Changing of the guard
Facebook has some explaining to do (again) after a video featuring Black men was labelled by the company's AI as "Primates." The company apologized (again) calling it an "unacceptable error." FB is looking into it, according to the NY Times. Throw it onto the pile, I guess?
Here are today's top stories:
Social media doesn't look like it did a decade ago
LinkedIn wraps up its Stories experiment
Twitter tests privacy and safety features
And the force was strong with this viral tweet
Read on ⬇️
Seismic Shifts
When I first started working in social media a decade ago, the main (and really, only) social media platforms were Twitter and Facebook. You could only post text and static images. And the biggest challenge was trying to fit a hashtag, handle, image and text into a 140-character tweet. (I still wonder what I did with all my time back then). Today, the social media landscape has changed dramatically. A recent report from app analytics and market data firm App Annie — The Evolution of Social Media Apps — explores social media usage trends over the last decade, and what that means about where we are headed. Let's dig in!
A Shift to Video First
From 2012 to 2019, Facebook and Facebook Messenger dominated downloads of social and entertainment apps, according to the App Annie report. But from 2020 onwards, a new app took over the top spot — TikTok (surprise!). The short-looping video app, which merged with Musical.ly in August 2018, hasn't been around long, but has already passed 3 billion downloads, according to mobile app analytics firm Sensor Tower. It is the first non-Facebook app to reach that milestone. So what does this mean for the future? Consumers have shifted to a video-first experience, which is good news for apps like TikTok. According to the App Annie report, "video-first players — particularly those with short-form video content and live streaming have risen dramatically up the rankings..."
A Shift to Live Streaming
Once again, Facebook and its platforms were slowly ousted from the top spot. But this time, by YouTube. Purchased by Google 15 years ago, YouTube holds the top spot in streaming, social and photo and video "due to both death and breadth of engagement," according to the App Annie report. But the report also points out that users in the U.S. and U.K. spend more time on average on TikTok than YouTube, which could change up these rankings in the years to come. Overall, live-streaming apps drive more engagement (and more $ spent) than chat or photo & video social apps. "Short-video, authentic content and live streaming are pillars to cultivating deep engagement, with live streaming in particular driving growth in time spent," says the App Annie report.
A Shift to the Creator Economy
While many of us were already getting used to paying for professionally produced content on Netflix, the App Annie report points out that over the last few years there has been a shift towards paying for content by creators. This is particularly the case on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. As proof of this, YouTube just announced that it hit 50 million Music and Premium subscribers. So what does this all mean? According to App Annie, this shift suggests a move towards "authentic experiences." And many of the social media platforms have recognized this shift, offering Creator Funds and even quick and easy ways to make money, such as Twitter's Super Follows. App Annie predicts more than $17 billion will be spent per year to support creators. Congrats, creators!
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SOCIAL SNACKS
LinkedIn Says 👋 to Stories
It was only a month ago that Twitter said goodbye to its Story-like feature, Fleets. Now LinkedIn is getting ready to retire Stories. The feature will disappear at the end of September, according to a blog post by Liz Li, senior director of product at LinkedIn. But this doesn't mean that the Microsoft-owned company is giving up on video. "As we reimagine what is next, we’re focusing on how we can provide you with a short-form, rich interactive video format that is unique to our platform and that better helps you reach and engage your audiences on LinkedIn," the company said. Stay tuned...
Twitter Tests New Safety and Privacy Features
Hiding old tweets after a certain amount of time and removing specific followers are a few of the potential features that Twitter is considering testing, according to Mashable. The new privacy features were first reported by Bloomberg News and confirmed by Mashable. But it's unclear where they will be tested. Meanwhile, the BBC News is reporting that Twitter is going to test a Safety Mode, which "will flag accounts using hateful remarks, or those bombarding people with uninvited comments, and block them for seven days."
ICYMI
🔴 Twitter introduces $uper Follows [Twitter Blog]
🔴 Instagram is going to start asking for your birthday [Facebook Blog]
🔴 Instagram provides more details about Verification [Instagram Blog]
🔴 TikTok's new Creator Marketplace API lets influencer marketing companies tap into first-party data [TechCrunch]
🔴 WhatsApp is fined for breaking E.U.'s privacy data law [NY Times]
LEVELLING UP
It's been a while since I went to school, but September always feels like the start of a new year. It's also usually when I want to refocus and level up my social media knowledge. If you feel the same way, here are some virtual conferences and events you might want to check out.
Ragan's Social Media Conference (Sept. 9-10)
Leap Into Live Streaming Bootcamp (Sept. 13-16)
TikTok World (Sept. 28)
B2B Forum by MarketingProfs (Oct. 13-14)
Social Media Strategies Summit Higher Education (Oct. 18-21)
Social Media Strategies Summit (Oct. 20-21)
GOING VIRAL
The Force is Strong With This One
Actor Mark Hamill (aka, Luke Skywalker) put a theory to the test this weekend when someone suggested that just tweeting his own name would lead to thousands of new followers (he already has 4.7 million, but hey, who couldn't use a few more?!). So he did just that and tweeted "Mark Hamill." It's hard to say how many new followers he gained, but the tweet received more than half a million likes, so I'm guessing he may have picked up a few new friends.
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