10 Australian social media trends for 2025

With consumers spending so much time on social media, it has become a key part of our culture, both online and IRL. This also makes it an essential tool for marketers. But social media is always changing. When crafting your social media strategy for 2025 and beyond, you need to make sure the latest social media trends are top of mind. This is especially important because according to The 2025 Sprout Social Index™, 58% of social media users plan to keep using social just as much in 2025, while 24% say they’ll use it even more.

The good news is, we surveyed over 1,000 Australian social media users and 200+ social media professionals to find the freshest insights on current trends and what’s on deck for the future in 2025. In this article, we’ll explore 10 of these Australia social media trends and give you the insights you need to navigate your social strategy successfully.

What trends have impacted social media marketing in Australia?

Social media marketing has never been an easy job, and it’s full of interesting challenges in 2025. Parliament has banned social media for all children under 16 in Australia, making it difficult for marketers to reach a younger demographic.

And yet, internet culture is as vibrant and important as ever. Audiences crave authenticity rather than trend-chasing; they want brands to listen to them rather than talk at them.

Among brands, there’s a gap between C-suite executives and social media pros when it comes to appreciating the value of social media. A growing number of Australian social practitioners report feeling creative fatigue, and many are confident that AI-driven social media tools can help overcome the challenge.

Let’s take a closer look at these trends impacting Australian social media marketing in 2025.

1. Social media is the epicenter of culture

The online world is enmeshed with the real world and has a very tangible impact on it. According to the Index, 91% of Australian social media users agree that social media is how we keep up with trends and cultural moments, and they expect brands to be in tune as well. Fifty-four percent of Australians use Instagram, 49% use Facebook and 39% scroll through TikTok to stay in step with social trends.

But when a brand hops on a trend they don’t fully understand, it’s cringe. While 40% of consumers find it cool when a brand joins a viral trend, 32% find it embarrassing and 28% think it’s only effective if it happens within two days of the trend starting. It’s a fine line for brands to walk. Be thoughtful about your approach to viral trends—don’t just jump on every trend blindly.

But listening to online conversations and having your finger on the pulse can be immensely useful. Hit children’s TV show Bluey uses social listening to understand what their community wants. For instance, they know that fans adore the chaotic character Muffin, and they deliver more Muffin content to fans’ delight.

Bluey also understands what their audience connects with emotionally. Hit episode “Sleepytime” is a notorious tearjerker for parents, and Bluey doesn’t hesitate to share Sleepytime-themed content regularly. Fans feel deeply connected to the themes of the episode, the music and the experience of parenting it depicts. Leaning into that helps build community and brand loyalty.

Takeaway: At the end of the day, brands need to remember that like any culture, online culture is about belonging and emotional connection. And authenticity is key to a brand’s success online—more on that later.

2. Content saturation and the battle for Australia’s attention

The Australian social media landscape is crowded with content. To cut through the noise and earn and maintain consumer attention, brands must be strategic. Having a high-quality product or service and creating original content helps you stand out from the crowd.

Create valuable, engaging, relatable content that shows you deeply understand your audience.

For example, DIY, garden and hardware store Bunnings shares loads of useful content that illustrates a keen understanding of their audience. Their Instagram Reels show easy DIY projects, cleaning and gardening tips, fun crafts and helpful products, all in a friendly and easy-to-digest format.

Takeaway: Nothing beats knowing your audience. If you try to create content that caters to everyone, you’ll stand out from the crowd for no one. Focusing on your niche and creating valuable content that meets your audience’s needs or answers their questions is a huge win—for both of you.

3. Authenticity and engagement over trend-chasing

Consumers favour authenticity and relatability, but the definition of authenticity is shifting. In the past, we assumed that unscripted, lo-fi content was inherently more authentic, but that’s no longer the case. Instead, it’s all about whether the brand and its content are aligned with its values and story. Brands’ content should feel honest and real. What happens behind the scenes at your brand? Sharing a sneak peek with your audience can help humanize your brand, bringing your story to life so it’s clear that you live your values every day.

User-generated content is another great way to show up authentically. When your customers share photos, videos or reviews of your product, their honest reactions are a priceless illustration of how beloved your brand is. Sharing user-generated content about your brand feels natural and less promotional.

