HomeGlobalInsightsFrom Election to Inauguration: Mastering the Art of the Perpetual Pivot in Social Media

From Election to Inauguration: Mastering the Art of the Perpetual Pivot in Social Media

Date
January 13, 2025
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This whitepaper examines the profound shifts in the media and political landscape taking effect in 2025 and illuminated by the 2024 U.S. election. It offers the first set of Burson’s actionable insights for brands to adapt to this fast-evolving environment, ensuring their relevance and resilience in the face of change.


Executive Summary

The 2024 election revealed a rapidly evolving media ecosystem characterized by the declining influence of traditional media, the growing importance of politically aligned mega-influencers, and the rise of alternative platforms like Bluesky and Threads. Now as we sit on the cusp of the inauguration, we see Meta replacing fact-checking with a “community notes” system reminiscent of X, dependent on users to correct misinformation on its platforms, and winding down its DEI programming. As David Bauder for the AP highlights, the impact of this is that “those with the loudest voices and best-told stories can win the day.” These changes require brands to adapt to maintain trust and engagement with their audiences.

Key takeaways include:

  • The importance of navigating platform fragmentation and understanding emerging political influences on media.
  • A shift from fleeting, trend-driven content to building long-form dialogue through authentic influencer partnerships that focuses on niche topics and cultural discussions.
  • Building robust, owned communities while diversifying media investments to stay agile.

State of Play

Harris vs. Trump highlighted two distinct challenges and strategies; Trump focused on rebuilding his reputation through hyper-targeted voter engagement that spoke to slices of the electorate (which worked together to win the majority), while Vice President Harris had to fund and execute her campaign within 100 days, doing so through the endorsement of mega celebrities to target the broad public. Trump spent significantly less - focusing on influencers and direct communication - while Adweek shared that Harris had outspent him by $460 million in traditional advertising. Harris played her media engagement strategy like an incumbent: traditional outlets, topline media buys, limited media interviews; Trump ran like a challenger – meeting an expectation of moments on the national stage, but pivoting to niche, turnout-oriented outlets that doubled down on a base that had been fractured four years prior.

While both camps leveraged a blend of traditional and digital channels to reach young, minority voters, the scale of Trump's outreach was bigger and broader in terms of channel mix – with clear results. Axios reported that Trump’s approach won a greater share of the under-30 vote than any Republican presidential candidate since 2008.

This underscores a significant shift away from high-reach, traditional media to spaces where influence flows through channels that may not have been considered legitimate a few years ago. The goal isn’t to be everywhere, but to be focused and engaged in the spaces where your audiences are truly spending their time. This requires a fundamental reconsideration of who tells your story, what format it takes and where it might live.


Key Areas of Transformation

1. Evolving Role of Influence

Influencers are no longer just marketers; they are cultural and political power brokers. This requires reevaluating how influencers are integrated into campaigns and which ones are the right messengers. It’s no longer just about reach; it’s about credibility and sustained engagement.

Trump’s three-hour interview with Joe Rogan hit 26 million YouTube views within 24 hours, making it a masterstroke in reaching young male voters (a key demographic in the election). He continued this strategy by giving interviews to podcaster Theo Von, Barstool Sports' "Bussin' With the Boys," Logan Paul's "Impaulsive" podcast and appearing on a Kick livestream with controversial streamer Adin Ross - which at its peak had over 580,000 viewers.

These podcasts provided unfiltered long form interviews with a highly engaged audience, hosted by influencers who deeply understand their listeners. In contrast, Harris’s focus on short-form, trend-based content like TikTok videos lacked the depth and connection needed for sustained impact.

Actionable Steps:

  • Build trust with long-term, aligned partnerships: Focus on establishing long-term collaborations with influencers who deeply resonate with your brand's values and audience. This ensures authentic connections that reinforce credibility over time.
  • Leverage long-form content for depth: Invest in long-form formats like podcasts and YouTube collaborations to create meaningful, engaging content that fosters trust and builds lasting audience relationships.
  • Use data-driven insights to enhance storytelling: Leverage analytics to identify culturally aligned voices and integrate their storytelling into broader communications strategies - including crisis plans - to humanize the brand and maintain transparency.
  • Use predictive forecasts and intelligence: Specialized AI solutions can predict how audiences will react to influencers, content, messages or any topic or theme with surprising accuracy.

