Social media usage gains from 2020 have largely ended. Facebook will have its lowest growth rate ever, Instagram’s user base is getting older, and Twitter is coming down with a case of post-election malaise. However, TikTok and Reddit are still attracting users at an accelerated pace.

Despite how consumers feel about it, politics remains a core part of the social media experience. This report explores how marketers should navigate social in the aftermath of the 2020 US presidential election.

The upcoming US election will determine the direction for technology policies that will have a profound impact for marketers. This report will lay out scenarios for what marketers can expect in several key policy areas in 2021 and beyond.

This report explores the latest developments in the social media landscape, including a look at TikTok Global, Instagram’s launch of Reels, and new election-related moves from Facebook and Twitter.

On today's episode, we discuss Twitter's post-election malaise, Reddit's growth engine, and LinkedIn's and Pinterest's pandemic pivots. We then talk about Nextdoor's ceiling, TikTok being allowed to stay in the US, and the implications of young creator burnout. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Debra Aho Williamson.

With presidential elections set for October 2022, Twitter will play a fundamental role in shaping the country’s highly polarized political discourse this year. Argentina is the only market in Latin America where Twitter’s penetration rate among internet users will decline. Twitter used to be the country’s third-most-popular social platform, but it slid to No. 4 in 2021 due to TikTok’s meteoric rise.

Digital political ad spending broke records in the 2020 election cycle. Grace Briscoe, senior vice president of candidates and causes at programmatic media firm Centro, joins eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin to discuss what, when, and where political advertisers bought digital ads last year, how much attention they paid to connected TV (CTV), and why they love digital video ads so much.

TV ad spending in the US reached its highest point ever in 2018, a year that featured the Winter Olympics and a midterm congressional election—except no one realized it was a peak at the time. Linear TV had been stagnating for several years, though in early March 2020, the combo of the Summer Olympics and a big presidential campaign season looked set to generate a record $72.00 billion in US TV ad spending that year.

Facebook troll farms peddling misinformation reached 140 million Americans monthly ahead of the 2020 US presidential election. Facebook failed to stop misinformation after the 2016 election. Facebook removed various fake accounts with links to individuals in China and the Philippines in 2020.

The influx of political content and ad dollars for the upcoming US presidential election will inevitably impact commercial advertisers on social media. Understanding the political ad cycle and consumer attitudes toward political content can help brands better reach their audiences.

Last month, a US labor board ordered a revote in the now-famous Bessemer, Alabama, union drive after it determined that Amazon unfairly influenced the election, in which workers overwhelmingly voted not to unionize, per NPR. Troubles lie abroad, too. Regulators in Europe have increasingly cracked down on and fined Big Tech companies like Meta and Google in recent months, and Amazon is no exception.

In 2020, shortly before the US presidential election, Reddit rolled out three ad inventory tiers—standard, limited, and expanded—warning that the increased reach of the expanded tier would come at the expense of possibly placing ads next to more controversial content.

Brand programs in the country that focus on events, like the Olympics or elections, have been the focus of Twitter promotion. For example, the snap election in Canada in 2021 was an opportunity for many brand campaigns to promote voting on Twitter, which launched an emoji triggered by a series of hashtags.

In the November 2021 Throne Speech, which kicked off the new legislation session post-election, “ensuring web giants pay their fair share” was called out as part of the new parliamentary agenda. Regulating Big Tech is a popular sentiment in Canada.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver, junior analyst Blake Droesch, principal analyst Jillian Ryan, and vice president of content studio at Insider Intelligence Paul Verna discuss the major digital pivot to reimagined events amid COVID-19. Then, the usual suspects talk about Twitter's fight against election misinformation, TikTok's potential rivals, untapped marketing to lower-income customers, ecommerce within YouTube, and how cats aren't as heartless as they seem.

In the lead-up to the election, many social media users expressed growing exhaustion with the user experience due to the influx of political content. But those feelings of “election fatigue” didn’t cause most users to decrease their engagement on social.

The US election on Tuesday pits fundamentally different visions of the US against each other. It might seem trivial to look at how the election could affect the marketing world—but the impacts will be real.

eMarketer forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom joins principal analysts at Insider Intelligence Mark Dolliver, Jeremy Goldman, and Nicole Perrin to discuss the US presidential election: media usage, effective advertising, and how big tech protected its integrity. They then talk about Apple's new privacy "nutrition labels," how a virtual reality headset can tell who you are from your movements within 5 minutes, and why The Trade Desk had such a good Q3.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver, junior analyst Blake Droesch and vice president of content studio at Insider Intelligence Paul Verna discuss the end of Quibi, Facebook's mini social networks called "Neighborhoods," Uber reclassifying drivers as employees, whether ads near political content affect brand perceptions, the state of Facebook post-election, how long Americans spend looking for things they've lost, a creature that sleeps while moving, and more.

eMarketer junior analyst Blake Droesch and principal analysts at Insider Intelligence Debra Aho Williamson, Mark Dolliver, and Jeremy Goldman discuss how social media might change as a result of the continued spread of misinformation on the platforms and general negative sentiment surrounding them. They then talk about the best way to use Stories, influencer ad disclosure, and which consumer group has increased its social media usage the most during the pandemic.

eMarketer principal analysts Debra Aho Williamson and Mark Dolliver, and forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom discuss Facebook's recent decision on political ads and how brands can reach social users over the coming months. They then talk about Facebook's plans to limit ads on pages, how this year's events have changed Gen Z's relationship with brands, and why Americans still pay for live TV.

The role of political advertising in social media will be a key discussion topic in 2020—an easy prediction to make. Kantar Media expects that US digital political ad spending will reach $1.2 billion this year, and we believe the social platforms that continue accepting political advertisers will be major beneficiaries of that spending.