Qantas Airways periodically shares a peek behind the scenes of different endeavours that folks might not otherwise know about. For instance, in this reel, one flight attendant shares a glimpse of her day delivering gifts to children in Cairns for the holidays. Commenters enjoyed the flight attendant’s friendly, cheerful demeanor and applauded the brand for their efforts to spread Christmas joy. The content came across as real and meaningful rather than performative.

4. There’s a gap between Australian social teams and executives

A significant gap exists between Australian social media teams and executive leadership in the understanding of social media’s business impact. Raise your hand if you’re surprised.

Almost half (47%) of social media practitioners believe their executive teams don’t trust them enough to determine what content performs best on social. Social practitioners desire greater autonomy, more resources and improved cross-departmental collaboration. They also seek better technology to track performance and impact.

Takeaway: Trusting your social team is important. Social media managers know the ins and outs of internet culture and understand their audience thoroughly. Empowering social media professionals to do what they know best is the first ingredient in your recipe for success. Sometimes a weird, offbeat idea is the creative gem you never knew you needed to delight your audience and reach a new demographic, too.

5. Evolving skillsets

The skills deemed most important for social media practitioners in 2025 are advanced skills in social listening tools, creative direction, data analysis, cultural competence and brand voice development.

Human experts remain necessary in the world of social media marketing, and building your specialised skills will help you excel in 2025 and beyond. Functional skills that help in day-to-day social media work include social listening, creative direction, data analysis and storytelling. By listening to your audience online and reviewing your social media analytics, you can better deliver the content they crave. Honing your storytelling and creative direction skills will help you create unique, engaging content that stands out and is truly memorable for your audience.

As for soft skills, focus on improving brand voice development, project management, partnership building and cultural competence. Partnership building is especially useful, whether it’s for interdepartmental efforts or collaborations with influencers. Learning about other cultures is a great way to become a better marketer, too. Focus on recognizing your biases, educating yourself about other cultural beliefs and practices, and finding ways to uplift and celebrate other cultures in your work when possible.

6. Brands are expected to combat misinformation

Ninety-three percent of Australian consumers want brands to step up and combat misinformation more than they currently do, per the 2025 Index. Meta recently eliminated their third-party fact-checking program in the US. It has been replaced with Community Notes, a feature where individual users can leave notes adding context if they believe the content is false or misleading. While it’s unclear how much this will impact other countries, some sources report fact-checking is already being replaced with Community Notes in Europe as well.

Takeaway: If third-party fact-checking is eliminated globally, online misinformation will likely increase significantly. That makes it even more critical for brands to speak up, particularly when they spot false claims about topics in their industry.

7. Social customer service is essential

Social media networks are a preferred method of customer service. A whopping 73% of social users agree that if a brand doesn’t respond to customer service questions on social media, they will buy from that brand’s competitor next time. The research also shows that customers prefer to get help from brands via comments sections, DMs and @-mentions, so it’s key to monitor and respond promptly.

Activewear brand Lorna Jane replies to commenters even when it may not seem beneficial for them to do so. Lorna Jane shared a video by creator @katelin.z.wears showing off a two-tone denim outfit, and a few commenters were captivated by the green robe she wore for a fraction of a second at the beginning of the video. Many brands would simply ignore comments about a product by another brand, but Lorna Jane kindly tagged the creator and asked her to weigh in. She responded and folks genuinely appreciated it. It’s a small, quick act of service for the consumer, but an easy way to add value by being kind and helpful.

Takeaway: Reply consistently and with kindness. Offering great customer service via social is a surefire way to boost your brand’s reputation.

8. Social commerce is expanding in Australia

Social media plays a significant role in consumer discovery and purchase decisions, with many Australians making spontaneous purchases based on social content. In fact, per the Index, most social users (38.5%) make spontaneous purchases based on social media content a few times per year, with 28% reporting that they make spontaneous purchases every month.

Plus, with TikTok Shop set to launch in Australia in 2025, it could be a real game-changer for social commerce.

Many Australian brands are already being smart about social commerce. Iconically Australian hat brand Akubra has begun integrating shop buttons into their Instagram content. This gradual integration coupled with the ease of tapping to find the exact hat in the photo makes the shopping experience smooth and enjoyable.

