The social media updates that matter in 2026.

How to read a social media update

Social media platforms change constantly, and for a small business the changes can feel both exciting and exhausting. When we first wrote this guide in December 2024, the headlines were about shopping features on Instagram, live selling on TikTok, and Threads as a newcomer. Some of that has held up, some has been reversed, and a lot has happened since. We have rewritten the whole guide for October 2026, checked every claim against a source, and removed what is no longer true.

Before the platform by platform detail, a way of thinking about updates that saves a lot of wasted effort. Most changes fall into one of three groups. Some change who sees your content, such as a new way of ranking posts. Some change what you can make, such as longer videos or more slides. And some are simply new buttons that most businesses will never need. The first group deserves your attention, the second is worth trying, and the third can safely wait.

The biggest shift of the last year belongs to the first group. Metricool's 2026 study, covering almost 40 million posts from more than a million accounts, found that across 2025 Instagram Reels reach fell 35 percent and overall Instagram post reach fell 31 percent. LinkedIn impressions fell 23 percent. Meanwhile Facebook reach rose 51 percent and YouTube views per video rose 30 percent. Nobody should abandon Instagram on the strength of one study, but it is a clear sign that the platform you chose three years ago may not be the one doing the most for you today.

The UK picture has not changed as much as the headlines suggest. According to DataReportal's Digital 2026 report for the UK, there were 55.5 million social media user identities in the UK in late 2025, close to 80 percent of the population. YouTube's advertising reach was 55.5 million, LinkedIn's 48.0 million members, Facebook's 38.8 million, Instagram's 35.5 million and TikTok's 26.8 million adults. Your customers are still on social media. What has changed is how the platforms decide which of your posts they see.

Instagram: originality, longer videos and fewer hashtags

Instagram has changed more than any other platform since this guide was first written, and almost every change points the same way: towards original content, made for the platform, from accounts of every size.

1. Original content comes firstIn April 2024 Instagram said it would recommend only the original when it finds identical posts, remove accounts that repeatedly repost other people's content from recommendations, and give new content from smaller accounts more initial reach. For a small business this is good news: your own photographs and videos now compete on fairer terms with big accounts.
2. Reels can run to three minutesIn January 2025 Instagram raised the Reels limit from 90 seconds to three minutes and changed the profile grid from squares to taller rectangles. Short still works best for most products, but a longer demonstration or tour is now possible without leaving Instagram.
3. You can test a Reel on strangers firstTrial Reels, launched in December 2024, are shown to people who do not follow you. After about 24 hours you can see how a trial did and decide whether to share it with your followers, or let Instagram share it automatically if it does well within 72 hours. It is a safe way to try a new idea without crowding your main feed.
4. Carousels can hold 20 slidesIn August 2024 Instagram doubled the carousel limit from 10 to 20 photos and videos. Carousels suit step by step guides, product ranges and before and after stories, and people tend to save them to come back to.
5. Five hashtags at mostIn December 2025 Instagram capped hashtags at five a post, for Reels and feed posts alike, and said that a few targeted hashtags work better than many generic ones. Hashtags now play a smaller part in discovery than they did; a clear caption and a strong first second matter more.
6. Reposts and a friends tabSince 6 August 2025 people can repost public Reels and posts, with the original creator credited, and see what their friends have liked in a friends tab. Content that people want to pass on to a friend now travels further.
7. Collab posts with up to five partnersA collab post appears on every partner's profile at once. Sked Social notes you can add up to five collaborators to a post, carousel or Reel, which suits joint offers with neighbouring businesses and work with creators.
8. A free editing appIn April 2025 Instagram launched Edits, a free video editing app with tools for filming, editing and effects, and the videos it makes can be used on other platforms too.

One correction to the first version of this guide. It described Instagram's shopping features as a growing part of the app. In fact, in January 2023 Instagram announced it would remove the Shop tab from its main navigation, with a Meta spokesperson saying "there will no longer be a dedicated shopping destination". Product tagging still exists, but Instagram is no longer a place where shopping is the main event. For most small shops, the job of Instagram is to make people want the product, and the job of your website is to sell it.

What to do: make your own content rather than reposting, put most of your effort into short Reels and saveable carousels, try new ideas as Trial Reels, and use three to five specific hashtags at most. Our Instagram management page shows how we run Instagram for clients, and the free engagement rate calculator tells you how your posts are landing now.

