The fans made the tournament

There’s a famous saying that football is nothing without fans, and supporters really set the tone for this tournament before a ball was kicked. It started in Mexico, where fan festivals turned entire cities into street parties, mixing food, music and football in a delightful cultural exchange with fans of visiting teams. South Korean fans in particular received a warm welcome, with chants of “coreano, hermano, ya eres mexicano!” ringing in the streets.

@bbcnewsmundo“¡Coreano, hermano, ya eres mexicano!” Es una de las frases que más se escuchan estos días por las calles de México. La curiosa amistad entre las aficiones de México y Corea del Sur viene de años atrás. Todo comenzó en el Mundial de Rusia 2018, cuando Corea derrotó a Alemania por 2-0 y ese resultado permitió a México clasificarse para los octavos de final. Pero el fútbol no es el único vínculo entre ambos países. El auge del K-pop, las series coreanas y la presencia de grandes empresas surcoreanas en México han contribuido a estrechar la relación entre ambos países. Y aunque México y Corea del Sur vuelvan a enfrentarse en el campo, parece que esta amistad ya va mucho más allá del fútbol. #Hermanocoreano #MexicoCorea #coreanosenMexico #worldcup2026 #Mundial2026

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Sometimes it was the traveling fans themselves that took the headlines, and that was certainly the case for Scottish fans in Boston. From drinking bars dry to serenading Fenway Park, the Tartan Army delighted local residents with their antics and went viral repeatedly.

@meninblazersSCOTLAND FANS 🤝 PARTYING ON BOATS IN BOSTON The Scots are back on the Boston Harbor and are making some noise ahead of their game against Morocco 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 📹 X / conroyherald

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This cultural exchange wasn’t without controversy though, as shown by the rise and fall of German influencer FreddyLA7. Having initially charmed the internet with his travels through the American south, the internet did what it does and turned on the creator, finding old posts that, among other things, suggested he had been in America before and that the whimsy and wonder was forced. This led him to quit X and move to Instagram, where he maintains an active presence. As of last week, he was back on X, though his posts have yet to reach the runaway success of his first round of posting.

The breakout stars on the pitch

If there was one symbol of this World Cup, it was Vozinha. The Cape Verde team as a whole was the internet darling of the tournament, but the team’s goalkeeper was the breakout star among a team of breakout stars. Vozinha entered the summer as a free agent with about 50,000 Instagram followers until a standout performance against one of the tournament favorites, Spain, helped keep the score at 0-0 and put his team on the road to the knockout stages.

Vozinha gained 2 million followers over the course of an afternoon and now sits at 30 million, proving the power of the World Cup as a unifying cultural moment. This is interesting in the era of fragmented media, where monoculture has largely faded and people are mostly consuming atomized content based on their own interests. The World Cup is one of those rare occasions where enough people are watching a single live event that social took its cues from broadcast media, rather than the other way around.

The Norwegian team’s story was more social-first—but just as viral—as the team rowed its way to the quarter-finals powered by its fans. The synchronized Viking Row chant gained popularity around the world, with Norwegians doing it everywhere from subway cars to escalators to packed stadiums led by Martin Ødegaard and Erling Haaland.

Haaland is perhaps the opposite of a breakout star like Vozinha. He’s one of the biggest and most recognizable players in the world, but the beauty of a World Cup is that there is always room for a fanbase to grow. This reached a peak when fans discovered his bromance with England midfielder Jude Bellingham when the two teams played in July.

@watchmojoA heated rivalry for the ages... Britain's Jude Bellingham and Norway's Erling Haaland #worldcup #heatedrivalry #fifa

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The brands that got it

Beyond the players, this World Cup was a big moment for brands. McDonald’s is an official sponsor of the tournament, and has had several social moments take off. From “Ronaldinho McDonaldinho” doing keepy-uppies in a restaurant to a FIFA World Cup meal that launched before the tournament, the brand has hundreds of thousands of engagements on its promotions for the World Cup.

Levi’s was another stand-out star, but for different reasons. The tournament has strict sponsorship rules, and because many stadiums in the US in particular are sponsored by brands already, it meant some of them had to cover those logos. Levi’s complied with this at the San Francisco stadium, but leaned into the bit and posted a video welcoming people to the [redacted] stadium with a well-known viral sound.

There’s a lot to be said about brand equity and how recognizable brands can be—even with their logo obscured—but I’ll leave that for another, longer post. For now, suffice it to say that this was the brand’s biggest post of the year on Instagram, hitting 2.5 million engagements and even surpassing the cross-post of its Big Game spot on the network.

Levi’s even launched a new shirt with the covered logo on it, with a limited edition run still available on its site. It’s an example of a brand leaning into culture while employing social intelligence to create a new product when the online joke resonated with its community.

Finally, on a more local level, Aldi Ireland had a bit of fun with it, and leant into the banter that comes along with all football tournaments. If you aren’t aware, Ireland likes to root against England’s football team. Aldi turned that tradition into a bit of fun, posting a number of videos showing local shoppers wearing the flags and stripes of whoever England were playing that day, starting with Croatia and continuing through Ghana, Panama, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico and Norway.

There’s a content lesson here amid the banter: content series can build over time. The first version of the post had 10k likes initially, which is high for the brand but not what you’d necessarily consider a true viral moment. But the continued posting and evolution of the joke as the brand committed to the bit across an extended series generated more attention, with the biggest video in the series (about the DRC) earning more than 350k likes—an undeniable breakthrough moment.

All good things come to an end

When the final whistle blew on Sunday and Spain lifted the trophy, the history books recorded a scoreline, but the cultural memories will live longer. The 2026 World Cup proved that even in a siloed digital age, some moments are still powerful enough to bring the world into the same room. From the street parties of Mexico to the overnight stardom of Vozinha, this tournament has been defined by collective joy and shared digital experiences. Whoever won on the pitch, the true winner of this World Cup was already decided: it’s the global community of fans who lived it, and the shared culture that brought us all together.

As the mind behind the big green owl, Parvez grew the brand’s TikTok following from 15,000 to 16 million from 2020–2025. With her at the helm, Duolingo became the de facto brand on social media. But then she walked away from Duo to lead social at DoorDash, a brand which became another darling under her leadership.

I had the honor of speaking to Parvez about how high-performing social teams and marketers can protect their energy while proving impact and growing their careers. We talked about the highs and lows of her own career, plus which criticism matters and which…doesn’t.

You can watch the entire conversation on-demand. I also wrote down some of my personal reflections, highlighting the moments that expanded how I think about working in this industry and pieces of advice I want to remember.

1. You have to flop to fly

Parvez isn’t afraid of a flop.

As she put it, “No other org is expected to do what going viral is every single day…You can go viral. Everyone loves it for twenty-four hours, and then it’s like, ‘What’s next? What’s next?’ Like damn. I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here, but the flops teach you much more than the wins a lot of the time. A win can be strategic. A lot of it is also serendipitous. The internet just happened to love that piece of content, and it blew up. But I don’t actually know why it did that well. And sometimes something I thought would do great completely flopped. But it helps give you those insights. ‘This is what people like. This is what they don’t like.’ You gotta flop to fly sometimes.”

It’s really discouraging when posts you’ve spent hours (or days) on—and jumped through multiple approval workflows for—are only liked by a handful of people. We’ve all been there.

It can be even more blindsiding when a post you barely spent any time on becomes the year’s top performer. During a prep call for our interview, Parvez confided that the green owl persona was born accidentally when she commented on a post from the Duolingo account, thinking it was her personal handle. The incident went viral, a happy mishap that changed the course of brand social.

But these aren’t the only two realities. Most content falls somewhere in the middle, earning an average number of views, likes and conversions. Other times, in blissful, kismet moments, the Reel or Carousel that you poured your heart into delivers on engagements, reach and revenue.

The point is that all of us have an entire portfolio of content that’s worked and content that hasn’t worked. Sometimes it’s due to factors out of our control, other times it’s because our idea just didn’t land with our audience (at that time, in that format).

Social-first marketers have their work judged on the world’s stage, perhaps more than any other marketing discipline. It would be easy to tie our value as professionals to the outcome of a single post we really wanted to succeed. But everyone, even leaders like Parvez, has flopped.

Learn what you can from every flop and keep moving forward. Don’t let it define you, and keep giving yourself space to experiment and be creative.

Oh, and use your flops as proofpoints when other teams try to dictate your calendar. Which brings me to my next point…

2. Know who your “daddy” is

Many social teams are beholden to departments across their entire company—or at least, they feel like they should be. They think (or are told) they have to say yes to every request in the spirit of being “good collaborators.”

Parvez recounted the advice she received from her boss at DoorDash that completely reoriented the way she thinks about people-pleasing.

“My boss told me: Always remember who your daddy is. I was like, ‘What?!’ She said, ‘I’m your daddy, and my boss is your daddy. Nobody else at DoorDash is your daddy.’ Now I always say that when someone says, ‘You have to do this. You have to do this.’ And I’m like, ‘You’re not my daddy. You can’t tell me what to do.’”

Having a leader that respects your vision, time and resources, and advocates for your team in meetings you’re not part of makes it a lot easier to create these boundaries.

But that isn’t always the case. When it’s not, it’s up to social teams to hold the line and educate their colleagues about their goals and purpose. Your “daddy” might not be a specific person, it could instead be your team vision (i.e. reshaping brand perception) or audience insights (i.e. data that shows what drives actual impact).

The point is, you aren’t accountable to everyone. You can’t be everything. Remember the goal you’re working toward and what you’re trying to build.

3. Listen to the opinions that matter

It isn’t an exaggeration to say that Parvez has been publicly criticized more than any other individual social marketer. Self-appointed pundits have decried her major brand moves, from adopting an unhinged strategy and killing the owl at Duolingo to working with unexpected public figures at DoorDash.

Though few, if any, of these critics have created social strategies as prolific as she has.

