ICYMI: Instagram Live Edition
Here's what happened on social media this week, October 15
💻 Roadmap
⏰ Instagram is rolling out a “practice mode” for Live creators, which will allow hosts to test their connection, lighting and any other pre-show prep needed. The platform also announced a Live Scheduling option which lets you schedule your stream up to 90 days in advance so that followers can set reminders to tune in. “Sharing your scheduled Live via a Feed post will allow your audience to sign up for reminders + notifications so they are alerted when you go Live!” explained Instagram’s post.
🎙 Meanwhile, TikTok announced improved mute settings for comments and questions during livestreams as part of their anti-harassment efforts. Hosts will be able to temporarily mute trolls for a few seconds, a few minutes, or for the duration of the Live, which also scrubs their comment history.
Reminder: Apps that offer livestreaming as a prominent feature drive the majority of today’s social app spending so expect to see a lot more attention paid to the Live experience.
🔎 Instagram and Facebook got a lot more transparent this week, though not entirely willingly. Instagram announced two new features to help give people more information about Instagram outages and their account status. That means increased transparency and communication with people at risk of having their accounts disabled for content violations. By shedding more light on how things work, Instagram is hoping to reduce people’s anxiety and question, said head Adam Mosseri.
Also this week, the Intercept revealed the contents of Facebook’s Dangerous Individuals and Organizations blacklist made up of over 4,000 people and groups, including politicians, writers, charities, hospitals, hundreds of music acts, and long-dead historical figures.
Facebook has so far refused to publicly identify who it considers dangerous because this, “is an adversarial space, so we try to be as transparent as possible, while also prioritizing security, limiting legal risks and preventing opportunities for groups to get around our rules.”
But critics say the DIO policy “has become an unaccountable system that disproportionately punishes certain communities” and individuals who identify as Middle Eastern, South Asian, Muslim, Black and Latino.
🔵 Twitter launched its Spaces Spark Program to support creators in the social audio space make money, grow their audience, and get their Spaces discovered by more people. It’s U.S.-only for now but will open up to new markets in a few months.
🍕 Like stuffed crust pizza, Twitter thinks it’s found a new way to insert more ads into their experience. They’ll be testing ads in conversation threads but give creators a chance to opt in and share revenue.
🚫 Microsoft is shutting down LinkedIn in China, saying having to comply with the Chinese state has become increasingly challenging. They’ll launch a jobs-only version of the site, called InJobs, there later this year.
👆🏻 Click Thru
📲 Adele understood the assignment, going live on Instagram before she released her latest single. Technical limitations aside, she revealed herself to be the nicest artist around. Seriously, if you go back and watch she comes out as pro Britney, Taylor, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Harry, Avril, Lana… basically everyone but Peppa Pig.
🚩 In the past week, the use of the red flag emoji on Twitter has been up by 455 percent. There’s not that much to interpret here: It’s a trend used to literally red flag a range of scenarios and statements.
👀 Jason Sudeikis lurks, “likes” but never tweets, that’s his social strategy and people are paying attention.
🙈 Politicians, please take remedial classes in basic technology and social media customs. Or hire your teens to explain it to you in really simple ways before you call for the end of Finsta or threaten to prosecute helpful “hackers” who point out publicly visible HTML source code on a state website.
🔪 I’m consciously not watching Squid Game (because of the gore) so I need someone to explain to me why Mr. Beast promised to recreate Squid Game in real life if his TikTok video got 10 million likes. So, like Hunger Games but for your favorite (or least favorite) YouTubers?!
📟 “Newstalgia” has overtaken nostalgia on social according to Refinery29. It’s a process of combining old and new technologies and trends to create an aesthetic that’s not stuck in a particular time. It’s “not about being nostalgic for the 90s, nor is it about being nostalgic for the early-2010s. Instead, it’s about being nostalgic for being in the early-2010s being nostalgic for the 90s.”
Mashable also weighed in on the trend, explaining that TikTokkers aren't just nostalgic for their own limited childhood memories of the early 2000s, but are nostalgic for the time period more generally. “By dressing like your old babysitter you are channeling what you fantasized being a teenager was like while you were growing up.”
📞 Speaking of “newstalgia,” Nokia is now selling its iconic brick phone (circa 2002) in the UK and India with a combination of new features and old favorites like Snake. No word if it’ll be released in the U.S. but sign me up if they do sell here.
👵🏽 Influencers are retiring and finding people to replace them. BuzzFeed has this interesting look at what happens when creators decide to step away but don’t want to let their brands die.
🏆 The American Influencer Awards snagged Bravo exec and Bravo-lebrity star maker Andy Cohen to host the awards show on the USA Today Network and YouTube November 3. May he bring with him all the energy of a Beverly Hills housewives reunion show.
