The heads of Meta, TikTok, Snap, Discord and X (formerly Twitter) testified in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary committee last week. You probably heard that Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg apologized to families for harm caused by social media. But honestly, my favourite moment was when TikTok CEO Shou Zi had to repeatedly remind Republican Senator Tom Cotton he’s from Singapore, not China. Here’s a clip from Vice News via TikTok.
In today’s newsletter:
Checking In: What We Can Learn From a Simple Tweet From Elmo
Social Snack: TikTok Wants Your (Longer) Landscape Videos
Coming Together: Helping to Boost a Song for a Dying Mom
Checking In
“Elmo is just checking in. How is everybody doing?”
What started as a simple tweet from Sesame Street’s Elmo ended up breaking the internet last week. This mental health check caused a flood of responses, including from some celebrities.
But aside from going viral, as social media managers, there is a lot we can learn from this post…
What Happened
The @Elmo Twitter account is run by 25-year-old Christina Vittas, who recently told the Los Angeles Times that she’s always looking for ways to connect with her online community. And this Jan. 29th tweet certainly did that.
If you scroll through the replies, it’s a bit of a trauma dump. Some say they are tired, others are at the end of their rope, and a few are in the midst of existential dread… you get the idea. It’s obvious that people really felt that they needed to unload some trauma, and Elmo’s account seemed to be safe space to do that.
A few celebrity friends also chimed in, like Paddington Bear, actor Rainn Wilson, and Chance the Rapper.
And after Elmo posted another tweet saying he’s glad he asked how everyone was doing, U.S. President Joe Biden retweeted that post with his own comments about mental health.
What We Can Learn From This
There are two big takeaways from this viral post:
Keeping things simple can sometimes be the best strategy. How many of you have spent weeks (or months) working on a major social media campaign that does so-so, and then you see big numbers from a simple “Have a great weekend!” post. Sometimes with social media, it’s all about keeping it simple.
Engagement is key. So many times, we feel the need to talk about our brand, our initiatives, our products/services. But the key to a great online community is engagement. This is a strategy that I’m focusing on in 2024 with my client accounts. I talked about engagement in a December newsletter: This strategy never gets old.
🍬 SOCIAL SNACK 🍬
TikTok wants your (longer) landscape videos
It’s no secret that TikTok wants to compete with YouTube. And now it’s encouraging creators to create videos in landscape orientation. Content strategist Amber Figelow recently posted a TikTok video explaining that she had received a message saying TikTok now wants people to post landscape videos that are over a minute long. It will be interesting to see how this new strategy will play out on an app where most videos are optimized for vertical views.
🎵 And by the way, a dispute between TikTok and Universal Music Group means you won’t be able to find some of your favourite artists on the app anymore, including Taylor Swift, Drake, and TheWeeknd.
❤️ Coming Together
The TikTok community got together recently to help boost a song called “Dance You Outta My Head.” It’s by singer Cat Janice, who is now in hospice palliative care following a battle with a rare form of cancer. And this final song is her legacy, with all of the streaming proceeds going to her 7-year-old son (Read more: CTV News).
And the boosts seem to be working — the song is now charting on Billboard. Here’s one of my favourite boosts from Dr. Rubin.
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