2. Platform Leadership and Political Connection

Platforms are becoming increasingly tied to political narratives, with leadership shaping discourse and amplifying ideologies. Elon Musk has been appointed co-leader of the new Department of Government Efficiency; a role that the BBC expects will gain him influence over government policy - and the regulatory environment facing his enterprises.

Section 230 reform, which could significantly impact content moderation and platform liability for brands, is a critical issue under consideration. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is involved in this discussion, as we see in the Financial Times’ analysis of the company’s stance on artificial intelligence, acknowledging past mistakes in terms of moderation.

Zuckerberg's criticisms of censorship and alleged political bias offer insight into Meta's most recent decisions. On The Joe Rogan Experience (January 10th, 2025), he targeted the Biden administration, the media, and Facebook's past compliance with censorship demands. Days earlier (January 7th), Meta ended partnerships with third-party fact-checkers, citing this same bias. The company also announced the end of its DEI programming. Axios suggeststhat Zuckerberg had been considering some of the moves for years, but that Meta deliberately packaged them all up for detonation over nine days to “maximize the pop for Trump”.

But this is not exclusively tied to Meta and X. As the Supreme Court seems reluctant to overturn a TikTok ban in the U.S, the platform’s removal of pro-Russian influencer accounts in Romania ahead of the election is one piece of a complex argument that highlights an uncertain future for the business in the U.S.

The proximity of these platform leaders to such issues is creating unease with users and the influencers who rely on them to make a living, with a polarization that’s reminiscent of what’s been seen before with broadcast media. Social media is bracing for a year of upheaval, driven by policy changes, controversies, and evolving user preferences. Emerging echo chambers, the Florida social media law that prohibits anyone under 14 from using social media, and the looming TikTok ban signal significant shifts in platform policies and user demographics. Expect platforms to evolve rapidly throughout 2025, impacting both user behavior and platform governance. This volatile landscape demands adaptable strategies, aligned to audience expectations and recognition of the broader divide of their users, requiring brands to remain agile and informed.

Actionable Steps:

  • Proactively monitor and respond to policy and platform changes: Track platform updates to understand their implications on liability, moderation, and brand safety. Use real-time sentiment analysis to adjust messaging strategies accordingly.
  • Diversify and customize platform presence: Avoid overreliance on a single platform by maintaining a presence across multiple channels. Craft platform-specific strategies that align with the cultural norms and audience expectations of each space to ensure messaging resonates authentically.
  • Strengthen stakeholder communication: Prioritize clear and timely communication with internal stakeholders to prepare for potential reputational risks tied to platform policies or political developments. This ensures leadership is equipped to navigate politically charged environments effectively.

3. Emergence of New Platforms

Fragmentation has become even more prevalent post-election. Users are migrating to new platforms like Bluesky and Threads, driven by privacy concerns and perceived toxicity from spaces like X as detailed by Fortune.

Bluesky reached 24 million users after the election, driven by its decentralized strategy. The platform allows users to host their own data and create custom feeds, reducing the risk of data breaches and providing complete control over their personal information. Speaking at WIRED's The Big Interview event, CEO Jay Graber described this approach as her “recipe for success,” emphasizing the importance of empowerment in a new media landscape.

Meanwhile, the Verge reported that Threads experienced an 11% surge in daily active users following election day and 35m additional signups in November leveraging Meta’s robust infrastructure to help scale rapidly. Like Bluesky, Threads positions itself as an appealing alternative for users seeking a fresh start from X, focusing on simplicity and engagement. Time will tell whether the Meta announcements detailed above will impact this growth.

