← Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
104. The Weekly Scroll: 2026 Social Media Trend Report: Instagram, Meta, TikTok + AI Shifts Every Creator Must Know
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Hello, beautiful friends, and welcome to a brand new episode of the Weekly scroll, your five star creator approved news update designed to keep you ahead of the apps, ahead of the trends, and ahead of the algorithm. I'm your host, Caitlin, and if you're new, welcome. Hello. This is where we break down everything happening across Instagram, MeTa, Facebook, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, the entire creator economy. The Weekly scroll is a little episode I put out every Thursday for you guys, so you can save at least 10 hours of your week from scrolling and researching and just get it right here for me. So today's a big one because the official social media Trends report for 2026 is here and it is juicy. So grab your coffee, grab your Stanley, grab your money, walk shoes and let's get into the Weekly Scroll. Now if you're new here, the Weekly scroll is powered by my all in one membership on Instagram and it's called called Club Influence. It gives you everything you need to crush the trends online. So we provide you with weekly reels, ideas, plug and play templates, trending audio so you can stay consistent on Instagram without aimlessly scrolling through your feed for ideas. If you want to join us inside of Club Influence, you can visit my show notes down at the bottom. We'd love to have you inside. We will also give you a monthly content drop every month so you know exactly what to post for the month ahead. All right, so let's start with a big headline of the week, which is that Amplify officially released their 2026 social media trend report. And let me tell you this, it is super duper thick, y'. All. So I'm going to break it down for you guys in the most easiest way to understand because some of it's a little technical, but there's six big takeaways that I want to go over. So I'm going to talk about them with you and let you know how you can put it into your own marketing strategy. So the first one that we're seeing is treat your influencers like a longtime partner. This right here is your sign to stop doing those one off brand deals and start building ongoing partnerships with these creators out there. Not only is this going to be good for you because you're not having to search for creators and creators vice versa, you're not having to search for brands. Like if you guys vibe together and you find crush a marketing project together, why not keep it going? This is going to help both of you with your time management and it's also going to help your audience to really get to know that brand, the brand's going to get to know that influencer. It just makes sense for both parties. Brands want relationships, they want continuity. It's very hard actually for brands to find partners. I'll tell you on the agency side, it's tough out there. There's a lot of like, unless you're using, you know, a system like, oh, like later.com I can work, I can get on there. And they kind of vet brands and they do vice versa. They vet creators for brands. So unless you're using like a platform like that, if you're having to do this all on your own, it's challenging, it's time consuming. So if you have a brand partnership with someone, keep in touch with them and vice versa for the creator. Make sure you're following up. Make sure you're sending a little not to them. Like, hey, loved working with you. Here's everything I was able to do during this marketing campaign. I'd love to work with you in the future and then maybe put a little calendar invite to, you know, check in with each other every couple months or every quarter just to see if they have any marketing campaigns running. If you're a creator, please hear me on this. You need to pitch yourself quarterly for partnerships. Not one post, not a story in a reel. But when you're pitching to them, put in there a quarterly package and see how that goes. Or even say, like, you know, we can do the first campaign, X, Y, Z. And then if you want to add on quarterly campaigns, maybe they like what you did. I just did a partnership with Adobe, which was one of the biggest partnerships I've ever done, and I was pleasantly surprised. So they had this little competition and it was like, you know, if you get the most clicks for us, we'll give you an added bonus for your partnership. And I truly like Imposter Syndrome. When I got that email, I'm like, I'm not going to get that, but that'd be really cool. Well, guess who got that extra bonus? This girl right here. So it just makes me think like, Adobe is someone I want to work with in the future. So I am totally putting on my calendar to follow up with them quarterly, maybe every couple months and just, you know, brown them a little bit and let them know how much I love them. Plus, I love their product. Like, if you have. I was, I was promoting their Lightroom on mobile app and it's actually super amazing. You can, like, remove items from the background of your photos. I'll