Here’s What Marketers Need to Pay Attention to in 2026
If social media marketing feels harder lately, you’re not imagining it.
The platforms are changing. User behavior is changing. Content expectations are changing. And according to the 2026 Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Social Media Examiner, most marketers are trying to keep up with all of it in real time. In fact, 67% say the pace of change in marketing feels overwhelming.
After digging through the report, one thing became really clear: There isn’t one dominant formula anymore.
The brands seeing results right now are adapting faster, creating more platform-specific content, leaning harder into video, and finding smarter ways to use AI without losing the human side of their marketing.
Here’s what stood out most from the data.
Facebook Still Matters, But It’s Not The Center of Everything Anymore
Facebook is still the most-used social platform among marketers at 86%. Instagram follows closely behind at 82%, and LinkedIn sits at 72%. So yes, Facebook is still a major player.
But when marketers were asked which platform is the most important to their business, the numbers told a different story.
- Back in 2021: 54% of marketers said Facebook was their most important platform
- In 2026: That number dropped to 36%
- Meanwhile: Instagram grew from 15% to 27%
LinkedIn climbed from 6% to 26%
That’s a pretty dramatic shift in a short amount of time.
It doesn’t mean Facebook stopped working. It still drives traffic, leads, and sales better than most platforms.
What’s changing is how marketers are using it.
Instead of putting all their attention into one platform, brands are becoming more strategic about where they invest time and content.
Instagram Has Become One of the Biggest Growth Platforms
Instagram keeps showing up across almost every section of the report.
It’s now:
- The second most-used platform overall
- The second most important platform for marketers
- The top platform marketers want to learn more about for the eighth year in a row
Marketers are also planning to increase Instagram activity aggressively over the next year:
- 56% plan to increase Instagram organic content
- 65% plan to increase Instagram video marketing
That tracks with what most users are seeing every day.
Instagram is no longer just curated photos and polished branding. It’s become heavily video-driven, personality-driven, and creator-focused.
Brands that feel relatable tend to perform better there than brands trying to look overly corporate.
LinkedIn Is Becoming a Serious Content Platform
LinkedIn’s growth in this report is one of the more interesting trends, especially for B2B companies.
According to the data:
- 51% of B2B marketers now say LinkedIn is their most important platform
- 76% plan to increase LinkedIn organic activity
That’s huge.
LinkedIn used to feel mostly transactional. Now it’s becoming one of the strongest places for thought leadership, visibility, lead generation, and trust-building. And unlike some other platforms, written content still performs extremely well there. The report found that B2B marketers value written content far more than B2C marketers:
- 35% of B2B marketers ranked written content as most important
- Compared to just 18% of B2C marketers
That matters because a lot of companies still approach every platform exactly the same way.
But the content that works on LinkedIn usually looks very different from what works on Instagram or TikTok.
Video Is No Longer Optional
This might be the clearest takeaway in the entire report. Nearly half of marketers, 49%, now say video is the single most important type of content in their strategy. And marketers are planning to increase it almost everywhere:
- 70% plan to increase YouTube video marketing
- 65% plan to increase Instagram video
- 52% plan to increase LinkedIn video
- Instagram currently leads in regular video use at 66%, followed by
- Facebook at 60% and YouTube at 48%.
What’s interesting is that audiences don’t necessarily expect polished production anymore. A lot of the best-performing content now is:
- Fast
- Educational
- Behind-the-scenes
- Founder-led
- Conversational
- Slightly imperfect
People want brands that feel human!
AI Has Quietly Become Part of Everyday Marketing
The AI numbers in this report are hard to ignore. According to the study:
- 62% of marketers now use generative AI tools every single day
- 65% have been using AI for less than two years
That tells us two things:
- Adoption is happening fast
- Most marketers are still early in the learning process
The top areas marketers want help with are:
- Productivity
- Prompting
- Automation workflows
It’s not replacing creativity or strategy. It is just removing bottlenecks.
They want ways to work faster and smarter. And honestly, that’s probably where AI is most useful right now for most businesses.
The Biggest Shift Isn’t About Platforms
It’s about behavior.
Social media marketing used to feel more predictable. Pick a couple platforms. Post consistently. Run ads. Repeat.
Now the landscape moves constantly. What works on LinkedIn may completely fail on Instagram. What worked six months ago might already feel stale. And audiences are getting better at tuning out content that feels overly polished, generic, or automated.
The brands standing out right now are the ones willing to adapt faster, show more personality, experiment with content formats, and actually pay attention to how people use each platform differently.
That’s really what this report shows more than anything else.
Marketing isn’t getting simpler. But the brands willing to evolve with it are creating a pretty significant advantage for themselves.