Brand Social Trend Report: Q2 2026

Rethinking TikTok, social AEO confusion, brand-made microdramas, Train Dog, "Kalshi Hell", Instagram's engagement incentives, and more.

If this is your first time receiving one of these reports, welcome! Every quarter I round up the biggest trends across brand social.

This isn’t your usual graphs and stats trend report. Think of this like the scribbled notepad version of the trends you’ll eventually end up seeing in six months. It’s like getting early access. A little bit of science and a lot of gut.

The Brand Social Trend Report: Q2 2026 covers topics like:

• The group chat KPI

• My Meta conspiracy theory

• Social AEO confusion

• Rethinking TikTok

• “Kalshi Hell”

• Creator economy inflation

• Stunt accounts

The report features sharp insights from people like Naleen Camara at Amtrak, Sarah Whittle at Unicorn Social, Yosub Kim at Figma, Zach Schiffman at New York Magazine, Dakota Rae Lowe at Recreation, Carmen Vicente at Slate, Kelly Gordon at Night Ventures, Dejaih Smith at Jeopardy, Andrew Downing at CAVA, and Sydni Myers at National Gallery of Art.

If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your free subscription, this is a good one to do it for. You’ll also get access to the Link in Bio Discord, which has been described as “an essential place to be for anyone managing social media.”