“The creative work you put out there is almost an extension of you, no matter how much you try to deny it. I care about the performance of something I create because I spent time creating it, ideating it and working on it. And sometimes you’ll get people who are really critical of it…It’s important to remember who you want to take feedback from. Is this someone who you really respect in social who makes great creative and is an amazing copywriter? I’m most likely gonna take that feedback. Or is this someone who barely uses social and only has two photos of their dog on Instagram? Probably not gonna take their feedback…Controversial opinions usually just bubble to the top because that’s how the world works,” advised Parvez.

Everyone believes they’re capable of creating social content just because they consume social content. But the truth is that it’s a highly specialized skillset. Much of the critique social marketers receive is from people who have never felt the pressure of the brand handle on their shoulders—especially not one with millions of followers.

And, at the end of the day, when it all feels like too much, lean on your family and friends outside the industry, especially the ones who never understand what you do for a living anyway. In a particularly sweet moment, Parvez shared that the only critics who really matter are her family, who don’t understand the social industry at all.

4. Know when you’ve reached your growth potential

Every role has a ceiling, something Parvez has experienced first-hand. When you reach that limit, it’s your responsibility to find another level and aim for it—whether it’s a new role or an entirely new company.

As Parvez advised, “Getting on the viral treadmill is a really risky and scary place to be. You’re expected to replicate it over and over. There’s never going to be a moment where it’s enough. Your brand is going to ask for more. I always aim for one to three big wins a quarter. That’s enough. And being able to articulate why they worked is more important than the actual posts or campaigns themselves. You can grow the brand account, but there will eventually be a cap. There’s a point where you’re helping the brand more than you’re helping yourself. It’s important to learn to do both. The second you aren’t able to keep growing, then it’s your time to find a new role or organization.”

The potential for what’s possible in the social industry has changed exponentially in the past few years alone.

It’s become more domain-focused than ever, with roles in influencer marketing, community engagement and social intelligence becoming more commonplace. Plus, social leadership roles are moving up the corporate ladder, and directors and VPs of social are now the norm. Parvez predicts we’re on the precipice of having a wave of CMOs who started as social media marketers.

5. Set the temperature in every room

When it comes to Parvez’s working style, one word comes to mind: thermostat.

She recounted the power of setting the emotional tone, “People will say: ‘Why didn’t you go viral?’ ‘Why didn’t the budget we have you immediately convert?’ ‘How do you quantify everybody talking about you?’ It’s really easy to get frustrated, reactive and not want to do this anymore. Being a thermometer is about forming educated responses that declare what the social team is here to do. That’s hard, but it’s such an important skill to learn. Even learning to give that feedback upward to your boss can be really necessary. That skill set is probably one of the most crucial and important things that has gotten me through multiple cancellations, multiple crises, multiple wins and the internet cycle in general.”

As Parvez pointed out, social teams are often put in positions to absorb other people’s emotional states. Whether it’s panic over an overblown “brand risk,” leaders working themselves into a tizzy wondering why more posts aren’t going viral or harsh public feedback that borders on internet bullying, social marketers are (understandably) prone to mirroring these intense emotions if they don’t hone emotional regulation skills.

Of all the wisdom Parvez imparted during our chat, this point resonated most deeply. For social media marketers and leaders—many of whom have struggled to articulate their worth and secure adequate budget, headcount and resources—it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking our work isn’t good enough. The negative feedback from so many sources can accentuate those feelings.

Becoming a thermostat means having a strong sense of your own self-worth, personally and professionally. It means acting from a state of calm and confidence, trusting yourself and your intuition.

For more from Parvez on how to build a sustainable career in social, check out her Career Framework for Social Media Professionals.

The social dispatch

Before you go, here’s a line-up of the articles, social posts and cultural moments catching our attention from the industry this week.

• The heartwarming cultural exchange content from the World Cup that’s all over our feeds might not all be genuine, as reported by The New York Times. But that doesn’t mean it’s all fake.

• Creators are filing trademarks for phrases that start with “hot girls who…” and the backlash has been swift, per Moneywise. The incident reignited the conversation about intellectual property surrounding creators and niche communities.

• Starbucks is piloting a TikTok program for boosting employee-generated content this summer, according to Marketing Dive. This is an exciting new chapter in the world of employee content. More details to come on how the program works.

• We recently partnered with The Wall Street Journal on an article about the rise of the #baldmaxxing movement. The subreddit r/bald has almost half a million followers and 1.2 million weekly visitors. According to data we provided, the number of interactions on the page is already seven times higher than 2024.

In our conversation with her, she explained how, in the age of social media, top-down, hierarchical structures are being destroyed and replaced. Power is being redistributed, shifting from the bottom up. Everyone now has the ability to cultivate a platform and a following at their fingertips. Voices that would’ve been drowned out are filling our feeds, loud and clear.

Bina argues that this power inversion rewrote the rules of trust. People trust influencers over government agencies and media, and are feeling increasingly skeptical of authority figures. People are only sharing their true, unfiltered feelings in online subcultures and private spaces where they have the safety to be vulnerable.

That’s where marketers need to look if they want to understand where culture (and their audience) is going next. Social intelligence is one of the most important tools we have for uncovering conversations emerging at the edges of culture. For finding the deep, meaningful insights that tell us what consumers actually want and need.

It only felt right that we hosted such a prolific cultural futurist here at Social Futures. We hope you find this conversation as mind-blowing and brilliant as we did.

What are you seeing from the edges of culture that are reshaping how you engage with your audience?

We sat down with Michelle Bryanton, President and Chief Strategist of Super Duper, to talk about what brands are getting wrong. Michelle argues that successful Gen Alpha marketing requires a shift from flashy, photo-op-driven campaigns toward tactile, participatory activations that value real-life joy and connection over social media volume.

She calls on brands to create third spaces (besides social) that can serve as hubs for their community.

We hope you find Michelle’s takes as insightful as we did. We included both video and written responses, so you can choose to engage in the way that makes sense for you. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Is Gen Alpha interacting with brands online? If so, where?

MB: Using “online” as a traditional third space is something they use as a social crutch, not a place they want to be. They have no other choice. The way they interact with brands is truly one place, and that is online. They can only interact following Nutter Butter or Duolingo on social because they don’t have a wallet to purchase on a shelf. Alphas have to do it online because there’s no other choice for them to show their love or affinity for a brand.

What does Gen Alpha value in brand experiences?

MB: When I was growing up, we used social as a supplement to daily life to connect with friends in real life. It was never a place where my whole life depended on the internet.

Alphas are now thinking, “Do all of my Instagram followers from all around the world think I’m interesting all of the time?” This idea of self-perception is something we never had growing up. An Alpha is perceived all the time.

If you bring them to a popup and there’s just fun mirrors and photos-ops or activations where you “post to pay,” it reinforces that “My worth is in the perception of how I’m seen on digital media.” For us, it was “Look where I am,” but for an Alpha, they recognize they are a walking billboard for brands. They’re like, “This isn’t fun, this isn’t enjoyable.”

I don’t think you need to reinvent the wheel, but figure out ways that don’t tie the perceived value of that cohort with a digital footprint. They should be asking: Did I have fun? Do I have an interesting memory to bring back to my friends? The value of Gen Alpha is their ability to use word of mouth and to make things cool by telling their friends it’s cool as opposed to brands just showing them it was cool.

Which brands are resonating with Gen Alpha and what tactics are they using?

MB: One of the interesting ones is Lego. I find that you don’t really hear about them much on social media to the same degree you hear about them doing experiential popups.

They did a partnership with F1 where they had model cars you could make and a wall where you could create a collaborative art piece. This integration of a tactile way to interact with the brand is different from “Come and take a picture beside a giant Lego car.”

The joy of creation and participating should be the final goal as opposed to just looking at impressions on social media. If the actual event is fun to participate in, that’s what the goal should be as opposed to driving engagement or a like.

Alphas get so little opportunity to participate in brand activations that when they do, they really appreciate them. That’s the type of memorable moment brands are looking for, but it’s so overthought with social media integrations and influencers. They just want a place where they can go and hang out.

What are your final words of advice for marketers who want to make a positive impression on Gen Alpha?

MB: It’s very easy to just assume a younger generation is just the same as the cohort previous because then you don’t have to do any insights. Look deeply at what they want, even if it’s difficult or not what you’re used to. Educate ourselves on what they desire and then give them that, as opposed to just blindly blanketing what we think they want because it’s easier for us.

Thanks for reading and watching Michelle’s interview! How did it influence your mindset around marketing to Gen Alpha?

Like I said, horror is not my bag, so I haven’t seen either of these movies. I am an overthinker and may never sleep again if I watch either for more than five minutes. But seeing them both take over the zeitgeist this week did get me thinking about social media’s impact on the real world, from point of creation to point of execution.

We should be careful about grouping these movies too closely together, despite the obvious similarities. Obsession comes from “the mind of Curry Barker”, as he himself puts it, while Backrooms capitalizes on the existing internet lore of a creepypasta. The former was acquired for distribution after its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival, while the latter was a co-production between A24 and others from the start.

So these are two distinct entities.

But what you can’t get away from is the influence that social media, and YouTube in particular, clearly had on the development of both concepts, both as an origin story and as an amplifier.

Both Barker and Parsons made a name for themselves on YouTube; Barker as part of a sketch group “that’s a bad idea” (a channel that he later used for his early horror experimentation), and Parsons as a director and VFX artist. Both profiles boast millions of followers, hundreds of millions of views and, most importantly, active fan communities. And that’s the crucial part, because this is a story of promotion as much as one of topic creation.

A growing catalogue of internet-developed IP

There’s a lot of coverage of the YouTube to Hollywood pipeline now, with these recent simultaneous wins emphasizing this pattern in people’s minds. But to some extent, these stories have been a long time coming as echoes of previous successes.

