Change is the only constant when it comes to social media, and there have been a number of recent developments that directly impact small businesses.
Twitter’s out, Bluesky’s in
Ever since Twitter was renamed ‘X’, it has plummeted in popularity, losing 2.7 million users in just two months in 2024. We don’t have to look too far to work out where they went: during the same two months, Bluesky picked up 2.5 million new users.
The first thing Bluesky users are likely to notice is how similar the platform is to the Twitter of the 2010s: probably because both platforms were founded by Jack Dorsey. Bluesky has resurrected Twitter’s focus on conversational interaction in real-time, with the company stating that it wants “modern social media and public conversation online to work more like the early days of the web, when anyone could put up a blog or use RSS to subscribe to several blogs.”
Bluesky is fast becoming a mainstream social media channel, and if you’d like to get involved, you can follow this guide to set your website as your username and establish a branded presence on this up-and-coming platform.
Trust matters (even more than it did before)
We live in a world where sophisticated scams and AI deepfakes are easier to pull off than ever before, leaving people unsure who to trust. You need to be able to prove your authenticity and show people they can trust in who you are and what you say.
The best place to start establishing your brand as a credible, trusted source is by verifying your accounts on each platform. Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) charges a fee for account verification, but Linkedin still offers free account verification.
Once verified, it’s important you behave in a way that inspires people to trust you. That could mean a consistent approach to the type of posts you create; a willingness to engage with everybody, including people who are critical, and/or backing up all of your claims with solid proof.
Linkedin is still THE platform for B2B marketing
Linkedin has been around since 2003 and is still the dominant platform for B2B social media marketing. Originally known as a digital directory of CVs, Linkedin is now a well-rounded platform offering plenty of scope for every type of business owner to form connections, share expertise and seek out new opportunities.
In recent years, the platform has become far less corporate, and the algorithm rewards posts that users find engaging and/or entertaining, whether that’s a quirky anecdote, a ‘behind the scenes’ photo, or even a funny meme. Everyone from freelance creatives to start-ups and non-profits can build an audience on Linkedin.
Everybody loves short form video
Short form video is the undisputed king of social media content in 2025. From Instagram Reels and Stories to TikToks and YouTube Shorts, small businesses are making big waves with video on social media.
The most important rule is to keep it bite-sized: 10-second product teasers, 30-second how-to clips, and pithy testimonial videos are all good options. Video offers instant connection, and an impactful way to tell stories.
With a whopping 90% of consumers saying they watch short form videos on their phone daily, you could be missing a trick by not getting involved. You don’t need professional-grade video production, either: in fact, this can look too polished and undermine your authenticity. All you need is a smartphone and something to say!
Generative AI: proceed with caution
It’s easier than ever before to create content using generative AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT, but just because we can doesn’t mean we should. AI can produce words at scale, but it can’t replicate the thinking behind those words – though you can certainly try asking it for ideas. Remember to fact-check and sense-check any text obtained from generative AI, and remember it’s prone to bias and hallucinations.
Tone of voice is the other major consideration. Generative AI isn’t very good at sounding human (probably because it isn’t). It’s worth investing some time into developing a unique tone of voice for your business so that you can shape any AI-generated copy into something that’s recognisably yours.
Want loads of views? Consider ‘pay to play’
Modern social media has increasingly poor organic reach of most content. With the exception of a small number of posts that go viral, most smaller brands on social media find that the material they work so hard to create is only seen by a tiny percentage of their followers.
Organic reach on Instagram has declined 12% since last year, with an average reach rate of only 3.5%. Facebook’s average reach is even worse, at a paltry 1.2%. That’s even lower than Linkedin’s company page reach which averages out at 2%, although posts on personal profiles enjoy more visibility. Nevertheless, it’s important to recognise that, in 2025, only a small minority of your social media audience will actually see your content.
The obvious way around this is to pay to put your content into people’s newsfeeds. All the major social media platforms offer paid advertising options where you can either create specific ads that are served up to users who match your target demographic, or you can pay to boost your regular posts so more of your followers will see them.
It’s certainly worth exploring paid media for the obvious benefit of dramatically increasing your brand’s visibility, but it needs to have a solid strategy behind it. Work out specific goals in advance: do you want to drive traffic to an ecommerce store, or collect email addresses, or do you simply want to reinforce brand recognition by amplifying your best content so that it’s seen by a greater proportion of your existing audience?
The best advice for most small businesses is the same: don’t try to do too much. You’ll burn out quickly if you try to create daily content in multiple formats while building audiences on 3 or 4 different platforms. Much better to pick one primary platform, work out what kind of content suits that medium, and create a workable strategy to get your posts seen.
Written by: Gary Ennis, Business Gateway trainer, and Managing Director of Digital Skills training company NSDesign Ltd.
Book on to one of Business Gateway’s social media webinars and learn more about how to turn social media into a tool that generates leads and sales for your business.