The 2026 Social Media Content Strategy Report (Sprout Social)

Vendor report

Publisher: Sprout Social
Evidence:: Self-reported behaviour
Vendor interest:: Moderate
Sample:: Online surveys of 2,305 consumers in the US, UK and Australia with at least one social media account and following at least five brands, plus 1,200 marketing leaders in the US, UK and Australia responsible for social media.
Methodology: Disclosed
Geography: Global
Data period: 30.05.2025 – 16.10.2025
Published: 2026

Summary:

This report from Sprout Social, a company that sells social media management and analytics software, compares what consumers want from brands on social media in 2026 with where marketers plan to put their effort. It covers Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and other networks. Sprout’s goal is to show brands how to match their content strategy to audience behaviour, and to make the case for social intelligence tools.

The main data is an online survey of 2,305 consumers in the US, UK and Australia, run by Panoplai for Sprout on October 6–16, 2025. Everyone in it had at least one social media account and followed at least five brands. The marketer side comes from a separate survey of 1,200 marketing leaders (manager to CMO) in the same three countries, run by Glimpse from May 30 to June 20, 2025. Some figures come from two Sprout pulse surveys (2,270 and 2,250 consumers, July–September 2025) and from Sprout’s analysis of nearly 2 billion engagements across 400,000 social profiles.

Key findings:
• Four in five consumers say they will interact with brand content more than or as much as they do now in 2026.
• 87% of marketers want their brand on more networks in 2026. Leaders are keener on this than individual contributors.
• Consumers and brands are looking at different networks. Consumers plan to spend more time on Facebook, then Instagram and YouTube. Most brands are putting TikTok and Instagram first.
• 70% of marketers call their team’s social content strategy very effective. Consumers mostly agree on trends and entertainment, but around half want brands to do more on replying to followers, original content and handling crises.
• Consumers want human-made content as brands’ #1 priority, while marketers, leaders above all, are making AI-generated content a top investment.
• Personalized customer service is consumers’ #2 priority, but it isn’t on marketers’ priority list at all.
• Each network has its own role. Facebook is strong for product discovery and customer service, Instagram for brand engagement, YouTube for product education, TikTok for Gen Z, WhatsApp for support and community, and LinkedIn for leadership and product updates.

Margin notes:
This is a vendor report, and Sprout sells the analytics and social intelligence tools it recommends. The findings mix several surveys run at different times with one internal engagement analysis, so each number needs checking against its own footnote. All surveys were online and cover only the US, UK and Australia. The main consumer sample includes only people who follow at least five brands, so heavy brand engagers are probably overrepresented.

Instagram users respond first to brand’s short videos, then creator-style content

Share of social users most likely to interact with each brand content type on Instagram
Content type	Share of users likely to interact (%)
Short-form video (<60 seconds)	52%
User-generated content	25%
Influencer content	23%
Live video	22%
Static images / Long-form video	19%

34%

of consumers are most likely to interact with Shoppable Pins on Pinterest

Gen Z is TikTok's heaviest brand audience

Share of Users Interacting With Brand Content on TikTok Multiple Times a Day, by Generation
Generation	Share of users (%)
Gen Z	44%
Millennials	37%
Gen X	30%
Baby Boomers	31%

49%

of Gen Z consumers turn to TikTok for product discovery

55%

of Gen Z users engage with brand content on TikTok at least once a day

US social users plan to spend the most extra time on Facebook in 2026

Top platforms US social media users plan to spend more time on in 2026
Platform	Share of users planning to spend more time on platform (%)
Facebook	46%
YouTube	37%
Instagram	31%

UK marketers are putting TikTok and Instagram ahead of Facebook in 2026

Top platforms UK marketers plan to invest more resources into in 2026
Platform	Share of marketers planning to invest more (%)
TikTok	73%
Instagram	69%
Facebook	64%

Nearly half of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that speak up about causes in the news

70%

of marketers say their team's social content strategy is very effective

25%

of consumers are most likely to engage with brand-sponsored AR lenses on Snapchat

30%

of marketers say at least half of their content is timely or informed by cultural moments

40%

of users want brands on WhatsApp to provide customer service and support

On Threads, entertainment is the clearest job for brands

How users want brands to show up on Threads
Brand activity	Share of users (%)
Posting entertaining content	28%
Sharing educational product content	15%
Partnering with influencers	14%
Providing customer service and support	14%
Promoting contests and giveaways	11%

18%

of users turn to LinkedIn before any other network when they need customer help

On Snapchat, users mostly want brands to entertain them

How users want brands to show up on Snapchat
Activity	Share of users (%)
Entertaining content	29%
Promoting contests and giveaways	15%
Partnering with influencers	12%
Managing smaller communities	12%
Providing customer service and support	11%

60%

of consumers interact with brand content on Instagram at least multiple times per week

62%

of marketers plan to invest more time and resources into Facebook in 2026

On Substack, users most want brands to teach them about products

How users want brands to show up on Substack
Brand activity	Share of users (%)
Sharing educational product information	32%
Interacting with other brand accounts	16%
Posting entertaining content	13%
Partnering with creators on the platform	11%

18%

of all social media users say X is their top destination for social customer service

About 30% of users engage with brand content on Threads at least once a week

Consumers give brands their weakest marks on crisis response and originality on social

