Slifer Smith & Frampton | Social Media
Social Media Trends 2025
TRENDS FROM
VIDEO IS STILL KING
CULTURAL FLUENCY IS A MUST FOR BRANDS
STRONG BRAND STORYTELLING AND ENGAGEMENT ARE
AUDIENCE MUST-HAVES
THE CREATOR ECONOMY GROWS
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IS A SOLUTION TO CREATIVE
BURNOUT
OPTIMIZING SOCIAL MEDIA SEARCH IS A TOP PRIORITY
QUALITY IN PRODUCT, COMMERCE AND CUSTOMER CARE
TRENDS FROM
THE POWER OF USER-GENERATED CONTENT
THE RISE OF PRIVATE COMMUNITIES; LOYALTY TO A BRAND IF THERE IS COMMUNITY ACCESS
AI CONTENT GENERATION AT SCALE
SOCIAL COMMERCE CONTINUING TO RISE
LEANING INTO HIGH-PRODUCTION, ALGORITHM-DRIVEN
CONTENT TO COMPETE WITH MEDIA NETWORKS
TRENDS FROM
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IS BEING USED MORE CONSISTENTLY TO CREATE
CONTENT
SHORT-FORM VIDEO RULES, BUT LONG-FORM CONTENT MAY GAIN TRACTION
SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS ARE BECOMING VIABLE SEARCH ENGINES
FOLLOWERS ARE SEEKING AUTHENTIC CONNECTIONS
CONTENT CREATORS AND INFLUENCERS ARE CORE PIECES OF SOCIAL MEDIA
STRATEGY
PERSONALIZATION IS INCREASING IN IMPORTANCE
BRANDS WILL PRIORITIZE SOCIAL PLATFORMS BY RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)
EXPERIMENTING WITH CREATIVITY (OVER PLAYING IT SAFE) IS YIELDING IMPRESSIVE
RESULTS
TRENDS FROM
ENTERTAINMENT TAKES THE LEAD
COMMENTS FUEL THE CONVERSATION
EMPLOYEE-GENERATED CONTENT IS SET TO BE HUGE THIS YEAR
AI, REIMAGINED
SOCIAL IS THE NEW SEARCH ENGINE
B2B INFLUENCERS ON THE RISE
CULTURAL SHIFT IN SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE
COPY ON PHOTOS
Incorporating text or copy into photos and graphics on your social media posts can significantly enhance engagement and contribute to the growth of your real estate business in Colorado. Here's how:
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Enhanced Communication: Combining text with images allows you to convey messages more effectively, ensuring that key information about property listings or services is immediately clear to your audience.
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Increased Engagement: Posts featuring text overlays can capture attention more effectively, leading to higher interaction rates. For example, highlighting unique property features with descriptive text can intrigue potential buyers.
Brand Consistency: Incorporating consistent fonts, colors, and messaging in your graphics helps reinforce brand identity, making your posts easily recognizable and fostering trust with your audience.
Best practices:
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Maintain Readability: Ensure that the text is legible by using contrasting colors and appropriate font sizes. Avoid cluttering the image, keeping the message concise and to the point.
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Align with Brand Aesthetics: Design graphics that align with your brand's visual identity, using consistent color schemes, fonts, and logos to create a cohesive and professional appearance.
Optimize for Mobile Viewing: Since a significant portion of social media users access platforms via mobile devices, design graphics that are clear and legible on smaller screens.
HASHTAGS
Hashtags remain a valuable tool for enhancing discoverability and engagement on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook in 2025.
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Effectiveness: Posts with at least one hashtag receive, on average, 29% more interactions for accounts with fewer than 1,000 followers. Using 11 or more hashtags can lead to a 79.5% increase in engagement for these accounts.
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Quantity: While Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post, research indicates that using between 21 and 24 characters (3-5 hashtags) in hashtags yields better performance, suggesting that a higher number of relevant hashtags may be beneficial. Use mix of popular and niche hashtags to maximize reach and engagement.
Placement: Hashtags are effective whether placed in the post caption or the comments section. It's essential to add hashtags to the comments promptly after posting if you choose this method.
HASHTAGS
The optimal use of hashtags varies significantly across different social media platforms:
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Instagram: Instagram remains a highly visual platform where hashtags play a crucial role in discoverability. However, the focus has shifted towards high-quality content and authentic engagement. While a moderate number of relevant hashtags can still be beneficial, keyword-rich captions are increasingly important.