link it in the show notes for you guys to check out. It truly is a good app. All right, next update is use AI for productivity, not just creativity. And this is a big one. AI is not here to replace your ideas. I know everyone has said that, but it's really here to save you hours. And here's what you could use AI on to help you with your productivity. Think about scripting, podcast episodes, emails, captions, videos, long form videos, whatever it is. Scripting is the number one way I use AI for productivity. And then there's research. You know, you could always use it to find trends or what's going on. The top marketers are using AI to reduce workload and free up their creative energy, not to replace their voice. And that is what we're trying to do here at the agency here. With my own content, I want to make everything super duper productive as can be using AI so that I can use my brain juice for stuff that really matters, which is like, this is saying my creative part. So do not sleep on AI for productivity. Next update. They had scale your UGC pipeline. So 82% of marketers say UGC is critical, but only 31% actually use it. And so this is your golden opportunity. So UGC is user generated content. And this here's a real life example for this. Actually, we're working on a project right now called Christmas in Okeechobee. And this is the first time Okeechobee has done this big, huge Christmas light fiasco. Not fiasco. I don't, I don't know what to call it. It's going to be beautiful, right? Like they're turning Okeechobee into the most beautiful wonderland of them all. But since it's our first year, we have limited content for this, right? So like before the lights are up, what are we supposed to be posting? So right now we are trying to pull as much UGC content as possible. There are people out in the park that are looking at the lights, taking photos, they're taking videos. Some of the lights on the trees just got put up and people are going crazy over it. So we're using that, that content to promote Christmas in Okeechobee. With permission, by the way. We are getting permission for this content. But think about if you're a creator out there and you are trying to get into content creation and maybe you don't have brand partnerships yet, you could totally be doing ugc. So this is where you make content for that brand and you send it to the brand for them to post. You do not have to post it on your own socials, which is really beautiful. About this, I actually, if I had more time, I would totally be doing UGC because I love making content and I can't always post it on my Instagram because it doesn't make sense for my audience. But what I could be doing is creating that content, giving it to brands. And then if brands start to like how you work and what your content looks like, they're going to reach out to you. Or you could even pitch yourself and be like, hey, I made this for you. If you want more, here's how much it costs, so don't sleep on ugc. And here's how to scale it. So if you're a creator, the person recording the video, this is your green light to pitch UGC packages or monthly bundles and ongoing brand content retainers. If you're a business owner, you need to start intentionally gathering UGC content from your customers, your members, your clients. No more waiting, right? Like this is free social proof sitting on the table. And that's where I'm talking about with Christmas and Okeechobee. We've got free videos and photos out there that people are willing to share. There's people out there that are not content creators. They just liked what they saw. They took a picture, took a video, of course, share it to your page. So we're getting really lucky over there with that. It is a nonprofit like project too that we're doing. So it's a little bit different. We don't, you know, they do have some budget for, for collaborators and brands and content creators, but we're being, this is our first year with it, so we're trying to just get as much as we can for free. Right? So great opportunity for you business owners out there or people that are just trying to get into the content creation. Short form video is still number one, but it's smarter. So we're past the era of just post more reels, right? Like I'm actually posting so many carousels right now versus reels. We are past the just post a video. It can't be crappy, right? 