Social media remains at the heart of most marketing activities, with nearly all (95%) professionals identifying the channel as a critical tool for brand building while almost a third (30%) use social through the full marketing funnel, from building awareness to direct sales.
However, getting it right is not that simple; the social landscape is shifting: usage is plateauing, attention is fragmenting, and AI-generated content is flooding feeds.
That is according to a new study from agency We Are Social, “Think Forward 2026: Building Brands at the Speed of Social”, which reveals the channel is now marketers’ number one for driving emotional connection and cultural impact, ahead of TV, print and more.
And, alongside social’s potential for brand building, it is also increasingly being used for commerce: 63% of marketers are already engaged in social selling, with another 17% set to begin this year.
To help brands succeed, We Are Social has introduced The Cultural Power Loop, a strategic framework created to demonstrate how brands are built in social.
The four forces within the Cultural Power Loop – Presence, Proof, Power and Participation – inform the key trends brands can tap into for 2026 to maximise their impact.
The report outlines eight cultural trends that will define the next year of social. These include:
– Cringe Confidence: As AI-generated content floods feeds, the pendulum is swinging hard toward the human, the awkward, and the earnest. Brands can resonate in everyday culture by embracing, and enabling unfiltered sincerity.
– Radical Subjectivity: People are gravitating toward voices who embrace subjectivity rather than hide it. Brands can build trust by foregrounding distinctly human perspectives – imperfect, personal, and impossible to automate.
– Rethinking Reality: Marketers are fast adopting AI tools – 81% already use them as part of the creative process, and 17% plan to start this year. With AI encroaching on creative expression, prestige now comes from imagination that can’t be automated: visions that feel human, original, and impossible to replicate.
– Fandom Architects: Nearly three-quarters (73%) of marketers believe fandoms will be critical to their social strategy this year as fans move from passive observers to creative collaborators. Brands can build advocacy by recognising fans as creative collaborators who shape a brand’s cultural meaning.
We Are Social global head of research and insight Paul Greenwood commented: “There are still brands treating social as a broadcast channel rather than a place for conversation and culture, or using it as a short-term performance lever. The question isn’t whether to invest in social – it’s the world’s most powerful media ecosystem where brands can have a huge impact through the funnel. Instead we should be asking how to do it smartly, turning attention into measurable growth.”
Business economist Dr Grace Kite, who contributed to the report, added: “Strong modern marketers are learning ways to build brands online, finding ways to elicit emotion, build trust, and be memorable in interactive and live ways.
“Appearing next to the niche topics that people love and being part of the conversation is an important strategy, and social platforms are very well set up to deliver on that. I love the finding from this report that success on social in 2026 means staying creatively human, it’s worth a read just to see how We Are Social unpack that concept.”
Think Forward 2026 was created by We Are Social’s Strategy and Cultural Insights teams, through literature review of strategy frameworks and whitepapers alongside semiotic and thematic analysis of digital artefacts. This was supported by a survey of 300 marketing decision makers across the US and UK.
The report also features case studies from TripAdvisor, Amazon Music and Samsung, demonstrating how to turn cultural participation into measurable growth.
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