RESOURCE / 01 — Field guide
BY SHEREBANO ANVERALLY — SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIST & DIRECTOR
A living one-pager on what’s actually changed across LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok this year. Updated as the platforms move. Bookmark it, don’t memorise it, because it will change again.
UPDATED MID-2026
8 MIN READ
3 PLATFORMS
01
A new AI ranking model reads what your post is about and an authenticity update wiped out engagement bait.
02
Separate ranking systems per surface, all tightened around genuine interest signals over raw engagement.
03
TIKTOK
Every video is tested on your existing followers first. If they don’t engage, it doesn’t travel.
THE ONE RULE
↑ SIGNAL — HARD TO FAKE
Sends and shares via DM: the heaviest ranking signal on Reels right now.
Saves: weighted far above likes on anything educational or reference-worthy.
Completion and rewatch: the bar has risen everywhere, TikTok most of all.
Original, platform-native content: made for the surface it sits on.
Natural topic language in captions, on-screen text and speech: the systems read it.
↓ NOISE — STOP FEEDING THIS
Engagement-bait CTAs: “Agree? Comment below” now actively hurts you.
Hashtag stacks: three well-chosen tags beat a long list.
Watermarked or cross-posted content, including TikToks reposted to Reels.
Pods, automation and comment-exchange tactics.
Trend-chasing and trending audio used as a shortcut, with no distinct angle.
PLATFORM BY PLATFORM
1
WHAT CHANGED
LinkedIn rebuilt its ranking system around a new AI model (nicknamed 360Brew internally) that reads what your post is actually about, not just who’s engaging with it. A follow-up “authenticity” update pushed out engagement-bait formats and killed polls almost entirely as a reach driver.
WHAT’S WORKING NOW
Document posts (carousels and PDFs) - strong watch-and-save behaviour, currently one of the best-performing native formats.
Native video - growing quarter over quarter; LinkedIn is clearly pushing it.
Personal profiles over company pages - a post from a real person consistently outreaches the same message from a brand page.
Keyword-rich writing - the algorithm scans your actual sentences for relevance, so natural topic language beats a hashtag pile at the bottom.
Links in the body, after the value - hiding links in the first comment is outdated advice; place them where people can see them, once you’ve earned the read.
DEAD OR DYING
Polls, engagement-bait CTAs, hashtag stuffing, automation and pod tactics.
2
WHAT CHANGED
Instagram runs separate ranking systems for Feed, Reels, Stories and Explore and 2026 tightened all of them around genuine interest signals rather than raw engagement volume. Users can now actively tell the algorithm what they want more or less of.
WHAT’S WORKING NOW
Sends and shares via DM - the single heaviest ranking signal on Reels right now.
Saves - weighted far above likes; anything educational or reference-worthy earns these naturally.
Original, platform-native content - reposted or watermarked content, including cross-posted TikToks, is actively suppressed.
Longer-form Reels - up to three minutes now eligible for wider distribution, opening space for mini-tutorials and behind-the-scenes content.
Keyword relevance - captions, alt text and even spoken words in video now affect who your content gets shown to.
DEAD OR DYING
Large hashtag stacks, trending audio as a shortcut, it only helps content that already holds attention, and engagement-pod-style comment exchanges.
3
TIKTOK
WHAT CHANGED
TikTok now tests every new video with your existing followers first, before deciding whether to push it wider. If your own audience doesn’t engage, the video doesn’t travel, full stop.
WHAT’S WORKING NOW
Follower-first performance - the first 24–48 hours with your existing audience now determines everything downstream.
Completion rate - the bar has risen; strong distribution now needs a completion rate meaningfully higher than it did a couple of years ago.
Search-style optimisation - a large share of Gen Z uses TikTok like a search engine, so on-screen text and spoken keywords matter as much as captions.
Niche consistency - accounts that stay tightly focused on one topic get rewarded with more precise distribution, even at a small follower count.
Original audio and production quality - increasingly factored into ranking, not just a nice-to-have.
DEAD OR DYING
Hashtag volume (three well-chosen tags now beat a long list) trend-chasing without a distinct angle, and cross-posted watermarked content.
IN SHORT
Every platform in 2026 is optimising for the same underlying thing: a save, a send, a rewatch. Chase that on any platform and the format-specific tactics above become a lot easier to apply.
Note: algorithms shift quickly and this reflects what’s understood as of mid-2026 - treat it as a snapshot to revisit, not a fixed set of rules.