ICYMI: Facebook Meh(ta) Edition 🤷🏻♀️
Here's what happened on social media this week, October 28
📣 The Facebook family of apps is now called Meta in a hat tip to the immersive metaverse they want to build.
Should you care?
Not really. Mark Zuckerberg may want to build it but that’s no guarantee everyone will come. So, unless you work for a Facebook competitor or a brand that wants to jump on this cultural moment, Meta will have little impact on your life at this stage.
More interesting for social media managers is Facebook’s new Work Account feature that lets you uncouple your personal Facebook page from a dedicated work account. That sound you hear is thousands of people weeping in relief at being able to delete their personal Facebook accounts.
👎🏻 In other Facebook updates, Mark Zuckerberg said on an earnings call that Facebook would be "retooling" to make "serving young adults the north star, rather than optimizing for older people."
That won’t be an easy task. Young people perceive Facebook as “boring, misleading and negative,” with no strong value prop according to leaked documents from the Facebook Papers. No real surprise there.
But growth has also slowed for Instagram, reads the leaked report. Teens are abandoning the platform and the app is running out of potential new users as it reaches saturation in it top 5 markets. Meanwhile, content creation and messaging has dropped in the U.S., Japan and Australia.
These headlines are all part of a concerted news drop based on whistleblower Frances Haugen’s leaked documents, now being called the Facebook Papers. Here’s a tidy recap of all the articles that came out Monday. Plus, the Washington Post put together a things-you-ought-to-know-about Frances Haugen article — like she co-founded Hinge?!
📲 Elsewhere at Meta… Instagram announced it would extend its link sticker feature to everyone! Previously, only accounts with over 10K followers could add off-site links in their Stories. This means anyone will be able to link from Stories to local businesses, news stories or even their own website!
(Note: it can take weeks, months or even years for a global rollout to hit your device. I still don’t have link stickers and I’m not holding my breath).
💰 Late last week, Instagram’s Creator account announced new ways it would connect influencers and brands. As part of an invite-only test of its new branded marketplace, profiles will get more visibility (rework your bios to include as much detail as possible!), audience demographics will play an important role in connecting creators and brands and expect to see a special partnerships DM folder.
The company also announced they would begin testing “Shops for Affiliate Creators” this week for a select group of creators based in the U.S.
🍯 TikTok is testing a new tool that allows TikTok users to tip some creators directly on their profiles. TikTok creator Jera Bean was the first to point this out. She now has a tip button in her bio, which accepts donations ranging from $5 to $15 or the choice of a custom amount.
👆🏻 Click Thru
Here’s one more Noodles the pug and his bones / no bones days article to check out since the Washington Post asked me about pet influencers: “Noodles is the personification of how we all feel. We’re all exhausted, we’re all overwhelmed. We all want to have a no bones day. And I think Noodle just kind of empowers us to be able to push back a little bit.”
🌟 This post distills TikTok viral videos down to four elements. Content must be:
Simple – essential
Universal – essential
Reactive – essential
Followers – helpful
Of course, if it was that easy, everyone could do it but that being said, this is a good primer on TikTok trends and creating the environment that allows for the possibility of you going viral.
📌 PayPal isn’t looking to buy Pinterest, despite recent reports to the contrary. And now Pinterest’s stock price is down and can we please not kill the one platform that isn’t entirely awful?
🤗 Before he was in Dune (or almost every project you’ve watched) Timothée Chalamet had a secret YouTube channel where he sold custom Xbox 360 controllers. In a world where milkshake duck is a thing, this is just so pure and wholesome.
🥦 TikTok star Tabitha Brown is opening a restaurant in Encino. Like so, like that. Purely based on her social presence, she seems to deserve all the good things.
💅🏻 Brand managers busy on TikTok this week:
Barbie just launched a TikTok account. Fun fact: Barbie’s style account is one of my top 10 follows on Instagram. Here’s hoping they bring the same energy to TT.
Netflix had “Joe” (aka Penn Badgeley) narrate You fan videos in stalker mode. It’s as creepy as you’d expect.
Move over sassy brand Twitter, it’s all going down in Rod’s TikTok comments, part 1 and 2.
🔎 China’s key opinion leaders (KOLs) are evolving. This post is a good look at the difference between North American influencers and the next generation of Chinese KOLs (which includes driving 10x the size of social commerce!) — while this report looks at the luxury brands ditching KOLs for virtual influencers.
🎁 BJ Novak’s face is America’s gift to the world. Years ago, someone mistakenly put a picture of him on a public domain site and now his mug is on products everywhere.
🔨 Resources
There are a couple of free classes coming up that could be key for creators:
How to Get Press Masterclass from Silicon Valley PR and marketing entrepreneur Kate Talbot — details are here for tips and tricks to getting featured and mistakes to avoid when pitching the press.
How to Batch Reels from marketing expert Taylor Lorenz — details are here for how to plan your Reels ahead and film all your content in one day.
