#brand-discovery

#brand-discovery

Social media has officially hit supermajority status. New data shows there are now 5.66 billion social media user identities worldwide-equivalent to 68.7% of the global population. That means social media users now outnumber non-users two to one. The milestone, released in Digital 2026 from Meltwater and We Are Social, comes as digital behaviors evolve rapidly, with more people spending their time online in new and changing ways. Over the past year alone, social media added more than 259 million new user identities, a 4.8% increase.

For more than a decade, marketing has been dominated by paid ads, display campaigns, and social media boosts. While these strategies offer immediate exposure, their results are fleeting. Once the budget is gone, so is the visibility. In contrast, syndicated content creates a permanent, discoverable asset that not only lives online indefinitely but also fuels both human search engines and the emerging wave of AI-powered platforms.