5 Social Media Trends Reshaping Ocean Advocacy

Media conditions are like the weather: ever-changing. What worked for years may not anymore - algorithms shift, audience habits evolve, and news cycles fluctuate. So for over-stretched communicators in the ocean space, it’s particularly crucial to know which way the winds of attention are blowing, so we can best adjust our sales.

This last quarter of 2025, we’re taking a moment to highlight some key trends currently shaping social media so you can end the year with a real sense of momentum.

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#1. Video Takes the Crown

YouTube has surpassed all other platforms in engagement, with 95% of marketers rating long-form videos as having high ROI. For ocean conservation organizations, this shift means an opportunity to finally tell some more complex stories.

Ocean Census demonstrates this perfectly. Their documentary-style series about their various expeditions has attracted hundreds of thousands of views. Why? It was likely a combo of stunning visuals (yes, the Arctic helps), their good mix of long-form storytelling with bite-sized clips for social sharing, and the insight to promote only organically well-performing content.

Consider: Starting with a long-form video series. Aim for 15-20 mins. Film your fieldwork, break it into chapters, and create short teasers for Instagram and TikTok (you still need to draw traffic). Extra points for A/B testing headlines and thumbnails and ensuring your description has a very clear call to action.

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#2. Community Above All

The game is no longer about follower count - it's about engagement. That’s why 86% of marketers (including the Meridian team) say active communities are crucial for social media impact.

The Surfrider Foundation nails this approach. Their local chapter groups coordinate cleanups, share impact stories, respond to DMs, and create a space for young ocean advocates to connect and act. Their engagement rate is often 3X higher than similar-sized environmental accounts.

Start small: Give your people a sense of shared identity. Create a weekly discussion thread, spotlight community members, or host monthly virtual meetups. Engage with every comment (a like heart doesn’t count) and regularly encourage member-to-member interactions.

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#3. Authenticity Wins

63% of audiences prefer genuine, unpolished content over highly produced material. For resource-constrained nonprofits, this is excellent news.

Sea Shepherd’s "Illegal Fishing Campaigns" is incredibly well produced but it’s actually their more unpolished “Day in the Life” style videos featuring their team members talking straight to the camera that brings them the most views and engagement. Audiences crave authenticity.

Try this: Instead of investing in that one video in 4K with lots of aerial shots, consider letting your team, partners or volunteers take over stories for a day. Share unedited footage with some text overlayed, or post quick updates from the field. Better even if you can inject some humor. Focus on relatability over perfection.

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#4. Social Search is the New SEO‍

By 2025, more people will search on social media than traditional search engines. This changes everything about your keyword strategy.

Here's a striking example. Search "ocean conservation" on YouTube and you’re likely to find most top results lead to…Namibia. Surprised? Here’s why.
The page for “Ocean Conservation Namibia” has 2.1M followers. Started by Naude and Katja Dreyer in 2020, they produce riveting videos about seal rescues - particularly from entanglement in plastic pollution. They have been so consistent that they dominate the search, way ahead of much larger non-profits like Oceana or Mission Blue.

Action steps: Create social content that answers common questions, use relevant hashtags consistently, and organize your content into searchable collections. Study successful profiles (they need to be in ocean conservation) and note how they use clear titles, consistent themes, alt text, and strategic tagging.

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#5. Micro-Influencers Matter

Data shows smaller influencers (1K-100K followers) often drive better results than mega-influencers. To our earlier point about community: it’s because audiences are more engaged and action-oriented.

That's arguably one of the secrets of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance's influence: leveraging the small but highly engaged networks of their hundreds of young members to scale up their reach. Even events like the World Ocean Summit and the Sustainable Ocean Summit are already noticing that inviting a handful of LinkedIn Top Voices is often a better media spend than bigger names (sorry Jason Momoa).

Start here: Identify 5-10 passionate voices in your local marine community. Focus on authentic, long-term partnerships over one-off payoffs. And be open to feedback from the influencers. We know you have brand guidelines but whatever they think will work best likely will.

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If you’ve made it this far, you’re clearly committed to making waves. So we’ll throw in a bonus tip: Do one thing at a time.

Sounds banal but we know it's very tempting to try to act on all these trends at once. Instead, pick ONE to focus on for the rest of the year. You'll be amazed by the results you can get if you make it your sole focus.

*Statistics Source: Hubspot, Mention

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