Social Media Trends: The Good News and The Bad News

We are always watching to see how people are using social media and what trends are emerging to better help our clients cut through the digital noise. The good news is social media is still the place to be. With nearly 73% of the U.S. population actively using social media, it remains an effective way to connect with new people and engage with clients. The bad news, it is saturated with content, so you need to work harder to stand out.

Overall Trends

Users have become selective in what content they will engage with. That means you must work harder to stand out and grab your audience’s attention. Interactions have increased on Instagram by 20%, and on LinkedIn by 42%. However, Facebook has seen a decrease of 47%.

We see a trend leaning towards more personalized, quality content being effective rather than quantity of posts. Hopefully you aren’t just posting for the sake of posting, but it is time to be more intentional about your content.

We see a mix of informative and entertaining content performing well. That means you should try to educate on your area of expertise, but also share some personal content. Especially in this age of AI, people want to get to know YOU. It helps to use real images of yourself and your team and record video updates rather than just using stock photos. And if you are putting content out on social media, a small ad budget to boost that content goes a LONG way. We encourage our clients to spend on social advertising in order to maximize their reach.

And remember to engage with OTHER people’s content. It isn’t supposed to be used to only spit out your content. Be social!

According to a Sprout Social report, these are the platforms social media users plan to spend more time on in 2026:

Facebook Trends

Facebook still has the most active users – over 3 billion – but has a fairly low median interaction rate compared to Instagram. Plus, 38% of adults in the U.S. get their news from Facebook, meaning the platform is still considered a go-to source for up-to-date, relevant information. Scary, but show up where there is an available audience!

Facebook users want simple and easy-to-read content. While we all know video and graphics are popular, surprisingly, status-type (a.k.a. text) posts perform well also, bringing in the highest number of median social media interactions on Facebook.

Facebook is a great place to make sure you are showing the real you with photos of you and videos you record. Don’t overthink it and just record!

Instagram Trends

Instagram surpassed YouTube and is the second most popular social network worldwide with 3 billion monthly active users. However, this social media channel still manages to come out on top by having the second-highest median number of interactions per month (after TikTok). 32% of consumers plan to spend even more time on Instagram next year!

Carousels (posts with multiple images) are driving the most saves and views. Static images continue to decline so get those videos and carousels fired up!

LinkedIn Trends

The B2B powerhouse continues to see growth. LinkedIn continues to have a higher engagement rate than Facebook, Instagram, and X. This makes LinkedIn an exception to the rule as all other social platforms are facing a decline.

Don’t forget to use some of the LinkedIn features already available to you. Have you posted articles or newsletters? Posting native documents on LinkedIn has promise for more engagement rather than linking back to the article on your website. Also try some polls and posts with multiple images. Multi-image posts drive the highest number of likes.

X Trends

X is has dropped position to the 15th most popular social network worldwide but still has some value. It remains a go-to source for breaking news and immediate reactions. When looking at metrics, keep in mind the platform has become more private about user information so the data we have access to about the platform is ‘cloudy’ at best.

Text-only and graphic-based posts do well here. Remember to keep it quick and relevant. This is the one platform that quantity can still matter because the feed moves quickly.

YouTube Trends

Consumers are flocking to YouTube more and more for answers to their questions in addition to seeking entertainment. YouTube is the 4th most popular social network worldwide as of February 2025, by number of monthly active users. And 35% of adults in the U.S. get their news regularly from YouTube.

As a video-centric platform, YouTube might not be as easy to cater to, but it is definitely worth it. Here you can refresh and repurpose the short-form video content (<60 seconds) you’ve used on other platforms, and experiment with longer video content (>60 seconds).