Back in 2022, Danny and Michael Philippou set the precedent by moving from YouTube creation to the horror film Talk to Me. Meanwhile, Iron Lung, which was based off of a 2022 video game and directed by YouTuber Markiplier, debuted in early 2026 and was the prototype for the creator-driven community enthusiasm formula. Initially slated for a limited release, the creator encouraged his very active community of fans to ask their local cinema to play the movie. It worked, and the movie returned box office receipts of $50 million off a budget of $3 million, despite middling reviews and no major distribution partner. If anything, that might be even more telling than the success of an A24-backed project like Backrooms.

In the last few years, studios have been stubbornly clinging to existing IP, reboots and star power to sell their movies. But there’s growing evidence that audiences are hungry for change, evidenced by successes like Sinners and Weapons last year. If you’re a risk-averse studio not wanting to gamble on the wrong piece of new material, what better partner than someone who’s used to working on a tight budget, who intuitively understands a key audience segment, and not only brings that audience with them, but is in regular two-way conversation with that audience? If directors can activate that audience to get out to the movie theater, that’s a huge win for everyone.

But community isn’t only important in terms of mitigating audience size risk; it can also help choose subjects of interest, or expand the idea of what IP could be. Here, Backrooms is the most prominent example. It started as a creepypasta about liminal spaces, before moving more mainstream. r/backrooms alone (where people share photos of these spaces) peaked in 2022 with almost 2 million engagements, but has seen hundreds of thousands of engagements every year since its inception.

As of writing this piece, Parsons’ own experimentation with Backrooms material on his YouTube from four years ago has more than 100 million views combined. That’s a pretty safe bet for a studio to throw a few million dollars at. It’s IP, but not in the traditional sense, and the film has returned a 10x+ ROI on its opening weekend.

Internet darlings vs. mainstream blockbusters

Of course, a lot of the success of both of these movies has been driven by social media. Here’s a look at how both have compared to the summer’s other big release so far: The Mandalorian and Grogu (no shade to Pedro Pascal, the Mandalorian or Grogu, I just need a mainstream hit to benchmark them against.)

Let’s start with press coverage. Here is where the Mandalorian clearly pulls ahead, at least until the social feedback loop around the two smaller films really took off in the last few weeks. There’s a lot of anticipatory coverage, then a burst of articles when the movie came out in May. But you can see people clearly start to take an interest in the other two movies as the social feedback loop kicks in.

And now let’s look at social, which is the real story of the three movies.

Despite a $100 million-plus legacy studio budget, organic TikTok engagement for The Mandalorian was utterly eclipsed by Backrooms’ grassroots community, with Obsession also holding its own. Film discussion on X and Reddit has generated far more messages discussing the two smaller budget movies too.

The Mandalorian has brought in more than $200 million at time of writing, so it’s hardly a flop, but you can clearly see in the data the excitement that suddenly exploded around Obsession and Backrooms once they came out. That’s all down to community and culture, and studios being willing to take a risk based on the proven engagement of those communities.

How brands can seize the cultural moment

Amid these success stories, it also tells us something about brands and their willingness to engage and amplify culture. Every brand is trying to capture a share of voice from viral moments, but how do brands know when to jump in, and what does success look like? It’s about knowing the culture and context behind these moments, understanding where they come from and the reason they’re resonating. And this is particularly true for Backrooms, which has a more established lore than Obsession.

For example, IKEA is often tied into the backrooms lore thanks to being one of the most common warehouses the general public actually spends time in. The brand’s Canadian account had some fun with the launch, placing a floor uplighter and a chair within the backrooms setting.

McDonald’s took an even bigger swing, with a video that dropped the day the movie released. This is a major undertaking that goes beyond a meme, and requires significant upfront investment for a social post. The video features McDonald’s branded items in the film’s settings, as the main character navigates the labyrinth from a first-person POV.

That’s a lot of effort for something that hasn’t been a success yet. So how do brands know when to take these big swings? Well, let’s go back to that engagement analysis, but we’re going to take a look back before the movie was even released.

The data clearly shows early signs that Backrooms had the potential to be a huge success among internet users and create a cultural moment. The first teaser was released at the end of February and within days had accumulated five million engagements on TikTok. Then another trailer at the end of March hit seven million engagements within its first week, and had risen to 12 million by the end of the first month. Anyone looking at that data can see a cultural moment forming, and this was all happening months before it came out.

Having a view into internet culture beyond the brand itself emboldens teams to make decisions early that predict where the market is going, rather than reacting to it. It’s part of a social intelligence framework that gives first-mover advantage in a trend everyone is now trying to jump on. That advantage led to more than half a million engagements across platforms for the McDonald’s Backrooms posts, and its top performing TikTok post of the year so far in terms of engagement by a considerable margin.

But timing is only part of the story. McDonald’s also got the cultural references right, while being able to take advantage of its own cultural capital and brand equity. The brand’s choice of references matched the tone and lore perfectly, and even included Easter eggs for internet sleuths to find and pick up on. This mix of content, context and timing is what allows posts like this to win in 2026.

The Hollywood breakthrough of Obsession and Backrooms is a blueprint for future wins. We have officially moved past the era when social media was just a megaphone used to hype up traditional media and brand messaging. Now, social is the incubation lab, the focus group, and the ultimate distribution engine.

Brands and studios must stop trying to manufacture cultural relevance exclusively from the top down. There’s a valuable strand of IP being built organically by community-driven creators and the audiences who rally around them. The feed is driving future success. The only question is whether your brand is equipped to act on it.

When we asked over 2,000 consumers across the US, UK and Australia which channels they turn to for breaking news, 49% said social media—more than digital news apps (32%) or even TV (45%). This rises to around two-thirds for Gen Z and millennials.

Another 39% said they want media organizations and individual reporters to be more active on social media to share breaking updates and engage with audiences. Which explains why publications like The New York Times are hiring social video journalists:

For journalists’ part, many of their stories start on social. They can follow the thread of a trending conversation or a viral video, and weave together a narrative based on what people are actually talking about. Social metrics, like volume or sentiment, offer a real-time credibility not afforded by singular interviews or formal surveys.

We spoke with Abigail Hart, Sprout’s Manager of Media Relations, to find out how social media—and, more specifically, social data—is becoming central to reporting, and how journalism is evolving with consumers’ changing preferences.

In your own words as a media relations professional, how does social media influence the news cycle? What impact does it have on journalism?

Audiences are shifting from traditional sources, like physical newspapers and news websites, toward social networks. This is forcing news organizations to think like creators, creating content with discoverability in mind and elevating reporters’ personal brands.

@wallstreetjournalChurch is sold out in New York. Young Catholics are showing up for community, faith—and according to the priest, the excitement of falling in love with a pretty girl. Host/Reporter: Anvee Bhutani Producer: @jacob.ohara #newyork #newyorkcity #church #catholic #genz #wsj

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And unlike traditional sources, social media doesn’t just distribute the news, it actively informs it. People are discovering news on social first, then shaping their understanding of an issue and voicing their opinions through their feed, replies and comments sections.

What we’re seeing now is an evolution of something that really started with X (formerly Twitter). The network became a space where reporters didn’t just share stories, they sourced them, tested ideas and built their own audiences. I remember having to create an account in journalism school because it had become such a critical tool for reaching people and establishing credibility.

That dynamic has only expanded. Now, it’s not just one network. Reporters are navigating an entire social ecosystem. To break news and stay relevant, journalists have to be plugged into these conversations as they’re happening.

How does social media data inform the stories and narratives you pitch to the media?

Social pulls back the curtain on a story. It shows how people are actually talking about a moment, revealing angles, tensions and themes you might otherwise miss.

Social data uncovers the shape of a conversation: how big it is, where it’s coming from and how it’s evolving across different communities. It also adds a critical layer of sentiment. How people feel, not just what they’re saying.

For reporters, that’s incredibly powerful. It validates whether something is truly resonating and provides the context needed to tell a more meaningful story. I often receive questions from reporters like, “I’ve seen this on social, how big is it?” or “This is in the news, how are people reacting?”

At its core, news is about people and what’s impacting them. Social provides the pulse of the people and social data makes that pulse actionable.

What metrics have reporters historically been most interested in? Why do you think that is?

Reporters are typically looking for signals that prove relevance and impact. Volume is a big one. The number of mentions about a specific topic helps quantify how large a cultural moment really is. From there, trending keywords and sentiment add depth, showing what’s resonating and how audiences are reacting.

When it comes to brand or campaign coverage, performance metrics like engagement and estimated media value help tell a clearer story. These metrics show not just that something happened, but whether it actually landed with consumers and how it compares to what’s come before.

Together, these metrics help reporters separate fleeting noise from meaningful trends, giving them a stronger foundation for storytelling.

You’ve had many impressive wins helping journalists use social insights to analyze trending moments. Can you share a few examples of stories where social insights were central to the reporting?

A recent example of this was a piece I worked on with Bloomberg about American interest in Chinese-made electric vehicles. A reporter wanted to know if Americans were actually really talking about these cars, and if so, how engaged were they?

Social data gave a clear answer. We were able to show that US-based audiences made up a significant share of followers for Chinese EV brands, and that American creators posting about these vehicles were seeing major engagement spikes. That data helped ground the story in reality and turned speculation into something concrete and credible.

We also regularly support reporting on emerging, social-driven moments—from viral investment trends like the buzz around Spirit Airlines to sudden cultural reactions like Nutella in space.

That’s the power of tapping into social data for reporting: it transforms fleeting online moments into data-backed insights, giving reporters the confidence to go deeper and tell richer, more informed stories.

The company’s CMO told Business Insider it was time for the big green owl to give it a rest. They would be pivoting away from absurdist marketing in favor of the brand “growing up” and embodying a more wholesome persona.

As social and content marketers, we felt the collective shockwave. Duolingo defined unhinged marketing in the early 2020s. They were the brand leaders told us to be like. If the wonderkid walked away, industry commentators deduced, it must mean chaotic brand personas as we know them were indubitably over.

