A Soft Reset.

Now, a gentle restart, leveraging the trends that matter right now.

Happy August One. Here you’ll find top trends for creators and below, top trends for brands.

Top trends for creators

Platform Pivots: Long-Form is Back
TikTok is pushing 1–3 min videos, YouTube Shorts are turning into long-form discoverability tools, and Instagram is rewarding storytelling. Influencers are adapting with deeper, vlog-style content and raw, unfiltered reflections.

Narrative Transparency > Curation
Audiences crave consistency — not perfection. Creators who let people into the full arc (behind the glow-up, the growth, the glitch) are outperforming those sticking to aesthetic curation.

The Rise of “Soft Influence”
Hard-selling is out. Influencers are winning through gentle nudges — recommending via lifestyle context, showing without telling, and inspiring action through trust and relatability rather than urgency. Creators reign supreme over influencers.

Micro-Meme & Audio Trend Layering
Even serious or wellness creators are layering trending audios, captions or formats over their core content — not chasing virality, but using subtle cultural cues to signal relevance and platform fluency.

Community-First Content Loops
The algorithm now prioritises engagement within your existing community. Creators are doubling down on responding to comments, stitching followers' replies, and creating content inspired by questions or DMs to drive deeper interaction. Bonus tip: Remember your audience is the only thing that matters, make them feel like they are your mate.

Top trends for brands

Conversation is not a byproduct - it’s the brief

The comments section is no longer just a feedback loop — it’s where trends ignite, communities grow, and conversions begin. Smart brands are building entire content strategies, product ideas, and commerce flows from what happens after the post goes live.

Whether it’s pinning a cheeky reply, answering a product question in real time (driving conversational commerce), or turning a viral request into a product line, the brands winning in 2025 are paying just as much attention below the fold.

  • Fenty Beauty launched new product shades in response to repeated TikTok comment requests.

  • Mecca and Sephora use replies and pins to direct users to exact product links.

  • Netflix and Nando’s regularly turn audience comments into content — or spark conversations that feed the next posts.

  • When I was at Woolies, we created some of our highest performing TikTok and Instagram content in response to customer comments.

People want to hear from people

Forget overly polished brand speak — people want people. From frontline employees to creators and customers, stories told by real humans carry more trust and traction. As this trend builds over the next six to twelve months, differentiation will be found in authenticity. Let team members sound like normal people and share points of view in their own voice.

  • Telstra’s social team uses staff-led explainers to make complex tech relatable.

  • Dove paired AI tools with creator-led stories to elevate authentic beauty.

  • Develop the right guidelines, playbooks and rituals to support teams creating safely and effectively. This is a service we offer at August One.

If you’re seeing it everywhere, you’ve already missed it 

Social listening has evolved from sentiment tracking to trend-spotting. Top brands now monitor micro-memes, rising creators, and subcultural shifts — turning insight into agile, on-trend content.

  • Use signals to respond before something goes viral.

  • Track low-fi content patterns, audios, or creator formats, not just keywords - including subcommunities in huge community platforms like Reddit

  • Prioritise relevance over perfection.

A voice isn’t risky - it’s required 

Tone is no longer enough — brands need a recognisable voice. Leading accounts show up with humour, perspective, and consistency, while social leads and employees become the faces behind the feed. Define an aesthetic and tone that is SO the voice of your brand, it can’t possibly be anyone else. This will matter more in the next six months than ever before. 

  • Duolingo’s owl is more famous than most influencers.

  • Sour Patch Kids brings sass and chaos to TikTok daily.

AI is Your Creative Co-Pilot 

The best social teams aren’t using AI to replace ideas — they’re using it to scale them faster. From versioning and caption writing to trend analysis and creative prompts, AI is embedded in the workflow. Use it to enhance your ideas and content or be outpaced. 

  • Coca-Cola invited users to co-create brand visuals with its AI art tool..

  • BMW turned AI-generated art into campaign imagery for new vehicle drops.

As always, if you need support, August One is your partner in smart social.