5 social media gremlins that could haunt your brand this Halloween
Written By:Liz Malone-Johnstone
October 19, 2026
October 19, 2026 
Share This PostHalloween is here, and while seasonal campaigns are filling our social media feeds, there are a few less welcome things that brands need to watch out for.
From AI-generated content mishaps to disengaged communities and misinformation, we explore five social media challenges and share practical tips to help you tackle them.
👻 1. The invasion of AI slop
AI has made creating social media content quicker and easier than ever. But just because you can generate content at the click of a button doesn’t mean you always should.
Take Fanta’s recent AI-generated Halloween advert, which attracted criticism for its creative execution. Meanwhile, LinkedIn is stepping up efforts to tackle ‘AI slop’, identifying generic and repetitive content that offers little value to users.
For brands, the risk isn’t simply producing something that looks obviously AI-generated. It’s publishing content that feels disconnected from your audience, lacks originality or undermines confidence in your expertise.
Our advice: Use AI to support content creation, not replace human judgement. Bring your own expertise, experiences and personality to your posts and make sure someone checks AI-generated copy and visuals for accuracy, relevance and potential reputational issues before publication.
🪦 2. The ghost-town community
Your posts are going out regularly and your social channels look great. But is anybody actually talking?
A busy publishing schedule doesn’t necessarily mean you have an engaged community. And when brands focus on pushing out content, they can miss valuable opportunities to connect with the people they want to reach.
As feeds become increasingly crowded with promotional and AI-generated content, platforms are looking for ways to recognise original contributions and meaningful engagement. Threads’ new Gems programme rewards original posts and replies that spark discussion, reflecting the growing importance of quality interactions over simply generating more content.
At StrawberrySocial, we see community management as much more than replying to comments. It’s about understanding audiences, recognising opportunities to engage and building relationships through consistent, relevant interactions.
We’ve seen the impact of this first-hand. Our community management work with RNIB has contributed to 169% overall audience growth and a 308% increase in LinkedIn engagement. And for Blue Cross, our work has helped grow its Instagram audience by 67%, with meaningful conversations encouraging supporters to share their own experiences. Read more about our community engagement work.
Our advice: Make engagement part of your everyday activity, rather than something you squeeze in after publishing. Look beyond response times and track the quality of conversations, recurring questions and audience sentiment.
For example, a thoughtful response to a customer question, a follow-up to someone sharing their experience or acknowledging constructive criticism can do more for a relationship than another scheduled promotional post.
🧟 3. The never-ending content creation monster
The pressure to constantly produce fresh, engaging content can feel never-ending. But inspiration doesn’t always require a big creative brainstorm.
LinkedIn recently shared five ways to maintain a steady flow of content ideas, including drawing inspiration from everyday work and conversations.
One of the best sources of content ideas is often hiding in plain sight: your own community. Questions, feedback and recurring conversations can reveal what your audience genuinely wants to know, including gaps in your existing content.
Our advice: Build a feedback loop between your community managers and content team. Keep a shared record of recurring questions, common misconceptions, audience feedback and emerging themes.
For example, if community managers repeatedly answer the same question about a service, that could become a useful explainer post, FAQ or video. If people are confused by a campaign message, that feedback should inform your next piece of content.
It’s a practical way to make content more relevant while reducing the pressure to constantly come up with something new.
🕷️ 4. The misinformation menace
Not everything appearing in your social media feed is quite what it seems. AI-generated images, altered videos, fake accounts and misleading claims can spread quickly, creating real challenges for brands.
A recent research preprint examining AI-generated misinformation in the UK identified potential harms ranging from fraud and abuse to risks to people’s health.
For organisations, misinformation can take many forms. It might be a false claim about a product, an impersonation account attempting to deceive customers or an inaccurate post being shared widely.
The challenge isn’t always knowing what to say in response. It’s recognising when an issue is developing, establishing the facts and deciding whether engaging publicly will help or simply amplify the problem.
Our advice: Make social listening and monitoring part of your approach to brand protection. Know which conversations and emerging issues require attention, who is responsible for checking the facts and when something needs escalating.
Our experience managing online communities and emerging reputation risks has shown us that knowing when not to respond can be just as important as knowing what to say. Sometimes correcting misinformation is essential; other times, engaging publicly risks drawing more attention to an issue that might otherwise fade.
A clear process helps teams make those decisions confidently, rather than reacting under pressure.
🦇 5. The moderation monster
Sometimes the biggest challenges on social media aren’t the posts your brand publishes, but the conversations that follow.
From abusive comments and spam to impersonation, harmful content and safeguarding concerns, managing online communities carries responsibilities that extend well beyond removing inappropriate posts.
Ofcom’s recent investigation into Meta concerns whether the company adequately assessed online safety risks before launching Instagram’s disappearing-content feature, Instants. While the investigation relates to a platform’s legal obligations, it highlights the importance of assessing potential risks and putting appropriate safeguards in place.
At StrawberrySocial, our moderation teams work with brands and charities, including organisations supporting children and vulnerable audiences. We know that effective moderation requires much more than a list of banned words.
Our work with the NSPCC shows why this matters. We provide specialist, round-the-clock moderation support, helping the charity manage sensitive conversations, identify potential safeguarding concerns and escalate issues to its Helpline team when necessary. It’s a good example of why effective moderation depends on trained people, clear procedures and an understanding of the community being supported. Read the NSPCC case study.
Moderators need to understand context, recognise potential safeguarding concerns and know when to escalate an issue to someone with the appropriate expertise. They also need clear guidance and support when dealing with difficult or distressing material.
Our advice: Review your community guidelines and moderation procedures regularly. Make sure they cover not only what content is unacceptable, but also how different situations should be handled.
Consider what happens when someone shares sensitive personal information, reports an immediate risk or makes a serious allegation. Who needs to know? How quickly should action be taken? And who is responsible when your usual social media team is offline?
Having clear answers before something happens makes a considerable difference when a difficult situation arises.
Keep the social media gremlins under control
Social media challenges rarely arrive neatly one at a time. An engaging campaign can generate difficult conversations, a misleading post can develop into a reputational issue, and even a well-intentioned AI-generated response can create problems.
The common thread is the need for human judgement, clear processes and people who understand the communities they’re managing.
At StrawberrySocial, we help brands, charities and agencies manage the conversations happening around them, from everyday community engagement to complex moderation, safeguarding and online risk.
Need help managing your social media communities, protecting your reputation or providing reliable out-of-hours support? Get in touch to see how we can help.