Both platforms offer new opportunities for paid amplification over the long term, with Threads planning to offer ad placements as early as Q1 2025. However, brands must carefully evaluate these platforms. X also saw 5% growth in daily active users following the election, so specific analysis of audience channel usage is key to understanding where to be present.

This trend isn’t just about new spaces, but also a reconsideration of large platforms and the role they play. LinkedIn, traditionally viewed as a professional networking site, has become a vital space for brand communication and public perception management. With over 1 billion members worldwide, including more than 300 million active users each month, it offers extensive reach and engagement opportunities. According to Microsoft’s third quarter 2024 earnings call, video uploads grew by 34% year on year, and the platform sees 1.4x more engagement with video than other formats, highlighting the platform's effectiveness in disseminating compelling brand narratives.

Actionable Steps:

  • Audit channel and content performance: Consider the roles each social platform plays in your communications and marketing mix. Is content driving engagement, traffic, or impact? Are these channels central to your communications plan, or is publishing there just a box-ticking exercise?
  • Use audience insights to inform platform selection: Examine content performance and existing audience data as well as your target audience to confirm if you’re using the right channels and the right formats to meet your audience where they are spending their time. Consider audiences across the board - the public, media, stakeholders, investors, and influencers.
  • Identify appropriate new channels for testing: Using this content performance and audience data, align on new platforms and social strategies to experiment with. Use corporate guidelines for direction on aligning resources to experiments with new or emerging platforms versus more traditional platforms for ‘block and tackle’ activities.

4. Shift in Paid, Earned, and Owned Media

The lines between paid, earned, and owned media are further blurring, demanding greater integration and agility. While the demise of mainstream media may be front of mind, there will always be a place telling truthful, relevant stories. But where and how these stories are heard and shared will continue to evolve.

Paid strategies are leaning heavily on programmatic and native formats, while earned media increasingly involves collaboration with influencers and advocacy groups. Owned media must now prioritize storytelling and utility to stand out in a fragmented ecosystem.

Assessing a brand’s unique blend of paid, earned, and owned media requires a nuanced approach based on industry, business/strategic objectives, and audience behaviors, but key trends across the media mix provide opportunities to test and learn.

Actionable Steps:

  • Diversify paid media investments: Across both emerging and established platforms, leverage programmatic advertising or platform-insights dashboards for highly specific targeting. Tools like Google Analytics help to prioritize data-driven targeting, refine audience segmentation, and implement A/B testing to identify high-performing content.
  • Invest in building strong owned communities: This creates a controlled environment to cultivate direct engagement and foster a dedicated audience, offering a haven from the noise and negativity of polarized platforms. Facebook Groups, Discord servers, Subreddits and even forums are seeing a resurgence in popularity for this very reason. To enhance even further, brands can offer opt-in subscriptions for exclusive, tailored content. This could include newsletters, curated updates, or premium resources aligned with the brand’s values and expertise. By allowing people to actively choose to receive this content, brands can build a more engaged and loyal audience while maintaining relevance in an increasingly personalized media landscape.
  • Unfiltered, authentic storytelling over rehearsed soundbites: A good story is still fundamental to earned strategy, but the tone, format and speed in which this comes to life now looks very different. Bringing key spokespeople on that journey and focusing on the impact of this new approach (who you tell your story to, where it lives and what format it takes), is vital.

Conclusion: Embracing Continual Evolution

The post-election media landscape demands authenticity. Rehearsed soundbites are out; genuine dialogue is in. With the inauguration approaching, even greater changes are on the horizon. To thrive, brands must embrace a forward-thinking approach. Who people believe continues to shift towards "people like me," making influencer partnerships crucial for building credibility. Long-form collaborations foster meaningful connections, while diversified platform strategies ensure adaptability, and building robust owned communities secures engagement even in polarized environments.

The actionable steps outlined above are not just survival tactics for 2025, they are investments in future resilience. The inauguration marks a new chapter, demanding agility and foresight. By prioritizing cultural alignment, authenticity, and adaptability, brands can strengthen reputations and lead in this new era of dialogue.