By the Numbers: What social media marketers fear most

Social media marketers are in a tough position. They’re caught between the whims of a fickle audience to bosses and leadership who sometimes think they know best about what performs well because they have a nephew who’s really popular on Instagram. Add in the constant change and churn on the platforms themselves, and there’s plenty keeping this bunch up at night.

The 2025 Sprout Social Index surveyed 900 social media professionals across the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. They dug deep into what worries these practitioners, how they interact with leadership and more.

Here’s what they found.

The greatest fear isn’t leadership — it’s audience

Social media practitioners’ greatest concern is that their audiences will go where they can’t follow.

More than half of these professionals cited audiences moving to private or closed networks as their greatest fear. And there’s good reason for that fear: many social networks are bulking up private or direct messaging tools, meaning many conversations now take place in secret, unable to be captured by social listening and unable to be reached by brand messages. Instagram, in particular, has bulked up its DM toolkit as users continue to retreat to these secluded conversations over public chatter. While it’s unlikely public posting will ever cease, a greater shift toward closed networks could significantly change the role of social media manager as we know it today.

Other fears focus on the stressful parts of the job, like managing a crisis on social (39%), burnout and creative fatigue (35%). Others have to do with career paths, with concerns either about layoffs due to AI or the unclear value of social media (32%) or a murky career path (29%).

But trust continues to be a huge issue between leadership and social media teams, with 41% fearing that leadership won’t trust them on what content works best. It’s unclear exactly what this means, but it could feed into some common complaints from the social seat. Even more than 15 years after social media burst onto the scene, many in the industry still complain of feeling like “order takers,” required to post any flier, promotion or pet project of leadership’s on social media, even if they know it will flop. This could mean not having the creative or legal freedom to speak to the audiences in ways they know will resonate. Or it could simply mean not being able to communicate clearly with metrics.

Data is key to securing more budget

Those metrics are often the best way to securing more budget dollars for the social department, the survey respondents found. Demonstrating how social media campaigns are tied to business goals was the top way practitioners have found to get those dollars (62%), while contextualizing social media data via dashboards and graphs came in third place (45%). Those two, of course, are not mutually exclusive. A great data viz plan is one of the surest ways to demonstrate how social media campaigns can meet those business goals.

The other way to gain dollars is to show that it’s a savings over other channels, with 52% reporting success by positioning social media as a relative bargain.

The top ways marketers will measure that social success in 2025, according to the survey, are:

1. Overall engagement
2. Audience growth
3. Social interactions
4. Web visitors
5. Share of voice

While these are all good top-level measurements for social media, it’s that next step where things get tricky — truly tying it into business goals. That’s where getting to know leadership and understanding those overarching business goals comes into play. The more you understand that, the more you can connect the dots and make your case.

What social media pros need to succeed

It might surprise you that video skills aren’t among the top qualifications social media pros think are important in 2025. Nor are TikTok dance skills. Rather, there’s a heavy emphasis on data gathering and analysis for success in the industry. Social listening topped the list of “functional skills,” followed by data analysis and storytelling, and creative direction in third place. The top two skills, then, aren’t about creating anything at all, but rather about helping tell stories with data — whether that’s through listening or analytics.

Among “soft skills,” the most desired skills were project management, brand voice development and partnership building. Given the cross-collaborative nature of social media, both inside and outside organizations, these skills make sense. Being able to shepherd a project to completion, keeping a steady brand voice and finding allies are vital skills.

What skills do you think will matter most in 2025?

If you’re interested in learning about the latest digital trends, plan to attend Ragan’s Social Media Conference at Walt Disney World from March 19-21.

Allison Carter is editorial director of PR Daily and Ragan.com. Follow her on LinkedIn.