The State of Social Media in 2026 with Kate Buck Jr.
THE STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN 2026 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA OG KATE BUCK JR.
Everyone published their "2026 trends" list in January. Then they stopped paying attention. The problem is that the year already moved. What looked true in Q1 is not what's actually showing up in the data now, and the gap between the two is where most personal brands are about to lose six months they can't get back.
So we did something different. We pulled the real numbers from Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Metricool's study of more than 39 million posts, then sat down with someone who has watched every algorithm shift since 2008 to make sense of it.
Here's the part we'll say out loud: the things winning in the back half of 2026 are the exact things AI cannot fake. One of them is hiding in plain sight, and most people are doing the opposite of what the data rewards. We name it in the episode.
ABOUT MY GUEST: KATE BUCK JR.
Kate Buck Jr., known online as @katebuckjr or simply "KBJ," has been called the Godmother of Social Media, and the title is earned. She got her start on Twitter in 2008, accidentally built a reputation as a social media expert by answering questions, and within 18 months was earning more than double her previous income. That accident became an empire.
Today the numbers speak for themselves. She has trained over 50,000 social media managers and built a boutique agency serving names like Keala Kanae, Perry Belcher, Mark Moss, and Russell Brunson. She has consulted with top brands and spoken on stages worldwide, including SXSW and the Traffic & Conversion Summit. She is the founder and CEO of Social Media Pro, the certification her students proudly display on their profiles year after year, and she runs it all as a full-time digital nomad.
She has also burned it down and rebuilt more than once, which is exactly why her read on what's coming next is worth more than a recycled trends post. Kate doesn't guess from vibes. She's been reading the signals for almost two decades.
I’m lucky enough to have spent a huge chunk of my life with her, as best friends, since 2021. Fun fact: She was my maid-of-honor for my 2023 Mexico wedding! Kate and I nerd out on social media a lot, and this time, you get to be the fly on the wall.
Why you'll want to hear this one
If you have a personal brand and you use it to make money, this is the strategy session you didn't schedule but needed. We get into why the aesthetic influencer is quietly losing ground, why posting more is the wrong instinct right now, and the one format that has become completely human-proof.
There's also a prediction about where the smart money is moving its budget before Q4, and a platform shift that has every agency scrambling for a point of view. We tell you what it is. We don't tell you what to do about it. That part's the conversation.
Press play. Bring a notebook. This is the episode that decides how your next six months go.
Check out the best of what Kate Buck Jr. teaches:
Content Manager Pro (DISCOUNTED LINK): https://orders.socialmediapro.com/products-list?am_id=karla7458
LINKS AND RESOURCES
* Kate Buck Jr.: https://katebuckjr.com/
* Social Media Pro: https://socialmediapro.com/about-social-media-pro/
* Kate on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katebuckjr/
* Hootsuite, Social Media Trends 2026: https://www.hootsuite.com/research/social-trends
* Sprout Social, 7 Social Media Trends to Know in 2026: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-trends/
* Metricool, Social Media Study 2026: https://metricool.com/social-media-study/
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