Days without incident: 0
Hello, friends! I hope you had a great holiday break. And while things seem a bit dark right now, the fact that the Instagram account for Pope Francis has once again "liked" a racy lingerie pic suggests at least one social media manager is having fun. 🤷♀️
Here are today's top stories:
What the Twitter ban means for brands
Facebook Pages get a facelift
Audio-only apps are betting on listeners
And sharing tweets just got easier
This and more in today's e-newsletter. Read on ⬇️
A watershed moment
For years, many have called on social media companies like Twitter and Facebook to suspend and/or ban U.S. President Donald Trump over his posts. It took a violent insurrection to make it happen, but it did. And while there are details below on the bans and restrictions, this is actually about much more than whether Trump can tweet. The deadly insurrection at the Capitol Building last week has major implications for you, and for any brand accounts you manage.
A long list...
Just days after the riot, Twitter announced it was permanently suspending Trump's account of 88 million followers (and many other related accounts). Facebook also announced it would indefinitely suspend Trump's FB and Instagram accounts until at least after President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. Other social media and online companies that have taken action include: Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, Discord, and Shopify. (Axios has a good summary article). Meanwhile, Apple, Google and Amazon have banned Parler, a Twitter-like social media platform without moderation and restrictions. And on Sunday, financial tech company Stripe said it would stop processing Trump campaign donations.
What this means for brands
The companies that have taken action to ban or suspend activity related to Trump amid the events of last week are taking a stand. It's something that almost every brand will have to do moving forward. Customers and followers expect companies to live their values (see: Ben and Jerry's).
Brands also need to protect their accounts from those who may decry free speech or target their anger and vitriol at your platforms. That's why it's important to have an icon-clad social media policy. It should specifically outline the type of behaviour and comments that are not allowed (for example: hateful, racist, and homophobic comments), the consequences of those actions, and be posted publicly on a website or a platform. This absolutely does not mean you should just start deleting comments you don't like. But it will help you take action if necessary. Note: it's possible to hide comments on Facebook. You can also disable replies on tweets.
What this means for you It might be time to rewatch the Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma." in it, experts warn that social media platforms track everything we do, and use that information to create echo chambers that reflect our reality. What that means is that we are all seeing our very own version of the world. It's important to understand and recognize that you being served up certain types of information, and more importantly, to verify the source of information you are seeing. Otherwise, the documentary argues, we are heading towards the end of civilization as we know it (dark, I know, but given what happened last week, entirely plausible).
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ICYMI
FB turns the Page
Facebook is kicking off 2021 with a major redesign — this time for Pages. The rollout is still happening, but in the near future, you can expect to see some big changes. This includes a new dedicated News Feed. FB says the News Feed will allow Pages to interact with other Pages and followers, as well as follow trends, and join conversations (sounds a bit like Twitter, tbh). Page "likes" are also going to be disappearing, and you'll soon only see a count for "followers." Other new features include:
A redesigned layout to make it "easier to navigate between a personal profile and a public Page"
A text-based Q&A (here's how it will work)
Improved Page management tools to manage access permissions
Updated security and integrity features designed to detect prohibited activity, such as hate speech
Thanks, Twitter 👍
Last year, we mentioned that you could share tweets directly to Snapchat. Well, now you can also share them to Instagram! To share a tweet on an Instagram Story:
First, make sure you're signed into the Instagram account that you want to post to
Then, sign into Twitter, find the tweet you want to share, and click on the Share icon
You'll see a list of share options pop up, including a black-and-white logo for Instagram Stories
Click on the icon for Instagram Stories, and you should see it pop up in a new screen on your Instagram account
Is audio the new content king?
It looks like video didn't kill the radio star after all. At least two new social media platforms featuring audio content are hoping to gain listeners in 2021. Let's start with Clubhouse. The invite-only app gained some attention in 2020, but I'm guessing 2021 will determine its fate. I'm just starting to check it out and will report back soon, but according to this Mashable article, it allows you to jump in on chats and discussions on a number of topics. (If you want to check it out yourself, let me know and I'll send you an invite.) Meanwhile, Twitter is testing its own audio-only app called Spaces. It's being rolled out to a small group of people right now, according to Twitter, but once the bugs are worked out, I'm sure we can expect a global launch.
NEWS-LIKE
🔴 This is Why You Heard About TikTok So Much in 2020 [NY Times]
🔴 Signal Sees Surge in New Signups After Boost From Elon Musk and the WhatsApp Controversy [The Verge]
🔴 Roku Snaps Up Quibi's Collection of Short Shows [BBC News]
🔴 Google Search Testing New "Short Videos" Search Carousel [9to5Google]
🔴 The 20 Most Useful Free iPhone Apps, According to Reddit [Mashable]
APP-LIKE
Short-looping video app TikTok had 56 million downloads in December 2020, according to mobile app analytics firm SensorTower, making it the most downloaded non-gaming app for that month. TikTok was followed by Facebook, with close to 50 million installs. WhatsApp, Instagram and Zoom rounded out the top five.
HAPPY-LIKE
Is there anything better than baby goats?
For those of you who have been doomscrolling or are trying to come to terms with the events of the last week, we're just going to leave this video here. 💕
Hey, congrats — you made it to the bottom of the e-newsletter!
If you really liked it, why not forward it to a friend. 💌