9. Creative fatigue is on the rise

We hate to see it, but burnout is increasing in 2025. Social media practitioners are struggling with content creation; 52% report feeling the same amount of fatigue as last year and 26% report feeling more tired than before. There’s an expectation to be chronically online and keep up with trends, which can be exhausting. Battling burnout isn’t easy, but it’s possible.

Start by reducing the time you spend online outside of work, finding a supportive community‌ and advocating for more resources at work.

Sometimes the additional resources you’re hoping for just aren’t in the cards. In those situations, AI tools can be incredibly helpful. For example, when you’re stuck staring at a blank screen and trying to draft social copy, Sprout Social’s AI Assist can offer jumping-off points for captions and hashtags.

10. Using AI in social product

Social media practitioners view AI positively as a potential tool to combat creative fatigue. The majority of social media professionals report feeling either very or somewhat confident in AI’s ability to help them. Sprout experienced this firsthand, incorporating Sprout’s AI tools into the social team’s social media management workflow. The data showed 72 hours saved each quarter on reporting, US$16,000 (AU$ 25,406.10) of time saved on reporting per year and US$132,000 (AU$ 209,600.33) in time saved on customer care each year. And just as important? Our teams reported that it freed up time for more creative work.

AI is particularly helpful for automating tasks in your workflow. When crafting social media copy, AI tools can assist with crafting messaging, checking grammar and syntax, generating headline and hook ideas, and more. Writing alt text is an important part of publishing social content too, but is often a clunky piece of the workflow. With Sprout’s AI Assist, you can streamline the process with AI-generated alt text.

The tedious work of scheduling social content can also be alleviated by AI. AI social media scheduling tools help with bulk scheduling, optimizing for different platforms and managing assets, just to name a few tasks. Incorporating AI into your process will give you time back in your day for the tasks that energize you most.

Social media marketing can be cyclical, and when we hit our busy seasons, those feelings of burnout intensify. AI can be a great tool for getting through peak seasons, especially when it comes to customer service on social. It can even function as a social media assistant, whether it’s through chatbots for placing and tracking orders or optimizing your content schedule.

The holidays can be extra-frantic for social media marketers, particularly if you’re a small and scrappy team. Utilizing AI is welcome by customers now: 74% of consumers are comfortable with brands using AI to deliver faster customer service on social. Sprout’s Enhance by AI Assist is a good resource for using generative AI to improve your responses to comments and DMs.

How to keep up with social media trends in Australia

You can’t keep up with social media trends in a silo. With the right resources and community, it’s easy to keep up with social media trends in Australia.

Follow industry blogs and publications

There’s no shortage of excellent social media publications. Some favourites include Social Media Examiner, Sprout Social’s blog, We Are Social and Margin Media.  

Participate in social media communities

Finding community online is a meaningful way to make friendships and learn new things. Sprout Social’s the Arboretum is a good place to start. Facebook and LinkedIn have lots of lively groups for social media practitioners too—check out Social Media Managers on Facebook and Social Media Today on LinkedIn.

Depending on your niche within the social media marketing world, you can also find more specific communities for freelance social media marketers, nonprofit social media marketers‌ and beyond.

Use trend-tracking tools and platforms

Sprout Social and Google Trends are handy for staying on top of trends. You can browse what’s trending now, set up reports or search for specific items of interest.

Follow influencers and thought leaders

Beyond tools and articles, we can learn a lot from each other. Jon-Stephen Stansel, Jayde Powell, Annie-Mai Hodge and Zaria Parvez are a few talented social media practitioners and thought leaders who share informative (and relatable!) content about social media in 2025. Australian social media agencies like Eight Clients and Melbourne Social Co are great follows, too.

Experiment and analyze

Experiment with new features as they roll out, test trends and see what performs well‌, and pay attention and think critically when you engage with content online.

Social media marketing in 2025

Keeping up with evolving social media networks and trends is tough, but it can be energizing. Social media practitioners face complex challenges in 2025, like finding ways to show up authentically, making strides to combat misinformation and standing out in a crowded online environment.

Start with a solid foundation of data about audience behavior and expectations. If you know what they want, you’ll be better prepared to flex with the changing tides. Take a deeper dive into The Sprout Social Index™, which covers what brands need to know for 2025 and beyond.

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