How to Leverage Social Media for Your Ecommerce Business in 2025

Americans spend an average 5 hours and 16 minutes per day on their phones – 79% of that time is spent on social media. 

While it may seem frustrating to bend to the whims of the algorithms or jump on a new platform as they arise, social media has become a necessary evil for business owners and non-profits alike. It’s the most streamlined way to connect with new potential customers. 

So, the question isn’t if you should participate on social media channels or not. It’s how can you make social media work for you and your business? 

This blog includes social media practices you could adopt or ignore, so you can make your social work for you.

The 2025 Social Media Landscape

Social media evolves quickly. This year, ecommerce brands can expect new platforms to continue to rise, shifts in user behavior, and the further development of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

Emerging Platforms

Threads: Threads is an ideal platform for brands that are looking to grow their thought leadership. The platform prioritizes text-based, threaded conversations similar to X (formerly Twitter). It prioritizes meaningful conversations while allowing profiles to connect with their Instagram followers. This helps brands build audiences on Threads quickly without starting from scratch. 

There are no paid ads on Threads. Instead, you’ll have to partner with creators to reach new followers. 

TikTok: This platform has accomplished what Vine, Youtube Shorts, and other video sharing platforms failed to do – they’ve created a massive, passionate online following. Via short videos, users are able to share casual, authentic content that can go viral easier than other platforms. Mainly because TikTok’s algorithm showcases personalized content based on interest, rather than pages the user has already interacted with, like Instagram. 

This platform is ideal for brands that don’t mind showcasing their authentic self – and maybe learning a dance or two. 

BeReal: An up and coming platform, BeReal has over 25 million active daily users as of 2024. Most of those users are Gen Z U.S. citizens. If a brand is able to share authentic content or helpful content (like discounts or special offers), it could be a platform worth exploring. 

Notable BeReal brand accounts include Chipotle, e.l.f. Cosmetics, and Rare Beauty. 

Before you hop onto one of these platforms, consider the following questions:

1. Is this where your audience is? This is the most important question because if your audience doesn’t regularly use the platform, you don’t need to either.
2. Do you have time to learn the best practices of this platform?
3. Do you have time to create a content calendar?
4. Do you have time to respond to messages and comments? 

The Future of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

While still a newer and high-tech opportunity, AR and VR continue to have an impact on ecommerce brands and social media platforms. Some ways these technologies will impact ecommerce brands include things like: 

• Virtual try-ons
• Immersive shopping experiences
• AI shopping assistant chatbots

Shift in User Behavior:

The good news: There is a lot less dancing on social media compared to two or three years ago. 

The bad news: If you want to successfully manage your social media accounts, it will likely require more of your time. Social platforms are becoming more interactive, encouraging some kind of engagement (likes, reshares, comments, saves, etc). That’s on top of creating campaigns, tracking metrics, and partnering with relevant influencers. 

Speaking of relevant influencers, niche communities and micro-influencers are also on the rise. Some of the benefits of working with small influencers with more focused communities include:

• Hyperlocality
• Credible content
• Long-term partnership opportunities
• Niche expertise
• Deeper connections
• Higher engagement rates

Building a Strong Social Media Strategy for 2025

Set Clear Goals 

Your goals for social media should fall into two categories:

1. Long-term brand building and awareness
2. Short-term sales

To meet your goals for both of these categories, you’ll need to target the right audience. If you haven’t already examined where your ideal audience spends their time, start with learning where your audience spends their time. 

What platforms is your ideal audience active on (not just somewhere they have a profile)?

What groups does your ideal audience engage with? Any other brands you could partner with that have a direct line to them?

What hashtags does this audience browse?

Making goals that target your ideal audience will allow you to pour your time into the places you can make the highest impact. 

Once you know where your audience is, it’s time to set goal posts. Long-term brand building and awareness goals could look like:

• Increasing followers
• Increasing engagement
• Partnerships with influencers
• Regular posting with best practices

To really leverage short-term sales, you’ll want to set up social commerce and in-app shopping. 

Social Commerce and In-App Shopping

You might be wondering… what is social commerce?

Social commerce is when a brand promotes or sells products on their social media channels. 

In 2023, global ecommerce sales surpassed $6 trillion. There are a lot of online shopping opportunities. So your brand needs a seamless social shopping experience. 

