The social media landscape: By the numbers
You don't have an unlimited budget, which means you need to be strategic by prioritizing the highest-performing platforms.
According to Emplifi, Instagram is the leading social media platform of choice: it’s used in 48% of media mixes, followed by LinkedIn (37%), Facebook (35%), and TikTok (32%). One in five marketers plan to increase focus on Reddit, signalling the continued rise of community-led engagement.
Further, to the surprise of precisely zero TikTok users, short-form video will dominate content strategy for 73% of marketers. And, per CreatorIQ, influencer marketing continues to outperform traditional channels: 94% of organizations report that creator content drives more ROI than traditional digital advertising.
The comment section is becoming as valuable as the content itself, with people spending significant time reading and participating in conversations around your brand. Those same social conversations have a significant influence on brand visibility with the rise of AI search engines.
Takeaways: What actually matters in 2026
Based on what we're seeing in the data — and in our work with clients — there's a shift happening that many brands haven't fully embraced yet. It's about how brands communicate: more specifically, who's doing the communicating.
Why community voice is rising
Case in point: According to Sprout Social, content shared by people receives more engagement than brand posts. And per LinkedIn and Ipsos, 71% of B2B marketers say being recommended by a creator or subject matter expert is critical for building successful brands.
There is an ever-increasing need for marketers to let go.
This points to the ever-increasing need for marketers to let go. Brands often hold tightly to rigid guidelines that make them sound less like people and more like press releases. And that approach doesn’t fly in conversations, or in the comment section.
Consider Wendy's (you probably have — they’re among the gold standard). They've mastered commenting on posts like an actual person would, with a signature voice. Rather than broadcasting at culture, they participate in it. They've found a way to be distinctly Wendy's while still talking like a human.
Consumer research from Leger backs this up. People favour personal or spontaneous content with no commercial ties (71%), content where a person addresses the camera directly (64%), and spontaneous, unscripted content (60%).
Notice what's not in those preferences? Polished, heavily produced brand messaging.
Practical shift for marketers: Don't abandon your brand voice. But it's time to find ways to let that voice feel more human, conversational, and participatory in the communities where your audience spends time. (And, ideally, anticipating these venues for conversation when crafting your brand voice).
Your employees are under-utilized influencers
Speaking of community...
You have a ‘captive’, entirely unique, and wholly under-utilized community of your own. In a healthy workplace culture, your team is often eager to be brand ambassadors. In fact, they probably already are within their own circles… and you’re not capitalizing on their advocacy.
Employee advocacy programs tap into your employees' networks without straining your social team. When executives share content on LinkedIn, it carries more weight than company page posts — reaching networks your brand never could. And when employees do it, it bolsters the entire team’s credibility while also supporting your (assumed) goals to be an employer of choice.
Practical shift for marketers: Build an employee advocacy program with proper infrastructure. For B2B brands especially, this is one of the highest-ROI tactics available.
Platform instability is the new normal
In September 2025, Meta introduced ad-free subscriptions for UK users at £2.99/month. While UK-specific, it signals where platforms are heading: giving users choices about ad exposure.
This shift makes organic content, community engagement, and influencer partnerships more critical than ever (by which we mean, just as important as traditional paid content).
If users can opt out of paid advertising, brands will need to reach them through compelling organic content, authentic influencer partnerships, or community conversations where people organically discuss your brand. Paid advertising isn't going away, but brands need a more balanced approach where organic social strategy is a core pillar, not an afterthought.
Add algorithm volatility to this. 88% of creators report barriers to success, with platform algorithm changes being their #1 concern. Reach can drop 50% overnight due to algorithm changes beyond anyone's control.
In summary: paid reach may become optional for users, and organic reach is increasingly unpredictable. Brands that thrive will build organic social into their core strategy, diversify across platforms, and create content compelling enough that people actively choose to engage.
Practical shift for marketers: Build portfolio approaches across multiple platforms and creator partnerships. Organic reach needs to be foundational, not an afterthought.
Short-form video: Essential infrastructure
In 2026 it's (past) time to think of short-form video less as a "content type", and more as essential infrastructure for your social presence.
There's a reason those aforementioned 73% of marketers prioritize short-form video: because it's fast, authentic, and algorithm-friendly. It's the most efficient path to engagement and conversion. Without consistent Reels, TikToks, and Stories, you're fighting an uphill battle with platform algorithms.
Think of it like the evolution of the blog post: short-form social video is where people go for proof. With AI slop dominating our feeds, getting a real opinion from a real person we follow (and whose taste/perspective we trust) holds more weight than a written, possibly machine-generated article... at least, until AI video capabilities become indistinguishable from real life.
But despite its undeniable effectiveness, many brands still treat short-form video like a special project. There's a place for high-production content. But scrappier, more authentic content often performs better in social. Content that looks like it was made by a person, not a brand committee, will resonate most.
Practical shift for marketers: Make video creation part of your regular workflow, not something requiring a separate budget each time.
Social search means you're competing with the past
Newsflash: Your content from six months ago competes with your content from yesterday. Videos that rank in search drive views for months, not days. It’s counterintuitive, considering how quickly content moves (and how quickly audiences seem to move on). But it’s a wonderful reminder: The internet is forever.
Here's what brands miss: optimizing for search isn't about gaming keywords. It's about creating content people are actually typing in their search bar.
Consider these two examples: "10 ways to improve social strategy" versus "how to prove social ROI to your CFO" — The former's generic, the latter solves a real question. Guess which one ranks?
We expect this user behaviour (asking search engines questions rather than mashing keywords together) to increase as AEO/GEO takes hold. There’s a reason people call these AI-powered search platforms “answer engines”.
Practical shift for marketers: Stop optimizing for the algorithm, and start optimizing for the search bar. And remember that your social content needs a search strategy, which means writing your captions less like marketing copy and more like the actual questions your audience asks.
Experiential marketing amplifies social impact
Experiential marketing spend surpassed pre-pandemic levels in 2024. And the data shows why: 80% of consumers say they'd be more willing to buy from brands that partner with influencers on in-person events. Hopefully, this is a sign that marketers are less tepid about integrating experiential tactics into their strategies, not bolting them on as ‘special projects’ if discretionary budget becomes available.
And content generated from in-person events has legs far beyond social. It can fuel programmatic ads, email campaigns, and website content. An influencer attending your event creates authentic content that resonates more than studio-produced assets.
For B2B brands, this extends to thought leadership. LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads let you amplify executive and employee content with paid promotion, reaching networks your company page never could. When you combine experiential activations with thought leader amplification, you create a multiplier effect.
Practical shift for marketers: Review your event plans—conferences, customer trips, pop-ups, launches. Think about events as content creation opportunities that extend across multiple channels. How could influencer partnerships amplify both the in-person experience and content output?
Cultural micro-trends create connection opportunities
Brands are tapping into nostalgia marketing. Millennials are nostalgic for the 2000s and early 2010s, and Gen Z romanticizes those years despite not experiencing them.
But nostalgia is part of a wider cultural shift where aesthetic-driven micro-trends constantly emerge. Medieval revival, cottagecore, coastal grandmother — these tap into how people seek meaning and identity through shared cultural references.
Practical shift for marketers: Pay attention to the aesthetic movements that drive engagement with your audiences. Nostalgia and micro-trends create emotional connections that make your content feel relevant and timely. As long as you're timely with that content.