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By Categories: Marketing0 Comments on What Consumers Want From Brands on Social Media in 2026 (And Where Marketers Are Missing the Mark)

Sprout Social’s 2026 Social Media Content Strategy Report surveyed more than 2,300 consumers and 1,200 marketers across Australia, the UK and the US, and the findings reveal a clear disconnect between what audiences want and where brands are betting.

For marketers, the data offers a sharper picture of where to invest, what to prioritise and which platforms deserve another look.

Here’s what the numbers say.

How engaged will consumers be with brands on social media in 2026? Highly engaged

    • Four in five social media users say they will interact with brand content more (34%) or the same amount (46%) as they do now in 2026.
    • Only 20% expect to engage less

The opportunity is there. The question is whether brands are showing up in the right places with the right content.

Which social media platforms will Australians spend more time on in 2026?

According to Sprout Social’s Q4 2025 Pulse Survey, the platforms Australian social media users plan to spend more time on next year are:

  • Facebook — 37%
  • Instagram — 27%
  • YouTube — 25%

Notably, Facebook leads across all generations globally, with 85% of consumers holding profiles on the platform, the highest of any network.

It’s also now the #1 channel for product discovery, with nearly 40% of social users turning to it to find new products, and the top channel for social customer service (45%).

Where are Australian marketers investing their social media resources in 2026?

The platforms Australian marketers say they’ll invest more in tell a different story:

  • Facebook — 79%
  • TikTok — 70%
  • Discord — 60%

While Facebook investment aligns nicely with audience behaviour, TikTok is a notable misalignment. Only 23% of Australian Gen X users and 10% of Boomers plan to spend more time there in 2026, and even among Gen Z, attention on TikTok is splitting with Instagram and Snapchat.

Brands pouring resources into TikTok without segment-level audience data risk over-investing in a platform that doesn’t index well with their actual customer base.

Is WhatsApp an underutilised channel for Australian brands?

Possibly. 60% of Australian WhatsApp users interact with brands on the platform at least once per week, significantly higher than the US (36%), though still trailing the UK’s remarkable 85%.

Globally, 40% of users want brands on WhatsApp specifically for customer service and support, with order questions and product education being the top reasons consumers reach out.

The report suggests Australian and UK teams have already invested heavily in WhatsApp, while US brands are catching up.

For Australian businesses, this means the foundation is in place, and the focus should now be on optimising customer care flows and community building rather than starting from scratch.

What are Australian marketers prioritising on social media in 2026?

Australian marketers’ top five priorities for 2026 are:

  • Surprise-and-delight moments
  • Social selling
  • Interacting with audiences in smaller digital spaces
  • Personalised customer service
  • Episodic content

Australia stands out here.

Globally, marketers ranked episodic series as their #1 priority and AI-generated content as #2.

Australian marketers, by contrast, lead with surprise-and-delight and place personalised customer service in their top five, which happens to align far more closely with what consumers actually want.

Globally, consumers said their top priorities for brands in 2026 are:

  • Human-generated content
  • Personalised customer service / Surprise-and-delight moments
  • Social commerce
  • Audience engagement in small digital spaces
  • Collaborations with other companies

In other words, Australian marketers are closer to the mark than their international counterparts, but the AI-versus-human-content tension still applies.

While many global brands are leaning into AI-generated content, consumers are explicitly asking for the opposite.

How is the social and political climate affecting Australian marketing strategy?

More than anywhere else surveyed. 56% of Australian marketers report more restrictions around the types of content they publish and the influencers they partner with, compared with 39% in the UK and 36% in the US. Another 28% say they retain autonomy but require more internal approvals.

It’s the highest level of content restriction reported in any of the three markets, and it has practical implications: longer approval cycles, more stakeholders involved in trend response, and a likely shift toward evergreen content over reactive cultural commentary.

How confident are Australian marketers in their content strategy?

Very. 81% of Australian marketers describe their content strategy as “very effective”, the highest confidence level of any region surveyed (UK 69%, US 70%). None reported their strategy as ineffective.

That confidence is largely backed up by consumers, 70% of whom rate brands as excellent or good at keeping up with trends and cultural moments, and 69% who say brands publish entertaining content well.

Where brands fall short, globally, is in interacting with audience comments (39% rate this as fair or poor), publishing truly original content (43%) and responding to crises (49%).

What type of content should Australian brands create for each platform?

Sprout Social’s data points to clear platform-specific patterns:

  • Facebook: Short-form video under 60 seconds (48% of users most likely to interact), followed by text posts and live video.
  • Instagram: Short-form video dominates at 52%, with user-generated and influencer content close behind.
  • YouTube: A near tie between short-form video (52%) and long-form (49%) — Shorts has shifted the platform’s engagement profile.
  • LinkedIn: Text posts lead at 51%, with users wanting educational product information and updates from company leadership above all else.
  • TikTok: Short-form video at 60%, with entertainment as the dominant driver.
  • WhatsApp: Customer service and product education are the primary use cases.

A notable Australian connection: Aesop, the homegrown luxury cosmetics brand, is featured in the report as a model TikTok strategy. The brand has built millions of views and 150,000+ likes without chasing trends or commenting on cultural moments, instead leaning into ASMR, aesthetic visuals and a distinct point of view.

What should Australian marketers do differently in 2026?

The report’s central message is direct: stop casting wide nets and start listening more deeply.

Three takeaways for Australian marketing teams:

1. Audit the platform-investment gap. If your TikTok investment outpaces audience demand among your specific customers, redirect resources to Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp, where Australian engagement is strongest.

2. Use AI for analysis, not just content. Marketers ranked real-time audience insights as the #1 resource that would most increase the impact of their social strategy. Only 40% currently use AI for performance reporting. The biggest unlock isn’t AI-generated copy but AI-driven audience intelligence.

3. Lean into surprise-and-delight and customer care. These rank in the top priorities for both Australian marketers and consumers globally, a rare alignment worth capitalising on.

The bottom line for Australian social media marketers in 2026

Australian consumers are ready to engage with brands more than ever, and Australian marketers are among the most confident in the world about their content strategy. But confidence isn’t the same as alignment. The brands that win in 2026 will be the ones that close the gap between where they’re investing and where their audience is actually spending time, and the ones that resist the temptation to replace human-generated content with AI shortcuts.
As Sprout Social puts it, audiences want to be listened to, not posted at.

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