What's driving your 2026 strategy?
Creating Candid’s annual social media plan is usually one of my favorite tasks. But 2025 threw us a bit of a curveball: the new administration, need to be more careful with language, and the takeover of AI slop content.
All of this shifted how I approached our social media plan for this year. While I still analyzed the data thoroughly, I spent a lot more time thinking about what our audience needed. Here are the top trends we’re looking at and how it’s going to drive our 2026 social media strategy (and how you can steal these ideas for you organization).
1. Authenticity is the antidote to AI slop: With our 2026 social media strategy, we’re leaning into our nerd side. That means more data, diving deeper into topics that matter most to nonprofits, and debunking misinformation.
2. Not every platform is worth your time: We’re doubling down on LinkedIn, because when we put in more effort, we see more growth. It also has our most engaged community. We’ll maintain a presence on other platforms but won’t put the same energy into them.
3. Human connection and shared identity come first: We’ll be doing more proactive outreach. That means finding appropriate times to jump into conversations where it makes sense, whether it’s on Reddit or in LinkedIn comments. We’ll also be monitoring what our audience is talking about so we can create content that directly addresses their needs.
What’s driving your 2026 strategy?
If you want to see the full behind the scenes on our social strategy, check out the article here.