But, candidly, something didn’t sit right about that with us at Sprout. It seemed unlikely that chaotic brands would button up their presences overnight. And, even if they did, is that really what consumers would respond to?

Here’s a sneak peek of what our Q2 Pulse Survey of over 2,000 consumers found:

• Half of social users like an unhinged approach for fun brands, but find it unprofessional for serious brands.

• Nearly one-third dislike it or think it’s overplayed.

But even this survey didn’t tell the full story. To dig into this sentiment further and really understand what it means to be “unhinged,” we went back to the beginning.

Tracing the origin of unhinged marketing

Unhinged marketing isn’t new. Even though Duolingo eventually became synonymous with it, the language learning app didn’t break the glass ceiling.

Long before social, brands were using unhinged tactics to differentiate themselves from the competition and grab attention. Like Quizno’s 2004 “We Love the Subs” TV ad (which became a new hyperfixation for our team while researching this post). It continued existing off social too. Who could forget Mountain Dew’s 2016 “Puppy Monkey Baby?”

Throughout the history of print and digital advertising, brands invested in wildly bizarre creative to earn an—often temporary—spot in the zeitgeist.

Unhinged marketing finds a home on social

Social media culture and the nature of algorithms presented brands with new opportunities to do this work.

While the first truly unhinged brand social post is disputed, this era has had a decade-long arc. Moon Pie tweeted “Okay baby” in 2018. Wendy’s was celebrated for their “savage Tweets” in a 2017 Buzzfeed listicle. And all the way back in 2013, Denny’s started posting pure chaos on Tumblr. The text-first nature of these networks was ripe for pithy brand voices.

In the years that followed, X (formerly Twitter) was inundated with would-be copy cats trying to emulate the irreverent humor these brands had been perfecting for ten years. In the network’s 2022 #RealTalk Report, users said “playful and funny” brand voices were becoming indistinguishable. Brands had been swept up in the sea of same, and consumers were hungry for something different.

Enter: The parallel rise of TikTok and Duolingo.

Duolingo heralded the era of unhinged video when they joined TikTok in 2021. Other brands like Nutter Butter, Ryanair and Liquid Death followed suit, and became jewels in the unhinged crown. TikTok’s video-forward algorithim made way for skits, character and series development, and shocking mascot arcs (who can forget when the green owl got the attention of popstar Dua Lipa?)

But history repeats itself. As more brands copy-and-pasted the exact unhinged playbook these brands were using, the impact was lost. As Byron Stewart wrote for his newsletter Tapped In, “I’m noticing consumer sentiment shift negatively toward brand actions that seem unhinged. And while I understand the thinking behind this behavior from brands, it appears consumers are reaching a point of fatigue with unhinged social.”

Worse, brands started jumping on the unhinged bandwagon at the direction of their leaders. Last year, Kara Redman, CEO and founder of Backroom, told us, “Unhinged social has become mainstream. Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should. And definitely don’t do it just because your boss wants you to.”

It’s not enough just to be “unhinged”

If all that’s interesting about what you’re doing is that it’s “unhinged,” it will go stale. Duolingo was successful because their strategy was wrapped up in the backstory for their mascot and how people used their app. Ryanair’s approach landed because they had an existing reputation as a challenger brand.

If the only thing that stands out about your brand is unhinged marketing, you won’t be able to differentiate when the inevitable copycats rip off your work.

Frankly, it isn’t easy to pull off an effective long-term unhinged strategy. It requires a special skillset and the exactly right conditions. You need a high level of cultural literacy and fast approval workflows that can keep up with the online trend cycle. Plus, it needs to make sense for your brand values and story, or you risk being roasted in the comments section or quickly forgotten.

Equally important, there has to be no (or very little) precedent for your content. For example, there is minimal space for another unhinged D2C brand on TikTok. But a network like LinkedIn is full of opportunity and, in our opinion, is the new frontier in the unhinged saga.

Take brands like SURREAL, Monzo Bank, Slate or Passionfruit. Their content is disruptive and highly unhinged in comparison to other posts from brands and other LinkedIn users. It’s wildly unexpected to scroll upon a flirtatious carousel from a cereal brand—especially when it’s sandwiched between AI-generated posts stuffed with jargon. Yet, this content still feels true to their challenger identities.

If we had to give marketers waffling over whether or not they should create their own unhinged strategy advice, it would be: Do it only if it feels true to your brand and you have a strategic vision. Don’t do it for virality alone. What’s most important is creating a brand that is actually memorable and distinct.

During the conversation, we touch on:

• Why it’s time to move past passive social listening and start embedding real-time internet culture directly into your business strategy.

• Brand examples from teams that have successfully acted on social data to make marketing and product changes.

• Some stats from the market about the opportunities social intelligence provides, including the current disconnect between how fast data moves and how slowly organizations are able to act on it.

Whether you’re looking for strategic tips or examples of tactical wins to help prove the value of social data, there’s something for everyone. And let us know in the comments how you’re using social intelligence at your organization.

Download the report

Chris thinks connecting offline is the best way to find inspiration, and is maxed out on new and emerging networks.

In the latest Social Media Diet, read on to see how Chris finally found the perfect travel bag, and ways he sets limits on consuming content on social.

What is your favorite social network to spend time on?

Instagram.

What now-defunct network would you most want to revive?

Myspace — I loved pretending to be a coder, the top friends feature (always controversial) and custom music.

What is your earliest social media memory?

Does AIM count? If you know you know.

What sources—online or off—do you turn to most frequently to stay in tune with culture?

Podcasts, books, and – most importantly – with people in real life.

Who is your favorite creator and why?

Marques Brownlee, for his ability to take technical information and distill it in a digestible way. Andrew Huberman, for how consistently he turns science-backed information into practical takeaways you can apply in your life almost right away.

What brand deserves more attention on social?

po3agency. They’re a marketing, social, branding, strategy and PR agency for talent, brands and events in the sports industry. I love their video content.

What’s your favorite new or emerging social network?

I know I need to keep up but I don’t want to think about another platform at this time. 😅

What’s the last topic you researched way too extensively on social media?

Anti-theft travel bags for an upcoming trip. I’ve watched too many TikToks of people getting their phones snatched that I now have extremely strong opinions about zipper placement and crossbody strap length.

What is the last thing you were influenced to buy—or deinfluenced not to buy—because of social media?

I finally bought the anti-theft travel bag after my latest research binge.

What’s your preferred way to take a social media break? How often do you aim to take these breaks?

Outside of work, I try to stay off social as much as I can. I’d rather be behind the camera than scrolling, and when I do post something, I post it and move on — I don’t really sit there refreshing for likes.

What’s your least popular take on the future of social media?

Overconsumption of social media is worse for you than smoking — especially when it inhibits real-life interactions and community.

What commonly held social media “best practice” do you disagree with?

That video should always be short, with many cuts/disruptions in pace to retain attention. Focus on telling a great story and the rest will follow.

Not long ago, social media managers were the weird ones. Tucked into a corner, or in my case, a surprisingly large unused closet, while executives swore up and down that no one would ever visit a Facebook page over the official company website.

The responsibilities have changed dramatically since then. Social teams now handle content creation, culture interpretation, crisis comms, influencer relationships, real-time trend response and the not-so-occasional “can you make it go viral?” and “get them to take that down.”

But how they are viewed inside most organizations? That hasn’t changed at all. And it’s not because of a lack of talent. It’s because social has always been measured in the wrong currency: views, impressions, engagements. Those words don’t make a C-suite lean in: revenue, retention and reputation do. Social teams have never had the tools or the mandate to make that translation because brand social was built as a broadcast channel. But over the past 20+ years since TheFacebook.com went live, it has evolved into something else entirely.

Billions of conversations happening in real time. Product reviews, brand callouts, category trends, breaking news, all surfacing on social first. And most organizations missed the shift, leaving that signal siloed inside the social team at worst and inside the marketing org at best.

That’s what The Intelligence Gap is about.

Social teams are the canary in the coal mine

By 2029, 71% of directors (and 67% of all marketers) predict social data will become more influential than traditional market research in shaping core enterprise strategy. That’s a majority of senior leaders who already see where this is going. And that future is probably already here.

And yet, only 10% of businesses have the operational agility to turn real-time social insights into action within hours, because believing something is valuable doesn’t mean you’re built to act on it. Ask any social media manager who has ever tried to get their strategy out of the content calendar and into a cross-functional plan.

The proof is in the silos. Just 36% of respondents say social data regularly informs decisions outside of marketing. That means 64% of companies are making product, comms, sales, and strategy calls without the freshest consumer data available to them.

Every company has a team mining gold around the clock. There’s just no tunnel to get it out.

The Intelligence Gap isn’t just a report. It’s a receipt.

Social teams have always known the value of what they were sitting on. The problem has never been the data. It has been the distance between the insight and the decision maker. Between the trend and the strategy meeting. Between what social sees first and what the org acts on last.

That ends when social teams stop waiting to be invited into the conversation and start showing up with evidence.

Download the report. Find the stats that match what you already know to be true. The moments where social called it first. The campaigns that landed because the data said they would. The crises that could have been avoided. Build that case. Bring it to your manager, your CMO, your cross-functional partners. Not as a presentation. As a pattern.

Social intelligence isn’t a marketing function. It’s a business function. And the organizations that figure that out first won’t just have better content or campaigns. They’ll have better products, faster responses, stronger positioning and a clearer line to what their customers actually want.

The gold is there. Time to build the tunnel.

Get the insights

Read on to see the brands he’s inspired by and why he’s unconvinced that social is constantly changing as much as online discourse leads us to believe.

What is your favorite social network to spend time on?

2012-ish Twitter. It was fun. It was weird. It was silly.

What is your earliest social media memory?

Using the Chinese domain Myspace because it wasn’t blocked on the school computers.

