ICYMI: Tracking Gen Z's Influence

Plus, new Reels insights!

After the newsletter went out last Friday, Instagram announced 38 new stickers (above) from New York-based artist Carlos Oliveras Colom to level up your Stories and Reels

⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY

• Meta is experimenting with video dubbing and lip syncing on Reels

• Meta announced AI photo editing

• TikTok is expanding its Subscription feature to non-LIVE creators

• Pinterest announced Collage Remixing and Collage Sharing

• LinkedIn is retiring the gold badges awarded for contributing to Collaborative Articles

• A new California law bans social media notifications while kids are at school

• Amazon is launching its own version of Shark Tank

• Gen Z: What drives them and how do you reach them; plus 6 young creators to follow

• Report: There’s actually a simpler way for brands to reach more people on Instagram than Reels*

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💻 ROADMAP

📲 Meta Updates

Meta hosted its annual developer conference this week, Meta Connect 2024. 

Among the highlights: 

• Meta AI now has a voice that will talk back to you. You can choose from iconic voices including Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, John Cena, Keegan Michael Key, and Kristen Bell.

• Despite scrapping its celebrity chatbot program, Meta is still leveraging actors to voice AI characters plus artists (Doja Cat) and cinematic characters (Captain America) to fuel experiences in Horizon World.

• Meta is redesigning its social network VR apps to work better with its Quest headsets in an attempt to tie its different apps and systems together.

Specifically for creators:

• Meta is experimenting with automatic video dubbing and lip syncing on Reels to reach more people around the world in different languages. It’s a limited test now in the US and Latin America but may expand soon.

• Meta announced AI photo editing. You can now send an image in a chat with Meta AI and tell it what you want added, removed or changed in your photo.

📲 TikTok Updates

• TikTok’s trading in on its reputation as an emerging search engine and announced Search Ad Campaigns, which gives brands the ability to run ads against specific keywords.

• Byte Dance is shutting down its global Music app. TikTok Music was available in Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and Mexico.

• TikTok announced it was expanding its Subscription feature to non-LIVE creators, giving paid subscribers access to exclusive content, perks, unique experiences, and a members-only community.

• TikTok announced small businesses could apply to be featured in its Holiday Gift Guide but it costs anywhere from $13K to $20K to qualify.

📲 YouTube Updates

• YouTube announced it’s expanding access to its Conversational AI tool to all Premium members on Android. The “Ask” button allows viewers to ask questions and find related content.

📲 X (Twitter) Updates

• Elon Musk announced an update to the block function. People you had blocked will now be able to view — but not interact with — your public posts. Previously, it prevented them from seeing posts, replies, media, followers, and your following list.

📲 Pinterest Updates

• Pinterest announced Collage Remixing, which lets users collaborate, build on and use existing collages as a starting point for their own creativity, and Collage Sharing, which makes it easier to download and share collages in video format on other social media platforms. Remember, Gen Z loves a collage so expect to see this format continue to expand.  

📲 Spotify Updates

• Spotify announced upgrades to its Podtcaster creator analytics. Creators will now be able to see how their show gets discovered on the platform (Home surface; search; or library), and how that discovery is directly converted into streams of their content.

📲 Reddit Updates

• Reddit will add AI-powered translations of posts and comments in more than 35 regions across Europe, Asia and Latin America to open the largely English-centric social network to more users.

📲 LinkedIn Updates

• LinkedIn announced they’re retiring the gold Community Top Voice badge, which was automatically awarded for consistently contributing to Collaborative Articles. All gold badges will disappear by December 7, 2024. Note: This won’t affect the Top Voice (blue badge) program. This may be an unpopular opinion but it served LinkedIn’s purpose to get expert contributions to their AI generated articles and motivated some people (OK, me) to keep posting on the platform and work their way up to a blue badge. RIP gold badges. 

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🧠💡 SPONSOR INSIGHTS 

You might be spending too much time creating Reels when there’s actually a simpler way to reach more people on Instagram.

Did you know images and carousels drive more reach for brands on Instagram than Reels?!

According to Dash Hudson’s Social Media Benchmarks Report, single images and carousel content — which Instagram just increased to 20 photos and videos — achieve greater reach than Reels. 

Download the FREE report for more gems like this — plus cross channel trends, deep dives on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube and even access to industry-specific strategies and insights.

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🔮 ICYMI: GEN Z EDITION

If you hadn’t already noticed, Gen Z is driving the cultural conversation this fall — in addition to their impact on platform updates like Instagram Notes, Pinterest Collages and TikTok Search.

