They All Laughed at Me When I Said This in Front of the Gurus...
Now Sprout Social is Writing About It!
The 2026 social media trends I called two years ago are finally getting their moment in the spotlight — and what that means for your Encore business.
Let me start with a confession: being right ahead of schedule is both deeply satisfying and mildly exhausting.
Two years ago, I was coaching clients of a few big-name gurus on a set of convictions I had about where social media was heading.
Some of them nodded politely. A few looked at me the way you look at someone who insists a hurricane is coming while the sun is still shining.
Some even laughed at me and whispered something to their neighbors.
And a handful — the ones who leaned in, trusted the roadmap, and did the work — are now sitting very comfortably as the rest of the industry “discovers” what we already built.
This week, I came across an article from December 2025. Sprout Social published their 7 Social Media Trends You Need to Know in 2026. I read it with the quiet satisfaction of someone who found a receipt for an investment they made two years ago, and it just paid out.
Let me walk you through what they’re saying — and what I was saying back when it wasn’t yet fashionable.
1. Human-Generated Content Wins. Full Stop.
Sprout’s research found that consumers’ single biggest concern about brands on social media is AI-generated content that isn’t disclosed. More than half of social users say they’re more likely to trust brands that publish human-generated content — and that number climbs even higher among Gen Z and Millennials.
Sound familiar? Two years ago, I was telling my clients: your experience is your unfair advantage. The thing that no AI can replicate is the 30+ years you spent in the room where it happened. The scar tissue. The war stories. The hard-won perspective.
While everyone else was sprinting toward AI shortcuts, I was coaching you to double down on yourself. Turns out, the audience figured it out before the industry did. They always do.
If I told you once, I told you a hundred times: stop trying to sound like a brand or the “goof-ru” flashing their money.
Start sounding like yourself.
2. Community Management Is Back — and It Never Should Have Left
Sprout calls this trend “finally getting its moment again.” One of their featured consultants put it plainly: community management is having a renaissance.
Here’s what I said in 2024: the broadcast is dead, conversation is king, and the brands that win in the long term are the ones that show up in the comments, in the DMs, and in the smaller, more intimate digital spaces.
Do you know what I was telling my clients to build?
Not massive audiences. Tight ones. Engaged ones. Ones where people actually show up because they want to, not because an algorithm pushed them there.
The Encore Society exists precisely because of this conviction. You don’t need a million followers. You need a few hundred people who are your people. That’s leverage. That’s a business.
3. Social Search Has Replaced Google for a Huge Chunk of Your Audience
Sprout’s data shows that nearly one in three consumers now skip Google entirely and start their search on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube instead.
Two years ago, when I said optimize your content to be found, not just scrolled past, I wasn’t talking about traditional SEO.
I was talking about showing up where people actually look. For most of our audience, that means being discoverable with clear, searchable content that answers real questions.
The clients who listened built content libraries. The clients who didn’t are now realizing their “posting strategy” was really just shouting into the void with nice lighting.
4. Short-Form Video Isn’t Optional — But Long-Form Has a Seat at the Table Too
Everyone panicked about short-form video. I get it. Thirty seconds feels like barely enough time to introduce yourself, let alone demonstrate twenty years of expertise.
Here’s what I told my clients: short-form gets you found, long-form earns trust. And trust is the currency of the Encore business.
Wow, you should have heard the constant complaints I’d hear about long-form. Especially when some nose-bandage-wearing social demi-god was telling everyone to put out 100-200 pieces of content a week, and I was just some crazy-old-washed-up coach.
Sprout confirms this — video remains the dominant format across every platform, but long-form content is holding its own, particularly on YouTube, which their research shows drives the most business impact of any platform according to marketing leaders.
For those of us selling expertise, relationships, and transformation — not products in a shopping cart — trust is everything. Build both.
5. Platform Fragmentation Is Real, and “Spray and Pray” Is Over
The typical social media user now hops between nearly seven different platforms every month.
Two years ago, I warned clients that betting everything on one platform was a liability, not a strategy. Remember when TikTok almost got banned? Remember the Twitter-to-X identity crisis? Remember every time an algorithm update wiped someone’s reach overnight?
I coached clients to think in terms of owned vs. rented land. Your email list is owned. Your Substack is owned. Your LinkedIn audience is rented. Your Instagram following is rented. Build on what you own first. Show up on the rented platforms to drive people home.
This newsletter? This is my home base. Everything else is a funnel leading here.
6. Social Intelligence Is Now a Business Imperative
Sprout’s research found that brands like Unilever, Amazon, and Clorox are shifting significant budget into social intelligence — letting social data drive decisions across TV, out-of-home, and retail.
Two years ago, I was telling smaller operators: pay attention to what your audience actually engages with, not what you think they want. The comments, the shares, the questions people ask — that’s market research that Fortune 500 companies pay millions for, and you have it for free.
The Encore business owners who listened started building offers around the real pain points their audience was surfacing in real time. The ones who ignored it kept selling what they wanted to sell and wondered why no one was buying.
7. AI Is a Tool, Not a Replacement — And the Market Knows the Difference
The biggest collective exhale in Sprout’s report: audiences don’t want AI to replace human creativity. They want brands (and people they read and follow) to use AI for efficiency, not authenticity.
The trust is in the human. The leverage can be in the machine.
This is exactly the balance I’ve been preaching: use AI to work smarter, not to disappear behind it. Use it to draft, organize, and research.
Then show up as you to deliver, teach, and connect.
Nobody hired their favorite mentor because of their note-taking software.
So Here’s The Point
I’m not writing this to gloat. Okay, maybe a little. But mostly I’m writing this because if you’ve been sitting on the fence about building your Encore business, this is the confirmation you’ve been waiting for from a source that isn’t me.
The market is demanding exactly what you have: real experience, real perspective, real human connection. And it is increasingly hostile to the imitation version.
If you’ve been working with me on this, well done. You were early. Early is how you win.
If you’re just joining us — welcome. You’re not too late. But the people who started two years ago have two years on you, and the gap widens every day.
The trends have arrived. The only question is whether you’re positioned to ride them or watch them pass.
Let’s make sure it’s the former.
— Jim
The Encore Society is the premier clubhouse for high-achieving over-50s who are ready to turn decades of experience into a profitable second act. No fluff, no tech-overload — just a clear roadmap to monetizing your expertise and reclaiming your time.
Read the full Sprout Social report here: