We recently attended the Social Day x Canva event in London, where we learned everything we learnt about where the social media landscape is heading, particularly as we look toward 2026.
The event brought together industry experts, creative leaders, and Canva’s own team to discuss the future of content, branding, and AI.
Here are the standout takeaways we believe will directly impact how brands should be thinking about social:
- 1. Personal Branding Will Become a Core Marketing Strategy
Canva’s Social Lead shared a strong prediction for 2026: “Employee personal branding will become one of the strongest levers in social media.”
Brands will increasingly encourage team members to build their own corporate presence. This won’t be a “nice to have” – it will become a fundamental part of marketing strategy.
This aligns with what we’re already seeing across the industry and what we’ve started implementing for some of our clients, especially in paid campaigns and organic visibility.
Canva showcased how they’re integrating AI behind the scenes to streamline workflows, improve efficiency, and support creators, not replace them.
The message was clear:
The brands that thrive will be those that embrace AI as a partner in their processes, not a shortcut.
This includes faster content production, smarter project management, and easier collaboration.
Two of Canva’s new releases caught our eye:
- Campaign Tracker – A simple but powerful way to stay organised across multiple clients and campaigns using Canva Sheets.
- Build With Code – A tool that allows fully customisable landing pages inside Canva, even with no coding experience.
Both tools will help us work faster and more efficiently on your campaigns in the new year.
Across the entire panel, one theme stood out:
People buy from people – now more than ever.
Consumers want transparency. They want to know who they’re buying from, what a brand stands for, and who’s behind the scenes.
We expect 2026 to prioritise authenticity, storytelling, and personal connection even more than today.
What This Means for Your Brand?
Based on everything we learned, here’s how we see the future of social affecting your business:
- More emphasis on human-led content
- Higher ROI from your team’s personal presence online
- Faster, more streamlined content production
- Increased trust-building through storytelling
- Smarter use of AI to reduce workload while improving quality
We’re already adapting our strategies and workflows to align with these trends and will continue integrating new tools and approaches to support your 2026 growth.
If you’d like us to walk you through how these trends could apply directly to your brand, we’d be happy to schedule a quick call, get in touch!
