10 Social Media Hacks That Actually Work

Social media is our biggest growth engine … and our biggest time drain. And the worst part is, spending endless hours on your social media marketing doesn’t always equate to great results. Juggling TikTok trends, LinkedIn carousels, Instagram Reels and ever-evolving algorithms is exhausting. That’s why I’m sharing my top 10 social media hacks to save you time and boost reach on your channels.

1. Focus on High Quality

21–60 sec. videos hit the sweet spot

Short-form videos are winning in 2025. And it’s all about the quality of your video and the retention of your viewers. According to Contentworks Agency, videos between 21 and 60 seconds get the best performance.

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What are social media management tools and why use them?

TikTok’s algorithm favors watch-through rates, so if 80% of viewers finish your video, your reach spikes dramatically.

Videos under 90 seconds retain around 50% of viewers to the end, while longer ones drop to 25%.

You can check your video retention rates in your TikTok analytics panel. Or (and this is way easier) check all the analytics side by side in your Agorapulse panel. Here you can see your reach and how many viewers watched your entire video and even loved it so much they replayed it.

Make shorter videos but make them great! If you want to share a longer video, consider using time-lapse. For example, a fitness coach might share a time-lapse of setting up a workout space, while a food brand could show a dish’s preparation from start to finish. Add captions and great music and you’ll see a much better retention rate than if you posted a 7-minute video. Create timelapse videos by recording long processes or behind-the-scenes work and then speeding up the footage using your platform’s built-in editing tools. These include Instagram Reels’ speed settings or TikTok’s ‘Time’ effect.

All the social media platforms now reward early adoption of new features. This is something top creators understand and fully exploit for better engagement and reach. Here are some real-world examples:

When Instagram introduced AI stickers and quiz overlays this spring, we jumped on the trend on day 1 and the Reel got 1.8× the usual reach.
Meta said Facebook Reels views are up 20% year-over-year thanks to its “fresh content” push. Early adopters got priority distribution.
This year TikTok introduced Promote, a new feature that significantly boosted reach for creators. This tool allows users to purchase a guaranteed minimum number of views, ensuring their content gains visibility. Creators utilizing this feature have reported increased engagement and expanded audience reach.

It can be exhausting trying out all the new tools and platform features, I definitely get that. But when you see a new sticker, overlay, remix tool, or caption format, do test it. Even if the creative isn’t perfect, the platform will likely give it a lift. If you feel unsure about new platform tools and how to use them, create a private dummy account where you can play about without judgement first! Some of the worst videos ever made exist on my TikTok dummy account!

Don’t let your best Stories die quietly in your Highlights. Here’s one of my favorite low-effort, high-impact hacks. You see, Stories vanish after 24 hours, but Highlights keep them archived. And the best part is, you can resurrect and re-share those highlight clips back into your live Stories to revive engagement.

Why This Works

Meta’s 2025 Creator Trends report found that users rewatch archived Stories 37% more often when they’re re-posted or updated, compared to highlights left untouched. That’s because when you re-share a highlight as a new Story, it re-enters the algorithm’s “fresh content” loop, showing up in the top row of your followers’ feeds again. Think of it as resurfacing your best content for a second life. The algorithm doesn’t penalize recycled content. It rewards consistency and re-engagement.

To reshare an old, highlighted story, just go to your Instagram profile, tap the three lines in the top-right corner, and select “Archive.” From there, tap on the story you want to share and click the “Share” button at the bottom, then choose “Your story” to post it. Below I reshared this Halloween Story I made in September that was sitting in the “Agency Humour” highlights.

4. The TikTok Duet-Reply Combo

TikTok still rewards interaction and sound signals more than anything. And the great thing is, TikTok’s engagement rate is way higher than the other social media platforms at 4-5% so it’s worth your time. Videos that use trending sounds within the first 48 hours of a trend’s rise get up to 66% more engagement. And Duets, Stitches, and video replies send relevance signals straight to the algorithm. To maximize reach on TikTok, find an on-trend post, Stitch or Duet it, use the trending sound, and reply to top comments with short follow-up videos.

Search niche hashtags, save three trending clips.
Stitch or duet the best one; keep your take under 20 seconds.
Use a trending audio track.
Reply to the first few comments with video answers.
Track your performance watch-through, shares, followers.

This is a low effort social media hack that keeps you visible in multiple content threads simultaneously. Avoid being confrontational or argumentative though, it’s better to add a humorous take when using Duets.

5. Use AI for Competitor Research

We don’t want AI taking over our creative processes. So, let’s use AI to do the work we don’t want to do. In 2025, social media moves too fast to manually track what others are posting. But AI tools like the Agorapulse Listening AI features) can summarize, categorize, and benchmark your competitors’ activity in minutes. This used to take me hours. AI cuts hours of manual scrolling, reveals strategic blind spots, and lets you focus your creative energy where it counts. As an agency director, I’m often asked by clients to research their competitors. This isn’t about copying your competitors, it’s about seeing what works, what doesn’t and finding the sweet spot.

Feed the AI your top 3–5 competitor handles across Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and TikTok. It will then analyse their posting frequency, engagement rates, and content types. You can then ask it to highlight gaps. That might be topics they’re ignoring, hashtags they underuse, or formats (like carousels or short Reels) they haven’t tapped into. Here’s what that looks like if we chose Dominos pizza:

Ask your AI to produce the data in a downloadable format which you can then save, insert into reports and utilize for content planning.

6. User-Generated Content (UGC) for the Win

Here’s one of the easiest ways to take the pressure off your content calendar. Let your followers create killer content for you! We talk about UGC a lot at Agorapulse and that’s because it has been proven to work time and time again. In 2025, posts that feature real customers or fans receive 2.4× higher engagement than branded content alone. Meanwhile, 63% of marketers say UGC feels more trustworthy to audiences than influencer or inhouse content. That’s because people relate to people and not polished brand messaging. When followers see someone like them sharing a photo, review, or story, it builds credibility and community. UGC also signals to algorithms that your content is sparking real interaction, which can extend your reach organically.

Real-world example

One of the best recent examples comes from Crocs’ 2025 “Show Us Your Crocs” challenge on TikTok. The brand encouraged fans to post short videos about how they personalize their Crocs, using the hashtag #MyCrocsStyle. Within two weeks, the campaign generated over 250 million views and a 31% increase in brand mentions, with zero paid influencer partnerships.

Crocs regularly run paid and organic collabs ticking all the boxes for reaching their target audience. Collaborations with celebs like Post Malone, Justin Bieber, and Bad Bunny also created hype and made Crocs a sought-after, trendy item.

Here are some of my hacks for making user generated campaigns work for your brand.

Ask questions or run polls in Stories like “Show us your favorite way to use our product”.
If your audience keeps asking how to do something, make it a weekly post or Reel series. You can thank your audience and encourage more questions too!
Highlight a “Fan of the Week” or share top community comments in your Stories.
Always tag and thank the original poster before you reshare. They will likely reshare your post, boosting visibility even further.
Never run ads with UGC content before getting permission. You might want to reward the original poster with a goodie bag or store credit.

7. Use Subtitles on All Videos to Boost Reach

If you’re not adding subtitles to your videos yet, you’re leaving some serious engagement on the table. That’s because most people scroll their social media platforms in silence. Whether they’re on the train, at work, in a doctor’s waiting room, or sneaking a TikTok break in class (no judgment here friends!), sound is off by default. In fact, up to 80% of social media users watch videos without sound.

Additionally studies from Wistia found that videos with subtitles increase information retention by up to 15%, because viewers process both text and visuals together. So, if your video relies only on voiceover or dialogue most people will just scroll past or simply stare and never hear your message. That’s why subtitles and captions are an essential hack for boosting reach on all your videos.

Real-world example

A great example of a brand that always captions its videos across social media is Nike. Nike consistently includes on-screen captions and subtitles in its Instagram Reels, TikToks, and YouTube Shorts. Their captions use bold, kinetic text that emphasizes emotion or key quotes, synced perfectly with the pacing of the video.

Nike’s captioned short-form videos on Instagram and TikTok have 35–40% higher average view duration compared to their non-captioned posts. Captions ensure that your content lands whether users are watching silently at work, scrolling on mobile, or engaging in non-English-speaking markets.

