A choice to make
Managing Social Media is Hard Enough — Staying Up to Date Shouldn't Be.
Crikey! Australia continues to lead the way when it comes to taking a hard line on social media use. The country's top court recently ruled in favour of a lawsuit that holds media companies responsible for comments on their posts, according to the NY Times. The ruling has left some media companies in Australia second-guessing what types of stories they post on the platform. It's too bad we can't just moderate ourselves, I guess...
In today's top stories:
Instagram announces "The Next Chapter"
Twitter expands its Tips feature globally
Almost half of U.S. adults get their news on social media
And here we go again with a viral video
Read on ⬇️
The Next Chapter
As Instagram prepares to celebrate its 11th anniversary, it released a new global branding campaign (which was strangely absent from the Twitter feed of Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri). The campaign — Yours to Make — comes as the company faces intense criticism following an explosive report from The Wall Street Journal that suggests the Facebook-owned app knew that the platform was causing mental health issues for teen girls. Instagram is also facing increasing competition, with young people (and many others) migrating towards TikTok and Snapchat. Here's what you need to know...
The Background
Instagram is calling the campaign "The Next Chapter" in its branding journey. "Yours to Make serves as a celebration of the good that can come from connecting with communities and interests on Instagram," the company said in a blog post. The campaign will feature Creators like hip-hop artist Topaz Jones, gymnast Morgan Hurd, Native American Makeup Artist Madrona Redhawk, and digital creator Justin Yi, according to Instagram. But if you think this campaign is for everyone, think again. It's all about attracting Gen Z. "For young people, identity isn’t defined, it’s something that’s constantly explored," Instagram said in the blog post. The company goes on to suggest that young people explore by "connecting more deeply with the people that matter to you, discovering and experimenting with new interests, or sharing your perspective..."
Behind the Message
As part of the announcement, Instagram released a video featuring voice overs from young people talking about their interests (and shopping trends, tbh), as well as hidden talents (aka, Creator potential). The video ends on the statement "Let's see who we can be." I don't mean to sound jaded, but the campaign sounds a bit like a persuasive plug to get young people to shop more on the app, and to explore using their talents to become Creators. And none of this is surprising, given that Instagram has made its "Shop" feature more and more prominent over the last year. And it was just a few months ago (in June) that the Instagram CEO declared that the company was "no longer a photo-sharing app." In a message posted on Twitter, Mosseri outlined several reasons that Instagram is making the shift to video, including increasing competition from TikTok and YouTube, and research that suggests that the number one reason that people come to Instagram is to be "entertained." And who entertains? Creators.
What's Next
The campaign is going live in the U.S. and U.K. first, and will launch more widely in the future. It comes as the app prepares to celebrate its 11th birthday (on Oct. 6). And as Instagram grows into a pre-teen, it's clearly experiencing some growing pains as it navigates its way forward. As for who will win the popularity contest... I guess that's a choice for all of us to make.
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SOCIAL SNACKS
Tips Accepted
Twitter, in an ongoing effort to keep up with the burgeoning Creator economy, has now made its "Tips" feature available globally, and added cryptocurrency options. Tips allows you to add third-party links to your profile so that people can send you money through a third-party app. Originally it was just available to a small group of users in the U.S. But Twitter says it will now roll out globally, and the tip options have expanded to include Bitcoin. The changes will roll out first to iPhone users, and then Android users. To check and see if you have access to add Tips to your Profile: on iOS, go to Edit Profile, and you should see Tips (which is turned off my default). Learn more about Tips and Tipping.
Make TikToks, Not Ads
A new research study from TikTok suggests that ads on the platform "were found to drive higher early user engagement and attention, showed stronger brand recall, and generated more positive brand sentiment than other platforms tested." The study was conducted in partnership with neuromarketing research firm MediaScience. The biggest tip: Don't make ads, make TikToks. And that's probably a good strategy, given the strong impact just one video can make — like this one that disrupted thousands of scientific studies.
ICYMI
🔴 Twitter says it has improved video quality on uploads [@TwitterSupport]
🔴 Instagram shares tips for how to use Live Shopping to reach customers [Instagram Blog]
🔴 Facebook shares content distribution guidelines [Facebook Blog]
🔴 Snapchat offers 10 ways to increase e-commerce sales this holiday season [Snapchat Blog]
🔴 LinkedIn launches event marketing integration and lead-gen forms with Zapier [LinkedIn Blog]
🔴 YouTube testing offline video downloads on desktop browsers for Premium subscribers [9to5Google.com]
RESEARCH-LIKE
News Consumption Across Social Media in 2021
According to a Pew Research Center Survey of U.S. adults:
Close to half of U.S. adults say they get news from social media “often” or “sometimes,” (which is a 5 percentage point decline compared with 2020)
A third of U.S. adults say they get news regularly on Facebook; One-in-five Americans say they regularly get news on YouTube.
And while only 13% of Americans say they get their news on Twitter, 55% of Twitter users regularly get their news on this platform.
Source: A Pew Research Center survey conducted July 26-Aug. 8, 2021
UPCOMING CONFERENCES
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)
DREAM-LIKE
Now Here You Go Again...
It was one year ago that TikTok creator @420doggface208 (otherwise known as Nathan Apodaca) went viral after he shared a video featuring him skateboarding, sipping on Ocean Spray's Cran-Raspberry juice, and vibing out to Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams." And he celebrated in the most TikTok way possible — by dueting his own clip.
The 2020 viral video — filmed by Apodaca on his way to work after his car died — changed his life. Ocean Spray gifted him a truck. His merch sales went through the roof. And many TikTokers, including Fleetwood Mac band members, jumped on this trend with their own version of the video. It also looks like he's repped now, and hopefully making some good Creator cash. 👍
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