The popularity of learning content has risen over the last two years across social platforms. People aren’t just scrolling on social—they’re searching. From “apple puff pastry hacks” to “how to edit a video,” audiences are turning to social platforms rather than traditional search engines for answers.

In 2024, learning content outperformed platform-wide content across social video:

+47% YoY engagement growth on Instagram

Global insights and trends from 8,350 shoppers and 1,700 retail industry decision-makers. Retail is transforming — becoming more digital, social, connected, and experiential. As AI advances, retailers have the opportunity to unlock both efficiencies and incredible customer experiences. But success isn’t guaranteed. It requires unified commerce and a strong data foundation. Read the report to discover why:

To win on social media, you gotta move fast. Dig in to see how the best in the biz are being agile, and how you can follow suit. With new creative opportunities brought about by social platforms, we’re seeing more and more organizations loosen the reins, toss the traditional marketing playbooks aside, and prioritize entertainment on social media.

What makes content go viral? According to our latest research, the key lies in triggering specific emotions, publishing at the right time and telling stories that resonate. By understanding the emotional drivers behind viral content, brands can create campaigns that reach wider audiences and inspire real engagement.

The viral emotions driving brand engagement

Up to 70% of journalists say PR pros are important to the success of their jobs, yet 49% of journalists seldom or never respond to PR pitches, according to  Muck Rack’s State of Journalism 2024.

As the  ecommerce market grows exponentially, six trends projected to heavily impact the  global market (link resides outside of ibm.com) are  artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, live commerce, online-to-offline ecommerce, social commerce and voice assistants. Generative AI opens up greater opportunities for value-creating personalization, dynamic pricing, user-friendly  chatbots, voice assistants, virtual assistants, and improved customer search. Social commerce, a form of ecommerce in which a social media platform serves as both a marketing channel and a shopping destination, is expected to  grow by more than 50% (link resides outside of ibm.com) between 2021 and 2025.

Your social media marketing strategies are changing how your business connects with audiences, combining creativity, data, and technology to drive engagement and growth. It makes building brand awareness and developing relationships with your audience far easier, which can generate sales. As you might expect, social media is showing no signs of slowing down in 2025. In fact, Data Reportal notes that 8.4 new accounts join social media every second.

Your social media marketing strategies are changing how your business connects with audiences, combining creativity, data, and technology to drive engagement and growth. It makes building brand awareness and developing relationships with your audience far easier, which can generate sales.

As you might expect, social media is showing no signs of slowing down in 2025. In fact, Data Reportal notes that 8.4 new accounts join social media every second.

As holiday campaigns dominated the social media landscape, retail businesses look forward to 2025 for cutting-edge strategies and approaches to stand out amongst competitors. E-commerce and retail businesses face increasing competition due to in-app shopping features and targeted retail ads across platforms such as Google, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, X, and Pinterest. We expect more platforms to adopt these features in 2025.