Social media is about to get chaotic. Here’s how to navigate it

In 2025, social media will get chaotic. I say this as a social media expert who has worked in and around the industry for 19 years. What has happened in just the last few days of January is unsettling and something you should prepare for from a reputational standpoint.

In this post, I share:

• Major shifts in social media that are unfolding now

• What will likely happen on social media in 2025

• How you can safely navigate social media in 2025

• How your brand can smartly handle social media

• Why focusing on PR is a safer, cost-effective plan

Let's get into it.

Major shifts in social media are unfolding now

As Trump prepares to take office, we're seeing a lot of cultural and policy shifts inside Meta and X (previously Twitter). The fate of TikTok is also impacting LinkedIn. Here's what's been happening in just the last few weeks:

• Meta has shut down its fact-checking program in the U.S., which was comprised of independent organizations that employed professionals to review content and flag it for removal by Meta employees. In an open letter yesterday, the fact-checkers say that Meta did not indicate prior problems. In their place, Meta will use a Community Notes feature like the one used by X — even though researchers reported in October that it wasn't solving X's problems with disinformation.

• Meta has also lowered its standards for hate speech. Its new guidelines permit users to say that LGBTQ people are mentally ill and call transgender people "it." Rules have also been removed that forbid insults about a person's appearance based on race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, and serious disease.

• TikTok faces the very real possibility of being banned in the United States on January 19. Today, the case goes to the Supreme Court after Congress passed a bi-partisan bill last year to ban the Chinese-owned app for national security fears.

• X, recently named "the homepage of the global right" by the Guardian, has many issues — the rampant flow of conspiracy theories, unmoderated posts by neo-Nazis, and claims by some MAGA members that they are being censored for publicly disagreeing with X owner Elon Musk.

• As of yesterday, Musk is considering removing dates from posts in X's main feed to make it more "clean." But as Social Media Today points out, this would make user posts resemble X ads and could lead to more disinformation spreading on X.

• Bluesky is experiencing growing pains—specifically, a struggle to moderate content and remove scammers adequately. As of December, the microblogging site had 25 million users and emerged as the alternative to X as journalists, academics, and liberals flocked to it after Trump's election.

What will likely happen on social media in 2025

I don't have a crystal ball, but I do have extensive experience working in and around social media. That includes covering the rise of Facebook for Time Magazine, developing new methods for reporting the news using social media, co-founding a massive blog network inside the Chicago Tribune, teaching social media marketing to tens of thousands of people, and running a social media consulting firm.

Here's what I believe will happen on social media this year:

• Many Facebook users will become passive out of frustration and/or fear. They will post far less often, using the site only for important updates, keeping tabs on people they care about, and communicating in private groups. Many advertisers will boycott the Meta apps, potentially forcing Meta to backtrack on its new hate speech policies and content moderation tactics.

• Instagram will become toxic. We will see a lot more scammy or pure snake oil content, making it hard to decipher what's real and what's not. People will be publicly attacked with little recourse, and trolls will likely appear in the comments on what has, until now, been a relatively pleasant social media experience.

• Reputational attacks and disinformation will target more brands on Meta-owned sites in the U.S., including small brands and the personal brands of content creators. The people behind the attacks could be competitors or companies employed by them.

• X will swing further to the right and BlueSky to the left. Most people, unless they're political or news junkies, will stay off both platforms — or at least be passive lurkers.

• If TikTok is not banned, China will use the app to sow even more discord in the United States — particularly if the two countries enter a trade war. The app could try to turn American TikTok users against the Trump administration to push back against tariffs. We can also expect algorithms to further exacerbate anxiety among teenagers and young adults.

• If TikTok is banned, LinkedIn will become extremely crowded as Zoomers, in particular, look for an established social network where they can grow their audience quickly. LinkedIn has been preparing for this by rolling out its new video feature in its mobile app, which looks a lot like TikTok. You can expect to see way more "This isn't Instagram" posts here.

• Regardless of the TikTok ban, a lot of LinkedIn content will become even more vanilla and duplicative. Last year, the network — owned by Microsoft, one of the largest investors in OpenAI — integrated AI tools into the platform. In November, Wired reported that over 54% of longer English-language posts on LinkedIn are likely generated by AI.

How you can safely navigate social media in 2025

Before I jump into the brand-building side, let's talk about the personal.

Outside of LinkedIn, social media will become ugly this year. It will also be almost impossible to discern what is real and what is fake. This will impact personal relationships, local communities, businesses, law enforcement, and future political elections.

From a personal standpoint, I recommend:

• Set up Google News alerts for your name, family, and business name (if you have one). Be ready to act on anything that looks suspicious or is harassment.

