‘Post with the desired post-post in mind’: A crowdsourced social playbook for 2025

Tiah Slattery, head of influencer, Dept: “Try deliberately bad content. The more polished and over-produced something looks, the less people trust it. What’s cutting through is lo-fi, chaotic, ‘ugly but honest.’ Think screenshots, messy memes, brutally honest captions and vertical video that feels like it was made in someone’s Notes app five minutes ago. It’s not off-brand, it’s off-perfection and that’s what makes it stick. In a world of AI slop, audiences are craving imperfection as proof of humanity. This doesn’t mean lazy. It means smartly unpolished. The kind of content that looks like it was made by the intern but says exactly what everyone’s thinking. If your brand still has approval rounds for punctuation, you’re going to lose. If you can get comfortable with chaos (and stay culturally fluent), you’ll win. Not ev

erything should look like an ad. Sometimes it just needs to feel like a thought worth sharing.”

Tom Stone, co-founder, Re:act: “Run conversion-style ads in reach placements, even when it feels like the wrong format for the job. It breaks the platform’s logic, but that’s exactly why it works. You’re forcing a direct-response mindset into spaces built for scale, which lets you tap the full audience pool, not just the 10% likely to act. We’ve seen this consistently drive offline sales, which most digital formats struggle to influence cleanly. And if your core audience skews male, don’t sleep on YouTube Shorts. The CPMs are steep, but it’s where short-form still holds the attention of men scrolling with intent. YouTube knows this and is making a big play behind the scenes to turn male attention into advertiser value. It’s one of the few places where algorithm, audience and ad format are genuinely starting to line up again.”

Andrea Sarhis, associate director, paid social, Good Apple: “The terms ‘authenticity’ and ‘UGC’ get tossed around constantly, but too often the execution ends up feeling disingenuous due to brand overinvolvement. Reverse creator collaborations move us closer to what authenticity is meant to be, cutting through the noise by letting creators do the leading. Instead of brands scripting talking points, trust creators to lead with their own voice, storytelling style and format that feels truest to them. The result: content that resonates because it’s rooted in personal style. Audiences crave real human connection and experiences. Influence today isn’t about curation or vanity, it’s about resonance. Brands win when they amplify trusted voices and nurture authentic content that sparks connection and builds community.”

Nadine Müller, executive strategy director, social media, Jung von Matt Hamburg: “Brands need to stop thinking like broadcasters and start feeling like subcultures. The most successful post isn’t the one with the most likes; it’s the one that gets screenshotted and dropped into the group chat. The one that ends up in a Telegram slide, that gets remixed into a TikTok stitch meme. You don’t get there with polished, over-orchestrated campaigns, but with content that works as social raw material. Format logic that leaves gaps. Ideas that feel like platform-native language, not advertising. This doesn’t come from a creator briefing. It comes from scrolling your DMs, lurking in Discords, getting lost in the FYP. Community-inspired ideation means listen first then make it remixable. The new KPI? When your brand’s post doesn’t just perform, it lives on.”

Judith Tulkens, senior social creative, Adam&EveDDB London: “TikTok said it best: ‘we listen and we don’t judge.’ That’s exactly what brands need to be doing right now. What are people saying in your comment section? What do they believe? What do they want from you? What’s their goss? What’s their truth? We need to stop trying to ‘tap into culture’ and start elevating the culture that’s already there. When you focus less on what’s trending and more on what’s tracking with your audience, you get to content that feels culturally relevant. So find the most unhinged DM you got last year and brief it into your creative team.”

Emily Charlton-Smith, head of social, Anything is Possible: “We’re seeing the death of the three-second view. With Instagram testing auto-scroll, the feed is shifting from active engagement and self-curation to passive viewing. Users no longer choose what to stop and watch. Content simply appears and moves on. That transforms the creative brief. One format cutting through is the ‘single-frame ambush.’ It means treating the very first frame as the whole story. No build-up, no soft entry. The visual should demand attention immediately. Bold typography, jarring crops, unexpected expressions or color… anything that interrupts the scroll and forces a pause. This approach accepts the reality of the feed. Most people won’t stay for the full post. But if the first second delivers impact, you’ve still made a connection. The most effective content is no longer the most polished. It is the most immediate. When attention is passive, disruption becomes a creative tool. So creative must become disruptive.”

Faye Martin, senior brand and content manager, GBM Group: “In a time where brand content feels more AI-generated and less human than ever, raw, street-level voxpops are cutting through. Not glossy interviews, not studio setups. Just a mic, a street and real people reacting to bold, oddly specific questions. Think: ‘What’s a meme you quote on the daily?’ or ‘What’s the worst accent in the UK?’ People don’t want perfection; they want proof that someone real is behind the screen. Voxpops are messy, unpredictable and wildly more watchable than 90% of brand posts.”

