the "big shifts" you need to know to grow on socials in 2026: value-driven content and the intellectual influencer

And I've talked on and on about the crazy opportunities and big delusional things that could happen to you when you take social media seriously. The opportunities of having a career on social media, that's so real. But we cannot forget about community. At the end of the day, you should be wanting to give value to your people because your job as a creator and your mission should be to help them, should be to create something bigger than yourself. I'm Alyssa and welcome to the Inspired Media Podcast, a space for creators, creatives, and entrepreneurs who know they're meant to do more than just stop the school. So we're putting a spotlight on the unspoken truths and unconventional takes on how to truly build a standout brand online. Now, let the show begin. Hey Vestee, I hope you had or are having a very productive stress free day, but even if there is a little bit of stress, a little bit of chaos, I'm happy that we can take a break together and a app about marketing, because today we're going to be talking about the big shifts happening in 2026. Now, I'm seeing a lot of people talk about, I have thoughts, duh. So let's dissect. I don't know about you, but when I was doing my little Scroely Scrolls, I know this pattern. And that is that 2026 is the era of value. 2026 is the era of the intellectual influencer. And immediately when I saw that, I was like, "Uh, you mean educators, you mean strategies, you mean coaches, you mean financial creators, like people that have been around for years." And I even think of some of my clients that have built massive, massive, successful brands years ago, especially on YouTube. I actually worked with two years ago. I worked with one of my creator clients and I used to watch her in high school, which was so cool. She was a fitness creator, still a fitness creator. Started out on YouTube had such an analytical, scientific approach to fitness, which I loved, especially in high school. So immediately my mind goes, "Wait a minute. What?" And especially if you are a social media manager, you work in marketing. Value has always been number one. So it sent me into a little bit of a spiral of what are these people talking about? But also why are they talking about this? Because we can always learn from why people say what they say and why they do what they do. So here are my main takeaways that I want to share with you. So you can create and scroll more intentionally in 2026. Number one, if you saw the hook of a video or a headline that said, "Intellectual influencers are the new thing," and you were shocked, that is proof that what you choose to consume really does influence the way you see the world. And I'm specifically going to talk about the world of the creator economy. Yes, this can be more broad in the overall world. But I'm specifically going to talk about the creator economy because think about it. If you choose to consume a bunch of lifestyle content, get ready with me. More entertaining style content. The algorithms will read that behavior, will feed you more of that content, and then you're going to think, "Oh wow, this is the type of content I need to create. This is the type of content that is really working right now. This is the type of content that everyone else wants to watch and that everybody else is watching." But you might not be paying attention to the Vivian, your rich BFFs of the world. She's a big finance creator, the Humper Yangs of the world, another huge finance creator, because they're not on your feed. And when they're not on your feed, they're not in your head. So I don't think that this is the age of the intellectual influencer in the sense that this is anything new. But I do think this is a reminder to be very aware of what you're consuming. Because again, if you're watching a style of content or a type of content, you might think that's the way to go. That's the new thing. That's the thing that I have to follow. And you might be closing yourself off to everything else that's available to you, everything else that you can learn from. But on the topic of being aware, I think people are becoming more aware of the brain rot, the clickbait, the tactics, the strategies, because influencing and influencing specifically as a career is becoming more popular. The general public is more aware of the money that can be made. How lucrative this industry is. So naturally, people are going to be more skeptical. They're going to be a little bit more aware of what they're watching, why they're watching it. And I think now, especially Gen Z is so into optimizing for the future. I mean, look at the things that are trending right now. Wellness routines, peptides, shake plates. Okay, let me know if you have fallen into the shake plate obsession. I have just been watching the videos and some of my clients have bought them. And I think they look really fun. I have not purchased one, but I mean, if somebody told me that it was worth it, maybe I would be influenced, even though I am a pretty difficult influence curly. But if one of you were like, yes, a lucy me that I'd be like, okay, I might look into that. But regardless, so many wellness things are trending and so many wellness things and things like this to optimize your body for the future is a big focus for Gen Z. Any little thing to optimize your health, that is