2026 Social Media Trend Forecasts, Decoded

Seven ways to win trust when nobody believes anything they see online anymore.

Another year, another avalanche of “trend forecasts” — but in today’s world, can anyone pretend to know what the hell is happening (or will happen)?

I take these forecasts with a grain of salt. However, any strategist is inevitably a futurist — imagining the world that will be, so you can prepare your brand to succeed in that world. And right now, there’s one undeniable phenomenon none of us can afford to ignore.

I’m talking about the erosion of trust. (Is any even left?)

Thanks to all the AI-generated workslop and deepfake video scams, users are learning to view everything with skepticism. If people can’t trust what they’re seeing is real, they won’t trust your brand. And that means your social media content needs to get more human, more original, and more believable than ever.

Here are seven ways to win trust on social in 2026:

#1 – Unpolished video of real humans

While they don’t need to be the only thing on your content calendar (per my last newsletter), Reels and TikToks that show actual people (leaders, employees, customers, etc.) are now ground zero in the work of building trust.

The good news is, you don’t need pro-level production. The tricky part is, there’s a difference between looking confidently low-fi with tight, engaging clips, and dropping amateur takes that lose the plot and damage your brand. (More on this in my next newsletter: stay tuned.)

I don’t know how long the uncanny valley will last, but for now, consumer-grade AI tools have their definite limits. And that means there are a few weird tricks that can signal your videos are real:

• Add props: Interaction between objects and hands still stumps AI: have your subject hold something, pick it up, and put it down while they talk.
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• Add layers: AI struggles with layered scene-building. Add foreground, even just by placing a plant between the subject and the camera.
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• Film continuous shots with movement: Follow people around real spaces as they show you real things. When they’re not static “talking head” videos, AI reels are often short clips cut together — consumer-grade computing power isn’t there yet to produce complex long shots.

As the tech for everyday users improves, hopefully regulations will emerge to help us know what’s real. But even once AI gets good enough to fool the eye consistently, there will always be a place for authentic, thoughtful content starring real humans. We want to see each other. So this is worth getting good at.

#2 – Reputable receipts

We can’t just say things anymore and expect people to believe us. We have to show the receipts: that we’re human (see above), that we work with real humans, and that we hold ourselves to high standards of accuracy. That means:

• Oddly-specific testimonials. Nothing that sounds like a marketer wrote it. Collect honest, detailed accounts — and perhaps incentivize permission to share.
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• High standards of data reporting. People are becoming more savvy to fudged numbers. Independent third party analysis helps, especially from credible institutions. Borrow their trust equity.

#3 – Unvarnished, unique POVs

Hiding behind vanilla takes and corporate gloss was never really effective — fence-sitting makes an org seem cagey — but now, it also looks like AI to boot.

Being a disruptor, a category of one, used to be a reason to distrust a brand (or at least be wary), but now it’s the opposite. Brands that are so unique in their POV and positioning that they cannot be copied are the ones that stick, earn trust, and win loyalty.

So take a stand for your values. Be transparent. Write like people talk. Imperfect, spiky founder content and LinkedIn posts from your CEO with real stories (not vague platitudes) will go far further than generic brand page posts.

#4 – High-touch community care

While a lot of brands are automating comments and DMs, personalized interaction will signal higher credibility. Community managers and customer care will need to be resourced with enough time to write thoughtful replies. Copy-pasted canned responses won’t do.

Brands (and thought leaders) will need to be seen “being social on social,” so don’t just wait and react. Engage proactively. Even something as simple as posting LinkedIn polls and following up on them over time shows you’re present and invested.

#5 – Sticky, serialized content

I’ve been advising brands to create serialized content for well over a decade. But with today’s algorithms, it’s even more fundamental to success.

An episodic series signals originality — exactly what people are craving in a sea of slop. A hook like “21 days of _” or “Welcome to episode 2 of _” promises more to come. If people are intrigued, they’ll be more likely to follow you, or at least watch next time it crosses their feed — and the algorithm knows it. That’s sticky. Plus, when expectations are clearly set and consistently met, trust compounds.

Now, when you hear “episodic” you might think of TV-quality production. And while some brands are showing up like that, casual, short, and simple works too, like this series from Leica (hat tip to Rachel Karten for discovering this gem).
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You don’t need an archive of sexy products though; a series can be educational, a catchy frame for sharing bite-sized tips on a single topic, or for a single audience.

#6 – Social search optimization

Everyone’s talking about “GEO” and how to get LLMs to mention your brand, but rarely do those discussions bring up how Google is also indexing more social platforms — and LLMs are crawling Google. Which means brands should be treating organic social as a search channel — and optimizing accordingly.

To that end, credibility signals matter for GEO just like SEO. High-performing captions will sound extremely human while naturally working in relevant keywords. Don’t keyword-stuff like it’s 2008; the machines are smarter. We only get 5 hashtags on IG/TikTok now, so use them to add keywords you couldn’t naturally fit in your caption.

And alt text plays a role here as well — algorithms can’t accurately read text carousels yet, so it helps both screen readers and search engines understand your content.

# 7 – Slow content

Burnt out on the pressure to post every day, solo creators are forecasting the rise of “slow content.” Meaning: quality over quantity. For teams who are stretched thin, this can be a smart way to go, especially if supplemented with ads like I wrote about in this newsletter.

Putting more effort into fewer posts (rather than posting for posting’s sake) makes it easier to maintain high standards. And when so much content is reactive or AI-generated, prioritizing thoughtful, nuanced, original education and storytelling can signal your brand is trustworthy — and worth following.

That said, with serialized content, you can film and edit a month’s worth of short clips in a matter of days, so you may not need to compromise on either quality or quantity. It all depends on your resources and capacity.

Decide for yourself whether to bring an umbrella

Even the most compelling forecast doesn’t know the specifics of your brand, your audience, and your operation. As you read through the latest reports, ask yourself:

• How likely is this to happen at the scale described?
• How much would it impact your org? (Assign a 1-10 score.)
• What would you need to change to navigate it successfully — processes, people, tools?
• What’s the minimum viable version of preparation? (The 20% of effort that produces 80% of the results.)
• What’s the win-win? If the forecast doesn’t pan out, what steps will you still be glad you took anyway?

Above all, any move you make needs to be rooted in your strategy. It needs to center your brand and your goals. And it needs to tie back to your “why” at a mission and revenue level.

While the future is fuzzy, I think we can all agree the erosion of trust isn’t reversing course anytime soon.

But for brands willing to show up as real, strategic, and human, maybe that’s an opportunity.

Until next time,

P.S. Need ideas for a content series? I’ll throw in 3 ideas as a bonus for any brand who signs up for an Instagram Makeover this week. Reply to this email if you have any questions.