Buckle up, Buttercup—this election’s gonna be a doozy. I’m pretty nervous about what it’ll bring out in people. I watched friends & family in both directions become totally consumed in 2020, barely resembling themselves by November. Please remember to get off the internet, touch grass, and be a full-blown human during the chaos.

But hey, let’s talk about your brand’s relationship to the election.

—Jack Appleby

Brand + Social Media Marketing during the 2024 Presidential Election: an FAQ

I hoped we could stave off political social worries til Q4, but that was always a pipe dream. Between the debates, the assassination attempt, and the President’s withdrawal, it’s clear the horrors & headlines have no interest in waiting for summer to end.

So now, with just over 100 days until the election, us marketers gotta start preparing for what could be the loudest content election of all-time.

I built an FAQ to help you write the endless string of POVs coming the next couple months, including perspectives on:

• Should your brand take a political stance?

• When should your brand go dark during the election cycle?

• Should brands use memes or trends with politic origins?

• and a whole lot more

I’ll update this piece if any new needs come to mind. If you’re looking for something specific, reply right to this newsletter—I want to make this as helpful as possible.

With that, let’s get into the Qs.

Should your brand take a political stance?

Maybe the biggest question of all. It certainly happened a lot in 2020—brand activism was commonplace. I’ve worked with brands that pledged big time and money to causes, and been proud to be part of it.

But it was also a quarantine year, where we were all online all the time. I don’t think we’ll see consumers demanding brands speak up as much now that everyone’s able to touch grass.

Here’s a chart I rather like from the 2023 Sprout Social Index Report. It’s important for us to remember why consumers follow brands on social. When asked, only 21% seem to care if said brand aligns with their missions & values—which means the overwhelming majority want your content because they want your product or they’re entertained.

If your brand has a natural tie to a political stance, that you’re comfortable betting your company on, that your leadership team + employees all represent? Hey, by all means, do you. And this data was collected during a non-election year, so maybe the currents could change—but it sure seems like no, you don’t need to declare a political stance.

Should brands engage with political figures?

No. Politicians are multi-faceted individuals, any comments or replies on content from or about political figures will be viewed as endorsement. You do not want consumers defining your brand based on their personal views of certain politicians.

Should your brand participate in Election-related memes & trends?

I’ve always been pretty anti-trends—we’re all paid to be creative, we should be able to generate our own result-producing creative ideas—but I reallyyy don’t think you should get involved in political memes and trends.

It’s gonna be far too volatile of an election, the risk of upsetting a huge % of your consumer base isn’t worth a couple retweets, and really, what does your brand have anything to do with coconuts.

When should your brand go dark? (election)

There are certain known dates within the election cycle that just make sense to avoid. CNN has a 2024 Election Events Calendar that’s comprehensive, but the most notable are below.

• August 19-22: Democratic National Convention

• September 10: ABC Presidential Debate

• November 5: Election Day

But those are just the dates themselves—the conversations before and after will be just as potent and worth avoiding. So really? Your blackout dates should probably be more like:

• August 19-23: Democratic National Convention week

• September 9-13: ABC Presidential Debate week

• November 1-8: lead-up + wind-down from the election

There’s just no reason for our brands to compete with those windows. We don’t lose anything by being cautious. Posting organic social content on September 12 or November 2 isn’t gonna make or break your social metrics or product sales. I spoke with a VP of Social yesterday who’s even considering a 3 week blackout recommendation around the election.

Should the election affect brand campaign timing?

YES. There’s no reason to launch some mega-multi-million-dollar campaign during the above weeks, even with Black Friday coming soon after the election.

For any Q3 or Q4 launch campaign, you should have the election dates + your strategy for those dates within the plan.

When should your brand go dark? (crisis)

If you’re wondering if your brand should go silent, you should.

Your brand gets nothing out of tossing up organic content on the same day as a mass shooting, or invasion, or assassination attempt, or any unexpected political happening. I promise you, your content isn’t so important that it absolutely must go up that day. I don’t care if you’re launching a major campaign you’ve worked on for years—hit pause. We. Work. In. Marketing. Our. Content. Doesn’t. Matter.

Your content can’t succeed, anyway. Do you really want to launch that campaign when U.S. consumers are upset, mourning, or enraged? Is that the audience mood you’re looking for?

When should a dark brand come back online?

There’s no industry best practice scientific answer for this. The best I’ve got: the team I worked with at R/GA for Verizon came up with a model based on Twitter global sentiment using the Hedonometer—you can read that full piece right over here.

Generally, though, it’s more feel. If the feed’s all politics, stay dark. If you’re seeing people posting daily life content, you’re probably safe to get back out there. I do like to give a day or two after election moments—better safe than sorry.

Should we treat Twitter differently than other social networks during crisis or election moments?

I’ve been thinking a lot about how Twitter’s pretty unique in how seemingly the entire network responds to big cultural moments. Did I see content about the assassination attempt on Instagram and TikTok? Definitely—but it was also fractional compared to Twitter, and mostly came out in the days following.

To keep things clean, it’s probably safest to have a blanket rule within your company that applies to every social network, but if your brand overindexes on Twitter for whatever reason, you may want to take your brand dark even more often—the discourse keeps discoursing on that app.

What’s the big takeaway?

It’s gonna be weird out there. You should get your election plans and plan Bs ready right now. You should be cautious, because there’s no downside to caution. And if moments like elections leave you a little emotional (hi, me), make sure you’ve got resources in place to keep your head above water.

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