ICYMI: Meta, You Good?
Here's what happened on social media this week, June 3
[via Influencers in the Wild]
This a recap of news and trends for and about creators. Thanks for reading!
💻 ROADMAP
🔨 Instagram’s New Tools: Instagram is rolling out product updates to make creating Reels easier and more “fun.” The improvements include:
Enhanced editing tools to reorder, trim and clip Reels footage
New sound effects and the ability to import your own audio
Reels Templates, which let you duplicate someone else’s video with your own clips
Story Stickers, such as polls and quizzes, now available in Reels
Extending to 90-second Reels
🤔 Instagram’s Repost Tool vs. Original Content: Instagram’s teams need to talk. One group has been (unofficially) working on a Repost button that would allow you to reshare other people’s posts directly to your Feed.
Meanwhile, Instagram head Adam Mosseri just announced the algorithm is going to prioritize original content over aggregated and “reposted content.”
It’s enough to give you whiplash.
Here’s my POV: Instagram wants to get you out of Stories and into the Feed as they move toward a full-screen home Feed experience. Remember, Instagram is also testing a limit on Stories displayed. So, a Repost option plus limited Stories encourages users to share their favorite posts to the timeline, not to Stories.
But they still want creators to prioritize Instagram over other platforms and they need fresh content for followers to repost. So the company is dangling this algorithmic carrot over creators which will reward original content for their followers to share. At least, that’s my cork board theory.
🔎 Other tests Instagram is running:
adding a “Priority” label on the DM chats you text the most
creating a reaction video to Reels content
🚨 Instagram Amber Alerts: Instagram announced it would share Amber Alerts to the app this week. If you're in the vicinity of a missing child, you might see an AMBER alert showing important details about the missing child.
📲 TikTok’s Clear Mode: TikTok is testing a “Clear Mode” that plays video minus any buttons, caption or comments on screen for a less cluttered viewing experience.
🖥 Twitter Pulls Tweetdeck App: Twitter announced it’s retiring the Tweetdeck for Mac app to focus on building a new and improved experience. Luckily, the web version is still available at this url.
Reminder: if you’re a Twitter power user or simply use Twitter for work, Tweetdeck is hands down the most efficient way to use the platform that simultaneously tracks your timeline, notifications, lists, DMs and more at once glance.
According to Bloomberg, Twitter is also dialing back resources for audio Spaces, newsletters and communities in favor of focusing on user growth and personalization efforts.
👆🏻 CLICK THRU
😎 Meet Mark Zuckerberg, Influencer
Mark Zuckerberg submitted his own photo to Influencers in the Wild from vacation in Iceland. And for those who doubt the legitimacy of the submission, Influencers In the Wild posted their DM conversation with Zuckerberg.
(ICYMI: Influencers in the Wild is a digital brand that posts submissions of influencers caught in the act of creating content. The brand got a lot of attention during the BLM protests for showcasing influencers engaged in performative activism all in the pursuit of content.)
👩🏽💻 Sheryl Sandberg Leaves Facebook
Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, announced she was stepping down on Wednesday. That’s a BFD after 14 years and this story seems like it’s still developing. Who quits on hump day?! Was Zuckberg still on vacation when she announced her departure?! Is this related to Meta’s recent valuation drop?!
In the meantime, I’ll just share this link on her complicated Lean In legacy, which advocated for corporate feminism but failed to take into account the systematic barriers that keep women out of boardrooms.
👾 A researcher's avatar was sexually assaulted on a metaverse platform owned by Meta
What if the metaverse held a party and nobody showed up? Or worse, it was just these toxic guys.
Data seems to suggest that teens aren’t particularly interested in the metaverse yet. In fact, the majority of headlines around the metaverse point to four major user groups: abusive users, researchers studying the metaverse and getting assaulted by abusive users, the companies actively building out their versions of the metaverse and the marketers who want to make sure they’re well situated if this trend takes off.
You should, of course, stay on top of what’s happening and maybe even experiment with virtual reality goggles. But let’s put the responsibility to create safer spaces and more compelling experiences on the companies hoping to define the next iteration of the internet before worrying about our own metaverse strategies.
🇰🇷 Inside BTS’s Landmark White House Visit to Denounce Anti-Asian Hate
Winners: the BTS Army, AAPI efforts to highlight Asian inclusion and representation, and the social platforms singled out by the White House to share news about the President’s meeting with K-Pop sensation BTS: Twitter and YouTube.
Losers: Tucker Carlson.
📲 Why China’s Influencers Are Losing Their Influence
My POV was included in this article from The Information that asks if the West is likely to learn any lessons from the dwindling popularity of China’s livestream influencers. (Issues stem from soaring influencer fees, a rocky economy and a regulatory crackdown.) Spoiler alert: probably not.
🏈 D’Amelios help UConn athletes grow their personal brand
He produced two TikTok superstar daughters, now Marc D’Amelio (yes, Charli’s dad) is going to help University of Connecticut athletes grow their social media following.
📣 QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Part of me doesn’t want to create TikTok content. Part of me feels like if I don’t do this now it will be too late. If Instagram dies, my brand effectively dies”
-Caitlin Sakdalan, via Eater’s Are Millennial Food Influencers Okay?
🧮 DATA OF THE WEEK
81% of consumers will unfollow creators if they post sponsored content more than a few times a week
-Sprout Social, US Social Media Trends for 2022 & Beyond
🔨 RESOURCES
Later’s been keeping an updated list of the top weekly trends to try on Instagram and TikTok. If you’re looking for inspiration, this is a great place to start:
📖 ALSO ON MY READING LIST…
Why Does Instagram Keep Trying to Be TikTok? -Vice
The DeuxMoi subreddit is rebelling -Embedded
Who won the Depp-Heard trial? Content creators that went all-in. -The Washington Post
A Big Weekend for the Swinging Moms of TikTok -Gawker
How Best Western is building an in-house creator program -Insider
Things I Would Have Done Differently When Launching SKKN by Kim Kardashian on Instagram -Phoebe Parke
#SwedenGate is the trivial drama we all needed this week -Twitter