ICYMI: Stalking, Sex + Instagram Bans 😳
Here's what happened on social media this week, May 20
[via Hulu]
This a recap of news and trends for and about creators.
💻 ROADMAP
＠ TikTok Crediting Creators: TikTok announced it’s rolling out more ways to tag and credit creators for their videos. The tools will allow users to directly tag, mention, and credit a video in their caption.
To use TikTok’s new creator crediting tools (rolling out over the next few weeks):
Create or edit a TikTok video.
On the posting page, tap the new "video" icon.
Once on the video tag page, you can select a video that you have liked, favorited, posted, or that has used the same sound.
Once selected, the video tag will be added as a mention in the caption.
💸 TikTok’s Creator Missions: TikTok is launching Branded Missions, a new ad feature which allows advertisers to crowdsource content from creators and turn those top-performing videos into ads.
Creators who are at least 18 years old and have at least 1,000 followers are eligible to participate in a Branded Mission. Eligible creators whose videos are selected by brands will then “benefit from a cash payment and boosted traffic.”
This is still in beta mode so there may be some context missing. But it comes across as if TikTok is positioning creators to be independent production studios who need to compete for contracts for the chance to get paid… Contracts that include exposure as compensation.
This might be good for a hobby creator whose livelihood isn’t tied to sponsored content but it’s hard to see this as a viable or lucrative way for most professional creators to develop a reliable income stream.
To provide a balanced perspective — since there’s not a lot of information yet — here’s a less cynical take from Lindsey Gamble on how creators might benefit from Branded Missions.
🛍 TikTok Shop: TikTok is testing their in-app shopping experience TikTok Shop in parts of Asia and the U.K. Users tap a shopping bag icon during a live shopping video, which opens a window that allows them to browse and purchase available products.
➌ Instagram’s New Story Layout: Instagram has been testing a new Stories format that collapses Stories to just three frames. To see the rest of the Stories, users must tap a “Show All” button on the top left side. Otherwise, Instagram moves on to the next person’s Stories. Instagram confirmed this is a limited test but has offered no official explanation on a feature that could drastically decrease your Stories performance.
📱 Full-Screen Instagram Reviews: The feedback from Instagram users whose feeds has gone full-screen is not great. ICYMI, Instagram is testing a new full-screen Home feed that works best with vertical (1080x1920) style content. People have been responding directly to Adam Mosseri’s original post announcing the test in addition to creating their own response posts. Instagram’s aiming for a drastic shift with the full-screen feed experience and, of course, it’s not the first time the platform’s changed its appearance. But by blatantly redesigning themselves to be a TikTok clone, it’s difficult to see how they’re going to counter the people who ask, “Why not just use TikTok?”
⭐️ YouTube’s ‘Most Popular’ Feature: YouTube just announced a new feature designed to help users identify the most popular parts of a video they’re watching so you can skip to the good part.
📲 YouTube’s Co-Hosting Livestream: YouTube will let creators co-host shopping livestreams across two channels. YouTube said the features will be a way to help creators and advertisers make more "meaningful connections" with their audiences. The first allows two channels to go live and cohost together, "uniting their communities in a single live shopping stream."
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👆🏻 CLICK THRU
🤯 How to Get Your Instagram Back If It Gets Deleted
An OnlyFans creator says when her Instagram account got deleted “she started stalking down FB employees on LinkedIn and having sex with them until one finally gave her her account back” according to a wild video unearthed by The Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz.
The creator also revealed what she learned about the Instagram ban review process from employees she reportedly slept with.
We know recovering locked or lost accounts is a nightmare and people have resorted to a variety of methods, including buying an Oculus headsets, to get help. Trading sex for customer support seems like an inevitable conclusion for some users who are desperate to reactivate their accounts. No shame on this woman for doing what she felt she had to do. But, if true, this is not a great look for Instagram’s Integrity team.
The one G-rated tip the creator offered that might be helpful in getting an account back: “Basically what a person has to do is keep trying, keep putting in reviews, and every time they put in another review it gets sent to a different person. So, as long as someone keeps trying for you in that department you will eventually get your account back. All you have to do is have someone really, really like you and rally for you and you’ll get your account back.”
✈️ Instagram influencers known for stunning travel photos say their reach has dropped up to 50% as the platform pushes video
It’s not easy being a travel influencer right now. Five travel creators interviewed by Insider reported a 30% to 50% dip in reach and engagement for their photo content in 2022 so far. Those that had pivoted to video saw their reach and engagement begin to recover but it’s not always that easy. "Instagram thinks we want to see Reels, but I've polled my audience, and a lot of them do not,” explained Kristen Alana, an LA-based photographer.
🔵 A timeline of the Musk-Twitter deal so far
Elon Musk’s now saying he will buy Twitter ONLY if the company can prove that less than 5% of its users are bots or spam accounts. Even if this is an excuse to bail or push down the $44 billion price tag, this now leaves Twitter in a crappy position with little upside.
🪂 Twitter’s Golden Parachute
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal will get $60m if the company sells to Musk and he’s let go as CEO (as assumed).
📋 FTC Proposes to Strengthen Advertising Guidelines Against Fake and Manipulated Reviews
The Federal Trade Commission (which regulates endorsements) is updating its guidelines to:
Warn social media platforms that some of their tools for endorsers are inadequate and may open them up to liability;
Clarify that tags in social media posts are covered under the guides
Modify the definition of “endorsers” to bring virtual influencers — computer-generated fictional characters — under the guides
📣 QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"I'm making a huge push to shift more of our ranking toward what we call “exploration-based ranking methodologies” to try and help you discover new things to do. We haven't been good at this historically."
-Adam Mosseri, essentially describing TikTok’s FYP algorithm | Adam Mosseri Says He Wants Big Tech to Give Up Control
🧮 STAT OF THE WEEK
📉 Not a single industry saw an increase in average Instagram engagement rate from 2019 to 2021. The overall average engagement rate decreased by 28.55%, according to Later’s Instagram Industry Benchmark report.
📖 ALSO ON MY READING LIST…
How Marketers Can Get That Main Character Energy -TikTok
A Simple One-Week-Long Break From Social Media Can Improve Your Health -SciTechDaily
Benefit Is Hosting Influencers In Hawaii, Even Though Locals Don't Want Them -HuffPost
Kardashian fans share wild theory Kendall Jenner STAGED viral cucumber video -The Sun
Are we ever authentically ourselves on the internet? -Vox
Bobbi Brown vs. a TikTok Influencer -The Cut
Older people using TikTok to defy ageist stereotypes, research finds -The Guardian
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