• Remove all publicly visible online mentions of your home address. Since making these take-down requests is tedious, you can pay for services to remove them. Know that this takes months to do. I suggest this because if you are the target of an attack, trolls could dox you, meaning they will publish your address online for other trolls and haters to see.

• Do not post political content on any social network — including LinkedIn — unless you are comfortable dealing with trolls and potential attempts to cancel you. Some people can handle this, and power to you. Most people cannot.

• For a sense of connection, join online communities that are not on Meta-owned sites. You can find these through popular influencers and associations that align with your views and interests.

• Get your information from reputable sources you can trust. This includes media organizations, highly rated podcasters, and influencers who link to the media sources and third-party research that informs their content.

How your brand can smartly handle social media

The following recommendations are for brands that already have an active presence on social media. If you don't yet have a presence on one of these networks, I would wait to see how the first couple of months of the Trump administration play out. The exception is LinkedIn, which has previously indicated that it's leaning hard into a news-based approach to content curation led by former journalists.

• If your brand doesn't have to be on Facebook, get off it now. If you've been looking for a reason to shut down that Facebook Page someone told you to set up and has never gotten engagement over 0.01% without paying for ads... you finally have your justification.

• Play it by ear on Instagram. If you have an engaged audience on Instagram, they will likely come to your defense if your brand is attacked by trolls or the subject of disinformation. Either way, you should still have a monitoring system to flag mentions of your brand's name. We don't yet know what Meta's new content moderation process will be like. My guess is they will be largely hands-off until there's enough pushback from advertisers.

• Be ready to pivot on TikTok. If the app doesn't get shut down in the U.S., it's essential to pay attention to TikTok's culture as the Trump administration gets underway. If things start getting weird or volatile, staying active there may not be worth it for your brand's reputation. You can always leave your previous content up and post again when/if the platform becomes more U.S.-friendly.

• Stop using AI to create LinkedIn content. Users are getting better at spotting AI-generated posts, particularly when so many near-duplicates are showing up on the platform. If you don't have a lot of bandwidth to create original posts frequently, then create fewer posts. Even just one excellent post every two weeks is enough to grow an audience and keep them engaged. If possible, have one of your team members start creating authentic videos for LinkedIn to build trust and connections for your brand.

Why focusing on PR is a safer strategy in 2025

There's a reason I shut down my social media consultancy and launched The PR Accelerator in 2023. For a long time, social media has been getting more volatile and less effective at brand-building unless you pay for ads.

PR remains the most cost-effective way to build your brand, establish trust, and earn credibility. When done thoughtfully, PR is also a safe way to build your reputation, particularly if you focus on getting coverage from reputable media outlets, podcasts, and influencers with their own platforms, such as streaming shows and popular blogs.

PR can be safe for your brand because:

• Reputable outlets and content creators will highlight you or your brand on platforms unlikely to contain misinformation or unaddressed troll issues.
  

• As social media gets chaotic this year, consumers will seek information and recommendations from media brands and content creators they can trust.
  

• On most podcasts, you can largely control your message and share it in a favorable light.
  

• If you publish articles or op-eds in media outlets, you can also largely control your message. (Note: Most editors reserve the right to edit pieces and may reject them if they are too self-serving.)
  

• Established influencers have high trust, and you can leverage that to establish credibility with their engaged audiences.

For all these reasons, as you're planning your marketing strategy for 2025, I recommend reallocating money that would have been spent on social media and investing it in PR instead.

Working with our company, The PR Accelerator, is just one way to shift into PR. Uniquely, we can act as your brand's PR firm and empower you to bring PR in-house. If needed, our trained VA agency can handle many PR tasks for your team. This approach can save your brand tens of thousands of dollars in PR agency fees every year.

We also have a program called The PR Fast Track for individuals. In just one day, we'll create everything you need to start getting media coverage, podcast interviews, and speaking gigs. In the last two months, two of our clients have been extensively quoted in Newsweek and Fast Company using media pitches we created for them.

Our PR programs aren't for everyone, though. If you have a bigger marketing budget and want experts to handle your PR indefinitely, you might consider hiring a traditional PR agency on a long-term retainer or creating a full-time communications manager position. I can recommend traditional PR firms and comms pros — contact me.

Though these are unsettling times, this newsletter isn't meant to scare you. Instead, I share all of this to inform you. 2025 will be volatile and unpredictable but remember: You still have the agency to act in the way that's best for you, your family, and your brand if you have one.

As you navigate the year ahead from a professional perspective, trust your gut, look for the facts, and don't be afraid to try different marketing tactics than the ones you've been using for the last decade or more. The marketing landscape will likely change dramatically this year, and the better prepared you are for it, the better off you and your brand will be.

You've got this.