January 2026 S@MS Newsletter

Resharing Public Instagram Stories: ICYMI, you can now reshare any public Instagram story to your own story, even if you are not tagged. We love the amplification potential this new feature provides, as well as the opportunity for story-specific content to have a greater reach.

Facebook Limiting Post Links: Facebook has been spotted testing link limits for professional accounts and pages. This update would limit pages to only two links in a post unless they have a Meta Verified subscription. This would only impact links directly in post copy, not links in comments. If you haven't already, we'd recommend keeping links in the comments on Facebook in order to boost performance.

LinkedIn Shares Content Performance Tips: Looking to up your LinkedIn game in 2026? LinkedIn leadership recently shared insights about the app and tips for how to boost content performance. Some key insights: Aim to post 2-5 times a week, craft content that shares unique stories or perspectives on industry trends/news, and unless you're using them for your own tracking purposes, you can ditch the hashtags.

Updated Facebook Design: Facebook announced plans to roll out an updated platform design that will "make it easier to create, discover, and share content." There isn't a ton of insight yet on how this redesign may impact content performance, but we're excited to see the new look and hopeful these changes will help us stay even more connected with audiences interested in MSU. 

1. Episodic content: There's been a sharp uptick in accounts creating episodic content, and this is a trend we expect to stick around in 2026. From Subway Takes to Track Star Show, accounts are finding success by committing to a specific style that can be built on with each new post and allows users to know what to expect.
2. Look-ahead content: A new year and new semester provide lots of opportunities for content focused on the future. Whether it is a traditional ins and outs list or a timely curation of things to look forward to, now is a great time to craft some posts focused on the year ahead. 

As social users get burnt out on AI slop and interest soars in analog activities, Lia Haberman writes that we are headed into a slow social era.

She shares a few thoughts on what that means for social media managers and curates articles from multiple sources outlining how the social media landscape may shift in the coming year, and how to adapt.

Though we don't have an MSU Pinterest account, we were really interested in Pinterest Predicts 2026, which forecasts themes across home, fashion, travel and more that the platform expects to become popular in 2026. Pinterest claims that their trend report has an 88% accuracy rate over the past six years, and this year's report is filled with ideas that could provide inspiration for social designs and offline activations.

A lot of the predictions also align with the "slow social" idea, with snail mail and "poetcore" earning spots in the mix. 

In addition to our monthly newsletter, we also have a Teams channel for more timely updates, shout outs and more. Be sure to join so you can stay tuned in for all things Social @ Michigan State. 

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Data, but make it ✨ social. ✨ We loved seeing all your year-end reviews; a few of our favs came from Eat at State, MSU Recycling and the Surplus Store.

Social Media Help: doepke@msu.edu

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Social Media Content Suggestions: comms.social@msu.edu