Social media marketing used to be about what you posted. Now, it’s about how you work. From team structure to tooling, reporting to resourcing, social media management has changed dramatically. And despite its ups and downs, it’s doing everything but slow down. Expectations are higher, channels are noisier, and the path from post to profit is under more scrutiny than ever. To show what high-performing social looks like today, we teamed up with four leading voices in the industry to share their advice, challenges, and predictions for the year ahead. Meet our experts: Taylor Loren, Brand Marketing Consultant and Content Creator, formerly Head of Marketing at Girlboss and Head of Content at Later. Brandon Smithwrick, Creatorpreneur and Founder of Content to Commas, formerly Director of Content & Creative at Kickstarter and Head of Social at Squarespace. Elfried Samba, CEO & Co-founder of Butterfly Effect, formerly Global Head of Social at Gymshark. Jack Appleby, Creative Strategist & Founder of Future Social, formerly Creative Strategist at Twitch. We also asked our partners Canva, LinkedIn, and Meta to shed light on the tools, data, and signals that top teams are watching right now. Taylor Loren on what is social media management in 2026 (and how has it evolved)? This section is contributed by Taylor Loren, Brand Marketing Consultant and Content Creator, formerly Head of Marketing at Girlboss and Head of Content at Later. When I started in social over a decade ago, the job was relatively simple: write the post, hit publish, and…