Strategic Social Media Planning for 2026 (for CPG Brands)

Hey this is Adam Brown and today I wanted to talk a little bit about social media strategy alignment as you go into 2026 and thinking about it now. It's too late to wait till January. You have to be strategic in how you're planning, how you're allocating resources and thinking about the success you want to have in the new year. So many brands are caught up in trends or just like how to gain the algorithm and they're not thinking about what the business needs to do. So you probably had your business planning sessions. You may have already had your budget blessed for the year like how you're allocating your dollars. So you know that in 2026 you want to do something. You want to increase retail velocity. You maybe want to increase or try to increase because it's going to be very difficult e-commerce sales on your own domain. You might really be focused on shopper marketing, Instacart, retail media channels like whatever it might be. You have a goal. What is that pie chart? What is the goal? And how are you thinking about succeeding with that goal? And your social media strategy plan should not be made in some other room down the hall like it is part of that strategy. So if the strategy which it is for most CPG brands is not just to get on shelf but it's to support velocity, move products off the shelves then when you're thinking about your social plan it should definitely lever up to that right. It shouldn't just be like we're going to just do these cool types of assets or we're going to do man on the street interviews like that's not the point of doing it. That might be a methodology you're using to get your message out and you want to get your message out to support the greater initiative, the greater goals of the brands. I think sometimes the social media managers are too micro, they're too insular, they're not thinking about the actual business needs of the brand and I think that's really important and I'm encouraging you to think about it now. You have, we're going into Thanksgiving week, we're going into Christmas holiday season. It is a crazy time but for a lot of CPG brands this is not really a big e-commerce push. I personally don't think a lot of people buy food and beverage brands especially newly discovered ones like in the better for you space, the space that I'm in from the website of the brands. I'm not going to pay a shipping hurdle. If I want to try your beverage, I don't want to try a six pack like I might want to try one first, I might not like that flavor then I might want to try another flavor. People want to go to the store and discover new brands and it's going to take a while before they get to a point where they might consider, you know what, maybe I should subscribe and just get it at a discount from the website. It's not about e-commerce so much. People speak to me all the time like wow, you must be crazy right now, that Q4 sells rush and to be honest with you, it's not so much. It isn't e-commerce space, beauty, fashion, all types of different products that you might buy for your home, even supplements I think are on discount, tech, all these different things are definitely something that people will buy on discount now, but I think food and beverage brands are about discovery, about retail velocity, certainly Amazon, it's a channel, an Instacard and there's other ways to buy other than your website. So we've never really been like this big D to C push. What we are in the business of is planning for new year, new year planning for healthier choices in the new year because we work in the better for your CPG space. So I think it's a big mistake to wait to January 1st when you come up from air, come up for air from whatever your holiday malaise was or your travel time and then start planning on what you're going to do. It has to have already started or it has to start today when you listen to this message. What's the content strategy? Are you deep on community management? You definitely need to be on paid ads, at least on meta and TikTok to guarantee delivery of your great messages to the right audiences and then what are you trying to tell them? I think it's who we are, why it matters, why we're different, why we made this product, how you can use this product to better your life and where to find it. When you look at your messaging and you look at your content mix, how many pieces are speaking to that and how many bites of the apple are you giving them to actually find it in a channel that you're available in. Social media can't be no sales. There has to be sales integrated into it and it doesn't have to feel salesy. Your sales doesn't have to be like a negative four-letter word. Sales is a good word. It's the lifeblood of your business and it's important to act as if. Need to start planning now. Think about your key messages. Think about the goals of your brand and make sure your social media plan is aligned to that. That's it for today. I'll see you out in the field.