What sources—online or off—do you turn to most frequently to stay in tune with culture?

I’ve never been in tune with culture and I don’t plan on starting any time soon.

Who is your favorite creator and why?

I kinda hate the term “creator,” but my favourite person on the internet is Insane Shayne. His first big thing was catching marshmallows in his mouth from fifty yards, so he calls himself “the best mouth on the internet.” Now his main thing is “undodgeball,” where he and his friend Jake throw objects at each other’s “McNuggets.” It’s like 2026 jackass.

What brands deserve more attention on social?

Classic Football Shirts are very effective. Their content covers so many different styles and audiences, from trending sounds through to deep dives on how a team is wearing slightly different socks to usual. Big respect for both their social, and their business as a whole. They’ve gone from selling football shirts out their bedroom to being bloody massive.

Moonpie have always been weird as fuck. Mous has a 10/10 strategy/execution/whatever you call it. I can’t think of another brand that manages to get product front and centre, while consistently getting +1M views.

Oh and Monzo obviously smash it, but everyone name-checks them and I want to look cool and alternative.

What’s your favorite new or emerging social network?

I only got a TikTok account last year so I’m not the guy to talk about new or emerging, but me and my mates were some of the first people to sign up to the “Kylie Minogue” social network (circa 2007). Oh sure, it was no Matt Hancock app, but it wasn’t blocked on the school computers.

Just so we’re clear: my school years were spent trying desperately to unblock websites to avoid doing work, and now my work years are spent trying desperately to block websites so I can do work.

What’s the last topic you researched way too extensively on social media?

Mostly trying to find grainy TikTok videos of Premier League goals two minutes after they’re scored…

What is the last thing you were influenced to buy—or deinfluenced not to buy—because of social media?

The algorithms keep trying to sell me running insoles and I keep on ignoring them.

What’s your preferred way to take a social media break? How often do you aim to take these breaks?

A break? Hahahahahahaha. My screen time is 4 hours a day and my attention span can only be measured in milliseconds.

What’s your least popular take on the future of social media?

Personally, I like to think all my takes are incredibly popular. But I don’t really vibe with the whole “social is constantly changing” thing. I think the only major change to the day job in the last five years has been vertical video. Everything else, very minor. The core elements of successful posts and pages haven’t really changed imo. Half the memes I see are screenshots of Tumblr posts from a decade ago.

What commonly held social media “best practice” do you disagree with?

I’m simplifying here, but I broadly don’t bother with different strategies for different channels - if it’s good enough, it works everywhere. (Whisper it: they’re all basically the same.) Also, I don’t think brands trying to go viral is bad – isn’t it kinda the whole point? You can put together some lovely deck about laddering up to the wider business objectives…but if a tree Tweets in a forest and no one sees it, does it really ladder up to the wider business objectives?

More than just viral viewership and engagement rates, employee posts are helping brands influence the bottom line—and that impact is quantifiable.

Staples’ CMO Bob Sherwin told The New York Times the company has seen “measurable increases in store traffic and meaningful lifts in categories featured in viral posts, including custom mugs and specialty print products” as a result of the Staples Baddie’s content.

And McDonald’s has reported a 2.2% bump in in-store traffic, with sales of the Big Arch “beating expectations.”

But employee content isn’t new. As far back as 2023, we reported that almost half of social users wanted to see more frontline employees in brand social posts (more than any other group).

So, what is it about this moment that’s leaving consumers and marketers so ravenous for employee-led storytelling? And why is it dominating our algorithms and headlines?

Response to AI: We want to talk to the humans in charge

The last few years have been a hype cycle for AI replacing humans. While some dismissed this as hysteria, companies have since reduced hiring for entry-level positions and some have laid off portions of their workforce in favor of AI efficiency.

Audiences are pushing back, and social is one of the major battlegrounds.

People have acquired a distaste for AI replacing human creativity, nuance and taste. Every em dash, “it’s not x, it’s y” statement and three-item list draws suspicion and ire (and, yes, that three-item list was deliberate. I promise a human wrote this.)

And there’s been even more backlash to obviously AI-generated images and videos.

According to Sprout’s Q1 2026 Pulse Survey, 40% of social users have already unfollowed, muted or blocked a brand or creator who they suspect posted AI slop. Another 66% report they are more selective about the content they engage with compared to a year ago because of AI.

While consumers recoil at the sight of much AI-generated content (with some exceptions), they exuberantly watch videos that embrace the people behind brands. They rejoice in their distinctly human quirks, talents and personalities, and brands can bask in the warmth of that joy.

The likes of L.L.Bean, American Girl, Currys and ServiceNow have all driven positive sentiment for showing their products and services through the eyes of their employees.

In 2025, Sprout’s own Employee Creative Network (ECN) program’s share of video impressions grew 680% year-over-year. Now it accounts for almost 30% of all video impressions, despite being less than 8% of our total content mix.

The formula for successful employee content

Rolling out engaging and emotionally resonant employee content isn’t as simple as putting a tiny mic in your colleague’s hand and pressing record.

As a viewer, you can tell when someone hasn’t received proper guidance, or, frankly, doesn’t want to be in front of the camera. Worst of all, it’s obvious when an employee is reading a script line-by-line, and isn’t able to infuse their own personality and expertise into the content. Like the NASA astronauts demonstrated, employee content is your chance to showcase the credentials and knowledge of your team.

Jamia Kenan, Sprout’s Social Media Strategist, video production expert and leader of our ECN, advised, “Think like a director-producer, not just a marketer. The people that are part of your program aren’t just people who work for your organization—they are talent, creators, influencers. Consider how to best support them so they show up as their best selves on-screen. Make capturing content something they look forward to instead of something they have to check off on their to-do list.”

The amount of work required for employee creators also begs the question: How should these team members be compensated for their time and effort?

Where we go from here: Paid internal influencer programs could be the answer

Some brands have already started paying employees for their work as online brand advocates. Retail store Garage launched their “Garage Social Club” program, which is open to store associates and compensates those who post get-ready-with-me and styling advice videos. Top performers are taken on brand trips to Joshua Tree, Coachella, European destinations and other notable locations.

@kyleebrandonGarage Brand trip Day 1🩷🌵Very late bc of the tiktok crash but we’re back! #iweargarage #garagepartner @Garage Clothing#CapCut

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Some brands are even paying employees just for posting and reaching a specific number of people. As Taskbase CRO Patrick Trümpi pointed out on LinkedIn, the software company pays their employees based on their view rate.

Other organizations like Botpress, the chatbot and assistant platform, launched a competition to financially reward the internal teams that delivered the highest engagements, impressions and followers. After just four weeks, Content Lead Sarah Chudleigh noted the competition resulted in over a million impressions, thousands of engagements and almost half of their workforce participating.

A network of employee creators is at your fingertips

As more companies depend on employees to be the face of their brand online, organizations are going to have to keep up. While there isn’t a single right way to approach employee content, most companies have work to do when it comes to compensating employee creators fairly and sustainably building this work into the scope of their roles.

Because, ironically, we predict the prevalence of AI-driven content will drive up the premium for human creators. The value of human creativity is only going up, and your greatest asset is already on your payroll.

We’ll leave you with one final thought: According to The 2026 Social Media Content Strategy Report, marketers say they are most likely to use AI for content creation. By contrast, the same report found that consumers say the #1 thing they want brands to prioritize in 2026 is human-generated content. Brands need to make sure they’re resourcing accordingly.

That presents a dilemma for brands. They can’t hand over the whole festival to influencers. So how do brands effectively show up on social for their audience in a conversation that’s dominated by loud creator voices?

There’s been an interesting divergence between what has brought brand accounts success compared to influencers, which presents a lesson for brands of all kinds. We rounded up a few of the best influencer and brand activations from weekend one, and dug deeper to understand how brands should show up in corners of the internet increasingly crowded with creators.

Influencers are there to drive awareness

What does a festival weekend look like for influencers?

As the weekend kicked off, anyone who spent any time on social was treated to a smorgasbord of behind the scenes content, from get ready with me videos to outfits of the day to meals at brand houses.

Here’s some of what cut through.

Tianna Robillard is a creator that partnered with Lola Blankets for the festival, and showed her followers a glimpse of what life is like at Casa Lola. Not all of her festival content was sponsored by the brand, with only roughly a quarter of her two dozen posts from the weekend explicitly mentioning or tagging Lola. Prominent examples include her revealing her room at the brand house, giving a tour of the house and showcasing the chef-crafted brunch.

@tiannarobillardBrunch time at Casa de Lola 🤠 FUELING UP FOR COACHELLA DAY ONE @lolablankets #LolaPartner #coachella #coachella26

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This brunch reveal was the biggest piece of partner content for Robillard, and drove almost 100,000 engagements. Crucially, engagement levels on her sponsored content were not significantly different from her non-partner content, with Robillard’s personality consistently coming through whether the post featured Lola or not.

Every one of the partner videos prominently featured the blankets, whether they were draped over Robillard herself or the beds in the house, driving significant brand awareness.

But not every piece of content needs a whole content house to be successful as an awareness play. Some brand and creator partnerships leaned into the classic beauty tactics, as epitomized by MCoBeauty and e.l.f. Cosmetics.

Their partnerships came in the form of influencers preparing for the festival, epitomized by Aliya and Chyna Solder, both of whom have millions of followers.

Aliya’s video featured her talking about her time fangirling during the first day at Coachella while getting ready for Justin Bieber’s performance on day two, all while subtly applying MCoBeauty products.

@only1aliyaBIEBCHELLA TODAYYYY #justinbieber #coachella #day2 @mcobeauty us #mcobeautypartner

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The e.l.f. x Solder partnership was less subtle, with the influencer directly calling out their new flavored lip balms during her day one outfit of the day video. Her outfit was even inspired by the blue raspberry flavor.