TikTok: shopping in the UK, and a deal in the US

TikTok remains the platform where a business with no followers can still reach a large audience with one good video. Its UK advertising reach was 26.8 million adults in late 2025, up 12.5 percent in a year, according to the DataReportal report above.

Shopping on TikTok is not new in the UK: according to EMARKETER, TikTok launched TikTok Shop here in 2021, ahead of the US and the rest of Europe, and held its first live shopping event outside Asia Pacific in the UK in December 2021. For brands selling physical products, TikTok Shop and live selling are now an established way to sell, not an experiment. For everyone else, TikTok is a discovery platform first.

The big TikTok story of the past year happened in the US. On 22 January 2026 TikTok completed the deal that set up a separate joint venture for its US operations, ending the long threat of a ban there. The deal was about TikTok in the US, and a UK business on TikTok does not need to change anything because of it.

If TikTok is new to you, our page on TikTok management explains how we run it for businesses, and our guide to UGC (user generated content) advertising covers using short videos as paid adverts.

LinkedIn: people, not pages

LinkedIn has grown in the UK, to 48.0 million members according to DataReportal, up 11.6 percent in a year. But the way it shares posts has moved firmly towards people rather than company pages.

Ordinal, citing AuthoredUp data, puts the fall in organic reach for company pages at 60 to 66 percent between 2024 and early 2026, and says posts from personal profiles reach far more people than the same post from a company page. For a small business, that means the founder or a senior person posting in their own name will usually do more than the company page alone. The company page still matters as a place people check you out; it just no longer carries the reach on its own.

One privacy change affects anyone with a LinkedIn profile. From 3 November 2025 LinkedIn began using some member profile data and public posts to train its AI, with UK members included and opted in by default. You can turn this off in your settings under data privacy, in the setting called "Data for Generative AI Improvement", though TechRadar notes that opting out only applies to data collected afterwards. It is worth a minute to decide what you are comfortable with, and to tell your team.

The first version of this guide mentioned LinkedIn product pages and event tools. We could not find current sources describing those features for small businesses in the UK, so we have left them out. If LinkedIn is central to how you win work, our LinkedIn services page explains what we do, and our article on community management on LinkedIn covers the day to day.

Facebook and Meta: a quiet comeback

Facebook is the platform many small businesses gave up on, and the one the numbers now suggest they should look at again. In the Metricool study above, Facebook reach rose 51 percent across 2025, impressions rose 57 percent and interactions 56 percent, the strongest growth of any platform measured. For local businesses and community groups in particular, it is well worth a second look.

The other Meta change UK businesses should know about is the paid version of Facebook and Instagram. In September 2025, following guidance from the UK Information Commissioner's Office, Meta launched an ad-free subscription in the UK at £2.99 a month on the web or £3.99 a month on iPhone and Android. People who pay see no adverts. For businesses that advertise, the practical effect so far is small, but it is a reminder that organic content, the posts people choose to see, is the part of your social media you fully control.

What to do: if you stopped posting on Facebook, try two or three posts a week for a quarter and compare the results with Instagram. Reuse your best Reels as Facebook videos. Keep replying to messages promptly, because for many local customers Facebook Messenger is still how they ask a question. Our free best time to post tool shows when your UK audience is most likely to be online.

Threads: from newcomer to an advertising platform

When this guide was first written, Threads was Meta's text based newcomer and the advice was to experiment early. It has grown up quickly. According to MediaNama, Threads has more than 400 million monthly active users and passed 150 million daily active users in late 2025, and Meta began opening Threads adverts to all eligible advertisers worldwide at the end of January 2026.

Threads suits businesses with something to say: a founder with opinions about their trade, a shop that enjoys talking with its customers, a service business that can answer questions in a few lines. It suits a business that only has product pictures far less. If that sounds like you, link it to your Instagram account, post short, useful thoughts a few times a week, and reply to people. It costs little to try, and the audience is still less crowded than on the older platforms.

YouTube Shorts and Pinterest

Two more platforms changed in ways worth knowing. On 15 October 2024 YouTube allowed Shorts of up to three minutes in square or vertical shapes, in line with Instagram Reels. Given that YouTube views per video rose 30 percent across 2025 in the Metricool study, Shorts are now one of the best places to reuse your short videos, and they keep being found through YouTube search for far longer than a Reel.

