The data doesn’t lie. According to HubSpot’s 2026 State of Social Media Report, 67% of marketers believe social media to be more important in the next two years, while 73% say it’s harder than ever to stand out.
Translation: social matters more — but it’s harder to win.
If you’re still running last year’s playbook, you’re already behind. To help you recalibrate, we surveyed thousands of marketers for the 2026 State of Social Report and pulled out 11 trends that are actually driving results.
From short-form video and AI to social search and community-led growth, here’s what’s working—and what to do about it.
Table of Contents
- 2026 Social Media Trends Snapshot
- The Top 11 Social Media Trends of 2026
- Trends don’t win; execution does.
The State of Social Media in 2025
Explore the top trends in social media for brands to know and optimize your social strategy.
- AI Content Creation
- Community Building
- Social Media Shopping
- Social Vs. Search Engine
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2026 Social Media Trends Snapshot
I’ve grouped the biggest trends from our report into five themes:
Content Evolution
- Short-form video is still the undisputed top format
- Authenticity beats production value
- Brand awareness has reclaimed its place as top goal
Technology & Intelligence
- Most teams are only scratching the surface with AI
- Video production and AI are the two most in-demand (and hard to find) skills
Creator Economy
- Influencer marketing has graduated from a tactic to a channel
- Community building has moved from nice-to-have to a competitive moat
Platform Shifts
- Instagram leads in every major metric
- TikTok’s real value for brands is in ads
- Platform fragmentation is real — but go deeper, not wider
Commerce & Performance
- Social is the new search engine, especially for younger buyers
The Top 11 Social Media Trends of 2026
Content Evolution
1. Short-form video is still the undisputed top format.
According to our study, short-form video is the top-performing format on TikTok (73.31%), Instagram (61.82%), and Facebook (43.03%), while found that TikTok’s engagement rate hit 3.70%, driven almost entirely by short-form video (up 49% year-over-year).
You don’t need a report to validate this; just open any feed.
But that doesn’t mean you can mindlessly go all in on short-form. Its effectiveness depends on the platform.
YouTube, for example, introduced Shorts a few years ago, but long-form video still leads the way, with 54% saying it’s the platform’s highest-performing format. Meanwhile, LinkedIn and Xa are still text-driven, which matters enormously for B2B strategy.
Pro Tip: Write the way people actually search on TikTok and Instagram, not the way your brand talks about itself. Captions, voiceovers, and on-screen text are all indexed by in-app algorithms, and experts believe they can even help with AEO. It’s especially smart to use these early on in your video “hooks.”
2. Authenticity beats production value.
Now, this “trend” isn’t new, but it’s getting more pronounced.
Since TikTok’s rise during the COVID-19 lockdown, we’ve seen a steady shift toward raw, unpolished content. Now it’s definitive: 76.56% of marketers say authenticity matters more than production quality.
And honestly, it makes sense.
“AI Slop” or derivative, AI-generated content is everywhere, making genuine human voices and experiences a breath of fresh air.
Highly produced brand videos often feel distant. Raw content feels relatable and authentic. It humanizes your brand rather than coming off as a cold, faceless corporation.
For social teams, this means:
- More employee-generated content
- More personality, humor, and opinion
- Less over-editing and polishing
The best brand content in 2026 looks like it came from a person, not a brand (even when it didn’t). Duolingo is skilled at this.
3. Brand awareness has reclaimed its place as the top goal
In 2025, brand awareness, customer service, and retention tied for the top social media goal among 29% of marketers. Today, brand awareness has pulled into the top spot with 58.99%.
Revenue and sales, once a top-three priority, now sit at 39.82%.
But what’s driving this?
My money’s on two things:
- More marketers are recognizing that social is a long-term brand play
- Attribution is still … messy
Let me explain.
Marketers are split, with 37% saying tying social to business outcomes is easy and 36% saying it’s hard. That uncertainty pushes teams toward what they know they can track and measure: awareness.
Pro Tip: Set clear goals before choosing channels. Brand awareness and lead generation require fundamentally different content strategies and metrics. Trying to optimize for both at once usually means achieving neither.
The State of Social Media in 2025
Explore the top trends in social media for brands to know and optimize your social strategy.
- AI Content Creation
- Community Building
- Social Media Shopping
- Social Vs. Search Engine
Download Free
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You're all set!
Click this link to access this resource at any time.