@chynasolderday 1 coachella ootd ft the new @e.l.f. Cosmetics UK glow reviver melting lip balm 🩵🎡🐬🌴 #eyeslipsface #coachella #makeup #ad

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Each of these videos took a different approach, but the common factor was driving awareness and a lot of engagement. The products were showcased in subtle and not so subtle ways, with each video getting more than 100,000 likes (and delivering clear ROI for the brands).

The brands are activating on the ground

While the influencers were narrating their lives, a different group of brands was world-building. Starbucks, Red Bull and Kylie Cosmetics all used their own social channels to push on-site physical activations at the festival in an interesting hybrid of analog and digital tactics.

Our Q1 2026 Pulse Survey found that consumers are trying to be more intentional online. Two of the most common goals for the year were reducing screen time and using social media more intentionally.

Amid this push for mindful social consumption, these brands bet on the power of physical presence and used their social content to drive IRL interaction and digital engagement.

@starbucksthis is not a prank. the Unicorn Frappuccino® Blended Beverage is BACK for a limited time at Coachella only. stay tuned for the drop schedule.

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Starbucks highlighted the Unicorn Frappucino at the festival, while Red Bull hid some of the best festival passes in their coolers and hinted that they’d do the same for week two.

@redbullusacame for wiiings, left with an upgrade 🫡 should we run it back wk2? 🤭 #coachella #festival #RedBullMirage #RedBull

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Kylie Cosmetics highlighted the Kylie x Camp Poosh truck in collaboration with fellow Kardashian-owned brand Poosh, encouraging people to check it out during the festival.

These brand posts didn’t see the same success of the influencer partnerships in terms of engagement, hovering in the tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands. But, amidst all the influencer noise, brands that show up with something useful, aesthetic or fun create FOMO-inducing festival moments and long-term brand affinity.

A parting thought: People do still really care about the music

Beyond the ‘fits, people do still care about the hits. Despite all the influencer chatter, outfits, food and houses, the music has still been a huge driver of conversation. We’ve been tracking what’s trending at Coachella and artists like Justin Bieber and Sabrina Carpenter have seen millions of engagements and thousands of articles written about them.

Whichever way you slice it, the festival is still a huge driver of attention, and with weekend two coming up, it will be interesting to see how brands meet the moment. In the first weekend, the brands that stood out didn’t launch creator partnerships and feature IRL pop-ups on the same channel. They stayed in their lane.

Zooming out, this strategy applies to brands across industries. There’s still space for brand-driven content in creator-dominated spaces, but marketers need to approach these events in ways that create community-driven experiences and build brand lore—complementing rather than competing with influencer content.

Sometimes you need a star, and sometimes, you just need to build the stage.

According to Sprout’s 2026 Content Strategy Report, all marketers say real-time audience insights would be the #1 most impactful resource for their strategy. To prove your impact and help leaders make smarter business decisions, teams need social intelligence: the real-time, unstructured context of the market (i.e., what is happening right now).

That’s why we created the Social Intelligence Analysis Deck, a presentation-ready template that includes the structure (and instructions) you need to turn social data into an executive-ready story.

The content team sat down with Olivia Jepson, Social Media Intelligence Manager at Sprout Social and the brain behind the template, to learn more about how teams can shift their social reporting mindset.

Our Q1 Pulse Survey is out, and there were a few interesting storylines from the survey of 2,000+ social media users across the US, UK and Australia. The themes covered everything from the rise of social as a news delivery channel and slop fatigue to what consumers do and don’t want from brands on social in 2026.

Let’s dive into the data.

Social media is the new home for news

Social media has officially dethroned TV as the most commonly cited source for breaking news. We asked people to name their top three sources of news, and social media was the most frequently mentioned, with 49% of people listing it as one of their top channels.

This isn’t just a Gen Z trend. While we might expect a high level of Gen Z favoring social for news (67%), it holds true for millennials (61%) and nearly half (44%) of Gen X also discovering news on social.

While social media is increasing its influence as a news source, the rise of generative AI has created a credibility issue, especially when it comes to video. The vast majority (88%) of respondents agree that these tools have made them trust news on social media less.

This hasn’t turned people away though, at least not yet. But it may create a demand for a different kind of delivery. Just over a third of people (39%) already say they want news organizations and individual reporters to be more active and engaging on social platforms to provide verified updates. This speaks to the creation of trusted communities that have emerged in the last couple of years across various social networks. News consumers want to understand where their news is coming from, and trust its veracity, and one of the most powerful ways to do that is to feel like it’s coming from a friend or a peer.

AI slop fatigue is here

We’ve all seen it: that low-quality, mass-produced AI content designed solely for engagement bait. Consumers are officially over it. Over half (56%) of users report seeing AI slop “often” or “very often,” with 83% encountering it at least sometimes.

And this is affecting how consumers interact with brands and creators. Half of Gen Z users have already unfollowed or blocked a brand or creator because their content felt like low-effort AI slop.

This saturation is making users more protective of their time. Two-thirds (66%) of people say they feel more selective about the content they engage with compared to just a year ago, and that feeds into what social media users expect from brands in 2026.

So what do consumers want from brands?

When users are logging in with purpose, they have specific expectations for the brands in their feed, and almost all of the responses trend toward intentional consumption.

The biggest thing all generations want is value from their time spent on social media: 40% of respondents want to see educational posts about products or services, and 27% of consumers are looking for community-focused content that fosters connection. This is an echo of how users are consuming news, as people look to build trust inside the spaces they participate in online. Authenticity, community and educational content all contribute to that.

According to the survey, that authenticity does have a face, and it’s usually not the C-suite. More people want to hear from your front-line employees (16%) than your executives (9%).

And what don’t they want?

Knowing what to stop is just as important as knowing what to start. It’s unsurprising given the vehement pushback against AI slop, but when asked what one thing they wish brands would stop doing, the answers started with AI.

The top grievance (28%) is posting AI-generated content without a clear label. This and engagement bait tactics (23%) are both a big issue for brands, as users are tired of “wait ‘til the end” hooks or intentional typos designed to game the algorithm.

These behaviors consumers don’t want to see are the mirror version of what they actually do want. They’re searching for real, honestly-created content, and if you lean into that, you’ll already be doing what users want and building genuine connections.

Lean into the real this year

2026 is the year of human authenticity amid rising AI content. Whether it’s for mental health or a desire for self-improvement, users are being more thoughtful about what they click, share and engage with. Fortunately, that gives brands and marketers a framework to start implementing. Give your audience value, show them the real people behind the brand and, maybe most importantly, label your AI.

She thinks Chili’s rebrand was an absolute homerun, and believes creating content for your audience is more important than following “social media best practices.”

In the latest Social Media Diet, read on to see why Reddit is Emma’s new favorite platform, and how becoming a parent has changed her content consumption.

What is your favorite social network to spend time on? Which now-defunct network would you most want to revive?

My favorite is TikTok! And I would like to revive Vine (TikTok is so Vine-coded).

What is your earliest social media memory?

Creating my MySpace page. Picking your Top 8, profile song and background was a HUGE deal.

What sources—online or off—do you turn to most frequently to stay in tune with culture?

Instagram and TikTok of course. But the younger members of my team also keep me “hip” to trending news and culture. It’s impossible to stay on top of everything (especially as I get older), but I think having a diverse team helps because we all have different interests and feeds that can inform a variety of content ideas!

Who is your favorite creator and why?

I love @rosiepiper_. In this season of life (I just became a mom last year), I have found so many first-time mom creators who have helped me feel like I have a community to lean on. I have my own IRL mom friends too, but Rosie’s content feels so cozy and she keeps it real. I love creators with that vibe.

What brand deserves more attention on social?

Maybe they do get enough attention, but I love what Chili’s does on social. Big fan of the chain restaurant. Love me a Triple Dipper. But I really believe their social presence played a huge role in reviving that brand.

What’s your favorite new or emerging social network?

Okay, it’s not new—so forgive me—but I’ve been sleeping on Reddit for far too long. Personally, it is SO useful for crowdsourcing almost any question you have or topic you’re interested in. Professionally, it’s a gold mine for real fan conversation and feedback.

What’s the last topic you researched way too extensively on social media?

Probably something related to my daughter. As a parent, I’m always searching for things like new ways to entertain my 9-month old, meal plans for babies, etc.

On another note, I often find myself down rabbit holes of theory videos on TikTok related to books I’m reading. Sarah J. Maas’ recent announcement of new books coming in the ACOTAR series has me searching for any new information on what they will be about.

What is the last thing you were influenced to buy—or deinfluenced not to buy—because of social media?

A bathtub filter for my daughter’s bathtub. About 1 million Canopy ads later and a placement in Target and you got me.

What’s your preferred way to take a social media break? How often do you aim to take these breaks?

I started reading for pleasure consistently again a couple of years ago, and it’s by far the best way to take a social media break for me. I absolutely love escaping into a book, most often a fantasy world. The community around books and reading is so inviting too! I really try to have the last thing I do before I go to bed not be looking at my phone and instead be reading a book. And now getting to read to my daughter is so fun too!

What’s your least popular take on the future of social media?

I don’t know if it’s popular or unpopular (and the take certainly isn’t original to me), but I think the divide between brands that use AI in content creation vs. those that use human-made content is fascinating. I will be interested to see how audiences react long-term. I’m very pro human-made content!

What commonly held social media “best practice” do you disagree with?

With the exception of a few broad best practices and what we know to be true about current platform algorithms, social media is actually just a constant test and learn cycle. Since I started my career, I haven’t stopped adapting content on a yearly, monthly, weekly and even daily basis. Not all best practices or strategies work for every brand. But knowing your audience and what resonates with them will never not be important and is something I have always been able to lean on.

Whose social media diet do you want to see next? Let us know in the comments.

It may be the Year of the Horse, but, for brands, 2026 is the Year of the Tastemaker.

The internet is entering a new era of cultural gatekeepers.