Pinterest, which the first version of this guide mentioned only briefly, now deserves a closer look. It combined Idea Pins and standard pins into one format in 2023, began labelling AI made pictures in 2025, and reported 640 million monthly users in mid 2026. We cover all of it in our separate guide: is Pinterest still worth it in 2026.

The thread running through all of this is that vertical video of up to three minutes now works almost everywhere: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and Pinterest. That makes one well planned shoot far more valuable than it used to be, because a single video can be cut and published across five platforms.

The UK rules every business on social media should know

Not every important update comes from the platforms. Two UK rules apply to every business posting on social media, and both were tightened recently.

Neither rule is new in spirit, but both are now enforced more firmly, and a social media post is treated like any other advert or review. If you are unsure whether something you plan to post is allowed, ask before you post rather than after.

How to keep up without chasing every change

With this much change, the risk is spending all your time reacting and none of it building. These habits keep the balance right.

1. Test one or two changes at a timePick one new feature, such as Trial Reels or a 20 slide carousel, use it for a month, and compare the results with what you did before. If it helps, keep it. If not, drop it.
2. Review your platforms every quarterLook at where your reach and enquiries actually came from in the last three months. The reach figures above show how quickly the balance between platforms can shift.
3. Keep your brand steadyNew features change how you post, not who you are. Your tone, your look and your values should stay the same whichever button you press.
4. Put people before productsReply to comments, thank people who share your posts, and ask your customers what they want. Every platform now rewards accounts that people talk to.
5. Get news from the sourceInstagram's creators blog, Pinterest's newsroom and the platforms' help centres announce changes first. A trusted round up once a week is enough for most businesses.

The first version of this guide ended with an imagined example of a wellness brand. We would rather show you real ones. Our HoneyBee & Co. case study shows a product brand run across Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, and the Snaptrip Group case study shows the same approach across several brands at once.

If you would rather someone else kept up

Keeping up with every update is part of our job, so it does not have to be part of yours. Our plans cover planning, content including video, posting, comments and a monthly report in plain English, handled by our team. The managed plans run month to month, with 2 months notice, and so does the Social Pack.

Small Business Social Pack£149a month12 designed posts a month on one platform, with no minimum term.

Social Media Management: Seed Plan£399a month16 posts a month on 2 platforms, with a strategy and your comments watched.

Social Media Management: Grow Plan£799a month16 posts a month on 3 platforms, 8 of them Reels.

Social Media Management: Scale Plan£1,499a month12 Reels a month, Stories, and your comments answered Monday to Saturday.

Social Media Management: Elite Plan£2,499a monthA post every working day on up to 5 platforms, with paid social and filming days.

LinkedIn Services: Personal Brand Management£697a monthYour LinkedIn profile optimised, posts written and published, comments handled.

Which plan fits depends on where your customers are. If one platform is enough, the Small Business Social Pack keeps it steady. If you need video for Reels, Shorts and TikTok, Social Media Management: Grow Plan and Social Media Management: Scale Plan include Reels every month. If LinkedIn is where you win work, LinkedIn Services: Personal Brand Management looks after your own profile, which is where the reach now is. All five social media plans are compared on our social media management page, and our guide to social media management for small businesses helps you choose.

See content made for today's platforms

Vertical video, made to be cut for every platform. Tap a video to play it. There is more on our work pages.

What it all adds up to

Strip away the feature names and the updates of the last two years say three things. The platforms reward original content made for them, not reposts. Short vertical video is now the common language of almost every platform. And the balance of reach keeps shifting, so the right mix for your business is worth checking every few months rather than every few years.

None of that requires you to chase every new button. It asks for a steady supply of good, original content, a habit of testing one thing at a time, and the discipline to look at your results honestly. Treat updates as chances to try something rather than threats to your strategy, keep what works, and drop what does not. Over time that builds a presence that copes with whatever the platforms change next.

Social media update questions

A question this article did not answer? Ask our team, and a person will reply.

Velena NikolovaCo-Founder and Creative DirectorVelena co-founded Velena Lifestyle and leads its creative work. A lifestyle creator featured in Women's Health, she follows platform changes closely because they shape what our team films and posts each month. Velena and Dragos both guest lecture at the University of Greenwich on social media and content strategy, and are invited back several times a year.