News and Insights
April Social Media Updates: The Creator-Led Conversion Revolution
April 10, 2026
The theme of April is clear: platforms are handing the keys to the kingdom to individual experts and creators rather than faceless brands. This is the Boom Scroll, your essential digest of the platform shifts and intelligence that will define your strategy this month, direct from FINN’s global social media team.
#1 The new era of Premium LinkedIn Creator Sponsorships
LinkedIn is pushing brands to use creators on the platform, part of its overall strategy to build up more engaging professional content. That’s a bonus for B2B marketers, who are finding that expert-led content is a highly effective driver of ROI, with 82% now calling these partnerships essential.
💥 The Boom
- Brands can now secure exclusive ad placements alongside content from LinkedIn’s Top Voices — individuals hand selected by LinkedIn’s editorial team and recognized as a top professional or original content contributor.
- New tools in Campaign Manager allow for bundling editorial show sponsorships (advertising content produced by LinkedIn’s editorial team or top creators) with co-branded posts.
- An integrated Stripe-powered system simplifies how brands compensate professional influencers.
Our take
B2B influence is no longer a nice-to-have experiment. To win in 2026, brands must treat influencer marketing as a core pillar of their overall marketing strategy. Our social media services can help you partner with the right LinkedIn creators to build credibility that a standard corporate ad cannot buy.
#2 Instagram is testing clickable links in captions
Instagram is testing a feature that allows users to add functional, clickable links directly to a post caption.
💥 The Boom
- The feature is currently being tested only for creators who pay for a Meta Verified subscription; standard business accounts are excluded.
- Participating creators can share up to 10 posts per month that include a clickable caption link.
- This shift signals Meta’s intent to turn organic caption space into a premium, revenue-generating tool for creators and brands.
Our take
This is a big opportunity for influencer marketing. Since brands cannot use this feature directly, partnering with verified creators is now the most effective way to drive direct traffic from an Instagram feed.
#3 The rise of supplemental TikTok search
When searching for products or services, nearly half of users in the U.S. turn to TikTok. The social platform isn’t replacing Google, but users are settling into a multi-platform pattern. Adoption of TikTok is climbing again, and it’s increasingly being used as a secondary discovery tool.
💥 The Boom
- 49% of U.S. consumers now use TikTok as a search engine, a nearly 20% jump from 2024.
- 41% of Gen Z respondents now use social media as their initial port of call when researching products or information.
- The average user spends nearly 58 minutes per day on the app, with 25% starting a search within 30 seconds of opening it.
Our take
Stop viewing platforms in isolation. Users go to Google for authority, but they go to TikTok for visual discovery and video tutorials. We help clients optimize for social SEO so your brand appears across the entire journey, from the Google fact-check to the TikTok vibe-check.
#4 The passive scroll and the rise of intentionality
Ofcom reports that UK users are striving to be more mindful of their digital footprint, in part over concerns that their posts may cause them problems in the future.
💥 The Boom
- Only 49% of adult social media users now actively post or comment, a significant drop from 61% in 2024.
- Users are favoring limited lifespan posts, such as Instagram Stories, over permanent grid posts.
- 79% of UK adults aged 16 to 24 now use AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini, with many using them for relationship and conversation advice.
Our take
When audiences change their social media behavior, brands must work harder to justify why people should care and why they should buy.We help brands navigate this cautious era by adopting a creator mindset that prioritizes human connection over corporate noise.
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Whether you need to launch a B2B creator program on LinkedIn or navigate the new multi-modal search landscape, we’re here to lead the way. As a leading social media agency, we stay ahead of these trends to ensure your brand’s growth.
Discover how our social media services can help your business stay competitive in this new era of discovery.
Curious how we predicted last month’s changes? Read the previous March 2026 Boom Scroll and get the latest paid media industry news through our latest Media Pulse blog.
POSTED BY: Justin Buchbinder, Emily Kemp
