It’s a slow week for social trends and platform updates so I’m going to keep this brief. Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend!
💻 Roadmap
💼 TikTok is testing a job listings service and is encouraging people to apply with video résumés. It’s an innovative concept for creative types, college students and younger users. But the roles listed for companies such as Attn:, Nascar, Popsugar, Shopify and more, aren’t just creator jobs or junior roles.
Anecdotally, I led several digital literacy workshops at UCLA this Spring and getting people to create LinkedIn accounts was a struggle. I recognize this is a novelty but if TikTok ever becomes a legitimate LinkedIn competitor, the video requirement becomes a barrier for people who struggle with digital literacy, introverts and anyone who doesn’t present well on video. It would be great to see the company actively think beyond Gen Z and follow up with tools that don’t require video skills or on-camera face time.
💵 TikTok is testing a Cameo competitor. Shoutouts will let you pay for a custom video from your favorite creator and they get to set the rate. It’s only available in select markets right now but could be a game changer for creators if this rolls out world wide.
🛑 Instagram is testing a feature that lets you limit unwanted comments and messages from groups of users — not just individuals — to fight abuse and harassment on the platform.
👻 Snapchat turned off the Spotlight spigot in June but, according to creators, payments stalled as early as April.
👆 Click Thru
👯♀️ Some interesting moves are happening among Facebook’s top female executives: Longtime Facebook app exec Fidji Simo is leaving to become CEO of Instacart while Sheryl Sandberg’s working relationship with Mark Zuckerberg may be starting to crumble according to a new book: An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination. Not that you’d know it from these we’re-still-besties pics from Sun Valley.
🤖 TikTok is once again blaming technology for a bias against Black creators. They’re not the only ones — Instagram has also been accused of suppressing Black voices. But it’s disappointing that this keeps happening.
😸 A giant 3D cat billboard in Tokyo is mesmerizing people IRL and online. There’s even a video feed of the cat billboard being livestreamed for those who can’t visit the Shinjuku area.
📺 “Although it’s still commonplace for consumers and industry execs alike to consider cable and streaming video services as ‘TV,’ and platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram as ‘social media,’ they’re one and the same.” The lines between social media companies and legacy media are blurring which could have regulatory implications as smaller media companies look to merge.
🚜 Farming and social media are having a love-hate moment. Rural influencers in China are reportedly making millions live streaming. The spike in crop sales are attributed to “city dwellers’ nostalgia for nature, distrust in traditional markets because of food safety scandals, and the entertainment of watching unique rustic personalities.” Meanwhile, famers in the US blame Instagram for the trend of glam harvesting, the type of cliché shots that require farmers to fake a bucolic reality for the ‘Gram.
🎓 In Session
I had some amazing guest speakers join my UCLA Extension classes for creators and entrepreneurs this Spring. I’m sharing some of the best advice or wisdom they shared.
“Celeste and I take it for granted at times but all of the work we do and all of this content that we create is leveraging a lot of the skill sets that we've learned through school or our careers.
At Nickelodeon, a lot of the work that I do is positioning work and writing. While I do at times wish that I did this and only [this], I definitely have picked up a lot. The way I think through things is definitely influenced by my career path and by the different places that I've worked. And that's why it's been relatively easy for us to just do this as a natural extension.
It's like, instead of doing this for SpongeBob, I can do this for issues I care about. And Celeste, same thing. Instead of designing for Nickelodeon social media, she's designing for our own [account].
These are skills that we're flexing and using and we're learning all of the time from our current jobs.
-Natalie Silverstein and Celeste Escotet, We’re Leaving Early Founders and American Influencer Council Founding Members, on how your day job can be useful for developing the skills it takes to become a creator.