Anniston Ward is the USA PR, Events and Education Manager for Metricool, a social media aggregator for publishing information which integrates to other analytics sources to look at impact of your organization's online presence.

Host KD Bauer talks to Anniston about Metricool and how content aggregators and analysis tools function, including core features such as scheduling posts across multiple platforms and bring analytics in, having teams contributing to the process, and allow approval and feedback across team roles.

The 2026 Social Media Study from Metricool benefits from data from 3 million Metricool users to show trends and can be compared to past results (see the 2025 study as well). The report shows video content continues to be dominant, and encourages organizations to consider video even if it is more challenging to produce. Anniston also urges groups to move beyond simple impressions as the primary measure of success and to consider other measures such as shares, saves, and direct actions like clicking through to a website or signing up for more information. Anniston and KD talk about "trend chasing" (such as using memes), the importance of consistency in a brand voice or mission to building an audience over time, commenting on social issues and authenticity, and much more!