This blog summarizes the major social news and updates that took place in October 2026. From LinkedIn’s new ads attribution guide and why B2B marketers should embrace longer lookback windows, to carousels outperforming Reels on Instagram, to Threads testing a new “Gems” feature that spotlights standout posts, it was another busy month in the social sphere. Read on to stay in-the-know.

> LinkedIn Releases New Ads Attribution Guide  

Source: LinkedIn

In B2B land, one of the biggest challenges is getting decision-makers to embrace patience. Recent research cited in LinkedIn’s new guide shows that buyer engagement begins, on average, 124 days before an opportunity is created in a company’s CRM. That is over four months of decision-makers researching solutions, consuming content, having discussions, likely having more discussions, and then forming favorites before any of them fill out a form or contact sales. We all know B2B buying is much longer and involves more stakeholders interacting across more touchpoints than B2C, so what can marketers do to better capture their impact? Using longer lookback windows is a great start. With many marketers trained on 7-day or 1-day attribution, extending out to 90 is a good place to start given the 124-day data point above. The guide also provides LinkedIn-approved analytics partners that can help add important context to your efforts.

> Peak Season 2026: Let’s Choose Patience  

Source: Meta Business

What was once thought of as exclusively a B2C event, more and more B2B brands are participating in Black Friday and Cyber Monday. According to DHL’s global research , 63% of B2B companies that participated in Black Friday 2025 reported higher sales year-over-year, and 48% said these campaigns outperformed typical selling periods. With such a small window to capture minds, hearts, and wallets, it can be very tempting to quickly pull the trigger on initial underperforming creative or dump more budget into an early winner.

As an ancient Latin proverb says, “You will conquer by patience”. Meta recommends at least 50 conversions a week before making any decisions, and here at BrandGlue we recommend each ad set see at least 20,000 impressions before going back to the drawing board. The campaigns with the clearest objectives, like an easy-to-understand offer, creative variation, and proper tracking, will win out as long as you launch them early enough to collect data. We have found success with campaigns running 2-3 months; while this may be too long for Black Friday, launching two weeks before that sales holiday may end up being the best decision yet.

> Carousels are Beating Reels

Source: This Week in Social Media

Socialinsider published an analysis of nearly 63 million brand posts from January to September 2026. One of the interesting findings was that carousels got more views than Reels, no matter how many followers the brand had. Carousels also had higher engagement rates in every group except for companies with under 5,000 followers (Reels 0.80% engagement vs. 0.75% for Carousels). If someone sees your carousel and doesn’t swipe, Instagram can show it to them starting on slide two, so make sure you have a good backup hook.

> Analytic Search Capabilities for Grok

Source: Grok Bot

In hopes of boosting more use of its Grok Bot tool, X has expanded the in-app search capabilities in order to analyze X posts. With the goal of providing trend insights and monitoring brand mentions for new opportunities, it can be a low-cost way to track feedback on a product or to just keep an eye on your brand. This is available for all users at the moment, and it does offer promise if your audience still maintains an active presence on X.

> Is Your Thread a…Gem?

Source: Threads

Threads is currently testing out Gems, a daily selection of what they’re calling “standout posts and replies that drive meaningful conversations”. They will be selected automatically, and Meta claims they will be chosen based on originality and timeliness and will span a variety of topics and interests. As of now, this test is only for users in the U.S.

That’s a wrap on the updates!

Join us again next month as we continue to bring you the latest and greatest updates to help you succeed in the B2B social media marketing community. In the meantime, follow us on LinkedIn for additional updates.