The HubSpot Blog's Social Media Video Trends Report: Data from 1,000+ Social Media Marketers

By esantiago@hubspot.com (Erica Santiago)

Download Now: The 2025 State of Social Media Trends [Free Report]

2025 is upon us, and a new year brings new trends and new challenges. If you‘re a brand looking to leverage social media video this year, you may not know what to expect but don’t worry.

I, your resident content creator and social media expert, have the expertise you need to prepare for social media video marketing in 2025. I also have stats from HubSpot’s handy-dandy Social Media Trends Report, which includes data from 1,000+ social media marketers.

In other words, you‘ve come to the right blog. Let’s get started by answering a burning question.

Is social media video marketing effective in 2025?

The short answer? Absolutely. Our data shows the top three social media platforms for driving site traffic, social media engagement, and audience growth are all video platforms —specifically, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

Instagram shines the brightest, with our survey showing the majority of marketers say it’s the best for driving site traffic (28%), social media engagement (25%), and audience growth (23%).

YouTube ranks second in boosting site traffic and third in social media engagement and audience growth. Meanwhile, TikTok ranks third in site traffic but second in both social media engagement and audience growth.

With this data in mind, according to our survey, it’s no surprise that TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are the top social media platforms for short-form videos and will see more investments from marketers than the other platforms in 2025.

4 Top Social Media Video Trends to Watch in 2025

I meticulously combed through our Social Media Trends report for the latest trends, and here’s what I found.

1. Brands will prioritize partnering with smaller influencers to create social media videos.

Here’s my hot take: Influencer marketing will always be among the top strategies for marketers.

They’re the new generation of celebrities but are more relatable and accessible than their predecessors. As such, they have a close relationship with their audience, making them perfect for promoting your brand to new audiences.

Don’t believe me? Our survey shows that 77% of marketers say influencer marketing delivers better ROI than other channels. Moreover, 85% say influencer marketing has been effective this past year.

So, it makes sense that nearly half (46%) of marketers plan to increase their investment in influencer marketing in 2025, while 47% will keep with their current spending. Only 6% plan to reduce their investment at all.

But, while influencers are the new celebrities, it won‘t be celebrity influencers receiving the most investment from marketers. In 2025, it will be the smaller influencer’s time to shine.

The majority of marketers in our survey (67%) work with micro-influencers, and 32% of marketers say working with small creators with 1,000 to 100,000 followers will be a better investment than working with large influencers in 2025.

Why? Micro-influencers have niche audiences, making fostering personal connections with their followers easy. In turn, their followers are much more active and engaged than those of a macro- or celebrity …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog