“The future is private,” Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019, revealing his vision to unify Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp in response to global consumer demand for more intimate social experiences.1 Zuckerberg’s vision is part of an ongoing shift in social that pushes private channels into the spotlight while pressuring brands to quickly adapt.

Rest assured that during this shift to private, the public feed hasn’t been completely sidelined. The rise of TikTok and IGTV—and Twitter’s continued growth—show that building avenues for public consumption of content remains a core use case for social. The data backs this up—we found that brand discovery and customer acquisition continue to thrive on public feeds.

The key in 2020 will be finding balance. Brands must drive broad reach using the public feed, while taking to private channels to focus on one-to-one engagement and deeper relationships with their customers.

In last year’s report, we saw the impact of trust make its way to social networks, accelerated by data privacy concerns, fake news, and malicious content. Trust continues to fall among consumers as populism, divisive politics, and global mistrust of traditional institutions accelerate across the globe.

With falling faith in traditional institutions, employees have put new pressure on their employers to take stances on social and political issues and be an active force in building a more equitable world. Progressive organizations will take advantage of this new role, building strong internal cultures, amplifying their company purpose with employee and customer advocacy, and putting to work the inextricable link between employee and customer experience.