How to Grow on Social Media in 2026 (According to Science)

If you felt like your social media posts haven't been reaching as many people or getting the engagement that you are used to, you're not alone and I've got the data to back it up. Metricle has released their annual social media report and I love diving into these. A couple of quick reminders. First thing is make sure to download this for yourself. I'll leave a link down in the description and show notes. This is a great thing to have on hand if you're a service provider, if you're a social media manager, have it downloaded so that you can always reference back to it throughout the year. Also, I'm going to skim through this as such a hefty report. It's 67 pages. I'm just going to be skimming through the most interesting things to me personally, but I definitely recommend you have a good amount of time with this on your own. The second thing is Metricle is an amazing partner of this podcast. I'll be sure to try them out. I will leave my link down in the show notes as well. You can use my code Latasha to get 30 days free on any of their premium plans. Let's dive into some of the most surprising and interesting things from the study. First of all, real quick on their data set, they analyzed 39 million posts and that came from a million, over a million accounts that were connected to Metricle. They've got some overview pages here. I'm actually going to skim through these because it's a lot of information, although I do really, really love the layout of this. We can talk about this really quickly. Overall, LinkedIn down impressions, down 23%, TikTok, down 17%. Reach on Facebook. Now, I've been talking about this a lot, and a lot of my podcast guests have been talking about it. Reach on Facebook, 51% up, increase green and good. One of the few platforms that we're seeing increases in engagement. Twitter/X is down in link clicks by 28%. Instagram down reach in reals 35%. Bookings on Google Business Profiles up 13% fascinating. Pinterest is one that I don't talk about a lot. I definitely want to try it out in the new year. Up 29%. Views on YouTube, up 76% and interactions on the new kit on the block. Blue Sky, they don't have historical data since it's a new platform. But average interactions are 16.38, which is pretty good, I think. So again, we've got some out of glance. Overall, we are still seeing TikTok being the leader in terms of growth metrics. The percentage of accounts that gained enough followers to move up a category as in from small to medium or tiny to small, etc. So at the top of list, we still have TikTok. Like if you are looking for fast growth, if you're looking to introduce yourself, TikTok is still the one to be, I think, when it comes to that same for interactions, same for impressions. We're seeing the average number of views and average number of interactions being led by TikTok. Down at the bottom, we've got Pinterest for impressions. It's a smaller platform, right? Like I said, I don't talk about Pinterest a lot, but that doesn't mean that it's not one to think about and we'll talk about it more later. But there might be a more niche audience there. So smaller isn't always worse. You know what I mean? They reiterate TikTok leads away and reach interaction and growth potential. So, you know, we should still be thinking about TikTok. We absolutely should. They then break it down by account size. So they've got these different category tiers, like I said, tiny accounts, small accounts, medium accounts. Most of these follow a very similar trend with the big exception coming from big accounts. Big accounts actually saw the most interactions on blue sky. So there is some promise for that platform. I think similar to Pinterest, right? It's a very niche platform. It's a smaller platform. It's when we don't necessarily think about as often. But if your audience is there, particularly if you're like a journalist or if you're in news media, that kind of thing, it's probably one you should think about joining. Okay. I love that they added all these quotes. By the way, fun. Read through those from some experts. You may see a familiar face later on. Let's dive into the analysis. Blue sky. I'm not going to spend too much time on it. Definitely read through this. Like I said, it is a very niche account. And I know many of my audience members are not on it. And some of you have maybe never even heard of it. So again, if you're in news, if you're in politics, in particular, I think you definitely should look at it. It's sort of a, they're heralding it, a promising alternative, you know, to X slash Twitter. A lot of people are moving away from that platform for whatever reason. So they've got a little breakdown on that platform there. Now, big one here, the again, I am very happy to see Facebook is not dead. Facebook is not dead. I've been saying it. My guests have been saying it, not even close. Reach on Facebook is up by 51% year over year. And also it looks like impressions are up by 57% in interactions by 56%. So they say that's no