February 2025 in Digital Strategy
Everything you missed in February about digital and influencer marketing.
Happy March!
I’m writing to you on this Monday morning from dreary Krakow, where, from what I can tell, no digital strategy news originates, and there isn’t a WeWork for me to camp out in.
February was an interesting month in digital. TikTok's unaliving is still pending, and there aren’t really any legitimate ways to read the tea leaves on what is going to happen. Political advocacy groups and nonprofits continue to struggle with how to respond to Trump's blitzkrieg across the US Government, and AI moves forward whether you're paying attention or not.
Forward this email to any social media managers or digital marketers in your life! We're growing every day thanks to the support from our readers.
Let's dive into February.
The Month in Digital Strategy - February 2025
Social Media
Big Picture:
BuzzFeed is launching a new social media app that nobody will care about, and they no longer have enough staffers to make it seem alive without real users.
Austin Spero isn't the star of Broadway's Oh, Mary! (That's Cole Escola, who returns to the role soon; don't miss one of Broadway's most exciting performances in years!) Austin is the star social media manager for Oh, Mary!, and his approach to promoting the show is well worth a read.
An app that combines BlueSky and Mastodon is useless for normal people. But I'd trade my kingdom for an app that combines all of Meta's messaging (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp).
Brands are starting to get active on second- and third-tier social media channels as the great social media unwinding continues.
Study says DTC brands should consider using humor in their online ads.
Valuable new CAC benchmarks for B2B brands.
AppLovin is a name you need to know in mobile advertising.
The State of Social:
Our friends at Infegy took a deep dive into the audiences and conversations happening on the big 9 social media channels. Check out their PDF for the full breakdown.
With so many social media channels apparently taking sides in US politics, experts are starting to see a future with even more siloed platforms. Not good, folks. It is called "the commons" because everyone goes there.
Outside of Facebook and YouTube, Americans are souring on interacting with brands on social media.
Rival IQ’s epic social media benchmark and strategy report is one to read for all social media managers. Below are some key takeaways:
Engagement is dropping across platforms, with X losing the most steam.
Don’t sleep on Instagram Carousels.
While overall engagement on TikTok is declining, it remains steady for colleges and youth-oriented content and campaigns.
Influencers
Patreon's State of Create is well worth reading for anyone in creator marketing, offering insights from both creators and their fans. One statistic that stood out to me is that fans are much more likely to pay for longer-form content than for short videos.
By now, you should know that nano and micro creators outperform macro creators and celebrities on nearly every metric that matters. Here are two new essays from marketers on how they learned to stop worrying and embrace the reality of the microinfluencer. Also connected, the rise of the niche/local creator.
"Experiential gifting" is becoming more common in creator campaigns, but how can you gift a creator something truly amazing without pissing off their audiences?
TikTok
TikTok returns to US app stores, downloads are up, and usage is basically back to normal.
The Verge is tracking all the TikTok US ban news.
Yet another list of TikTok alternatives.
The best times to post on TikTok based on one million videos.
“The research examines posting habits, content trends, and profile characteristics across different creator segments and highlights that creators with 50,000 to 499,999 followers constitute 42% of all creator accounts followed by U.S. adults on TikTok. Those with more than 1 million followers represent only 10% of followed accounts.”
TikTok generates positive ROI on ads in both the short and long term.
Meta
“Center for Countering Digital Hate’s in-depth analysis of Meta’s recently announced policy changes shows that the company could stop 97% of its content enforcement in key policy areas, notably hate speech.”
Meta is focused on AI transparency across its paid media offerings.
Instagram
Everything you need to know about the new Instagram grid.
Instagram will allow creators to leave paid testimonials as comments on posts.
Translations, scheduled messages, and more features are coming to Instagram DMs.
Another attempt to explain the Instagram algorithm. Hubspot shares some tips on getting more Likes and Hootsuite on making better Reels.
More paragraphs than you’d expect on Link In Bio strategy.
Instagram boss once again says that hashtags don’t work.
Bring on the Instagram dislike button.
Facebook
Threads
Threads drives way more engagement than X and is building momentum with brands.
Meta released some tips and tricks for being a better Threads user.
LinkedIn
Everything you need to know about video on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is making their newsletter analytics better.
Twitter/X
“Trump’s world is all happening on X.”
Pinterest
Pinterest had a great 2024 and is poised to continue growing in 2025.
Reddit
Paywalls are coming to Reddit.
Substack, Beehiiv, & Blogs
There's been a lot of chatter over the last few weeks about whether Substack is the next great "creator" app. Plenty of creators can benefit from what Substack offers. But, even with its pivot to video, it will be hard for Substack to compete for younger creators who prefer TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts. The Substack app is messy and boring. Sure, it's cool for me to open an app and read a quick essay on economics, but that's not the draw for many creators in less educational or informational verticals.
An overly optimistic look at Substack as the new creator app.
YouTube
If you’re not thinking about how your YouTube content appears on TVs, you’re doing it wrong.
YouTube is underrated and undervalued.
Podcasts
Experts on how to use podcasts to power your niche advertising.
Podcast clips from podcasts that don’t exist are taking over social media.
“YouTube continues to be the preferred platform for most listeners, capturing 33% of listeners in 2024—its highest share yet—marking a steady rise from 27% in 2021.” Read the latest state of podcasting report.
AI
Using AI might make you a worse critical thinker. Huge new study of knowledge workers offers some interesting insights.
Don’t use AI on your job application if you’re applying for jobs in AI. Folks in AI know better.
BBC’s AI news summaries just keep making things up.
Another study that suggest consumers respond better to AI agents that don’t pretend to be human.
Only .1% of people could correctly identify a deepfake in a new study.
More and more users are choosing Gen AI over old-school search.
lol - CEO of AI company thinks that humans don’t enjoy making music. This is why it’s important to have humans running your AI company.
Between Deepseek's evolution and even cheaper, more homemade LLMs making headlines, the AI moat isn't as real as folks in the USA want.