What will social media marketing look like in 2026?

gem7930
Oct 7
2 min read

Social media marketing has been rising since it began circa 2007. It's been around as long as Thunderwolf Gem's career. But has it peaked?

Brandwatch released their annual report: The State of Social. Drawing on 910 million posts, they've concluded that key themes this year centre around transparency and authenticity.

Mentions of hidden fees jumped 40%, and deinfluencing rose 79% – showing that honesty is now a competitive edge.

De-influencing is a trend where social media influencers call out products and viral trends when the quality doesn't stand up. This frustration can be felt in other areas with clickbait journalism being called out and truth speakers being heralded is heroes in almost every comment thread.

Conversations around digital detoxing and digital burnout are also rife. Coupled with confusing algorithms and the rise in AI, is there any wonder that consumers and businesses are choosing to take themselves offline?

How does this affect marketers?

Starting a new channel in a crowded marketplace isn't easy. Launching a new business on social media isn't going to get you the same attention it might have once before. That doesn't mean there isn't a place for it.

There's always a place for a touchpoint.

The truth about touchpoints

When a business or consumer finds your business, product or service, they're unlikely to act straight away. Research shows that it takes on average 13 touchpoints before someone decided to buy from you. This statistic is less for low value items and more for high value products and services.

When you market something you need people to see you, think 'that looks good', see you again in the same place, see you somewhere else, hear about you from the man two doors down and walk past someone wearing or using what you're selling.

How to build an effective journey

So what are the right touchpoints? There are lots of ways to build an effective customer journey. We call the different tools we use to do this channels. One channel might be facebook, another might be an article in a magazine. The right channel mix is dependent on lots of factors.