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This year, it’s all about perfecting your ‘sound strategy.’ Dive into the art of social listening and discover the secrets to tuning into your audience. Plus, join us as we explore Meta’s AI ad magic, LinkedIn’s latest profile enhancements, and the intriguing world of X’s new Grok bot.
2025’s Sound Strategy: LISTEN, LEARN, LEAD
In 2025, it’s not just about having a voice – it’s about using your ears. Amidst the clutter of posts, stories, hashtags, and reels, it can be difficult for brands to cut through the chatter and truly understand their audience. Social listening gives brands a sneak peek at market trends through the tracking of brand relevant terms, mentions, and competitors.
Social listening is more than just tuning in; it allows you to create actionable insights that can help you pivot faster, connect deeper, and make smarter decisions. Here’s 4 reasons why you should incorporate social listening into your 2025 digital strategy.
- Connect with the Crowd: Really get to know your audience by tracking their online attitudes towards your brand. When is your brand mentioned? Why is it mentioned? On what platforms? Understanding these key questions will not only help you narrow down your audience, but also their wants and needs. The internet is full of honesty (sometimes brutal) so don’t miss the opportunity to use it to your advantage!
- Turn Turmoil into Triumph: Think of yourself as a meteorologist when you are social listening, you see a crisis brewing, it’s time to sound the tornado sirens. Social listening isn’t all about sunny skies and positive sentiment, as we said earlier, online conversations are full of raw honesty, and this sometimes casts your brand in an unfavorable light. Tracking and addressing this negative sentiment early is key, before it spirals into a full-blown storm.
- Industry Pulse Check: For a well-rounded social listening strategy, it’s crucial to expand your focus beyond solely your brand and tune into the rest of the industry. Open your ears to thought leaders, competitors, opponents, and anyone else influencing your public perception. This is how social listening can help identify threats and opportunities in the marketplace and stay ahead of the conversation.
- Building Bonds and Expanding Reach: Just because your organization has an ear to the door, doesn’t mean you can’t jump in on the conversation. By actively participating, you can dig deeper into your audience’s perspective while also forming meaningful relationships with community members. It’s important to let your audience know that you are not only listening but are hearing them, too. These casual interactions can majorly influence public opinion and also result in loyal connections.
New year, new strategy. In 2025, it’s time to shake things up and rethink how you approach your audience. Social listening helps you build deeper connections, tap into emerging trends and stay ahead of the game. The new year brings fresh opportunities to innovate and grow and we are happy to help!
Meta’s taking ads to a whole new level with its AI-based Advantage+ campaigns. Spoiler: it’s not just smarter; it’s sleeker. With an upgraded ‘Andromeda’ ad retrieval process, personalization and targeting have never been more precise. Meta’s new system sifts through user interaction data – so you don’t have to. The results? A whopping 22% increase in return on ad spend for those tapping in. Let the bots handle the grunt work while you enjoy streamlined, optimized results.
Meta’s new ‘Performance Talks’ hub is like having a chat with marketing gurus minus the awkward small talk. Packed with bite-sized video interviews from top marketing minds, it just might become your go-to for turbocharging your Facebook and Instagram strategies. From increasing your audience to mastering Advantage+ ads, these clips deliver valuable tips. Remember, though, not every nugget is one-size-fits-all, but there’s a small piece of marketing gold just waiting to level up your strategies for 2025.
LinkedIn Premium Users: Make a Powerful First Impression
LinkedIn has released a new feature for premium users – dynamic cover images. With the selection of five photos, a rotating slideshow will appear on your LinkedIn profile. Not only will this allow you to stand out from the crowd but it provides an opportunity for a deeper representation of who you are through multiple photos. A nice upgrade to kick off the new year – get to picture picking and show off who you are!
LinkedIn Releases Live Event Ad Best Practices
Building on Q4 LinkedIn Live Video event growth (increasing nearly 15.3 percent), LinkedIn is meeting this momentum with LinkedIn Event Ads. These are available to all advertisers and will increase the event’s visibility, generate meaningful engagement, and extend brand reach. Our favorite features are the seamless RSVP experience and retargeting capabilities. RSVPs take only one click – talk about a good way to maximize attendance. With a high value audience built, you can then retarget RSVPs to keep the relationship going after the event concludes. Don’t miss the full list of their best practices here.
X vs. G
When an X user wrote, “X mail would be cool,” X’s owner Elon Musk responded with eight telling words: “Yeah. On the list of things to do.” The statement revives his previously mentioned idea to launch X-Mail — a potential rival and disruptor to the widely popular Gmail. While the concept isn’t new, this latest remark suggests that X-Mail is still on Musk’s radar as a potential next big move.
Who Goes There, Followers or Scrollers?
Who’s engaging with your X posts — followers or random scrollers? X’s new analytics tool shows you the split, revealing how much of your reach comes from followers versus non-followers.
This insight addresses a creator challenge: as algorithm-driven “For You” feeds dominate, fewer users hit the “Follow” button. While that’s great for exposure, it complicates audience growth and community building. 
Special Section: Ask Grok
Grok, X’s AI chatbot, recently opened to all X users to try. We thought we’d start by asking Grok’s predictions for “big updates” we should expect from X in 2025. After all, who better to answer X-related questions than X itself?
Here’s what it said, including some cited posts from X users…
- Monetization: X will enhance creator monetization with new payment systems and revenue-sharing models.
- AI Integration: AI, like Grok, will become more advanced, improving user interaction and content management.
- Streaming and Media: X TV will expand, offering live sports, events, and viral video content.
- User Interface: New features like swipe actions for likes and replies will streamline user interaction.
- Free Speech and Transparency: X will focus on free speech with more transparent algorithms and community tools.
- Service Integration: The platform will integrate services like payments, job listings, and communication features.
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Are you planning to integrate AI tools into your 2025 marketing strategy?
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