Celebrities and mega influencers may still headline commercials, but micro-creators and communities are shaping what’s next in culture.

Why do you think we’ve seen a rise in micro influencers and niche communities like Anime going mainstream?

Before a trend reaches the masses, it usually begins as a whisper inside niche communities—an aesthetic experiment, a fandom reference or a meme circulating without context. These early signals rarely appear in trend reports.

They emerge when people materialize their taste.

According to Pinterest’s Pinterest Predicts 2026 report, this year will be shaped by nonconformity, self-preservation and escapism. In practice, that means the era of cookie-cutter aesthetics, perfectly curated feeds and “safe” brand voices is quietly fading. What’s rising instead is hyper-personalization, maximalist expression and a remix of Gen Z and Millennial nostalgia.

For brands navigating this algorithmic era, understanding how taste forms may be more valuable than chasing trends.

Trends move fast, but they don’t (always) move culture

Brands currently move at the speed of spectacle.

Over the last year, microdramas and rage bait (as coined by Oxford) helped dictate that pace.

Online culture—pre-algorithmic speed—had us stuck on a viral topic for at least a month.

Now, you’ve got new memes mushrooming nearly every 12 hours from every end of the internet. One day away feels like a whole week.

Brands trying to adapt to this lightning pace are moving beyond creative, instead focusing on monitoring trends and cultural agility.

In the latest Sprout Social Index™, 40% of consumers say they think it’s cool when brands jump on viral trends. At the same time, 33% say it’s embarrassing. If your brand hops on after the first 24 to 48 hours of a trend’s lifespan, you better be using spectacle as your main KPI.

So, if trends move fast, what truly sticks?

Think of it in terms of cooking.

When cooking, what lingers isn’t the flame. It’s the fond stuck at the bottom of your pan.

The fond is the browned bits left behind in the pan after you’ve got a good sear. A true chef doesn’t discard it. They build on it. They know there is depth there. That’s where flavor compounds.

Trends are the heat from a flame. Taste is the fond.

One heats things up. The other is the base for your strategy’s secret sauce.

A chef who only chases flame burns the dish. A chef who understands the base builds something layered.

Brands that rely on trends are cooking on high heat. Brands that understand taste know how to build flavor.

This is how you match the taste of your intended audience and establish cultural fluency.

The cultural systems behind trends

While there are tastemakers who seem to set the trends, curating taste is a process. It’s developed through experience with a subject and chosen as a part of the curator’s personhood.

In the late 90s and early 2000s, cultural researchers and marketers referred to these figures as “merchants of cool”—individuals whose personal style, references and social proximity to emerging scenes helped translate niche signals into broader cultural awareness.

Today, those same dynamics play out online through a new generation of aesthetic curators.

TikTok creators like @nohofashion and @girlsinquire function less like traditional influencers and more like cultural samplers.

@nohofashionEp 1: introduction of NoHo fashion and your favorite interviewers#fashion #northhollywood #noho #nhhs #cute

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Their feeds operate like living moodboards—closer to the collage logic of Polyvore than the polished, aspirational posts that defined the latest era of social media.

They gather references, remix aesthetics, and contextualize signals across fashion, art, media, and internet subcultures that will go on to empower consumers’ buying power.

In doing so, they help audiences practice taste in real time: sampling, comparing and ultimately deciding what resonates.

Just as brands did decades ago, brands today need to tap into these communities to establish cultural relevance. Don’t go chasing algorithms alone. Algorithms may shape behavior by accelerating what people see, but they don’t create the meaning behind those signals. Understand the micro-communities where taste is actively being formed and collaborate with them intentionally.

This will help brands plant themselves into their audience’s lifestyle, versus just being a 24-hour trending topic.

Communities are the new cultural infrastructure

Algorithms may be digital matchmakers, but they often rush the experience that leads to establishing taste. They surface products, pair audiences with creators, and shorten the path between discovery and purchase. What gets lost in that frictionless loop is the process that ushers users to actually develop taste.

Micro-communities restore that missing layer. Within niche internet spaces—from fashion commentary circles to fandom forums—taste is debated, refined and protected collectively.

These spaces function less like storefronts and more like cultural third places, where people gather to interpret what something means before deciding whether it’s worth adopting. In these environments, products and aesthetics aren’t simply promoted. They’re evaluated through shared critique.

This dynamic is also why psychographics are becoming more valuable than demographics. Age, gender and location reveal very little about why someone chooses one product over another. Understanding the communities they participate in, the references they recognize, the aesthetics they gravitate toward and the creators they trust reveals the cultural logic behind their decisions.

For brands, these communities act as living research environments. Observing how taste forms inside them offers a deeper form of social intelligence that algorithmic signals alone cannot capture.

Designing brands that earn cultural permanence

Cultural permanence isn’t achieved by appearing in every trending moment. In this personalized algorithmic era, brands need to rethink what social intelligence actually means. You’ve got to develop a deeper understanding of the communities shaping meaning around your products, aesthetics and ideas.

That takes sharp social listening and cultural strategy. Instead of treating culture as a stream of viral moments to react to, brands should approach online communities as environments where taste is continuously forming.

Here’s how you’ll engage with intention going forward:

Study communities before participating: Observe how people talk, critique and reference culture before inserting your brand into the conversation.

Prioritize psychographics over demographics: Understanding shared values, aesthetics and cultural signals will reveal far more than surface-level audience segments.

Design for resonance, not just reach: Niche virality—a smaller audience that recognizes your brand as culturally fluent—will prove to be more valuable than the viral exposure we’ve been getting accustomed to chasing.

This is how your brand will earn its place in culture.

Taste is cultivated, not chased

Algorithms can accelerate discoverability, but they don’t create meaning.

Meaning forms inside communities, through curators, shared references and the collective process of deciding what resonates.

For brands, that means social intelligence can’t stop at tracking viral moments.

The brands that earn cultural permanence will be the ones that study taste where it forms, engage communities with intention and design for resonance rather than reach.

Because long after the trend fades, the flavor of your brand is what people remember.

They worry about repetition and don’t want to over explain to their audience. They don’t want to be left behind as new networks emerge. All of which are worthwhile concerns, but don’t necessarily align with consumer preferences.

Our latest Social Media Content Strategy Report showcases that dissonance. For example, marketers say they’re going to prioritize AI-generated content, which is in direct conflict with consumer preferences for human-created content.

In our latest video, I discussed the new report with Aubree and highlighted what I found the most interesting, from the consumer/marketer disconnect to some of the network highlights.

We interviewed Elissa Wardrop, Social Media Specialist and Content Creator at IKEA Global, to find out how that post came to life so fast, and learn more about IKEA’s newly formed Responsive Project Team. Wardrop explained how IKEA balances trending and original content on social, and what it takes to be a truly brave brand.

We need to talk about the Punch posts. Could you describe how the different posts across your accounts were coordinated, and what conversations happened behind the scenes?

At (Ingka) IKEA Global, we’ve recently formed a dedicated Responsive Project Team, which I’m lucky to be part of! Our role is to create content in response to news, trends, pop culture moments and key calendar dates (like April Fools’ or Valentine’s Day)—quickly, creatively and in a cost-efficient way with what we call the IKEA “twinkle in the eye.”

When I noticed Punch starting to trend, I immediately reached out to the wonderful IKEA Japan team, who I learnt were already in close contact with the zoo. I shared a rough mock-up with them, and they coordinated directly with the zoo to gather feedback and secure approval. That collaboration was key to ensuring everything felt authentic and respectful.

Once we got the green light, I grabbed the soft toys, headed outside to the only patch of grass I could find (the snow had just started melting), and I spent about 20 minutes setting it all up. It took 38 attempts (lucky number 38!) to land on the final image I was happy with. From there, it took just nine minutes to edit and distribute the asset to our country teams via our global group chat.

Generally, when we share content with our markets, they have flexibility. They can publish the asset as-is, adapt it to better suit their local audience and strategy, or create something new inspired by it.

What have been some of the highlights from the newly formed Responsive team?

Content-wise, besides baby Punch, one of our biggest hits has been our Severance-inspired post. You know you’ve done something right when MrBeast comments, “I need this”—and even more surreal, Emmy Award-winning Production Designer Jeremy Hindle featured it in his keynote at Figma Config in San Francisco, presenting it to an audience of 10,000 people (and thousands more watching online).

Our Taylor Swift engagement-inspired post was another standout. It became the most shared post of all time for IKEA UK.

What’s most exciting to me is what the numbers are proving: impactful content doesn’t have to mean big production budgets.

The Punch post was shot on my iPhone outside an IKEA store, with soft toys propped against a mud track left by a truck that got stuck during winter. The Taylor Swift post was also shot on my iPhone—against two pieces of paper on a stool, by a window.

No elaborate sets. No production crew. Just cultural awareness, speed, creativity—and a willingness to act. I think that’s the most powerful thing the Responsive team has demonstrated: relevance beats perfection.

Everyone’s feeds are so hyper-niche now, and we know social teams can’t rely on their own feeds to find conversations their audiences care about. On LinkedIn, you recently shared an example of how your team created a Bridgerton-inspired post, even though you’ve never seen the show. Can you walk us through how you collaborate to surface timely ideas?

We tend to work in two ways. Firstly, we have a robust cultural calendar where we’ve added in as much as possible—major sporting events, movie and TV releases, concerts, album launches, award shows, and even random days like International Cat Day or Hot Dog Day. For some of these moments, we plan and create content well in advance. For others—like award shows—we wait for the day and stay flexible, keeping an eye out for any live moments that feel relevant and ownable for us.

Secondly, there are the things you simply can’t plan for: breaking news, unexpected events, viral trends. Our in-house Responsive team may be small, but we’re diverse in age, language and interests—which means our feeds look very different. That diversity gives us a broader radar for emerging conversations.

Bridgerton actually fell into a bit of a grey area. It was something we hadn’t originally built into our calendar. So in early February, Matilda, our Responsive lead, flagged the potential opportunity and shared the trailer for Season 4 Part 2.