Consumer ratings of brand efforts across social media activities
Brand activity	Fair/Poor (%)	Excellent/Good (%)
Keeping up with trends and cultural moments	30%	70%
Publishing entertaining content	31%	69%
Crafting content that matches their brand values	36%	64%
Interacting with audience comments, reactions and questions	39%	61%
Publishing truly original content	43%	56%

Open full graph

41%

of Gen Z consumers plan to use Instagram more in 2026

49%

of WhatsApp users interact with brands on the network multiple times per week

30%

of companies have built and maintain a Snapchat presence

39%

of consumers say Bluesky's lighter ad environment makes them more likely to interact with brands

Baby Boomers are the generation most likely to use Pinterest first for product discovery

Likelihood of using Pinterest as primary network for product discovery, by generation
Generation	Share likely to use Pinterest as primary network (%)
Baby Boomers	26%
Gen X	20%
Gen Z	12%
Millennials	10%

On YouTube, short and long brand videos perform almost the same with users

UK users are far more active with brands on WhatsApp than US users

Share of users interacting with brands on WhatsApp at least once per week, by country
Country	Share of users (%)
Australia	60%
UK	85%
US	36%

75%

of marketers say they can get timely social content approved within 5 hours when a relevant trend appears

UK social users are most likely to spend more time on Facebook and Instagram in 2026

Platforms UK social media users plan to spend more time on in 2026
Platform	Share of users planning to spend more time (%)
Facebook & Instagram	34%
TikTok & WhatsApp	29%
YouTube	25%

On LinkedIn, users want product information and leadership updates most from brands

How users want brands to show up on LinkedIn, ranked by content type preference
Content type	Share of respondents (%)
Educational product information	24%
Updates from company leadership	24%
Customer service and support	17%
Managing smaller communities	9%
Interacting with other brand accounts	9%

54%

of Reddit users are most likely to engage with user-generated content from brands

39%

of consumers plan to spend more time on Facebook in 2026

Nearly 70% of LinkedIn users interact with brand content there at least once a week

56%

of marketers plan to increase their investment in YouTube in 2026

46%

of marketers say they are investing in WhatsApp in 2026

32%

of users want brands on Substack to share educational product information

70%

of users interact with brand content on Pinterest at least once a week

70%

of marketers plan to increase their investment in Instagram

Short videos dominate brand engagement on TikTok

Share of social users most likely to interact with brand content types on TikTok
Content type	Share of social users likely to interact (%)
Short-form video (<60 seconds)	60%
Long-form video	32%
User-generated content	30%
Influencer content	28%
GIFs / memes	15%

52%

of consumers say Facebook is their top network for building community

14%

of users say they do not want brands on Reddit at all

40%

of marketers use AI tools for performance reporting and analysis

70%

of marketing leaders say Facebook has the strongest business impact of any platform

71%

of marketers are increasing their investment in TikTok

87%

of marketers say they want their brand to show up on more networks in 2026

On Reddit, customer support beats publishing for brand presence

How users want brands to show up on Reddit
Brand activity	Share of users (%)
Providing customer service and support	21%
Sharing educational product information	16%
Posting entertaining content	14%
I do not want companies showing up on Reddit	14%
Managing smaller communities	11%

LinkedIn users engage most with text posts by a wide margin

Brand content social users are most likely to interact with on LinkedIn
Content type	Share of users likely to interact (%)
Text posts	51%
User-generated content	34%
Short-form video	27%
Static images	22%
Influencer content	16%

US marketers plan to put more into Instagram and TikTok than Facebook in 2026

Top platforms US marketers plan to invest more resources into in 2026
Platform	Share of marketers planning increased investment (%)
Instagram	72%
TikTok	69%
Facebook	59%

Facebook users are most likely to interact with short videos, not static posts

Types of brand content Facebook users are most likely to interact with
Content type	Share of users (%)
Short-form video (<60 seconds)	48%
Text posts	32%
Live video	22%
User-generated content	21%
Static images	17%

On X, short video has edged past text posts for brand engagement

Brand content social users are most likely to interact with on X
Content type	Share of users (%)
Short-form video (<60 seconds)	37%
Text-based posts	36%
User-generated content	26%
Static images	21%
Influencer content	21%

Australian social users plan to spend the most extra time on Facebook in 2026

Top platforms Australian social media users plan to spend more time on in 2026
Platform	Share of users planning to spend more time on it (%)
Facebook	37%
Instagram	27%
YouTube	25%

35%

of consumers interact with brand content on Facebook at least once a day

58%

of X users interact with brands on the network at least once a week

75%

of Substack users say they interact with brands there at least once a week

On Bluesky, users mainly want product education from brands

How users want brands to show up on Bluesky
Brand behavior	Share of respondents (%)
Sharing educational product information	25%
Posting entertaining content	22%
Providing customer service and support	17%

On Pinterest, users slightly prefer entertaining posts over product education from brands

How users want brands to show up on Pinterest
Behavior	Share of users (%)
Posting entertaining content	23%
Sharing educational product information	21%
Partnering with influencers	13%
Providing customer service and support	13%
Interacting with other brand accounts	10%

Nearly 40% of social users use Facebook to discover new products

Australian marketers are betting hardest on Facebook in 2026

The 2026 Social Media Content Strategy Report (Sprout Social)

Summary:

Cards from this research