Hey friends, it's been a busy winter so I'm going to take a few weeks off from publishing The Social Platypus. I hope you enjoy today's newsletter, and I'll see you again very soon! 👍
In today's news:
Let the social media audio wars begin
Twitter tests new image options
Burger King's message gets lost in a thread
And (even) more social media resources!
Read on ⬇️
I hear ya
Break out your fancy microphone and start warming up your vocal cords, because the social media audio war is about to begin. Twitter's audio-chat feature, Spaces, will reportedly launch publicly in April. Meanwhile, the invite-only audio app Clubhouse continues to gain listeners. But there are a few issues to consider. Let's investigate.
Twitter Spaces
Twitter Spaces, which is essentially a chat room, launched an iOS beta test in December 2020. But starting in April, iOS and Android users will reportedly be able to start their own "Spaces" — according to comments made in a public Twitter Spaces chat room, and confirmed by TechCrunch. Right now, anyone can listen in on a Spaces chat room, which you'll find at the top of the app, where Fleets live. When Spaces does go public, you'll be able to start your own Space, and choose speakers and topics. To start a Space, Twitter says there are two options: through the Compose button, or via Fleets. And users can be invited by sharing a link via DM, a tweet, or posting it elsewhere. Stay tuned.
Clubhouse Twitter Spaces is a competitor to Clubhouse, an invite-only audio chat app that reached 8 million downloads as of February 2021. Log in and you'll quickly see a list of industry influencers and celebrities to follow and listen to (that includes everyone from Elon Musk to Lilly Singh and Joe Rogan). You can jump into different chat rooms, or host your own room. There are three roles in rooms: moderator, speaker and listener. The moderator can choose the style of room, such as a Q&A, a panel, or listening only. There are also "Clubs" on the app, but you have to apply to start one. Want a Clubhouse invite? Send me an email at hello@thesocialplatypus.com. Once you join, I suggest listening to Q&As on Clubhouse to help you get started, and/or checking out some third-party tools to help with your bio and more. The issues While it's always exciting to try out new apps and features, there are a few issues to be aware of. Like any social media platform/feature, there are concerns about harassment and hate issues, which get amplified when you have live moderation. To help protect users, both Twitter and Clubhouse keep a record of the live sessions in case they need to investigate a violation. Both also offer the option to remove, block and report users. But some worry that those options may be used in retaliation against another user. Honestly, it's hard to say. Another key issue for Clubhouse is around privacy. That's because when you join, the app requires access to the contact list in your phone. It's obviously not the only app that straddles that privacy line a bit, but always good to know what you're getting yourself into before accepting that invite.
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ICYMI
Twitter takes on visuals
It looks like Twitter has been hard at work on a number of projects, including how photos and videos appear on the app. The company recently tweeted out a number of updates, including:
Testing how single images appear in the timeline, so that the way they appear in the tweet composer is how they will actually look in the feed (currently, the app trims images to fit the feed; you can only see the full image if you click on it)
Testing ways to upload and share 4K images and videos (anyone included in the current test can update their high-quality image preferences in settings under "Data usage")
Giving users the ability to turn off the option for people to send emojis and tweet relies to Fleets (on Android for now, but coming to iOS soon)
Burger King gets roasted
If you're looking for an example of what not to do on social media, Burger King gave us a good one last week. The brand spent most of International Women's Day trying to explain why it had posted the now-deleted tweet: "Women belong in the kitchen." This was the first tweet in a thread that was meant to highlight the low number of female professional chefs in lead culinary positions. But because they didn't get to that message until the second tweet in the thread, many people took their first tweet as the tweet for IWD. Needless to say, they ended up deleting the post and apologizing. I applaud the risk taking, but I think the lesson here is that it's probably best not to wait until the second tweet to add context.
NEWS-LIKE
🔴 Evan Spiegel on The Future of Snapchat — and All of Social Media [Inc]
🔴 Facebook Targets Emerging Markets With The Launch of Instagram Lite [The Verge]
🔴 How to Make Your Instagram Stories More Secure [Mashable]
🔴 Facebook is Bringing Ads to Shorter Videos and Stories [TechCrunch]
🔴 What are NFTs, Anyway? One Just Sold for $69 Million [NY Times]
GEN Z-LIKE
For anyone out there whose target audience on social media is Gen Z, you're going to want to check out this report from Snapchat: Gen Z's Role in Shaping the Digital Economy. One key takeaway — if you're going to try to engage with this generation for marketing purposes, retail, etc., you better get comfortable with augmented reality.
RESOURCE-LIKE
If you're looking to level up your social media expertise, here are some of the accounts/resources I turn to:
Follow
@jengolbeck on TikTok — Dr. Golbeck is a professor of social media at the University of Maryland. She shares tips for content creators, social media managers, and really, all of us (I highly recommend the post about how your phone is spying on you).
Listen
Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly — This podcast is one of my favourite resources. Less social media and more marketing, there are some great gems here for any strategist.
Join
Facebook Group: The Social Media Geekout — The Group, hosted by social media expert Matt Navarra, is a great place to connect and learn from others. I was also able to score an invite to the app Dispo recently, so there is also a lot of helpful sharing going on.
What are some of your favourite resources?
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