joke. And I agree. Now, it's tiny little, oh, it's up by like 5% or something. This is serious business. So if you're not posting on Facebook, if you're not incorporating it into your strategy or your client strategy, now is definitely the time to think about it. So they've got these comparisons year over year. Everything's up. Everything's up. This creator, Robert Benjamin, he said the growth views, engagement and monetization opportunities on Facebook are mind blowing. He is simply reposting content from TikTok and Instagram and it's going viral like crazy. I haven't tried this yet. This is another thing I'm going to add to my list. Let me know if you would like me to document some of it for my channel and let you know how things go. But I've heard a lot of creators are not only getting a lot of reach this way, but also getting a lot of money this way that Facebook is paying better than Instagram, better than TikTok and in some cases, even better than YouTube. And that's exactly what this goes on to say. Video is really booming. Reach for Facebook videos is up 44% interaction is up by 22%. In this chart here, they've kind of highlighted with the dark blue, all of the really exciting metrics to pay attention to. So for photos, we're seeing more comments. For videos, we're seeing more reach, more impressions, more comments and more shares. For albums, we are seeing more comments and comments that's the one metric. And for events, this one was really interesting to me, especially when we look at Google Business, which we'll talk about later. I was kind of expecting events to be like, wow, like totally blowing up, considering we're seeing this sort of desire for IRL content again. And there were only two data points that there was an increase and that was an interaction and interactions and engagement, tongue twister, sorry. But I think I'm seeing some opportunity there, right? Because we're seeing weekly posts is down and so on. So this is a reminder to me, like I'm having an event at my studio next weekend. I don't have a Facebook event for it. Maybe I need to create one. So maybe it's more of like, we've fallen out of the routine. We've fallen out of the habit of posting events, but people are responding when they are posted. Okay, so yeah, next up, Google Business Profiles. If you have a brick and mortar, or even if you don't, you don't actually need a brick and mortar to have a Google Business Profile. I have one for my agency. It's actually not even linked to my studio because I'm having issues with that and I have for the past year. So that's a whole nother story for another time. But this is great for local visibility and getting reviews on your business. So these bookings from Google Business Profiles have been up 13%. Again, I think this speaks to this trend that we're seeing or the shift back to IRL, the shift back to the in-person events, the local first, the community building, etc. So food orders in particular were up 78%. So if you have restaurant clients or if you are a restaurant, create a Google Business Profile, it makes sure that they are optimized. I cannot tell you how many times I go to order food or to check a restaurant's hours and they're wrong or they're not updated or their address is incorrect. So make sure that that is up to date. All right, let's go on to Instagram. Everybody's favorite or maybe favorite to rant about. We love it, but we're like, can you please like work for us a little bit here? So host reaches down 31%. Reels reach is down 35%. And they say it's like a needle in a haystack here in this report. They say that reels are reaching more people, but posts are racking up more views. So reels are getting reach, but posts are getting views. So that's a little confusing like which ones do we do? So yeah, again, we're seeing a lot of things are down on the next page. Really except for post comments are up a little bit, 7%. Post shares are up 11%. I can only speak anecdotally here, but I'm seeing carousels are working really well. Graphics are working well. Things that people can like save share to their friend really easily. I my reels of tanks. I'll just say that my reels of tanks this year and so many of my clients and my students and my friends have as well. I think people are very overwhelmed and oversaturated with reels. And we're seeing that real likes are down 40% real saves are down. 43% and real shares are down 19%. Yeah, and then the next page they do, they talk about carousels. Carousels are the one to be on Instagram. So reaches is still down. It's gonna say reaches up. No, reaches still down, but it's still getting a wider amount of views than other formats. It's still the standout. Impressions are up by 26% Interactions are still down, but they're still the format it looks like that is getting the biggest number of interactions. This is very true for myself. If I post a carousel, I actually get comments on it, typically. Carousels work their impressions prove it and so do their interactions, get their the least used format. Now, I was thinking about