How will social network ad spending and social usage change in 2020? And what will happen in hot-button areas, such as privacy, ad targeting and political advertising in social media? Here’s what we think lies ahead.

Our forecast does not include demographic breakdowns of print readers, but it’s safe to conclude these readers skew older, especially among those ages 65 and older. For younger consumers, digital outlets have become their go-to source for news, especially social media.

Social media stories are growing in importance for consumers and marketers. Here’s how businesses can make the most of stories for organic marketing, influencer marketing and paid advertising.

“It’s a highly visual video platform, and that fits our brand perfectly because our content—animal content—is visually compelling and pretty much in demand anywhere on the internet,” said Matt Steele, social media supervisor for the organization.

But as discussed in a recent eMarketer's report, “US Hispanics and Digital: Smartphones Power Activity; Digital Video, Social Media Capture Attention,” there is an enduringly distinctive aspect of Hispanics’ digital usage (and media usage in general): the ongoing issue of English vs. Spanish in Hispanics’ day-to-day lives.

It’s conspicuous that a plurality of respondents in most of the survey’s demographic niches said a company’s reputation for being LGBTQ+-friendly would make then neither more nor less likely to do business with it. “There’s a lot of indifference on the matter, which to my mind seems like a healthy sign of social progress,” Dolliver said.

Brands can see the bios, follower demographics and past brand relations, which helps them create RFPs (requests for proposals) for influencers. Creators get more targeted interest from potential sponsors. "[There’s] so much interest,” said Danisha Lomax, vice president and director of paid social at Digitas.

And a September 2019 survey from Morning Consult found that 42% of US Gen Zers ages 13 to 16 said they use TikTok, on par with the percentage who use Facebook (41%) and Twitter (40%), while Instagram usage remains the highest among this demographic, at 79%.

Psychographics are so much more powerful than demographics with purchase behavior. I'd rather know if you get coffee every morning than if you live in a certain type of housing. It's more valuable to me to know psychographics than demographics. Lowrie, ANGI. That would put some pressure on Facebook. Performance advertisers will constantly be looking for the most efficient, most scaled platforms.

Well into the pandemic, consumers still say they are spending more time with social media. Activities like live streaming, video chatting and gaming are drawing some of them in.

The time spent daily with social media averaged 1:47—a full hour more than time devoted to video streaming, at 47 minutes. This may be, in part, because GlobalWebIndex includes YouTube in the category of social media, and YouTube attracts enormous audiences in Italy, as in most countries. Digital device usage remains conservative, in part due to Italy’s struggling economy.

Social Media Examiner. Social Media Today. Sprout Social. The Mx Group. Vengreso.

They’ve increased their usage of social media and digital video. Some have had no choice but to try telemedicine. But boomers’ increases in digital usage build from a below-average base. They underindex for using smartphones and social media and have been slow to adopt smart speakers and wearables. How digital are boomers in their shopping?

"Social platforms are adding to the explosion of digital video," wrote eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson in her report, Video Ads in Social Media 2018. Indeed, a study Shareablee conducted last year found that nearly half (47%) of younger millennials would watch their favorite TV show on social media if they were available. Older respondents were also interested, but to a lesser extent.

After a tumultuous year, the social platforms will close 2020 on a high note in terms of ad revenues and users—and with features that closely resemble each other.

For example, members of marginalized groups that might be more likely to have a shorter employment history and no prior access to credit could be deemed less creditworthy by AI solely based on their demographic, which could result in these consumers receiving a premium that’s higher than it should be. Data protection compliance.

Demographic and Location Data Restrictions for Employment and Credit Ads. Date: March 2019. What happened: In a legal settlement with advocacy groups such as the National Fair Housing Alliance and the Communications Workers of America, Facebook agreed to redact age, gender and ZIP code information from being targetable for housing, employment and credit ads. 

When Tapjoy asked users how they felt playing mobile games vs. scrolling through social media, 59% said relaxed (vs. 44%), 37% said engaged (vs. 28%) and just 11% noted feeling stressed when playing mobile games vs. 17% who said the same of social media.

In 2018, digital devices and platforms are central to almost every dimension of daily life for consumers and businesses around the world. Yet traditional media—notably TV—still claim a significant amount of time as well, even among internet users. While consumer trends are clearly evident across the 40 markets featured in the Global Media Intelligence Report, inevitably, there are intriguing outliers with respect to device penetration and the adoption of social media, time-shifted TV and other activities.

For our recent report, " on TikTok marketing, we spoke with Casey Smith, social media manager for influencer and publisher marketing at Kroger, to get a retailer’s perspective on TikTok’s Hashtag Challenge. Why was Kroger interested in working with TikTok? One of our primary audiences are college students.

Video is popular even with older demographics, which has boosted the high share of digital time spent. Mobile is the biggest driver of total time spent. Mobile is the primary internet access device for adults. Smartphone time spent is driven by activities such as watching video, social networking, messaging and gaming. Social media has a strong presence, especially among teens.

According to Comscore data cited in Pinterest’s March 2019 S-1 filing, the platform reaches 80% of US mothers who use the internet—a key demographic that wields a significant amount of discretionary purchasing power. The filing also included data from Oracle indicating that Pinterest households spend 29% more than the average household.

We are committed to providing consistent representation of topics, demographic groups, and time frame from the 2019 edition. We once again turned to GlobalWebIndex—a primary research provider to Starcom and a valued partner of eMarketer—to achieve this goal. The ongoing quarterly survey among internet users in 42 markets worldwide is the hallmark of GlobalWebIndex.

Open web display advertising more typically goes through demand-side platforms (DSPs) to target high-intent and high-propensity audiences based on various demographic and behavioral signals. More of these ad buys today are being powered by Amazon. “What’s unique about Amazon compared with any other display advertising platform is the shopper data,” Masters said.