For years, social media was relatively straightforward territory for brands. All that was needed was a presence, frequent posting, and adapting campaigns to different formats. Organic reach still offered real opportunities, and many platforms continued to reward consistency over creative sophistication. That scenario no longer exists.
The two major studies published this year (the Annual Social Media Study 2026 IAB Spain and the Social Media Study 2026 de Metricool) paint a much more complex, competitive and mature ecosystem. An environment where platforms continue to grow, but where capturing attention becomes increasingly difficult.
The paradox is interesting, because never before has so much content been consumed, and at the same time, never before has it been so complicated to stand out.
And precisely there lies one of the big challenges for brands in 2026.
“At Karmina, we constantly analyse these types of studies, because they help us understand where platforms are heading and what changes will have the biggest impact on brands” strategies. Social media is evolving at an enormous speed and a large part of strategic work today involves anticipating these changes before they become a problem for visibility, relevance or business.”, explain Laura Sabio, Social Media Manager specialising in strategy at Karmina.
Social media are no longer channels: they are cultural ecosystems
The first major insight from both studies is that social networks have stopped being merely communication platforms. Today, they function as entertainment channels, discovery engines, search engines, commercial showcases, and spaces where cultural reputation is built.
In Spain, 86.1% of internet users aged between 12 and 75 actively use social media. This means that more than 33 million users have incorporated these platforms into their daily routine.
The most interesting thing is not the size of the ecosystem, but how attention is concentrated.
WhatsApp, Instagram and YouTube currently form the dominant core of digital consumption. WhatsApp achieves practically universal reach and is consolidated as the platform with the highest frequency and intensity of use. Instagram remains the great territory for visual socialisation and brand discovery, while YouTube continues to reinforce its role as a hybrid platform for entertainment, search and long-form content.
The relevant point here is that platforms no longer compete solely with one another. They compete for time, habit, and attention within an economy where users are constantly stimulated.
And this forces brands to completely rethink their Social Media Strategies and the way they produce content for each platform.
TikTok is no longer an emerging opportunity; it's a new digital language.
If the 2026 reports make one thing clear, it's that TikTok has finished redefining internet social behaviour.
The platform continues to lead in reach, engagement and discoverability, particularly among Gen Z and Gen Alpha. At the same time, very relevant signs of saturation are starting to appear: average views are decreasing, organic reach is falling and creative competition is intensifying.
In other words, TikTok continues to perform extraordinarily well, but it no longer simply rewards “being there”. It rewards understanding the platform's cultural code.
“The content that works best on social media today doesn't seem like advertising. It looks like something a user would consume, even if there were no brand behind it. This is where branded content, UGC, and influencer marketing strategies make particular sense as levers for humanising and personalising the brand.”, points out Laura Sabio.
From Karmina, we've been observing for some time how many brands continue to run traditional campaigns on platforms that already operate with entirely different codes. The problem is that users can now perfectly distinguish when a piece has been conceived using advertising logic and when it forms part of the native language of the feed. And that difference is increasingly reflected in the results.
The content that performs best currently is that which manages to blend in with natural consumption patterns, i.e.: short videos, direct narratives, less corporate aesthetics, creators, UGC and formats designed to drive retention from the very first second.
The challenge for brands is no longer about publishing more content. It's about making content feel like it belongs on the platform.
Instagram definitively enters the era of saturation
Instagram continues to be one of the strongest platforms in the social ecosystem, but data show a significant change: organic reach is consistently falling and interactions are increasingly difficult to achieve.
The reason is quite evident: there has never been so much content produced for Instagram.
This forces brands to compete in an environment where visual quality is no longer enough to stand out. In fact, one of the most interesting findings from the Metricool study is that carousels continue to offer far superior results to traditional static posts, particularly in engagement and retention.
This confirms something we've been seeing at the agency for some time: formats that require users to actively interact remain much more effective than purely contemplative content.
The algorithm no longer rewards only posting, but rewards behaviour.
In 2026, brands will need to think less about “publishing pieces” and more about building a content system capable of generating sustained attention, conversation, and visual repetition within the feed.
In an environment where everyone is constantly posting, visual and narrative differentiation is already critical. There Branding and design it stops being a mere aesthetic issue and becomes a real tool for gaining recognition and relevance.
Entertainment dominates social behaviour.
One of the most revealing findings from the IAB Spain study is that the main reason for using social media continues to be entertainment.
Above informing, interacting, and well above following brands. It seems obvious, but many content strategies are still not built with this in mind.
A large part of corporate communication still operates with a logic that is too rational, promotional or institutional. The problem is that current platforms are designed to prioritise content capable of generating immediate stimulus, stickiness and engagement.
Competing on social media today means competing against creators, entertainment, trends, memes, short-form video, algorithmic recommendations, and content constantly generated by millions of users.
Brands that understand this are starting to behave more like publishers, media outlets or cultural creators than traditional advertisers. This is probably one of the most important transformations in digital marketing today.
Social commerce is advancing, but trust remains key
Another of the most relevant trends for 2026 is the consolidation of social commerce. More than half of users already consult social networks before buying online, and platforms like TikTok are greatly accelerating this behaviour thanks to TikTok Shop.
However, studies also show that direct purchases within social networks are not yet widespread.
Platforms function extraordinarily well as spaces for discovery, inspiration, and social validation, but conversion still depends on a far more complex element: trust.
This is why user-generated content, creators, and strategies based on social proof continue to grow so rapidly. People don't want to see advertising; they want to understand how products fit into their reality or the reality of the people they follow and trust. This is something that needs to be kept very much in mind when working on social campaigns, because it forces a combination of creativity, data, and strategic vision from approaches that are increasingly connected to the business: services Strategic consultancy and planning become increasingly important for understanding how these platforms evolve.
AI will multiply content, but also the need for authenticity
Both reports agree on another especially relevant point: artificial intelligence will cause an explosion of automatic content in the coming years.
Users are increasingly showing distrust towards overly artificial content, especially in sensitive or commercial fields. Visual and narrative saturation will mean brands need to build something much harder to replicate: a recognisable identity, their own tone, and cultural relevance.
In other words, the problem will no longer be producing content, but producing content that deserves attention, that is truly authentic.
The new challenge for brands is to be relevant
The big conclusion to be drawn from the 2026 studies is that social media has left behind the stage of easy expansion. We are entering a much more mature phase where platforms remain essential, but where the competition for attention forces brands to build increasingly sophisticated strategies.
The brands that perform best will no longer necessarily be those that publish the most or invest the most, but rather those that best understand how digital behaviour evolves and how to build content capable of existing naturally within these platforms. Getting someone to stop scrolling.
At Karmina, we've spent years analysing how digital behaviours, algorithms, formats, and cultural dynamics change, ultimately defining which brands manage to stand out and which disappear from the feed. We work precisely at that intersection of creativity, strategy, and digital behaviour, helping brands understand how Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or LinkedIn evolve, and how to transform that evolution into content, campaigns, and positioning capable of generating real business.
If you want to apply all these conclusions (and many others that we work on daily from within the social ecosystem) and understand how to truly compete for the attention of your desired audience on social media, At Karmina, we'll be delighted to help you..
Sources used for the preparation of this article:
– Annual Social Media Study 2026 – IAB Spain
– Social Media Study 2026 – Metricool
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