How to Build a Successful Social Media Strategy in 2025 for Brands

If thousands of people have already advised you to post short-form videos and funny content to go viral on social media, you need to ditch that advice in 2025. This year is more than just posting random reels or jumping on every Instagram trend.

While the former advice would have worked 6 months ago, it is time to change your strategy with the updated Instagram algorithm. Let’s dive deep into a proven 2025 Instagram strategy that will not only help you build a successful social media brand but also drive business revenue.

1. AI: The Game-Changer in Social Media

Okay, you might have already seen this pointer coming up in the list. AI is no longer a novelty in today’s world, but has turned to be a necessity. We have started to incorporate AI for almost everything, right from research to delivering presentations. Surprisingly, AI has moved beyond the status of just being a utility product. It has entered into the realm of social media, be it content creation, automation, or even engagement.

Let’s take the example of Meta’s Inbuilt AI, which was launched early in spring 2024, and now available on Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram. The latest Llama 3 model lets you generate images, give content suggestions or even find relevant information on your fingertips.

While it is a convenient tool for users, it offers little to no value for brands trying to generate revenue on Instagram. This is where comprehensive AI tools like community management and Instagram DM automation tool comes into the picture.

One such powerful example is of a Shark Tank India famous brand HairOriginals, that used Deepsolv’s community management AI tool to manage and convert 200 to 300 comments on a daily basis. The tool doesn’t just help the brand to save time, but also prioritises sales enquiries and protects brand perception by hiding negative comments.

Roadmap for AI Integration in Social Media

1. Content Creation: Use AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, etc to brainstorm ideas, create captions, and design visuals. However, ensure that you are aligning the content with your brand personality and content pillars.
2. Community Management: Implement AI tools like Deepsolv to streamline comment replies and DM responses, ensuring human-like engagement.
3. Analytics: Utilize AI-driven insights to track engagement metrics and refine your strategy in real-time. For instance, Deepsolv provides detailed analytics on the type of queries that are generated by your brand, sales conversion, and even customer demographics. All of this helps you to not only measure the efficacy of your content, but also potentially drive better business outcome.

2. Building Communities in the Comments

The thumb rule of a successful social media strategy is to never treat your customers like just customers. Instead, try to establish a relationship with them that creates a strong association and recall value for the brand itself. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important for brands to treat comments like active engagement and community building platforms, instead of a standard reply feature.

Let’s understand this better with a real-life example. Imagine that you saw an instagram ad about a chocolate, and commented instantly on that Ad, with a query about flavours. You scroll down and eventually forget about it. It has been almost 12 hours, but receive no reply to that comment. Almost after a day of commenting, you get a standard reply from the brand. Would that make you feel excited? Would that still make you high intent to purchase the chocolate? Probably not!

With instagram comments, timing and community building goes hand in hand. Take this Instagram brand called Tiggle for example which is a community-first Chocolate drinks brand. They have streamlined their comments in such a way that it feels as if you are talking to a real human.

Why you should care:

• Comments drive deeper connections than likes or views.
• Authentic replies make your brand relatable.

Pro tip: Use Deepsolv’s community management tool that lets you handle a large volume of comments while also maintaining human touch and brand personality. Along with this, Deepsolv also continuously learns and adapts with customer interactions.

3. Personality Over Consistency

Do you use a social media calendar to plan out your content- posting consistently? While maintaining consistency on your social media handle is great, you are still missing out on 90% growth opportunities. Let’s find out how.

On one hand, you have a brand that posts an informative video daily, and on other hand, you have a brand that posts 4 times a week but always has its founder as the face of the brand, narrating stories to spread information. Which one are you most likely to remember and engage with? The chances are that it will be the latter one due to its high recall value.

Focus on building a persona over your brand instead of mass posting with low intent. A great example is Duolingo’s Social Media Strategy. Their chaotic, funny mascot content doesn’t match others brands’ vibe—and that’s okay. Why? Because it works.

For smaller or new brands, maintaining such a distinct voice can take a long process, but clearing out your intent from day 1 still remains a necessity.

4. Short-Form Video for Long-Term Wins

Now, you may feel as if we are contradicting our point about short-form videos in the start of this article. However, the proof of the pudding remains that short form videos will continue to dominate for some time now. Although getting reach through short-form videos is not as easy as it was in 2022, it definitely gets more reach than other platforms such as static posts, carousels, etc,

This is why brands need to increasingly produce high-quality short form videos that can be repurposed across all their social media channels like instagram, LinkedIn, and others.

A good example of this would be Shark Tank Famous Brand Paradyes that has grown 268k+ followers on Instagram with their instagram reels (primarily generated by their users). Since colouring hair is a special experience for Gen-Z. This brand leverages UGC content that is documented by their users. Isn’t that a smart move already?

Why It Matters

• Attention Span: Users spend an average of 8 seconds deciding whether to engage with content. Therefore, it is important to create shorter videos with better hooks and storytelling elements.
• Engagement: Videos under 60 seconds see 80% higher completion rates. People are slowly moving away from text or long-form video consumption on mainstream social media channels like Instagram, etc.

Winning with Short-Form Video

1. Highlight relevant trends and your brand’s personality in your videos. It should feel very consistent.
2. Use visual or content hooks to capture attention in the first 3 seconds of the users and ensure that you continue to build their curiosity.
3. Incorporate storytelling to make your content shareable and engage-worthy for the users.

5. AIO and Social SEO: The New Frontier

Gone are the days when SEO used to be applicable for just website content and blogs. In today’s world that is driven by social media, AI-driven optimization (AIO) and social SEO are reshaping content discovery. In fact, Instagram has become a search engine of its own kind.

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Interestingly, you can now search keywords on instagram instead of just searching usernames or hashtags. Thus, it becomes increasingly important for brands to optimize their content for better keyword discovery.

For example, a fitness brand like Cult.fit could use captions like, “The best post-workout meals for recovery ” to rank in AI-driven search results. Adding a location tag makes you discoverable to local audiences.

How to Optimize

1. Location Tags: Add location details to every post.
2. Answer-Driven Content: Create posts that directly address user queries and are also searchable.
3. Tools: Use SEO tools such as Google Trends, Semrush, Ahrefs, and more to find relevant keywords.

6. DM Shares as a Power Metric

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri revealed that DM shares are a top algorithm signal. Content that gets shared privately drives reach and engagement more than likes ever could.

Take Netflix India’s Instagram account or Zomato India’s Instagram Account. Their meme-filled posts get reshared in DMs daily, often leading to binge sessions among friend groups. Thus, it is advised to always focus on creating share-worthy content before anything else.

Users can share a piece of content due to various reasons: either it is funny, relatable to their situation, highly informative for them, reminds them of someone, or etc. You have to ensure your consumer’s psychological trigger in order to drive organic shares through them.

Tips for Sharable Content

1. Use humor or emotional storytelling.
2. Design content specifically for micro-communities or niche interests.
3. Monitor engagement with tools like Deepsolv to refine strategies.

Conclusion

It is imperative that building a successful social media strategy in 2025 is not just about following trends or following what works for other brands. Instead, it is a time where you establish your unique persona and build your community. From harnessing the power of AI to creating content tailored to your users, these tactics are more exciting than ever.

Remember that having the right resources with you in this AI-driven world can help you multiply your growth in considerably less amount of time. Let’s explore how Deepsolv’s AI social media management tool can help grow your brand and convert more consumers for you.

Click here to book a free consultation call with us today!