this. I only went through this report very briefly before I pressed record and I still don't know my thoughts on it. Are they getting more impressions and interactions because they're the novelty now and because we're not doing them all the time? Or are we missing an opportunity? Should we be posting a carousel every day? That's my question because typically for me, my carousels, and obviously I have a personal brand so it's a little different than a B2B business or something, but I'm usually doing, hey, here's how November went and I have kind of this bank of photos that I've saved up. So I can't really do that every day. It's gonna lose its appeal or here's a big trip I went on. Well, I don't go on a big trip every single day or week. So I wonder if it's because it's a novelty or should I be kind of forcing more carousels out if that makes sense. I don't know, let me know what you think in the comments and let me know what you think of this so far in the comments. Let me know that you're here with me drop an emoji. I know this is a lot of data. So I wanna make sure that y'all are awake out there. Okay. LinkedIn, LinkedIn is one that they say everyone wants a piece of the pie. It keeps on growing especially in the B2B worlds, but impressions were down. 23% last year. And everything was down except for engagement. Engagement was up 11% year over year, but weekly post frequency was down 5%. Impressions were down, 23% interactions down 14% comments down 18% likes down 14% shares down 13%. They go on to say format isn't everything, but it really helps. So the most used formats were image and video with a posting volume 180% and 35% above average respectively but they weren't the top performers. If your goal is reach, polls and carousels stood out with 158% and 13% more impressions than the average. I think we are drawn to video. Like we've heard over and over again, right? Short form video is where it's at. I think they've actually got an amazing quote yes on the next page. By Michelle J Raymond, friend of the show, she was on the pod. She's a LinkedIn expert. She's the first one who told me LinkedIn video is coming and she in this quote says, LinkedIn video would have to be the biggest dud. It had the most promise but didn't deliver. I tried different versions of things, but the numbers didn't stack up. So yeah, I think we all heard, okay, LinkedIn video is getting this makeover. It's gonna be kind of tick tock style but it still is just not what people are responding to. What people are responding to are polls and carousels. Okay, Pinterest, average weekly posts and Pinterest were up 29%. People know something that I don't know, okay. Reach was also up 30% engagement was up 26%. Now impressions and interactions were both down by about 50%, 60% each give or take. They say that more reach as we know, doesn't always mean greater impact. So external clicks were down, pin clicks were down, saves were down. They have a template here for us, which I love. I'm definitely gonna try out Pinterest. I've got to try it out in the new year. So let me know if you'd like a video and they have a template. So I mean, they're giving me no reason to not try it. And then we've got threads. So threads is another newer platform so they don't have historical data for it to compare year over year, but they do have some run numbers for us, which is great. So weekly posts average 6.46 impressions, 1,536, bad with math, I'm sorry, 1,536 impressions on average, interactions 24.81 and engagement 1.62. What they did do, which I love, is they compared threads to X slash Twitter, which is great. So they said that the most interesting insights come from larger profiles, accounts between 100 and K, and 1 million followers are very active on threads posting more than 53 times per week. The results show that threads not only competes with Twitter, it actually surpasses it in terms of impressions and interactions. Threads is winning by 100% for these huge accounts and impressions, 593%. Wow. Down a little bit for, it looks like big accounts that category, but it's a real competitor. It is. A lot of people, like I said, are getting off of X or Twitter for whatever reason. And even if you're not getting off of it, why not just post to threads as well? And the great thing about MetroCool is you can do that multi-platform posting. So you can schedule out your X-posts and your threads post and your LinkedIn posts. Like if you're doing a text-only, schedule it out to all of them. Why not? Like why not? Why not? That's my motto. That's my new marketing motto. Why not? Let's just try things. Okay, TikTok. Let's go ahead and go into TikTok. Average TikTok views were down 17%. So yes, down. But honestly, not that down compared to some of the other platforms that we looked at. And I'm kind of surprised by that, especially considering, they talk about it a little bit in the report. All of the, is it on? Is it off? Is it up? Is it down? Is it staying? Is it going that we did, at least here in the US, over this past year? Some kind of surprise, it's