2026 demands data backed content, strategic posting and content that speaks directly to your niche. So the algorithm is rewarding talking head videos where you're talking to your people, storytelling valuable content, original audio and then consistency over virality. So if you're just going to post once for the week and hope for the best, like no, they want consistent posting weekly using the app, right? Intentionally. The platforms want you creating content that people save and Rewatch, not just scroll past next. Brands must collaborate across teams. Marketing, customer care, sales, commerce, everything is blending at this point. So expect brands to ask for more full funnel content versus just an aesthetic reel. So, like, if they ask for a reel, they're probably going to want like a reel story sequence, maybe a testimonial like all together, right? So creators who can bridge that relationship plus give results, they're going to win. And then the last update from this trends report that I want to talk to you guys about is workflow, investments, equal burnout, reduction. And this one hit home hits home for me. We're in an era where creators, marketers, businesses, we're all overwhelmed. The people winning in 2026 will be the people who adopt systems and workflows and tools that protect their time and their energy. If you're feeling stretched thin right now, you're not alone. But you do need stronger systems for the year ahead. So that'll be an upcoming podcast episode. What kind of systems can we put in place to make life easier on us? And that's the snapshot for the 2026 trends report. Now, next up is the biggest updates for Meta and Instagram. This is also my favorite part of the weekly scroll and a lot has happened in the last week. So first off, Meta's new content protection tool. Okay, this is huge. Meta will begin scanning all Facebook content to detect whether someone is reposting or stealing your content. Now, this is going to help creators massively, especially those of you who constantly have your reels reposted without credit. It's now going to be scanning and if someone has taken your content without permission, it's going to get removed. So I love this content protection tool. I'll have more info on this soon. This is a big one. Facebook groups. Next up, Facebook groups now allow usernames, so group members can now choose a group username. This protects privacy and helps big groups feel more personalized. This will be a fun little update for you all. Facebook is still the most popular app in the USA by the way, alongside YouTube. But if you've been ignoring Facebook, maybe stop doing that because your people are still there. All right, so I don't know if you guys heard about Meta's Vibes feed, but it's flopping. The AI powered Vibes video feed is not giving what they thought it would give and users aren't engaging. Shocking. So the vibe speed is probably going to be going away. I don't even know what the vibe speed is. I never have even heard of it. But it was a big update this week, so if. If you're one of those people that were using the Vibes feed, watch out. Okay, next update is for Instagram. I like this update. So new Instagram label on creator post. It says new, so this one's pretty fun and exciting. You'll see a little new label on a creator's recent post that you haven't viewed yet. This matters because it gives your post a second life. It surface them again for followers who miss them. Heck to the yes. I. I actually was just on Instagram before I started recording this episode and I saw a creator had the little new label and I was like, that's cool. But now that I've read the updates, what that means is that I haven't seen it yet. So very good to know. If you missed a post, you'll get that again and you'll get a little update that says new. Have you guys seen that? Instagram is limiting hashtags? So I think there used to be like up to 15 or 20 and now. So actually, let me back up. You used to be able to put as many hashtags as possible, then it got limited to 20 or 15, and now it's limited to 5. Because guess what? They don't want hashtag spam and they don't want people keyword stuffing. Do you guys remember that era last year where people were putting hashtags and keyword stuffing on their reels and they were making it really tiny and putting it in the corner of their reels and they're like, this is the all time hack to get your reels seen by more people. Yeah, it was such a BS tip hack. Whoever was putting that out there, I still curse you to this day because that stuff does not work. What you're doing is if you're putting all these keywords in there, you're actually kind of confusing the algorithm. They don't know who to share it to because you've got so many. So limit your hashtags, you get five. Keep them very concise on what the post is about. All right, I've heard this update over and over and over again, so I don't know how true it is, but this is what they say. They're about to let you rearrange your Instagram grid. There's no date yet confirmed, but Instagram confirmed that it's happening. I'm actually excited about this because I love having the pinned feature on my Instagram profile where I can pin different updates or different posts up on my feed. So like if I ever had a really great post go off or a very intentional post that I need to keep in front of people, I like being able to pin it to the top, but being able to rearrange post. Like, maybe you posted a really good post at the beginning of the week, but the beginning of the week is actually not your most like most traffic. Or like maybe that's not when your audience is on. Maybe your audience is on more during the end of the week. So I like that if I posted something on Monday and a lot of people missed it, I can move it back to the front of the line on my grid so people can see it. So I like this idea. Also for the aesthetically pleasing people