Alexandra Mathieu, vice-president, strategy & creative, Open Influence: “The content isn’t about the content any more. It’s not about the asset or the ‘post.’ It’s about the reaction. Comments, reactions, stitches, duets, notes, DMs: the actions taken post-post. The post itself? That’s just the teaser. The taster. The prequel to what actually matters. How people respond, remix and reflect it are the crux of it all. It’s richer. More nuanced. Varied. Interactive. Infinite in possibilities. Post with the desired post-post in mind.”

Margot Eddy, partner and head of social, Acadia: “Be unexpected. Put gushers in your tuna salad, ranch in your car console or pizza in your beach bag. Brands showing up in eye-catching, unexpected places are winning big. We’re over taking ourselves seriously. Lean into creating your own custom audio. The sillier, the catchier, the better. ‘Dwink from da bwita’ has been stuck in my head for weeks, so shout out to Brita for that one.”

James Kirkham, founder, Iconic: “The only thing that works now is starting off of social. Content is broken. Nobody cares. It’s just relentless noise. So start outside of social media and if it ends up there, amplified, then fantastic. It needs to be a real thing in a real space with real people. A moment so visceral or joyful or weird that someone has to film it. I call it ‘fan fuel,’ not content. It begins with craft, with theater and an experience built to be witnessed. Social media is now just the final echo chamber, never the starting gun. Everything else is reheated, reposted mush. In 2025, the algorithm is too relentless and the audience too numb to feel, unless it starts in real life. That’s the content that cuts through: the kind that didn’t know it was content at all, just a moment that mattered more.”

Danielle Dullaghan, social strategy director, Iris: “Social is in a state of flux. Audiences have seen it all before. Social has become copy-paste, driven by algorithms. While it could be argued that social has always been about entertaining audiences and sustaining attention, that’s never been truer than now. Chasing trends and memes isn’t cutting it any more, and it’s certainly not a strategy, so forget about brain rot. In 2025, brands need to be clever with their content, not just capitalizing on what’s already out there. They need to bring something unique and relevant to their audience if they want to earn attention.”

Richard Boon, chief executive officer, Oh Six: “People say broadcast TV is dead, but overlook what makes a good TV format. Those ingredients also resonate strongly with a social-first digital audience. The most successful branded content we’ve produced takes the TV recipe and packages it for each social platform. Take the very best elements of TV watchability across series, teasers and episodic content. Align that to the ingredients of a successful social format. Inject with humor, jeopardy, a journey, coming up, recaps, easter eggs.”

Kat Lee, strategist, Kettle: “Brands post the behind-the-scenes (BTS) content last. Flip it. Post it first, completely out of context. The blurry mood board. The team meltdown. The cursed draft that made it to review. A cryptic video of someone stress-eating in the conference room with the caption ‘day three of trying to solve this.’ Let people get obsessively hooked on the outcome before revealing what you’re launching. Confusion builds curiosity. People are addicted to seeing how the sausage gets made, but starting with the mess makes them emotionally invested in your success. They’re not just consuming your content; they’re rooting for you. You’re storytelling with tension. BTS is the drama. And everyone loves drama.”

Daniel Hirsch, executive technology director, Left Field Labs: “People don’t want polished brand messages any more; they want to help you create them. The stickiest format right now: serialized, co-created videos where the audience doesn’t just watch, they decide what happens next. Think of your content like a live group chat, not a finished product. Fans pitch story twists and you build from that delightful chaos in real-time. It’s messier, weirder and way more engaging than one-and-done posts, flipping brands from broadcasters into co-conspirators. Trust takes a hit when content feels overly polished or AI-generated (even when it isn’t). Handing the creative pen to your audience rebuilds trust organically. No algorithm or AI trick can fake real human participation.”

Karina Carlson, senior writer, Copacino Fujiako: “Leaning into trends is fine. It might get you views, but it’s like a fleeting sugar high. Lean into the familiar styles of the platform you’re on, but keep the actual content within an ownable strategy.”

Renee Montpetit, strategy director, social platforms, McKinney: “Ask yourself: What’s the dialed-to-11 version? Yes, speed matters, but in the chronically online slop era, it’s most important to stand out. Every piece of content should start from an audience truth, then challenge yourself to make it bigger or find a new angle. From fandom to obsession, from enthusiastic to geeked, be the outlet for fans’ wildest cravings and most unhinged confessions. If you’re getting their version of Brittany Broski’s reaction to trying kombucha for the first time, you’re doing something right.”

Beth Manning, creative director, Leo UK: “Go for the niches. Algorithms have never been better at showing us what we want to see in moments when we want to see it. The best content uses that to its advantage. It’s tapping into micro- and nanocultures, telling the joke that most people won’t get, leaning into the lore that superfans stan. It’s more meaningful to say something to someone than nothing to everyone, right?”

Charlie Smith, strategist, Coolr: “Forget micro moments. Go big and bold. Brands that take a longer-term view on culture rather than short-term reactive one-offs see better long-term results. You don’t need a new idea every day, just one solid central idea played out in multiple iterations. Root everything in a brand experience or audience interest. TikTok and Reels reward novelty, but audiences remember you if you show up with a recognizable voice and do something original. The future of social content isn’t fast; it’s slow-burning and sparks an emotional reaction.”