not down more. So maybe that does speak a little bit to the staying power of TikTok. Weekly posts were up by 22%. But everything else was down reach, down 19%. Views down 17. Interactions, wow, that's quite a bit. Down 32% and engagement down 16%. I think this speaks to this overall trend that we've been talking about. This more dark social, people are a lot less inclined for whatever reason to leave comments nowadays, to share things nowadays. We're entering a different era, I think, of social media. So it would be interesting to see. Reach has dropped for everybody on TikTok from tiny accounts to huge accounts. It looks like the average is around 30%. We've got tiny down 26% big with the biggest drop. At down negative 35%. All right, this creator, Alexa, says in 2026, I predict social media will shift away from being a platform first to being content first. The algorithms are evolving so quickly with AI that the question won't be, should I post this on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube? It'll be about creating adaptable content that platforms themselves will redistribute based on user intent. I love that idea. And then we'll go into X really quick. Many changes, similar results. Average link clicks on X/Twitter were down 28%. And interestingly, everything else was kind of up besides a small decrease in impressions down 5%. But people posted more, 8% increase in weekly posts, 12% increase in interactions, and 19% increase in engagement. You're over a year. So they are getting better interactions. But those profile clicks are down 31%. And I think got linked clicks down 28%. So interesting to note. And lastly, we've got YouTube. I think this is last. Maybe I maybe not that I skip ahead. No, I didn't skip ahead. Lastly is YouTube. And I'm so excited that YouTube is not just holding up. It is growing. Average views per year. So in raw numbers, I think it's sometimes important to think about this. Average views on YouTube, but from 390 in 2024 to 687 in 2025. And I like to say that because think about those numbers, those views as people imagine if your business or your brand could reach 687 people versus 390. So it is growing. Plays are up comments are also up by 38%. So interesting. We're seeing less comments on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. But more on YouTube. Very, very curious, right? And I think is is my quote up next. It is my quote that I contributed to the Metrical Report is I just see. People are looking for that slower, more intentional content. They're looking to build relationships again. They're looking to watch videos from their favorite comfort creators as we call them. And I think that we're all a little exhausted by like the short snappy short form content. Again, it has its time in its place. And I think it has its outliers. I definitely think for entertainment content, short form content is still where it's at. But for educational content or like vlogs or you know that comfort content. content. I make sense that more people are commenting. on YouTube videos because you're actually slowing down, taking a breath, and you're actually feeling like you are building a relationship with your favorite creators and not just kind of like, you know, I don't know being like a number in a squirrel. All right, so let's see the conclusions that Metric will has come up with for the year. Number one video rules We know that the others though because not everything in life is video. Other formats also offer remarkable results So Cara sells on LinkedIn on Instagram polls on LinkedIn and so on and so forth. They say time to fine tune if there's one thing every major platform hasn't common It's that signs of saturation are clearly evident so every year brings more accounts more posts and more competition reaching for mass appeal and succeeding is within reach of very few So for social media professionals the way forward is to know your audience better than ever and create content that connects authentically and relevantly so I totally agree with this right I think those days of just like Mass appeal like reach everybody reaches many people as possible Maybe those are behind us and it's all about becoming a niche creator who speaks directly to an audience and has a clear area of expertise Oh my gosh so much good information you guys as always like I said be sure to download this full report I skimmed through some of the things that were most interesting to me But there is so much in this so I will leave a link for that down below Be sure to give Metrical a try as well. You can use my code Latasha That's LATHA for 30 days free on any other premium plans at the link down below as well And subscribe to this channel if you're new here. I do videos like this all about social media marketing entrepreneurship freelancing and a little bit of my wild Crazy life as well So I'd love to have you and yeah leave me a comment Let me know what you thought of this report. I really hope this was helpful. It was so interesting to me And I will see you in my next episode. Bye