force on social media, it’s important that brands know what customers want instead of trying to dictate to them. Hootsuite’s 2025 Social Media Trends report, its ninth iteration, makes the point that social media marketing teams are increasingly listening to their audience, incorporating what they hear into their strategy and acting on relevant trends.
For example, people want to be entertained on social media instead of being bombarded with influencers punting a product and telling them that they simply must own whatever is being showcased. Almost half of marketers who responded to Hootsuite’s survey indicate that more than 60% of their content is focused on entertaining, educating or informing without being in the user’s face and promoting themselves, their products or services.
Having questioned 3,864 people from 99 countries in August 2024, Hootsuite also augmented its research with secondary inputs from Statista, Deloitte, Forbes, NielsenIQ, LinkedIn, TikTok and other diverse sources.
More and more organisations are stepping out of their comfort zones and testing extraordinary content
Hootsuite identified a group of brands — a quarter of its participants — it considers to be creative risk-takers. More than 80% of the content of this boundary-pushing group is driven by entertainment. This finding dovetails with TikTok’s 2024 trends survey, which points to creative bravery and throwing away traditional ways of marketing that are encapsulated in an unbending playbook.
More and more organisations are stepping out of their comfort zones and testing extraordinary content to “delight” current audiences and entice new ones. In the past year, 43% of brands tried a new voice, personality or persona on social media, according to Hootsuite.
This is a good marketing strategy, because audiences differ significantly from one social media platform to another. Facebook, for example, is out of vogue with teenagers, while TikTok, YouTube and Instagram are in. Pew Research Center’s Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024 report found that 90% of youngsters between 13 and 17 spend a vast amount of time on YouTube.
Those who use Facebook are between 25 and 34 years old, according to Sprout Social, while LinkedIn is popular in the same age group. Facebook is for catching up with friends and cat videos, LinkedIn is for making new connections that can boost a career.
What works on LinkedIn might fall flat on TikTok. Each platform needs its own approach, communication style and tactic because people use them differently and expect different things from them. Brands that win listen to what people want and are bold and creative enough to adapt their brand expression so that they join the conversation instead of trying to drive it.
After all, it makes no sense trying to sell a Ducati to game rangers who would be much better served with a 4x4. They may aspire to own a superbike, but this isn’t realistic.
It’s time to throw away the old concepts and turf the idea that the more people you reach, the better your company’s sales will be.
Elaine van Wyk is the group chief marketing and sales officer at IMM Graduate School.
The big take-out: It’s time to throw away the old concepts and turf the idea that the more people you reach, the better your company’s sales will be.
Read more:
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.