The ever changing world of Social Media in 2026
In this continually updated blog we’ll be rounding up the latest platform changes in social media.
We’ll be predominantly looking at the big 4 (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn) with occasional forays into other platforms.
Alex McCann, owner of Altrincham HQ, has guided thousands of businesses in social media strategy over the last 16 years. With a client list featuring BBC, Robinsons Brewery, Manchester City, National Trust, Selfridges, and Costa Coffee, his Manchester-based company manages over 200 hours of campaigns monthly, adapting to social media shifts in real time.
A former journalist with blogs reaching over half a million readers, Alex also led a 15,000-capacity arts festival. With 900+ customer reviews, Altrincham HQ is ranked the UK’s top social media marketing service on Freeindex, working with businesses nationwide on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
More info on our Social Media Training and Social Media Management
Instagram will stop recommending accounts that don’t post original content
Trust me – this is the best news.
Creators deserve to get more exposure verses those that just copy, borrow or steal others content.
In a blog they posted
“Today, we’re updating how we reward original content. The same protections that we introduced to reels in 2024 will now apply to photos and carousels. This means that content aggregators who primarily re-upload others’ work in photos and carousel posts will no longer be eligible for recommendations across Instagram.”
In 16 years of running a social media business we’ve always found that our original content outperforms that of content businesses have sent us and 10 other organisations.
Our hope now is that they extend this to serial reposters of others content in stories.
LinkedIn posts up by 14% yoy as users hit 1.3 billion
More people posting = more noise to stand out from.
Many people on LinkedIn are complaining about this challenge of being seen on the platform.
One of LinkedIn’s Best (or Creepiest) features Faces A Legal Challenge
The Profile Viewers Features tells you the last 3 people who have viewed your profile on free mode whereas paid users get to see the last 90 days
I like the feature because LinkedIn is like a networking events … it’s not a dating app or a social media platform in the traditional sense.
Yet some people worry their ex partner, ex boss or the person they met once has viewed your profile.
As reported in Computer World
“A LinkedIn feature that allows paid subscribers to view a list of visitors to their profile should be made available to all EU users free of charge to comply with the region’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a legal complaint launched by the None of Your Business (NOYB) digital rights group has claimed.
Filed this week in an Austrian court, the group’s argument is that LinkedIn’s ‘Who’s Viewed Your Profile’ feature contravenes the GDPR Article 15, which covers a subject’s right of access to their own data.”
I’d love to see the last 90 days viewers – how about you?
THE REALITY: Instagram Users Lose Thousands Of Followers Overnight
Don’t worry if you lost a few Instagram followers this week.
This is what happened
It’s just a semi regular purge of bots and inactive followers
I lost 50 followers yesterday and another 40 or so today.
The important thing to remember is although it might hurt your ego no with the numbers dropping, these accounts were never real, were never going to buy from your business and this new number gives you a more accurate measure of followers.
LinkedIn expands AI-powered conversational search
LinkedIn’s search just got smarter
LinkedIn has upgraded its search tool using AI, making it easier to find people, businesses and posts on the platform.
Previously only available to Premium (paid) members, this improvement is now free for everyone.
Instead of typing in exact keywords, you can now describe what you’re looking for in plain English — for example, “marketing managers in Manchester who work in retail” — and LinkedIn will understand what you mean and show you relevant results.
In short, finding the right people and content on LinkedIn should now be much quicker and easier.
It doesn’t work for everything though as I just tried the search “show me all the people in Altrincham that have been in business for less than a year”
Instagram expands Your Algorithm tool to Explore
I’ve always found the “Explore” tab a little hit and miss.
Because I work in marketing all it shows me is marketing content (and a little bit of food and music)
The same system that was introduced to the reels tab has rolled out to the explore tab – simply click the 3 lines on the top right of your explore tab and edit your algorithm
Instagram Now Lets Your Edit Comments On Posts
Kind of feels like a big change … as so many comment edits will be typos with quick fingers on phones
You can edit comments within 15 minutes after posting.
Instagram Now Lets Your Share Your Notes With All Your Followers
Notes are something I’ve slept on. I rarely use them. I rarely read them.
I’m intrigued as to your experience.
Particularly because instagram now lets your share your notes with all your followers. (although I don’t have the option yet)
Traditionally this has been friends (where you both follow each other) and close friends (the select list of close friends – remember Wagatha Christie)
Confirmed: Posting Your Feed Posts into stories won’t increase reach
Adam Mosseri of Instagram posted in his weekly Q&A sessions
“You can definitely share your own post to your Stories, or re-share your own post, but it’s not going to meaningfully change your reach overall, because Feed generally gets more reach than Stories anyway, and you can’t really re-post your own thing because it was already posted, so it won’t really change the eligibility”
TikTok comment icon says “Add 1st” when there are no comments on a video
A psychological design shift to encourage comments and engagement on the platform.
I say this often – but comments make a difference.
We recently had a TikTok video that had just 1000 views.
2 months later a couple of people commented on the posts and it suddenly snowballed and went semi-viral with hundreds of likes, reposts and comments coming in over 48 hours
The video has now been viewed 6000 times.
If you see the 1st comment icon on a post – be kind, you could totally change the trajectory of that video and user!