Kirsty Hathaway, executive creative director, Joan London: “We’ve reached oversaturation. Brands have lost individualism on social media, leaving us in a world of identical content. It’s boring. So it’s exciting to see brands like Burberry disregard rigid social media strategies and lean into what feels great. It’s unexpected and fun and you can tell from the engagement that the audience agrees. Brands that lean into this are going to see real success. Because it’s audience-first, it’s creating for what social should be and generating brand love. If the luxury fashion space, with its strict brand guidelines, can do this, any brand can and should.”

Annie Harte, social strategist, Eight&Four: “Being chronically online gets a bad rep in the wider world, but in social it’s a superpower. Get hardwired into internet culture and niche chaos as it unfolds. Become fluent in internet-speak and rituals, not just as observer but as active participant. It’s deeper than spotting the next meme format or knowing which Love Island moment will blow up next. It’s about understanding why people care: what are they craving? Who are they mocking? What are they celebrating? It’s that human insight that creates content that lands. When brands take note of this depth, no matter how messy, specific or unpredictable, they unlock a new level of originality.”

Abi Morrish York, managing director, Miroma Founders Network: “Divisiveness works, but it doesn’t have to be toxic. Make it personal, absurd or just polarizing enough to trigger people into jumping in. People don’t scroll past things they disagree with. This works best with text-only posts on LinkedIn and Threads, or with a simple visual poll on Stories. The goal isn’t to be right; it’s to spark tribal identity and watch the algorithm boost the chaos. Let your audience do the content for you. As a bonus, screenshot the wildest replies and turn them into a carousel. Instant encore.”

Amy Cotteleer, chief experience officer, Duncan Channon: “The green screen video filter is our favorite tried-and-true social tactic that actually works. Audiences are naturally drawn to content creators who go in-depth, offering thoughtful commentary, personal insights or compelling demonstrations. It’s also a quick way to leverage existing content or assets, but still position yourself as an originator. Humanization, thought leadership and low effort: our holy trinity of brand social all come to life here. And it offers plenty of opportunities to open the conversation with your audience in the comments.”

Luisa Consuegra Rodriguez, group creative director, Monks: “Try your hand at meta, absurdist skits. This content works because it’s chaotic, self-aware and mirrors how we consume the internet today. It parodies social tropes while participating in them, creating a layered in-joke for chronically online viewers. The randomness keeps attention high; people stay just to see what weird thing happens next. Despite being long-form by social standards, it holds attention because every moment feels unpredictable and alive. Its lo-fi, unscripted feel signals authenticity, while the absurdity makes it meme-worthy and shareable.”

Sasha Jeppesen, head of content and creative, Charlie Oscar: “It’s hard for to admit, but no one cares that much about your product. The brands that get it are the ones putting their people front-and-center instead. Their feeds aren’t packed with sterile product shots or USPs. Obsessing over competitors’ socials and scrolling through ads libraries to see what everyone else is doing lead to the same place: more of the same uninspired, product-focused content. But the one thing that can’t be replicated? Employees. The brands cutting through, like SheerLuxe and Sult, showcase their quirky office characters, awkward water-cooler chats and even office pranks. It’s branded reality TV, where your colleagues are the main stars.”

Callum McCahon, chief strategy officer, Born Social: “Creator-led content is how you cut through on social in 2025. But well-branded creator content is how you make sure that cut-through drives results. Recent CreativeX research found that 45% of creator spend on Meta is effectively wasted, because it’s both unbranded and unwatched. But branding isn’t the enemy here. In fact, System1 found that well-branded creator ads drive 2.3x higher awareness lift than the average. If you want your social to work right now, start with creators, but make sure they’re building your brand, not just their own.”

Hugo Bennett, associate strategy director, Amplify: “Episodic storytelling is a powerful tool for growing audiences and building fandoms. The idea moves away from treating each piece of content individually and towards building a coherent story that’s woven together with a central plot and characters, in the form of team members, founders or creators. Audiences are tuning in, too, as if they’re watching the next episode of their favorite HBO show. This has become particularly popular for brands and creators at the start of their journey. Creators like Isabel Klee have built engaged audiences with day-by-day style series, while startups like Bold Bean are documenting their growth journeys. All of this without a penny of paid media.”

Fabiana Maldonado, senior experience strategist, Rapp: “If you wouldn’t drop it in the group chat at 2am, don’t post it. Science doesn’t need to be dumbed down, it just needs to sound like it belongs on the internet. We’ve made complex content feel scrollable, repeatable and worth sharing. When it feels personal, not clinical, it hits like it was made for one person, not the algorithm.”

Avriel Ralys, director of brand experience strategy, TMA: “Use your comments from users as content. Take inspiration, screenshot comments as posts, call out the user who commented ‘lame’ last month. Use it all!”