out there, this, you're gonna like that update, right? Big news for businesses. QR code directly to your DMs. Ooh, love this. Instagram is testing a feature where a business can create a QR code that instantly directs people into your messages. So if you sell anything, this is a dream instead of sending them to your website, which is great. People still using websites these days? I don't know. Just kidding. They are. But this is a great way to just QR code them directly to your DM so they can ask you a question you can answer. You can have automated messages already set up for frequently asked questions, so if a certain keyword comes in the DMs you can already get it answered. Really like this update. This is something that I definitely want to talk about in a future podcast episode is how you could use this for yourself. Expiring soon labels on stories. So stories that are about to disappear will get an expiring soon label. Love this for viewer fomo. What that's going to do is like basically if your story is about to expire, you might get a few more stragglers in from FOMO of them seeing, hey, this is about to expire, you better watch it. So I like that update. Mossery also hinted that Reels templates may come to edits which I'm waiting for this. It would be a game changer if it rolls out. Think about like Cap Cut but inside of Instagram. So like we already have these pre made templates and you can just use them. I think this is what is still keeping people on the Cap Cut app at this point. So if edits took this over, I think a lot of people would officially move over to edits versus Capcut. Instagram's also upgrading the Reels camera so the camera is smoother, more user friendly and get this you can now record for 20 minutes in stream. We talked about this last episode. You know, there's some reasons that you would want to do this. Maybe you're doing a tutorial or, you know, maybe you have a new product. You want to show exactly how to use it. I personally probably will not be using the 20 minute in stream unless maybe podcast episodes start going over there or it helps me grow my podcast. But other than that, I'm probably not going to be using the 20 minutes. All right, and now to TikTok. TikTok had some big moves this week too. So first is control your AI exposure. Love this. Users can now decide how much AI generated content shows up on their for you page. So this is great for creators because it reinforces authenticity. If people opt out of AI content, your real face and real voice gets prioritized. Love this. I hope a lot of us actually do opt out of AI content because I am a person that loves seeing my own. Not seeing my own face, but seeing your face, seeing your voice and not that fake AI crap. I'm. I'm not a fan of it. I'm just not. Weird update for TikTok, but they're launching a wellness feature. So this is like an affirmation journal, an in app, soothing sound generator, and more screen time wellness tools. I guess this is probably for like mental health and social media, which is really great, but I don't know how much people will actually use it. So I'd like to. I'd like to see that. The TikTok being still confusing. Lawmakers really don't know. TikTok doesn't know. No one knows. So I can't give you any update on that. And then Last update for TikTok is that you can now lock two times playback speed. So just swipe down. This is great for viewers, great for creators making longer content that they want to speed up for people. So I'm kind of a fan of this. I'd like to see how it works. All right, and to wrap us up, I've got some other social media news. Five big updates that I want to talk to you about. YouTube is bringing back DMS. Yep. Messaging on YouTube. It's returning love to see how that goes. Not sure yet. X, formerly known as Twitter, is rolling out encrypted DMs, so better privacy, more security. X also adds location and profile history to accounts. So your creation date, your username changes, your location, it's now all going to be visible. Love the transparency there. Snapchat is launching topic chats. So a public group discussion area on different daily topics. We'll see how that goes. And then lastly, ding, ding, ding. Canva enters the short form Video arena. Huh? How do we feel about that? Watch out, Cap, cut and edit. Canva's new short form Video editor is surprisingly good and it's going to make everyone's content creation a lot faster. So I'm excited for this for my agency. Just because we manage so many different brands, I think it could be really helpful for us to get in there and save some time and use the the app. But we'll have to see how that goes. All right. And that's your weekly scroll. The social media updates, the news, the trends you actually need to know heading into 2026. If this episode helped you or if you learned something new, it would mean the world if you shared it to your stories and tagged me at Call her creator. And if you want more updates like this, the trends, the hacks, the growth strategies, follow me on Instagram, call her creator and I will see you next week for the weekly scroll. Now go create something powerful today.