This cohort of people born between 1997 and 2012 are in their prime years of influence (pardon the pun), changing the ways elections are decided, where Internet searches happen and how to define workplace happiness.

📋 YOUR GEN Z PRIMER

• Gen Z accounts for 40% of all consumers (Marketing Brew)

• 35% of Gen Z spends more than four hours a day online (Morning Consult)

• YouTube (not TikTok) is their primary social channel (Ad Age)

• TikTok — along with YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat — has a bigger Gen Z audience than linear TV -eMarketer

💪🏽 HOW GEN Z FLEXES ITS MUSCLE

As their purchasing power grows, so do the reports about what drives their buying habits and how to reach them online. Here are some of my favorite insights about Gen Z from around the internet this month:

“52% of Gen Z used social media as their primary search engine for brands, products, and services” over services like Google or Bing. “Younger audiences are increasingly ‘searching’ rather than ‘Googling.’”- NetInfluencer

In both 2016 and 2020, “18- to 24-year-olds voted in numbers far larger than the vote margin in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin.” The 70,000 Swifties that attended one TSwift concert in Glendale, AZ, was larger than the number of votes in each of those states deciding the last two presidential elections.” - Teen Vogue

Remember the Roblox report that said Gen Z was buying and wearing digital fashion? Keep an eye on Dress to Impress, one of the platform’s most popular experiences. This month, the fashion game won Roblox Innovation Awards for Best New Experience, Best Creative Direction, and Builderman Choice of Excellence. - The New York Times

54% of Gen-Zers use AI to assist in their holiday shopping — whether it be to find the best prices (17%), find new gift ideas (22%), or even to craft homemade holiday presents themselves (18%) -Fiverr

“74% of Millennial and Gen-Z respondents prefer to share a fun experience or a trip over a traditional gift.” Both entertainment and travel triumph over traditional gifts including food and beverages. - American Express TrendEx

❤️‍🔥 GEN Z CREATORS TO FOLLOW

• Demetra Dias, 17-year old fashion TikToker who tells other teens what to buy -Wall Street Journal 

• Katie Fang, the 18-year-old face of Cetaphil’s first influencer-led campaign -Glossy

• Golloria George, 23, beauty TikToker holding brands accountable -What’s Trending

• Romy Mars, 17-year-old nepo baby star of FX’s English Teacher -Teen Vogue 

• Kimberly Muñoz, 25, self-proclaimed “corporate girlie” -Wall Street Journal 

• Wisdom Kaye, 23-year-old creator Vogue described as the best dressed guy on TikTok -Vogue

-Lia and Mo*

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📊 DATA DROP

74% of creators want guidelines for responsibly posting Gen AI content to social media and video platforms

-via YouTube’s Future of Tech and Creativity survey into how the global creator economy is using Gen AI 

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👀 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT HEADLINES

• Amazon announced Buy It Now, it’s own version of Shark Tank -Tube Filter

• Social is the new TV; How brands can make their content more entertaining -ICYMI

• The talent managers who brought TikTok’s ‘Mormon Moms’ to Hulu -The Information

• Influencers are shepherding their online followers to IRL events as they look to build communities and make money -Business Insider

• The Internet (and brands) can’t get enough Sylvanian Drama -Marketing Brew

• Nutter Butter committed to the bit — It paid off a year later -Link In Bio

• YouTube tech creator Marques Brownlee released a new wallpaper app and the Internet had FEELINGS -The Verge

• It’s the 40th anniversary of one of my favorite books: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion -BBC

• Brands push for apolitical influencers to avoid ‘backlash’ as U.S. presidential election looms -Digiday

• A new California law bans social media platforms from sending notifications to minors overnight or during school days -Passionfruit

• Social media influencers go dark on TikTok after promoting futuristic Saudi megacity -NBC News

• ‘It can crush our business’: ad buyers estimate major losses from Meta ad platform bugs -Marketing Brew

Thanks for reading!

*Mo Brady (he/him) is an ICYMI subscriber and marketer who writes some of my favorite LinkedIn posts. He’ll be contributing some of ICYMI’s weekly updates. 

Mo is also is the co-creator of @Daddy_Papa_and_Me_Make3, where he and his husband share their adventures as dads to their eight-year-old son. He also works as Influencer & Activations Director for Super Awesome Friends, a digital agency focused on live and immersive entertainment.