SMALL BUSINESSES SEE SOCIAL MEDIA AS THEIR CLEAREST PATH TO GROWTH IN 2026
New data from Constant Contact suggests social media is the top priority for small businesses this year — 68% of owners surveyed say organic posting and paid ads will deliver the most value in 2026, ahead of every other marketing channel.
The full survey results are …
– Social media (organic posting and paid ads): 68% expected to drive the most value/business in 2026.
– Email marketing: 41%
– In-person events: 29%
– Traditional advertising: 26%
Would we drop In-person event as they’re so low.
Hell no – in person events mixed with social media is a powerhouse for marketing.
INSTAGRAM ALLOWS USERS TO REARRANGE CAROUSEL POSTS
Instagram has finally rolled out one of its most requested updates.
You can now rearrange photos and videos within a carousel post after it’s already been published. A simple long press and drag is all it takes.
The one big catch: you still can’t add new media after posting, so if you want to expand the carousel, you’ll need to start fresh.
It’s a small change, but a meaningful one for creators who’ve long been frustrated by the lack of flexibility. More importantly, it opens up new ways to test and experiment with how content is displayed … which matters more than you might think.
Carousels are already one of the best-performing formats on Instagram. Adam Mosseri flagged back in 2024 that they drive stronger engagement and reach, and Buffer’s research from early 2025 backed that up … finding carousels earn around 12% more engagement per post on average. If you’re not already factoring them into your content strategy, now’s a good time to start.
SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOW THE TOP SOURCE FOR BREAKING NEWS, NEW SPROUT SOCIAL RESEARCH FINDS
Social media is now the most common channel for people to discover breaking news, ahead of TV, podcasts and news apps.
● 49% of people said social media, compared to 45% for TV and 32% for digital news apps
And IMHO it’s not just breaking news.
It’s local news on Facebook, It’s business news on LinkedIn.
For businesses owners they should be focused on amplifying positive news and stories from their organisation.
INSTAGRAM WORKS ON OFFLINE REELS STREAMING WITH AUTOMATIC DOWNLOADS
Ok – I don’t think this helps the case from platforms that social media isn’t addictive
But seeing people scroll through social media on planes from content they’ve already scrolled does add to the fact people want to consume content (and a lot of that is reels)
Tech Times reports
“users may choose to turn on the automatic downloads of Reels content, especially when there is no available internet connection or cellular data.
Users may also set the number of Reels to be automatically downloaded by the app, which ranges from 10, 30, or 50 videos to save offline.
Next, users may view the downloaded Reels on their devices, but it remains unconfirmed if they get the option to manage these videos, like deleting a few at a time.”
Full details here: https://www.techtimes.com/articles/315509/20260327/instagram-works-offline-reels-streaming-automatic-downloads-according-new-leak.htm
META IS TESTING CLICKABLE LINKS IN INSTAGRAM CAPTION
You’re going to see a lot of this on Social Media in the coming week.
But big notice – it’s going to be a paid option and it’s not cheap.
Meta is testing clickable links in Instagram captions for verified subscribers.
Quoting from Engadget
“If Meta begins implementing the feature widely, it could drastically change how creators are able to interact with their followers (although a 10-link per month limit would likely still require “link in bio” solutions).”
And I mentioned before it isn’t cheap
Meta Verified for creators starts at $14.99 a month, with the most expensive plans costing $499.99 a month.
Full details here https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-testing-clickable-links-in-instagram-captions-for-verified-subscribers-184555406.html
INSTAGRAM IS TESTING COMMENT EDITING
Instagram seems to be rolling out the ability to edit comments for a portion of users, based on multiple recent reports on Reddit, X, and Threads.
Users are seeing an “Edit” option appear directly below their comments alongside the existing ‘Reply’ and ‘Share on Threads’ buttons. Once a comment is edited, it shows an “Edited” label, so other users can tell it was changed after posting.
I’m all for this.
Name one thing that increases when you up the amount of social media posts & comments you do!
Typos.
More Output = More Typos
Every single time.
I do more typos than the average person. Because I post and comment more than the average person.
The BBC, Sky News, Manchester Evening News do 100x more typos than I do.
Shakespeare, JK Rowling and Oscar Wilde will have done more typos than I do.
And it’s all down to volume of content production.
More details on the comment editing here https://piunikaweb.com/2026/03/13/instagram-testing-comment-editing-feature/
ENGAGEMENT DOWN ON SOCIAL MEDIA IN 2025
This report has just been released in March
And it’s not just you.
Engagement is down
Buffer analysed 52M+ social media posts and Instagram, LinkedIn and Threads engagement declined in 2025. Whilst X, Facebook and Pinterest saw rises
The breakdown is as follows
Instagram (-26%)
Threads (-18%)
LinkedIn (-5%)
TikTok – virtually the same.
X (+44%)
Facebook (+11%)
Pinterest (+23%)
There’s definitely a feeling of social media fatigue with many social media users being on platform for 10-20 years in most cases apart from TikTok and Threads.
Advice: Look at the analytics each month – analyse your Top 3 posts and why they worked and do the same for Bottom 3 and why they didn’t work. Continual improvement.
More info: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-linkedin-and-threads-engagement-declined-in-2025/814141/
NEED HELP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA TRAINING FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Looking for authentic ways to grow your social media
Chat to us about Social Media Marketing for YOUR organisation , so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your organisation
We can chat about whether online or Face 2 Face is better for you
We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you
Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services
We offer Social Media Training on
* LinkedIn
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* Blogging
We can do this
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Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
