Across 2025 and early 2026, there have been trends and changes across specific social media platforms which affect the way your business communicates with your audience.

We’ve been following these changes and wanted to break them down for you – platform by platform – with a focus on what actually matters for brands, founders and professional services in 2026.

What has changed?

Across Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, there’s been an important shift, these platforms are rewarding credibility and expertise over follower count. 

Your clients and consumers want authenticity, over optimised and curated. They want real and unfiltered.

What does this look like?

• Trustworthy commentary and opinions
• Everyday language and point of view
• Real people vs logos

Instagram

Instagram has evolved from a brand awareness platform to a reputation-building platform. 

The content that makes the biggest impact highlights your areas of focus and expertise. These are posts that people revisit and share, making them want to get in contact, or better yet, work with you.

1. Algorithm shift from social to interest 

• Instagram prioritises what content people engage with, not who they follow. For example, if you are looking up a clothing brand you’re interested in, you can expect to see most of their competitors and similar brands pop up on your feed thereafter. 
• Reels, carousels, and keyword-rich captions outperform static imagery.
• Saves, rewatches, and shares are what matters.

2. Search is SEO-driven

• Captions, bios, and on-screen text are indexed.
• Instagram behaves more like Google where keywords are the new hashtags.

3. Reels are maturing

• Longer reels perform better for authority and education – 60 seconds to 90 seconds is the sweet spot. Anything shorter, you might not be able to get your point across, anything longer, you might see some early scrolls away.
• Commentary, explainer and talking-head content perform well.

4. Broadcast strategically

• Broadcast channels are being used for announcements, thought leadership, and launches.
• Grid posts create higher loyalty than Stories, which are increasingly being seen as ‘noise’.

5. Follower count is a thing of the past 

• Follower growth is no longer a leading success metric.
• Direct messages and profile visits are becoming stronger indicators of relevance.

Facebook

Facebook has moved away from a broadcast channel into more of a community credibility platform. 

It’s becoming increasingly effective for advocacy and niche audiences.

1. Groups over pages

• Facebook Groups have become the primary organic channel – these are less about brands and more about shared interests.
• Organic reach for business continues to decline in favour of groups that align with individuals’ interests.
• Community-led brands are seeing significantly higher engagement.

2. Content discovery is now AI-driven

• Facebook is increasingly recommending posts from outside your network.
• Video feeds and posts with high engagement in Groups are faring best.

3. Paid and earned are merging

• Paid amplification is now tightly integrated with organic content performance.
• High-performing organic posts are prioritised for ad scaling.

4. Video is king

• Short-form and mid-form video dominate discovery.
• Static link posts perform poorly unless boosted.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has become the dominant platform for B2B trust, authority, reputation building, and reputation management.

The platform is less social media and more public relations.

1. Personal brands over company pages

• CEO, partner, and founder posts consistently outperform company pages. 
• LinkedIn prioritises human voices and personal opinions over brand messaging, which can be seen to be more artificial.

2. Thought leadership Is the core currency

• Educational and experience-based posts perform best.
• Opinions and insight are what matters.

3. Native video and carousels surge

• Native video content is highlighted.
• Slide carousels and text-led posts are performing better than outbound links.

4. Newsletters build authority 

• LinkedIn newsletters result in improved discovery.
• The goal is long-term reputation building in professional services.
  

Why does all of this matter?

Social platforms are evolving and developing unique personalities and purposes. By understanding the changes you are helping your business maximise each tool and engage with your audience.

Author:

Lindsay Cumming, Senior Account Manager