something that people are paying attention to, specifically Gen Z and millennials. So that's going to attract people, or that's going to influence people to consume quote unquote educational style content that aligns with that lifestyle. So yes, I guess in a way, if we think about, you know, if you were the type of person that was consuming a lot of the lifestyle content, but then you understood, oh, okay, not only it's influencing super lucrative, but people are using tactics brands are using tactics. There's a lot of clickbait going around and everyone kind of knows what those tactics are and then you're really into optimizing your health. Okay, then you might be more inclined to watch more quote unquote educational style content. So that's where I see this shift happening. Again, I don't think that it's new. I just think it's a pattern that people are becoming more aware, but I don't like to say that this is a hundred percent new thing. But anyway, all that to say, what does this mean for you? This shift is not really a shift. It's more of a reminder that value is always going to be important. I don't care if you are more of a entertaining silly ha ha type of girly value is always going to be important because we should be wanting to striving towards giving value to our community. We can't build a community if we just want everyone to watch our lives. And I know that is a narrative and that's a dream that's often sold so much on social media. Like I get quote unquote paid to be me. I'm this. I'm that it's my name. It's my this. And while yes, we love the do Lulu goals at the heart of it should be about this mission should be about the impact, the big impact that you want to make. And I've talked on and on about the crazy opportunities and big delusional things that can happen to you when you take social media seriously. The opportunities of having a career on social media. That's so real. At the end of the day, you should be wanting to give value to your people because your job as a creator and your mission should be to help them should be to create something bigger than yourself. I actually just watched a podcast on emigreads aspire podcast with Simon Sinek and Simon Sinek is also someone I have been following and watching for a long time. I even had to dissect some of his TED talks and some of his interviews and articles about him in university. And he says that there is no fulfillment without helping others. And I think a lot of times you forget that and maybe social media can make us forget that because it's our name, it's our face, it's our life. But again, at the core of everything you do, you shouldn't be doing this if it's just for the cloud and the numbers because you will get lost in the cloud and the numbers. And that often will distract you from your mission. And what a shame it would be to the person that is just like you 10 steps back who needed someone like you in their lives. But you got so distracted with the numbers and the vanity metrics and all this and all that that is honestly going to fade away that you didn't end up fulfilling what your mission and what your purpose is. I actually had another conversation with someone and he he's very, very successful and he always gives me advice and he's extremely successful. And I often ask him for so much advice, business advice, live advice, all the things. And he said, you know, you're going to make a lot of money and you're going to be really wealthy. But the thing you're going to remember the most is the impact that you made on other people's lives. So all of that to say that is so incredibly important. Value has always been important. So when you look at your content instead of saying, oh, how do I get more views? Think how can I increase my impact? Which brings me to my next point, which is what is valuable content? valuable content isn't just educational content. It's not just giving the tips and the hard advice and the product recommendations. Yes, that's a part of it. But I say there are three main goals that your content should have. It can be a mix and there can be sub goals under that. But they usually fall under these three main goals to educate, to inspire, to entertain. And then under that there can be sub goals. So to make people feel seen, speak about topics that people have in wanting to speak on. But maybe they don't know how to articulate it. Bring up experiences and feelings that maybe people feel too embarrassed to talk about. Mindset shifts tools to help them solve a problem. So your content should have a goal to provide value. And I'll give other examples of content ideas. Teach me something about AI and how to optimize my workflow and be more productive. Make me laugh today. Inspire me to not give up all my dreams. That's all valuable content. But for you as a creator, you need to decide the goal of each piece of content so that it resonates, people can engage and it resonates with the right people that will build that strong community. I say this time and time again, there's so many things you can do to get the views. So so many go piss off a fandom, go make the Swifties mad, go rage bait. There's so many things that you can do, but that doesn't build a brand that doesn't actually build a strong community. That's valuable content. So ask yourself when you're planning your content. What is the value that I'm trying to give to the viewer? Not in a way of, oh, all I do is give tips and give