Great while it lasted 🫡
Just Another Day in Social Media. 🤷♀️
So, remember last week when I said I would dedicate this newsletter to social media trends for 2023? Best laid plans, I guess. Turns out there is a bigger story that takes precedence — the Twitter meltdown. But I'm 99.97% sure that I'll be able to deliver the trends review next week 🤞.
And during all of this Twitter drama, the other social media platforms have been a little quiet; no major feature announcements, etc. Although, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri did take time during a run to film a video reminding us to protect our accounts from hackers, so there's that.
Here are today's top stories:
Is this the end of Twitter?
A beginner's guide to Mastodon
Kick your week off with a cute kid video
#RIPTwitter?
It was just about three weeks ago — on Oct. 27, 2022. He walked into the company's San Francisco headquarters carrying a sink, which just seems so quaint now. Since then, it's been absolute chaos. There have been mass firings and resignations. Users have been scrambling to figure out whether to stay or go. And many major advertisers are hitting pause. This is where we are right now...
Will the platform survive?
To date, Musk has fired approximately 3,700 of Twitter's 7,500 staff members (more layoffs may be coming Monday). And then last week, he issued another ultimatum, telling employees to sign off on a new company policy to go "hardcore" or leave. Staff had until 5 p.m. ET on Thursday to decide. Apparently, the ultimatum backfired and resulted in a mass resignation event. Estimates suggest about 1,200 people resigned. (One group of employees actually filmed themselves counting down to their firing). So what could a severely reduced staff mean?
Potential technical concerns:
The site will continue as is, but certain features will crash or be subject to misuse (like the copyright system)
The site will get hacked, and crash
It will suffer a major malfunction, and crash completely
That's why it's more important than ever to download as much of your Twitter data as possible.
ARCHIVE: You can download your archive of Twitter data. Here's a how-to from The Verge
ANALYTICS: You can also download a few months of your analytics. Sign into your Twitter account. Go to analytics.twitter.com. In the top right-hand corner, select a date range and click the "Export Data" button. Here's an explainer from Hubspot
You might also want to turn on two-factor authentication to protect against hackers (if that feature still works).
If it does live, do you want to be there?
Who doesn't love a good poll — especially when a billionaire who promised us content moderation uses it to make a major decision, like allowing a previously banned user to return to the platform?
That's right, as of Sunday, Donald Trump has been allowed to return to the platform based on a 51.8/48.2% split on Musk's Twitter poll. Trump responded by saying he doesn't want to return. But if Trump changes his mind and does return, the tone on the platform will likely change. And it's not just Trump who could change things on Twitter.
With fewer staff members to moderate conversations, there are concerns that hate and misinformation on the platform will run rampant (for example, there are a lot of concerns about this leading into the World Cup)
Elon Musk has also said he has big plans for Twitter. He wants to model it on China's WeChat
What this means:
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERS: You'll need to decide whether your brand still aligns/can tolerate a tone change. And if not, you'll need to decide if you want to replace Twitter with something else, or just put greater focus on an existing platform. If you do stay on Twitter, you might want to consider turning off replies on some of your posts.
ADVERTISING: When it comes to buying ads, you'll also need to decide if your brand reputation will be affected if you continue to advertise here. As the platform shifts, the audience may also shift. So brands will also have to decide whether it makes sense to continue spending on Twitter to reach a particular audience.
The Grieving Process
Either way, we probably need to say goodbye to the Twitter we've known for essentially the last 17 years.
What might make it even harder to say good-bye to Twitter vs. another platform is that unlike Instagram and Facebook, Twitter hasn't changed much over the years.
The biggest change was when the platform moved from 140 characters to 280 characters. There was a short-lived flirtation with Stories (aka, Fleets). And now there are Twitter (audio) Spaces. But it essentially looks the same as it always has — a microblogging site focused mainly on written text, with an emphasis on information and breaking news.
This is why #RIPTwitter has been trending. #LovedWhereYouWorked has also been trending for Twitter employees. And many other users have also been trying to process their grief.
As those Tweeple try to find a replacement, just a reminder to be kind and welcome them to their new social media homes. 🤍
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ICYMI
🔴 Instagram provides the capacity to add music to still images [Social Media Today]
🔴 YouTube announces the Black Voices Class of 2023 [YouTube Blog]
🔴 Pinterest TV expands to Canada, bringing first-ever live North American holiday shopping experience [Pinterest Blog]
🔴 LinkedIn announces new tools that it says will help marketers prove their strategy is working [LinkedIn Blog]
What is Mastodon?
As Twitter users search for a new home, there are a few platforms that are getting mentioned more than others. One of them is Mastodon. I'd never heard of it before now. I grabbed my handle (always a good idea), but I haven't really investigated it very much yet. In case you're interested, here's a beginner's guide.
Source: TechCrunch
THE VIBES
I Will (Sadly) Never Be This Cool
Twitter in shambles? The FBI worried about TikTok? Even as social media seems to be sliding sideways, there is always a cute kid video to cheer us up. This week, the award for cuteness and a very chill vibe goes to this video.
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