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Facebook: The role of hashtags on Facebook has diminished somewhat. While they can still be helpful in niche groups and pages, their overall impact is less significant compared to other platforms.
LinkedIn: Hashtags are essential for expanding visibility and engaging with professional communities on LinkedIn. Using a mix of relevant industry hashtags and more specific niche hashtags can help you reach the right audience.
INSTAGRAM REELS
The optimal length for Reels on Instagram and Facebook varies based on content type and audience preferences. Short-form videos, typically under 90 seconds, have been shown to generate higher engagement rates.
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Available Duration: Instagram Reels can range from 3 seconds to 3 minutes in length
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Optimal Length: While longer Reels (60–90 seconds) may suit in-depth storytelling or educational content, shorter Reels (15–30 seconds) often result in higher engagement, as they align with viewers' shorter attention spans.
Algorithm Preference: Instagram's algorithm favors shorter Reels, typically under 30 seconds, as they tend to have higher completion and rewatch rates, signaling strong viewer interest.
CONTENT MIX
A strategic combination of Reels, carousel posts, images, and other content formats can significantly enhance your profile's performance. Here are some suggestions:
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Reels: Short-form videos are currently favored by Instagram's algorithm and tend to receive higher engagement. Aim to post Reels 3–5 times per week to maintain visibility and capitalize on their reach.
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Carousel Posts: They are particularly effective for storytelling, tutorials, product showcases, and before-and-after comparisons. Incorporate carousel posts 2–3 times per week to provide varied content and keep your audience engaged.
Single Image Posts: High-quality, standalone images remain a staple for sharing impactful visuals, quotes, or announcements. Post single images 1–2 times per week to maintain a diverse content portfolio.
INSTAGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
As of 2025, Instagram Highlights continue to be a valuable feature for showcasing curated content on your profile. They allow you to organize and display your Stories beyond their 24-hour lifespan, providing visitors with a lasting impression of your brand or personal interests.
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Update Content Regularly: Keep your Highlights current by adding new Stories and removing outdated ones. This practice ensures that visitors see relevant and fresh content, reflecting your latest activities and interests.
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Organize by Themes: Group your Stories into thematic Highlights (e.g., "Team," "Events," "Listings") to make navigation intuitive for your audience.
Design Engaging Covers: Create visually appealing Highlight covers that align with your overall profile aesthetic. Consistent and attractive covers can enhance the professional look of your profile.
INSTAGRAM THREADS
While Threads—Meta's text-based platform integrated with Instagram—has gained attention, its role in real estate marketing is still evolving.
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Overview: Threads allows users to post text, images, videos, and gifs, accommodating up to 500 characters per post. It emphasizes public conversations and is closely linked with Instagram, enabling seamless crosspromotion of listings and real estate content.
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Current Usage: While Threads offers potential for real estate marketing, its user base and engagement levels are still growing. As of early 2025, Meta began testing advertisements on Threads in the U.S. and Japan, indicating a move towards monetization and broader business integration.
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Recommendation: If your team is already active on Instagram, experimenting with Threads could be beneficial for engaging with your audience through textbased content. However, it's advisable to monitor its growth and user engagement metrics before committing fully.
INSTAGRAM ALT-TEXT
Integrating alt text into your social media posts offers significant benefits for both engagement and growth, particularly in the real estate sector in Colorado.
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Enhanced Accessibility: Alt text provides descriptions of images for visually impaired users, ensuring that all potential clients can access and understand your content. This inclusivity fosters a positive brand image and broadens your audience base.
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Improved Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Search engines utilize alt text to index and rank images, which can increase the visibility of your posts. For instance, descriptive alt text can enhance your content's discoverability in image search results, potentially driving more traffic to your listings.
Increased Engagement: While direct correlations between alt text and higher engagement rates are still being studied, providing detailed descriptions can enrich user experience, potentially leading to increased interaction with your posts.
Best Practices for Implementing Alt Text:
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Be Descriptive and Concise: Clearly describe the content and context of the image, focusing on elements that convey the property's unique features or the essence of the scene.
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Use Relevant Keywords: Incorporate keywords related to your real estate business and Colorado's localities to enhance SEO without keyword stuffing.
Avoid Redundancy: Ensure that alt text adds value beyond the visible caption, providing information not already conveyed in the post's text.
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