Technology & Intelligence
4. Most teams are only scratching the surface with AI.
According to HubSpot’s 2026 State of Social Report, 94% of social media marketers now use AI in their workflows (up from 71% just one year ago).
AI chatbots are the most popular tools (at 71.07%), with ChatGPT commanding 68.46% market share, followed by Google Gemini (47.43%) and Claude (17.63%).
But usage? Pretty shallow at the moment. Most teams are using
- AI for ideation and brainstorming (42.90%)
- Generating captions or short-form text (41.50%)
- Image generation (38.35%).
This is pretty ironic considering image generation (40.20%), image editing (29.58%), and video generation (28.71%) are also the top areas marketers say AI is letting them down.
Meanwhile, arguably the highest-leverage use cases are barely tapped:
- Social listening: 13.54%
- Brand voice auditing: 9.75%
So what’s happening? Teams appear to be using AI for speed rather than strategy.
Content creation is obviously the most visible use of AI, but its analytical and strategic uses, such as social listening and brand consistency, should not be ignored.
Pro Tip: The winning workflow is simple: AI drafts, humans refine. The highest-performing teams use AI as a creative accelerator, not a replacement for editorial judgment.
5. Video production and AI are the two most in-demand (and hard to find) skills.
The modern social media marketer is basically four roles in one: creator, strategist, analyst, and now, AI prompt engineer.
Knowing this, it’s no wonder video production (48.29%) and AI usage (41.10%) are the two most in-demand skills on social teams in 2026.
Just think of AI video generators like Sora, Kling, and Veo. These are impressive, but they don’t erase the need for creative direction or human QA.
As AI tools become more sophisticated and video formats dominate platforms, establishing video production internally through hiring, upskilling, or agency partnerships is a competitive decision.
Creator Economy
6. Influencer marketing has graduated from tactic to channel.
The influencer marketing industry is projected to reach $32.55 billion globally by the end of 2025, according to .
HubSpot’s 2026 State of Social Report supports this finding that 52.73% of marketers currently work with influencers, and another 13.86% are planning to. Over 60% also expect influencer investment to increase in 2026.
TikTok is the second most popular platform for influencer marketing at 60.82%, behind only Instagram (78.14%), and influencer selection criteria have matured overall.
Content quality (43.49%), engagement rate (39.73%), and authenticity (30.31%) are now the top criteria for choosing influencers according to our research.
HubSpot’s data also shows follower count ranks fourth at 28.94%, with mid-tier creators (100K–499K followers) delivering the best results at 36.80%, and micro-influencers (10K–99K) being the most widely used tier. This all goes to show you, high reach isn’t the leading benefit of influencer marketing anymore.
In fact, Later’s research found that 73% of brands now prefer working with micro- and mid-tier creators who offer stronger engagement-to-cost ratios.
Pro Tip: Don’t sleep on B2B influencer marketing. LinkedIn influencer and creator use is growing, now at 20.78% of B2B marketers. Learn more about how to succeed with influencer marketing as a B2B brand in this article: “How to Harness B2B Influencer 糖心Vlog to Grow Your Brand.”
7. Community building has moved from nice-to-have to a competitive moat.
According to our survey, Two-thirds of marketers say community building is core to their strategy. And 73% believe trust and community will matter more than reach going forward.
That tracks.
Community may sound like a “warm and funny” intangible asset, but it’s actually a smart strategic play against algorithm volatility and platform fragmentation.
Most algorithms prioritize engagement, and communities are built on engagement, not on inactive, high-follower counts.
In 2026, Facebook Groups leads as the most popular community platform at 54.31%, followed by LinkedIn Groups (39.00%) and Reddit (21.09%). The most effective tactics are replies and comment engagement (54.31%), direct messages (45.12%), and groups or servers (35.83%).
The brands winning in 2026 take note and treat these things as revenue-generating activities, not just nice-to-haves.
Pro Tip: Repurpose creator content. A great creator video can be repurposed into paid ads, organic posts, email embeds, and more, multiplying the ROI of a single collaboration.
Platform Shifts
8. Instagram leads in every major metric.
B2B, B2C, Big or small, Instagram is used by 79.56% of social media marketers in 2026. And with finding that eight-in-ten adults ages 18 to 29 use Instagram, its popularity makes sense.
But its benefits don’t stop at reach.
Instagram leads across every major performance metric: brand awareness, engagement, traffic, lead generation, revenue, community growth, and brand sentiment. Reels alone now drive over 20% of time spent on Instagram, and video views on the platform grew 29% year-over-year.
