A recent survey of marine marketers showed that for 2025, we can expect 97% participation in social media. And with good reason. More than 5.2 billion people — half the global population — is engaged daily on social media, according to Vista Social.
With social media commanding such a priority in our industry and beyond, it’s important to understand current developments and data. There are many emerging trends, but I think these five are the ones most likely to benefit the broader marine industry right now.
Artificial Intelligence
Marketers are learning how to navigate and unleash AI’s power for countless purposes. These include creating social-media content with visuals, managing scheduling, monitoring audience behavior, forecasting trends, analyzing advertising results, integrating customer-service chatbots and sparking creative thinking. With all these capabilities, it’s no surprise that 69% of marketers consider AI revolutionary technology, according to Hootsuite.
Still, when using AI tools, marketers must carefully fact-check results and ensure that brand voice remains consistent across marketing platforms. Slapping down AI- generated content without review, or failing to adhere to brand nuances, can produce unfavorable consequences, the worst of which include loss of brand credibility.
It’s easy to spot AI-generated, cookie- cutter content that hasn’t been finessed. For example, I’ve read posts where the AI word “vessel” is used instead of the word “boat,” an immediate telltale that AI is in play. Unless you’re the Coast Guard, vessel ain’t right to reference recreational boating activity.
Vista Social reports that 73% of businesses use AI to assist in social media content creation. If you’re new to that party, here’s a great introductory exercise. Gather your team and collaborate on a list of the most-asked questions about your business, products, services and people. Create well-crafted prompts from your questions, and test ChatGPT to produce a series of question-and-answer content. Review and edit that content to reflect your brand voice.
This simple exercise demonstrates the basics of AI creation while delivering relevant content you can use on social media, websites, blogs and more. If you want to get the best results, study up on how to optimize your AI content, too. There are myriad great resources available.
From free primers like Google Experiments to pricey college curricula from Cornell University, MIT and Johns Hopkins, AI-based education opportunities are the rage. I discovered scores of reputable online courses through the American Marketing Association, LinkedIn Learning, HubSpot Academy, Google Skillshop, Coursera, Microsoft AI Business School and more. There also are tool-specific training options for ChatGPT, Jasper, Canva and others. Social media automation and ROI/analytics information is available through Hootsuite Academy, Sprout Social, SocialBee, Google Analytics and more.
You can also easily find podcasts, webinars, brick-and-mortar conferences and virtual events hosted by such global leaders as Adobe, Salesforce, HubSpot and Microsoft, along with instructional books, AI-based blogs, and communities and forums.
Authentic, Entertaining Content
A focus on developing authentic content is widely seen as a fundamental cornerstone for social-media success. In today’s saturated landscape where you have seconds to grab attention, marketers must avoid generic, ho-hum posts along with those that are too heavily oriented toward sales or advertising.
Authentic content adds value for followers and feels personalized, especially if it’s delivered in an entertaining or educational format. Best practices embrace storytelling to drive powerful emotional connections. Brand fans prefer more creative, candid content that directly aligns with their interests and values.
According to Hootsuite’s Top Social Media Trends for 2025, “More organizations will step outside their creative comfort zone and test content that pushes beyond their brand guidelines to capture and delight audiences.” This content experimentation is expected to allow marketers to prioritize entertainment more often within their social agenda.
In addition, social-media strategy should build bridges with an audience through stimulating, two-way conversations. Facilitating user-generated content is a proven tactic to engage an audience. Whether it’s an invitation to share photos, stories, reviews or testimonials, or to participate in polls or contests, any way you can stimulate positive customer interaction is a plus.
One idea is to respond to customer engagements originating from your posts. Besides adding a quick emoji or a “like” (which is nice but does little to move the dial), choose a few customer comments and respond to promote engagement and create authentic connections. Address concerns and complaints with transparency, and always respond to direct messages.
Outbound engagement on other social platforms provides additional opportunities to connect with a target audience and participate in discussions. Determine goals and measure criteria in advance, and establish clear communication directives before the first post is launched. Hootsuite recommends keeping post responses between 10 and 99 characters for maximum impact.