advice and no one's gonna care about me because that could not be further from the truth at all. I mean, think about friendships that you have. Your friends and you have an exchange of value, but you also have a connection. They can exist in one. I'm sure you give your friend life advice about whatever they're going through, whatever she's going through and then she gives you some advice of whatever you're going through but then you also connect and you also like the same makeup brands and you also like to go shopping together and you also like this food and that food and maybe you like this ice cream flavor and like she doesn't like that ice cream flavor. Like you can couldn't quote exchange value and have connection with people and it's the same thing on social media. I don't wanna say exactly the same but the premise of you can give value and connect, those are not separate from another. They can happen in tandem. But going back to the intellectual influencer, I feel half half about this. Like yeah, okay, we've been here, right? And especially if you are also maybe someone that has a lot of educational style content on their platform like me, it's kind of like, "Hi, like we've been here." "What do you mean?" But if more people are gonna pay attention and want to consume more content that isn't just entertainment style content, then that's a good thing. So for you and your content, even if you're not a quote unquote educator or you are not a think piece kind of person, I wanna challenge you, okay? I don't want you to be afraid of giving advice. I even think of people who still give advice even if they're not a quote unquote educator. Brand Flakes is a really good example. So he will give his silly, ha ha, pieces of content, his face to cam, face time pieces of content. But then he'll give you content creation advice and then he'll give you advice on friendship and then he'll talk about his deeper opinions on friendship. It's not ever single time, but there's depth there and there's substance there. So I wanna challenge you to create content that goes that one level deeper on your own advice and your opinions that will really help the other viewer maybe in an actionable way, like an actual educational tip or in a way that you're giving your opinion and it's gonna provoke them to think about something in a deeper way. Even the fashion girl isn't even the lifestyle girl is 'cause I know some of you might be thinking, well like, I just do my key to little videos. I just wanna do my key to these little videos. That's totally fine. Oh my gosh, do that. But I wanna challenge you to sprinkle in a little bit more depth. And another creator that I think is doing this so well is Dr. Iwo Ma on Instagram and TikTok. Yes, she gives mostly skincare and beauty advice. But then in some of her videos, she will take that one level deeper into that realness, specifically into what it means to be a "strict woman" as she says. You get to know more of her values, her opinions, what she stands for, how she lives her life, not only on a cosmetic basis or on a surface level basis, but she goes that one level deeper. And it's like, it's not just about having a pretty face. Like girls, like having a pretty face, yes, is there. And I'm not gonna deny that that's not gonna be attractive for people to watch. But if you wanna build depth that can't just be about that. And I know someone's gonna say, "Well, this person's so-and-so, "she just posed pretty videos." (humming) Okay, well, if that's not working for you, then that's not your business. And also, didn't you wanna build depth? Also, you're not here if you don't care about community 'cause I yap on and on and on about community. So that's irrelevant to you. I want you to build a little bit more substance and depth in your content. And to me, it has always been about that. This is something I have been saying since day one. Stop with the short term. Don't just go and do the trendy thing. And I'll say over and over and over and over again, depth over with. And in 2026, if you have been procrastinating that, this is your sign to do it. I focused on that since day one and I wouldn't trade any overnight growth, any overnight one million followers for the brand and the business and the community that I have today. So action item for you as we wrap this up. Why don't you ask your community, go on Instagram Stories, do a little poll, maybe do a little face to cam, yap, okay? And ask them, how can I make your life just 1% better? How can I make your brand just 1% better? How can I make your, maybe you use some of your content pillars, your fitness journey, your style, your confidence, your love life, whatever? How can I just make that just 1% better? And now I want to ask you because I will also be participating in my own action items with you. You let me know. DM me on Instagram, email me, comment here. How can I make your life 1% better? Your brand, your content, your business, just 1% better? And I want to read your comments. I want to get to, I want the feedback from you because I am not me and this community and this place and this brand is not me without you. So I hope as we enter 2026 together or whenever you're listening to this because there's no right way to start or right day to start that you really think about it. I'm excited to hear your feedback. I really, really hope that you do this for your own community. And that's all. Break a leg.