2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™

Emplifi named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Social Media Management and Listening

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Emplifi named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Social Media Management and Listening Get the Report

2026 Emplifi Report

The dark social shift: Turning invisible conversations into visible conversions

How trust moved private, and what that means for brands still optimizing the visible layer.

Where high-intent buyers actually make purchase decisions, and why public metrics miss them.
The trust signals that now outrank brand advertising, influencer content, and social ads.
How leading brands are connecting community conversation to measurable pipeline.

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What you'll learn

A data-backed look at how consumer trust formation changed

The report maps the structural shift from public engagement to private decision-making, across measurement, trust, attribution, and operational visibility.

01 · Measurement

Why traditional attribution misses your highest-intent buyers

Instagram median engagement fell sharply while inbound DMs rose 76% year-over-year. The data brands rely on is measuring the wrong layer.

02 · Trust

How ratings, reviews, and Reddit now drive the final purchase decision

63% of consumers trust user-generated ratings and reviews. 85% are willing to pay more for brands they perceive as authentic. Confidence now forms through peer validation, not brand-controlled messaging.

03 · Attribution

Why consumer expectations moved faster than enterprise visibility

Attribution systems under-credit social influence. Listening programs miss community discussion outside public feeds. Care expectations rise as buyers shift to DMs. Each gap compounds the others.

04 · Strategy

Turning private signals into measurable pipeline

The brands adapting fastest are pairing centralized visibility with local interpretation, catching sentiment shifts before they scale across markets and languages.

By the numbers

The shift seen through stats

76%

Year-over-year rise in inbound DMs as buyer conversations move private

63%

Of consumers trust user-generated ratings and reviews

85%

Are willing to pay more for brands they perceive as authentic

Ready to fuel your teams with A-CX?

Discover what Emplifi can do for you. We turn small teams into large ones, and large teams into well oiled machines, but either way, we offer the rocket ship, you just need to jump on.

What can you expect?

A live walkthrough of Emplifi Fuel tailored to your specific social marketing, commerce, and care needs
A benchmark of how your brand performs against peers in your industry
A partner who understands your business, and 22,000 others
A concrete action plan to go from disjointed teams to A-CX

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