Crystal ball time: social media in 2026
On 5th November I’ll be presenting at Battenhall’s annual social media keynote in London, and as I look at what's shaping the year ahead, it feels like the perfect time to restart this Substack.
When I started this Substack back in 2020, it became a weekend project of writing up my thoughts on the breaking news in the world of social media. Five years ago, Substack felt shiny and new, and while this started as a bit of an experiment for me, it took off pretty quickly and I’m thankful to all the signups, support and reads back in the early days.
Writing a weekly newsletter was fun, but the combo of, well, weekends rightly becoming weekends, and the working week filling up, meant that I put this newsletter on ice. Here we are, five years later, and Substack the buzzing place for ideas and excellent content, short form as well as long. So I’m going to start publishing here again, with a focus on timely analysis of the biggest developments in how social media is shaping the world around us, warts and all.
Starting with a look ahead at 2026
Each year at this time, I work on a report on how social media is shaping up for the year ahead, and a keynote event to launch the report - The Year Ahead in Social. I look at Battenhall’s now 13+ years of annual market data, and I work with an ever growing team of researchers across our global Battenhall team, do a bit of crystal ball gazing, and speak to some clients and contacts to see what they think too.
Invites for the launch event for the report went out this week. You can register here if you’re interested in coming (half the tickets were snapped up in the first few hours, no pressure!).
Added to this, I’m hosting Battenhall’s third Social Media Sessions event of the year next week, in San Francisco. I’ll be joined by colleagues, some clients and friends of Battenhall to discuss how the key themes from our 2025 predictions that we published nearly a year ago have shaped up, and to preview some of the topics we’re looking at for 2026. Here’s a snippet from what’s coming up:
So an event next week, then another next month, so lots to prepare for and to discuss. I’ll wrap up this post with a quick run-down of what’s happened since my last piece here Substack that is of some relevance to what’s coming up in the weeks ahead and in 2026!
Trying new things out on social: Generally I have found the innovation happening on social media to be the busiest for nearly 20 years. I’ve continued to test out most new social networks, keep tabs on the old ones, and try out new features as they emerge. stuff like Jack Dorsey’s rapid fire development and launching of Sunday and Bitchat was wild, and is a window in the kind of social app development and style we should expect to see more of next year.
What are mainstream media asking? From time to time I’ve been invited on to the news to talk social media. Themes that come up include how Gen Alpha and Gen Z have been influenced by a youth spent on social media, and will upcoming teen bans do what they’re designed to.
Social media safety: I launched a youth social media safety non profit, called Raise. This year we grew a team of volunteer leaders and we went global. We launched our first piece of research at Raise looking at kids’ approaches reactions to AI and social media bans.
So much innovation: I’ve been most excited by the innovations coming from not just the social media platforms, but the trailblazing creators, brands and users. It’s use cases and communities that bring all this to life, and my experiences and those from my team over the last 12 months will be shaping our upcoming report.
Global shifts: At Battenhall we’ve tripled in size, and I now have colleagues in the US, Canada, and across the UK, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific. I feel so much more closely connected to the global shifts in social media and how they’re shaping the future. Oh, And I was honoured to pick up a couple of recognitions, from The Sabres and Campaign since I last posted here too which was nice.
If there’s anything you think I should look into for our upcoming 2026 forecast report and keynote, drop it in the comments or get in touch with me on the email below!
The Social Media Report is written by Drew Benvie, founder & CEO of Battenhall.
Suggestions for stories can be emailed to db@battenhall.com. Thank you for reading.