When you open your phone and click on your favorite social media app to do some mindless scrolling (just me?…ok), or set out to curate a post for your business, chances are your feed and experience look and feel different than it did a month ago. Heck, even a week ago.
Social media platforms are constantly evolving, and it’s part of what makes them such valuable channels. Recently, though, some of these shifts have felt more chaotic than helpful. From grid tweaks to algorithmic shifts to bans (and un-bans in the span of 12 hours), numerous platforms are evolving in real-time.
Some are cosmetic, some have a deeper impact on audiences and reach, but all are important to understand and adapt to.
X Marks the Chaos
It’s still hard to not type out ‘Twitter,’ but the name change is the least of X’s overall problems. Since Elon Musk took over the platform in late 2022, it’s been a downward spiral. X was always THE place for a good argument, but now anger, vitriol, and falsehoods abound. Bots rule the land, false information spreads easily, and algorithms focus on hyper-specific topics based on any post you may accidentally stumble upon. With all that, many have called it quits—users are down 8.5% and revenue is down by almost 50% since Musk’s acquisition. And with all his billions, it’s unclear if he’s motivated to try to get them back. And complicating matter, he just sold the platform to an AI startup…he started.
BlueSky, a somewhat political opposition to X, amassed 30 million users by the start of March 2025. Many have taken up the new platform to voice their thoughts and opinions, unsure of the future on X and upset with the current conditions. BlueSky seems to have established itself as the X for the resistance.
There’s also still Threads, the first alternative to X. Coming primarily via Instagram, its 320 million users to start 2025 looks large, but under the hood it’s not as appealing. Threads gained 100 million users in 5 days back in 2023. Since then, growth has been less than staggering as the platform doesn’t do much more than mimic other platforms. Still, Threads has contributed to loosening the stranglehold X used to have when it comes to this real-time, text-first style of social media.
Brands have followed as well, though in a more strategic manner: many appear to have cut their advertising budgets, but are still leveraging X’s large audience to expose their content to the widest possible audience. Take ESPN for example. The “worldwide leader in sports” is posting the same content on both BlueSky and X (almost word for word) to avoid a lapse in coverage, but still seeing more engagement on X.
Advice: Monitor and be ready to adapt. For now, X is still viable given its large existing audience that remains in the habit of using it for quick updates and news, though it may be a challenge to benefit from their algorithm. BlueSky should stay in the bullpen for consideration as more users seek asylum from the madness on the once-fun bird app. And Threads remains an afterthought, as it appears to be for parent Meta.
TikTok Boomerangs
It was a scary night in January, but thankfully, my favorite way to turn ten minutes on my phone into two hours of scrolling is back.
Besides a slight hiccup in which some users were unable to re-download the app after a panic deletion, it appears that TikTok suffered minimal negative impact in the 12 or so hours it was gone. As of February 2025, the platform has around 1 billion active users, surpassing the long-established Snapchat. Additionally, its hold over the younger generation remains, as around 47% of the audience is 29 or younger.
Something to monitor, though is that the app’s 75-day extension lasts through April 5. Details are murky on what comes next.
Advice: TikTok has a massive audience and rewards specific types of video content with lots of exposure, so you need to have the ability to create and feed it correctly. If you do, TikTok is still worth jumping in on while it’s here. If anything, a strongly loyal audience for creators and brands to reach, might just be more dedicated to the platform knowing how cold and empty the world can be when it’s gone (shudder).
Instagram Adjusts its Grid
Those that have used Instagram in recent years are familiar with the preferred sizing for content. Unlike some other platforms that can adjust to your content, Instagram makes you conform to its requirements. That has meant grid posts with a size of 1080×1080 or 1:1 ratio.
Not anymore! In the slightest of changes, which appears to be a follow up to a failed attempt several years ago, the preferred grid size is now 1080×1350, or 4:5.
It might seem minimal, but the tweak has a big impact on how your posts appear to users. By shortening the aspect ratio, posts left in the 1080×1080 form may look fine when scrolling, but a visit to your profile will unveil a zoomed-in mess on your grid, cropping off the sides of your lovely design. For example, this old Taoti post looks fine in singular form, but when appearing on our profile, the entire design is off.
Advice: Make the switch. Though it may be annoying to change your process, and you might think you can get away with keeping the 1:1, it will hinder the content on your profile’s grid. For a platform like Instagram that thrives on aesthetic and capturing attention through images and video, you don’t want even a fraction of a graphic being misplaced.