For brands, this means one thing: If you’re not investing in Reels, you’re leaving reach on the table.
Read: Creating Video for Instagram: 13 Tips from Brands You Love [+ Examples]
9. TikTok’s real value for brands is in ads.
This trend may shock more than a few folks, but successful TikTok marketers use paid ads and boosted content (68%) far more than organic content (45%) or sponsored influencer content (38%).
In fact, TikTok is the third most popular platform for paid and ad budgets in 2026, behind only Facebook and Instagram.
shows an impressive short-term ROI of 11.8%, and 75% of advertisers achieved their highest ROI on TikTok compared to other channels.
Read: 10 of the Best TikTok Ad Examples (+Why They’ll Make You Click)
But what content works?
According to our survey, humorous content drives the highest engagement on TikTok (30.12%), beating brand/product marketing (24.90%) and educational content (13.05%).
So, entertain first, sell second.
Pro Tip: On TikTok: lead with paid to build reach, layer in organic to build community, use creators to build trust. Running all three together compounds results.
10. Platform fragmentation is real, but go deeper, not wider.
Yes, social media marketers have more platforms to choose from than ever. The most popular are:
- Instagram (79.56%)
- Facebook (66.13%)
- YouTube (59.92%)
- TikTok (56.71%)
Meanwhile, LinkedIn (42.08%) is the dominant B2B platform, and Threads (6.41%), Bluesky (2.40%), and Reddit (10.52%) have small but growing presences.
Seeing this, I get it: The temptation is to be everywhere. But the data argues the opposite.
The biggest challenge facing social teams is producing enough high-quality content consistently (45.18%), and this problem only gets worse when you spread across more channels.
So, the brands winning in 2026 are going deeper on fewer platforms rather than spreading themselves thin across many. They’re building owned audience, sustainable content engines, and expertise where it matters rather than chasing the newest network.
Here’s what I recommend:
- Start: Optimizing short-form video for Instagram and TikTok with platform-native formats and sound-on hooks
- Start: Treating LinkedIn as a content destination for B2B brands, not just a job board
- Stop: Cross-posting identical content to every platform—each algorithm rewards format fit and context
- Watch: Reddit and Threads for community-driven discovery, especially in niche categories
Commerce & Performance
11. Social is the new search engine, especially for younger buyers.
Search behavior is shifting fast. According to , nearly 1 in 3 consumers now start on social (TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube) instead of Google. For Gen Z, it’s over half.
Even if they’re not actively looking, that 46% of Gen Z and 35% of Millennials actually prefer social media over traditional search engines for product discovery.
This has direct implications for content creation. Here are some key things you can do to optimize for social search:
- Optimize the first 2–3 seconds of every video with spoken keywords. TikTok’s algorithm reads spoken words, on-screen text, captions, and hashtags. Experts also believe this can help with AEO.
- Write Instagram captions the way your audience searches: “best running shoes for flat feet” beats “#running #fitness”. Instagram’s AI is trained on natural language, so captions written like mini blog posts outperform keyword-stuffed hashtag lists.
- Use YouTube’s search-driven content model to build evergreen discoverability
Trends don’t win; Execution does.
If you zoom out, none of these social media trends is happening in isolation.
Short-form video, AI, influencer marketing, social search — they all support the same narrative reality: social media is no longer just a distribution channel. Social media is where discovery happens, where trust is built, and increasingly, where buying decisions start.
And this evolution raises the bar. It’s not enough to “be on social” anymore. The brands pulling ahead in 2026 are:
- Embracing authenticity, especially through video
- Going deep on a few platforms instead of spreading thin
- Pairing AI efficiency with human creativity
- Treating community and creators as growth engines, not side projects
Just as importantly, they’re aligning their strategy to what social is actually good at: attention, influence, and engagement — not forcing it to behave like a last-click revenue channel.
If you’re trying to keep up with every new feature or platform, you’ll burn out fast. But if you focus on the root behind these trends — how people consume content, who they trust, and where they search — you’ll be in a much better position to adapt as things keep changing.
That’s the real edge now.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in January 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
The State of Social Media in 2025
Explore the top trends in social media for brands to know and optimize your social strategy.
- AI Content Creation
- Community Building
- Social Media Shopping
- Social Vs. Search Engine
Download Free
All fields are required.
Form not available
You're all set!
Click this link to access this resource at any time.
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