Other brands following a similar approach include Duolingo and The Washington Post on TikTok. The great thing is, adding captions doesn’t really take any extra time. Let’s look at how to do it.

On TikTok you can use “Auto Captions” under text tools. This detects speech and generates subtitles instantly (you can edit for accuracy).

On Instagram add captions using the “Captions” sticker.
Facebook & LinkedIn allow you to upload your SRT caption file or use the auto-caption feature during video upload.
For YouTube, auto-captions are enabled by default, but editing them manually ensures clarity.
Upload different language captions to make your videos more accessible for different audiences. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok allow you to upload captions in multiple languages or use AI-powered translations, while LinkedIn supports native captions (translations require separate uploads). Third-party tools like OpusClip can generate multi-language captions for any platform to improve accessibility and reach.
Use high-contrast text and position it safely above UI buttons, you can experiment with different caption sizes and styles too.

8. Create and Resize Images Instantly with Canva Pro

If you’re an agency or brand working without an inhouse designer, Canva is a great design tool for making social media images on the fly. And one of my favourite time saving hacks is Canva Pro’s Magic Resize feature. Instead of creating separate graphics for Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and TikTok, you can design one image or video and instantly resize it for every platform with a single click.

This saves our social media team hours each week, keeping our fonts, colors, and logos uniform across all platforms.

You will need Canva Pro to use this tool.
Start by designing your primary image or video.
Click “Resize” in Canva Pro, choose all the formats you need, and hit Copy & Resize.
You might need to adjust minor layout details if needed depending on how much you resized the image.
Download all versions and schedule them across your platforms.

9. Repurpose Popular Content to Extend Your Reach

Here’s a social media hack I wish I’d embraced sooner in my marketing career. Some of your best social media posts already exist in your blog, FAQs, videos, press releases and whitepapers. If you’re looking to save time, stop creating all your content from scratch. Start repurposing what already works and giving it a second, third, or even fourth lease of life across different formats and platforms.

Repurposing content meets your audience where they are. Some people like to scroll humorous TikToks, some like photos on Instagram. Others enjoy a meaty whitepaper or long form blog post. By repackaging existing content, you make sure your message travels further. And here’s the kicker… repurposed content can outperform the original.

Let me share a few ways I’ve turned existing content into new social media posts (quickly.)

Transform blogs into short-form video scripts linking back to the blog.
Convert interviews into thought-leadership posts and upload them with short video clips.
Turn complex research into Infographics or images on LinkedIn.
Turn webinars into YouTube Shorts or TikToks linking back to the full webinar if anyone wants to watch it.

Repurposing content is more than just a time saving hack. It also helps build message consistency. When your audience sees the same core ideas across formats, they start to associate those topics with you. That’s brand authority 101.

10. Scheduling Is Your Productivity Lifesaver

Social media scheduling is the ultimate hack because brands that post on a steady rhythm see a 20–30% higher reach than sporadic posters. Plus you can choose exactly when you want to post based on your audience and the times that work best for them. At Contentworks Agency we have brands based in Australia and the USA as well as Europe so we schedule their posts according to their time zone not ours. Having an advanced content calendar has other benefits like ensuring you don’t have content gaps, covering holidays, getting compliance approval in advance and planning out the graphics and videos you need.

Build your content calendar at least a month ahead. Include campaigns, seasonal events and any recurring evergreen posts so you’re never scrambling last-minute.
Choose a reliable scheduling tool where you can schedule posts, monitor engagement and produce reports all from one dashboard.
Map your content to time zones of when your audience is most active, and schedule posts to hit those windows.
Set alerts for compliance checks or approvals to avoid errors before going live.
Use performance data from your scheduler to see which times, formats, or captions drive the most engagement, and refine your calendar accordingly.
Utilize all available automation tools like reminders, automated workflows, listening alerts, integrations and everything that will help you manage your content better.

With the right hacks you can save time, boost engagement, and create a consistent, high-performing presence across your social media platforms. Social media management is so much easier when you can do it all in one place, especially for agencies managing multiple accounts. Sign up for a free Agorapulse trial and see for yourself.