I’ve never watched a single episode. So off I went to watch the trailer and spent some time in the comments section (a goldmine for context), and quickly understood that the “bathroom scene” was highly anticipated by book fans. And that insight was enough to shape a relevant, culturally aware post.

We created the content within a few days and shared it with our countries just a few days before the release. Reading the comments on the IKEA posts, the outside world seems to think we acted at lightning speed after the season had aired. The reality in this situation is we’d pre-empted the moment using signals from the trailer and fan conversation. And I’d say it paid off—because Yerin Ha, who plays Sophie, commented and shared it to her Instagram Story!

You help create content for all 31 of IKEA’s country social media channels. How do you tailor each content strategy to the timely conversations happening in each country?

As part of the global team, our primary focus is developing campaigns and responsive content that can resonate at scale. We look for culturally relevant moments that have cross-market appeal, and then our country teams have the flexibility to localise—whether that means adapting the copy, swapping products, or reframing the idea to better align with their audience and strategy.

That flexibility is key. What lands in one market won’t always land in another, so we aim to create strong global foundations rather than rigid executions. At the same time, we’re placing increasing emphasis on two-way collaboration. We are working closely with country teams to better understand their unique cultural nuances, priorities and performance insights, so we can provide more tailored ideas, creative inspiration or feedback when needed.

Importantly, it’s not just top-down. Our local social teams are constantly producing brilliant content, which sometimes is highly specific to their markets when it comes to niche trends or local conversations. We actively encourage them to share their high-performing locally created content in our global chat. Often, a locally born idea can travel really well and inspire other countries to adapt it. This constant exchange maximises efficiencies and ensures we’re continually inspired by fresh ideas from across our markets.

There’s a pervasive debate in the social media industry about whether it’s better to develop original content (like IKEA’s Life in Stitches series) v. timely content. What’s your take? What has worked for IKEA?

For me, I think it’s about having a healthy mix of both. We’re incredibly fortunate at IKEA to have an endless amount of stories to tell, and I genuinely believe we’re one of the largest brands consistently creating original content.

A great example, as you mention, is Life in Stitches from IKEA UK. That series was born from listening to the online community—particularly fans of our soft toys—and turning that love into creative, character-led storytelling. It gave audiences a reason to keep coming back, building anticipation and emotional connection over time. That’s the power of original content: it creates depth, loyalty and distinctiveness. Another great recent example is our collaboration with Tiny Chef and five selected countries. We hired Cheffy as an IKEA co-worker to help serve up our new falafel balls across 3 hilarious episodes!

Tiny Chef episode 1:

My favourite IKEA x UK Life in Stitches episode:

At the same time, timely content plays a different but equally important role. It keeps IKEA, an 80+ year old brand, culturally relevant. It allows us to show up in unexpected ways, connecting our products to what people are already talking about, and sparks significant shareability. Timely content can drive huge reach, conversation and top-of-mind awareness for us, which can also help translate into visitation and sales.

I think the magic really happens when the two work together.

You’ve mentioned how much you love when brands are brave. What defines a brave brand to you?

For me, it’s when brands—especially those in traditionally corporate or risk-averse industries—aren’t afraid to have a little light-hearted fun on social, from time to time. It’s when they’re willing to step outside polished, predictable messaging and show personality. It’s also about experimentation. Brave brands test new formats, new content and explore different creative directions—knowing not everything will be a home run, but that evolution can only happen through trying. And perhaps most importantly, bravery to me is about authenticity. It’s sounding like a human, not a polished, corporate robot. It’s being transparent, self-aware and confident enough to join conversations in a way that feels natural.

Here’s a personal story of mine from 2024….Australian Retirement Trust—a superannuation fund—isn’t exactly the industry you’d expect to jump on a viral TikTok trend, right? Well, one day, when I was out and about in Melbourne, I spotted a tram wrapped in their new campaign creative. It featured a very tall, blue monster. I’d say about 6’5”, blue eyes…and I’d assumed it’d definitely have a trust fund. Do you see where my mind went with this? This happened to be in the midst of the super viral TikTok from @girl_on_couch. So I made this funny little connection and thought it would be a great reactive piece of content for them, so off I went to post the idea on LinkedIn, tagging the company. They saw it, they responded. They turned it into a TikTok ad within days.

The result? Thousands of likes and shares, hundreds of comments and saves, and overwhelmingly positive sentiment applauding the creativity.

Now that’s what I call brave.

@lismealMy first idea on LinkedIn and they actually listened 💅 #SocialMedia #SocialMediaMarketing #SocialMediaMarketingTips #Marketing #MarketingWin #CreativeAdvertising #LinkedIn #Superannuation #Finance #LookingForAMan

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These days, he finds inspiration from local Richmond small businesses and nonprofits, nature creators and diving into long-form content.

In the latest Social Media Diet, read on to see why Drew still clings to Instagram, and why he believes best practices mean nothing compared to great content.

What is your favorite social network to spend time on?

Like the tortured, elder millennial I am, it’s still Instagram. It has the right combination of connection to friends, random sh-t I want to learn about and feeding my personal interests, all in one app. It’s impressive how well Instagram has been able to adapt.

What now-defunct network would you most want to revive?

It has to be Vine. Vine’s golden years were such a special moment in culture that has a nostalgic feel. Whenever someone says “Remember Vine!?” and you just go “YESSSSS!” There’s something special that happens creatively with restrictions—like short time limits—that we lose when we release those restrictions. Also, I miss OG, OG Instagram.

What is your earliest social media memory?

Definitely filling out my Top 5 friends on Myspace and updating my music playlist as much as possible. Not to mention the era of “like this for a TBH” on Facebook, which is another core memory of mine (we all made those statuses hoping our secret crush would like them, right?) We were still trying to figure out how we were using the internet to connect with people. We sort of knew, but really didn’t.

What sources—online or off—do you turn to most frequently to stay in tune with culture?

I’ll read Garbage Day when the headline catches my attention, but I’ve spent a lot of time trying to untune myself. Our creativity expands exponentially when we’re stuck with our own thoughts and ideas, not just taking in everyone else’s. I also spend way too much time online, so I don’t really need to tune into anything that wasn’t already put in front of me by the algorithms.

Who is your favorite creator and why?

I love Wendy Outdoors. She represents a lost art on social media: Doing things because she enjoys doing them and sharing them with the world. She’s not trying to extract profit or further doomscrolling addiction. I love watching her videos when I need to feel peace, but don’t have time to go out in nature. As someone who is aging in an industry that values youth, it’s a reminder that we can still be successful, no matter our age.

What brand deserves more attention on social?

I’m hyper-focused and motivated by my local community, so I’ll use this space to shout out Richmond Community Fridges. The organization has an incredible social media presence and is using it to do incredible work. Richmond Community Fridges was started in 2021 by Richmond native Taylor Scott to help combat food insecurity and has exploded into 15+ fridges located throughout the city. My (probably delusional) wish is that more of these super important grassroots organizations fill up our feeds. A man can dream.

What’s your favorite new or emerging social network?

I honestly don’t have one, but wish I did. I miss the newness of a fresh social platform and the quirkiness that comes with it. I’ve tried out a few, but none have stuck with me.

What’s the last topic you researched way too extensively on social media?

I just finished a wonderful Diabolical Lies episode called “The Rise and Fall of Capitalism” that split my brain into pieces. I implore anyone and everyone to listen to that episode if you want to understand why the world works the way it does. Katie Gatti Tassin and Caro Claire Burke do an absolutely wonderful job of making a really dense topic be fun and understandable. I love any long-form piece of content, especially in audio form, in a world that keeps demanding things get shorter and shorter.

What is the last thing you were influenced to buy—or deinfluenced not to buy—because of social media?

Honestly, my Instagram DMs with my wonderful wife are mainly us sharing delectable things from the local bakeries here in Richmond. The last thing that influenced me was from Janets’, a local cafe and bakery that is doing a Hot Chocolate Month where every day has a new flavor. We went this past weekend to get the chai hot chocolate and other delicious things. I have to go see what the flavor is today!

What’s your preferred way to take a social media break? How often do you aim to take these breaks?

Getting into nature and other places where I don’t feel like I need to be up to date on absolutely anything. I’m partial to Shenandoah National Park, which is about two hours away from Richmond. I try to do some sort of intentional nature activity once a month, but I love doing a solo cabin weekend every year by myself to completely take a break from it all.

What’s your least popular take on the future of social media?

AI isn’t going anywhere. The people who learn how to work with it and use it properly to their advantage will be the only ones left of us in about 10 years. I don’t think AI has any place in crafting actual creative work. But history has shown us time and time again that anything that makes a function of capitalism easier is going to take the reins sooner or later. It’s in our best interest to get with it. The only people who change anything are those with power, so if you truly believe in the value of creativity and art, you have to play the game to change the game.

What commonly held social media “best practice” do you disagree with?

Anything that has to do with optimal posting times, optimal video length or optimal anything. The reason I still love social media to this day is that great content is great content no matter what it looks like. It doesn’t matter if you post on a Monday at 5:30 pm or a Sunday at 2:30 pm, a great post will find its audience.

Just because you post something once and it didn’t “perform,” doesn’t mean that you should just move on to the next post. Try different formats and cuts of the same piece of content until you find one that works. Trust me, your audience—which is mostly people that don’t follow you at this point—have no idea! If you believe in something, keep trying new ways to get it on feeds. When we cook, we keep seasoning dishes until it tastes right. Let’s do the same thing with the content we’re posting. And also realize that sometimes things just don’t work and that’s okay as well. I realize a lot of people don’t have the creative freedom to do this, which is the first hurdle to jump.

We can’t hack the algorithm. There are no secrets. The biggest industry secret that everyone wants to ignore is that you have to invest in good people and good content to be successful on social media.