Of course, every year is more or less turbulent, but there are still some things that personally captivate us. And that's even though it's only January!

Let’s jump right in with a topic that started last year but is only now coming to full fruition:

As a Facebook advertiser, I see Facebook's warning ads at least 50 times a day: "Prepare for Apple's changes..." - I can't read it anymore.

Nevertheless, it's an important issue because it limits the effectiveness of personalized advertising. Google, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, and Facebook all measure the success of their ads using "browser cookies," an invention Apple has declared war on.

Advertising platforms use a feedback loop, whereby one result improves all subsequent ones. However, if the platforms don't receive any results, then this feedback loop cannot be used.

Of course, Google and Facebook aren't the smallest companies, so they've already developed ways around this, but the battle will continue throughout the year.

As a social media agency, we are particularly curious to see whether, and if so, to what extent this will result in changes to Facebook advertising costs.

At the time of this writing, Clubhouse is the most hyped app ever. But as the first Clubhouse reviews come in (it was valued at $1 billion) and its popularity continues to grow, the first networks are already integrating their own Clubhouse.

Twitter Spaces—essentially Clubhouse on Twitter—is currently in the testing phase. We suspect this form of audio sharing will become a feature on every platform, just as Stories already are.

Stories used to be a Snapchat-exclusive feature, but now in 2021, every platform has adopted this feature. We expect Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram to quickly follow suit with their own versions of Clubhouse, undermining the app.

As a social media agency, we are excited to see if this will be successful.

Unfortunately, Instagram's peak as the most popular platform is over. More and more users are turning to TikTok because it's the more exciting platform. We ourselves are spending more and more of our free time on these platforms, simply because they engage us more.

Instagram is still more popular among its demographic, but it needs to do something. We hope that Instagram will finally wake up to the TikTok threat and bring new momentum to the platform with more innovation. With Instagram "Guides" and series on Instagram, they're taking a step in the right direction. But the user base needs something unique on the platform, something worth staying on for longer.

Conversely, TikTok has such strong momentum that if it decides to add images to the platform, it could spell the end for Instagram.

Here too, we are curious to see how much change there will be in Instagram advertising in the near future.