No one wants to go to a post where they see a product they love, then go to the brand’s social profile. Then go to their website. Then try to find the product to make a purchase. It’s too many steps. 

When a customer sees something they like, the less friction between them and the purchase the more likely they are to purchase. 

Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok all give brands the opportunity to sell products directly from a post. You will have to upload your product catalog or link your website’s ecommerce platform (ex: Shopify) to tag products directly. 

If you haven’t set up a product catalog, 2025 is the year to do it. 

Influencer Marketing: Partnering with the Right Creators

Working with celebrities like Taylor Swift or Post Malone is likely not a possibility for your brand at this stage. Even influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers can charge thousands of dollars for one post. 

Small to medium ecommerce brands have found a sweet spot though – working with micro and nano influencers. These influencers often have highly engaged niche audiences that trust them more than larger influencers. 

When you find the right influencer, with the right audience, it can lead to major growth for your brand and an increase in sales. 

If you’re making collaborating with influencers look for people who have:

• A direct line to your audience
• Between 5,000 to 50,000 followers
• A history of high engagement on posts (likes, saves, sends, comments, etc)

An even bigger plus is if they have experience working with other brands!

Make sure you’re curating a thoughtful and intentional partnership with these influencers. Someone posting un-authentically about your products or services could do more harm than good. 

Using Social Media Ads to Boost Ecommerce Sales

If you want to get your product in front of interested prospects right now, you can pay for ads. Most social media channels will allow you to do paid advertising, and will serve your ads to a specific audience. 

Depending on the platform, short-form videos, retargeting, carousel ads, and interactive ads tend to work well for most brands. 

If you’ve never run ads, consider doing A/B testing to determine what helps win your audience over. Only want to change one variable at a time to ensure you know what is and isn’t working. 

Many social ad suites also have AI components. For example, you can leverage Facebook’s campaign budget optimization tool which notices trends that are working for your ad, and capitalize on them for your brand. You won’t even have to login to the platform for it to make changes. 

If you’re interested in running ads, make sure:

• Your posts and ads link to the actual product you’re selling in the post
• You leverage either more authentic style creative or professional images and videos based on your audience’s preferences
• You motivate your audience to engage with the post and take the next step with a strong call to action

Leverage Communities 

The number one goal of every social media channel is to keep people engaged and on their platform. One new way social platforms are getting people to stay on their channels longer is through communities. 

Whether it’s a Facebook group, a Discord Channel, or Instagram Close Friends, small, intimate, private groups are continuing to prove that this is where people want to spend their time. 

Many of these groups won’t allow you to blatantly sell your products. Rather, you’ll have to be intentional and add value to conversations. This will help you build trust with the audience, and will encourage them to seek out your products and services when they need it. 

As an example, say you own a kid’s clothing company. You could consider joining mommy or parenting groups online. Rather than talking about how great your clothes are, you’ll need to provide helpful answers to questions like, “How can I help my baby fall asleep in their crib?” and, “What type of shoes will actually stay on my baby during the winter?”

While this isn’t the fastest way to increase your sales, it can result in a fierce, loyal following. 

Measure Your Social Media Performance

Most social media channels now have their own analytics platforms to keep track of how your posts and ads are doing. 

If you want to determine the health of your social media presence across multiple platforms, you’ll have to invest in a third party platform like Buffer or Hubspot. 

Key Metrics to Track:

• Engagement rates (likes, comments, shares)
• New messages or inquiries 
• Website traffic
• Conversion rates
• Sale
• Repeat sales
• Followers
• Mentions
• Ad offers and click through rates

Test different posting methods and revise as needed for at least a month to a quarter. If you notice that your data suggests your audience engages with raw reels over professional videos, pivot to creating more raw reels. Then, continue testing. 

Your Ideal Audience Is Waiting Online

Gone are the days of needing foot traffic and a brick and mortar store. Now, there are social media platforms that allow you to connect with customers in unique and creative ways – right in the comfort of their home.

And, with a great social channel or ad strategy you can stay connected with them. After all, ideally your customers don’t purchase from you just once. They become lifelong fans of your brand and turn to you when your products can provide a solution. 

The first step is a thoughtful, intentional social media presence. If at first you don’t succeed, test and try again. 

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