Yet another content opportunity is tapping employees for participation. Using marketing oversight, invite team members from other departments to contribute content and provide behind-the-scenes stories and insights.
Who’s Listening?
A major challenge marketers face is tying social media expense to traditional ROI. Outside of metrics such as likes, comments, shares and follows, it’s hard to quantify social media returns. This challenge can minimize the C-suite’s acceptance or limit budget allocations.
There are promising advancements on the horizon, however, and they have everything to do with listening. Hootsuite’s survey noted that 62% of marketers are deploying social-media listening tools. In fact, social listening was the second-highest priority for marketers within the social category.
Emplifi explains social listening like this: “monitoring and analyzing conversations that take place on social and digital channels to gain insights into customer opinions, preferences and trends. It involves tracking mentions of a brand, product or relevant keywords, and analyzing the sentiment and context of these conversations, allowing brands to understand how their brands and offerings are perceived.”
With listening tools secured, marketers will become better equipped to analyze brand insights, quantify customer issues and concerns, spot potential product gaps and new product opportunities, plus monitor competitive activity. When used in conjunction with analytics tools, these listening tools can help marketers connect the dots between social media and traffic, lead generation, conversion and customer retention.
One-third of Hootsuite’s survey participants also use listening tools to alert them about fast-breaking social trends.
Video, the Social Czar
The average American spends 147 minutes per day on social media, according to Brainly, while Firework reports that one hour and 16 minutes is consumed on average watching short-form videos. There’s a voracious online appetite for video.
Short-form videos dominate social platforms. Firework estimates that 90% of internet traffic was derived from short form in 2024. This type of video earns 2.5 times more engagement than its longer-form counterpart.
In addition, Firework found that 56% of all videos created by businesses are less than two minutes long. The fact that videos of 90 seconds or less command a 50% viewer retention rate delivers a compelling argument for marketer adoption.
The good news is that there’s no need for big-budget video productions. A cellphone camera is well-equipped to produce quick-moving, bite-sized servings via stories, shorts and reels. Some sources recommend weaving in a fun mix of teasers and cliffhangers to build excitement and entice engagement. Vista Social reports that generative AI is offering fresh video enhancements thanks to handy editing programs available through Runway, Descript, Adobe Premiere Pro and Synthesia, all of which allow small businesses to up their game without breaking the bank.
According to Measure Studio, YouTube attracts 2.7 billion active monthly users who view short- and long-form videos. In the United States, 74% are adults, with 40% watching daily on television screens. The average user session is 30 minutes, while videos of seven to 15 minutes generate the highest engagement. This is “the” source for long-form play over 10 minutes, which is ideally suited for tutorials and educational content, or for unpacking more expansive or complex topics. It’s top for music views, and great for boosting SEO rankings.
Short- and long-form videos offer all kinds of advantages. Why not mix it up and offer a multiformat strategy to test what resonates best with your audience? Marine businesses should prioritize video investment. Having a skilled, in-house videographer as an integral member of a marketing team, and providing the necessary resources and tools, is among the smartest marketing investments a company can make.
Microinfluencers
In the early days of influencers, celebrities with mega-followings of more than a million people were the marketing darlings. According to a recent Emplifi survey, however, influencer and celebrity endorsements now rank at the bottom among all forms of advertising when it comes to authenticity.
In 2025, there is expected to be a notable shift by more than 50% of marketers toward partnering with more relatable microinfluencers. These are people with 10,000 to 100,000 followers. Microinfluencers bring a niche focus and generate higher engagement thanks to their expertise, credibility and valuable content. They include well-known anglers, cruisers, sailors and water-sports athletes, as opposed to mainstream or local celebrities who don’t know an inboard from an outboard.
As social media continues to capture consumer attention, smart marketers must understand all the trends and accelerate ahead of the curve. I hope this column inspires marketers to invest in training and education, and to push the social-media throttle strategically forward.
