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Case studies & research

Deep dives into what's actually driving reach on TikTok and Instagram, real brand breakdowns, and notes from building Palimio.

Jun 7, 2026

How to Grow Your Social Media in 2026

Everyone can see what their posts did. Almost nobody can see why. In 2026, that gap decides who grows.

May 30, 2026

Best Social Media Analytics Tools 2026

Short-form video now decides reach on every major platform. The 2018 toolkit, schedulers with dashboards bolted on, no longer answers the question content teams actually have: why a post worked, not just whether it did. So which social media analytics tools are worth paying for in 2026, and is there anything that actually reads what is in your posts?

May 19, 2026

Mainstream Social Analytics Tools Just Repackage the Dashboard Already Free on Your Phone

Most social media analytics tools charge a subscription for numbers your free native dashboard already shows. None of them answer the only question that matters: why your content works, and what to make next.

May 18, 2026

Scrub Daddy Doesn't Sell a Sponge, It Sells a Character: The Numbers Behind the Strategy

Scrub Daddy sells a smiling sponge. Its TikTok almost never shows you how to use one.

May 4, 2026

Sky Is No Longer a Broadcaster, It's a Creator: The Numbers Show Why It's Working

For most of TV's social-era history, broadcasters treated platforms like Instagram and TikTok as distribution: clip the show, post the clip, drive the tune-in. Sky has explicitly stopped doing that.

Apr 23, 2026

Before, During and After the Owl Went Silent: Duolingo's TikTok in Numbers

Duolingo's TikTok was the most-studied brand account of the decade. In the first half of 2025 it was pulling 6M-view medians and 11% engagement rates on a 6M-follower account, numbers almost no other brand has ever posted. Then in May, something snapped. Leadership changes, creative-team turnover, the fake death of the mascot, an AI-first repositioning that didn't land. The feed kept publishing but the numbers fell out from under it.

Apr 20, 2026

The Strategy Director vs. His Own Feed: A @howtohoopforever Case Study

Jack Appleby writes the creative strategy playbook for some of the biggest brands in the world. He also runs @howtohoopforever, a basketball TikTok, on the side. We ran 100 of his recent posts through Palimio. The data has opinions.

Mar 9, 2026

Breaking Down The New York Times’ TikTok Machine - Decoded with Palimio

News is now a competition for attention, not authority. Over half of U.S. adults get news from social media at least sometimes, and on TikTok, a story doesn’t get read - it either stops the scroll or it doesn’t.