ICYMI: Twitter Edit Button Test ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Here's what happened on social media this week, April 8
💻 ROADMAP
🔵 Twitter’s Edit Button: Twitter’s finally testing an edit button. But it’ll cost you. Twitter Blue subscribers, who pay $2.99 per month, will be the only ones with access during testing.
This feels like news, and an opportunity to increase subscribers, that’s missed its window. Almost every platform — even Slack — allows edits. Meanwhile, Twitter’s still tip toeing around its most requested feature, explaining they want to explore “what works, what doesn’t, and what’s possible.”
Just let people fix their typos, mistakes and hot takes, already.
As for the argument that this preserves an official record of public conversation, the last administration disabused us of that notion. And as Blue’s subscription fee reminds us, Twitter’s not a public utility, it’s a for-profit tech company.
＠ Twitter’s Untag Yourself Experiment: Twitter is experimenting with Unmention, part of several anti-abuse features they’re working on. Even if you’re tagged in a tweet, you’ll be able to:
Untag your username
Remove yourself from the replies
Turn off notifications from the conversation
🔗 Instagram’s Links in Bio: Instagram is working on the ability to add multiple links in your profile bio. See what this might look like here.
❤️ Your First Instagram Like: Instagram rolled out new insight tools to allow you to review your activity on the app — going all the way back to the lo-fi-with-a-frame-around-it beginning. That means you can look at the first photo you liked, comments you left years ago and even your old bios. To access the feature:
Go to your profile page
Click the Hamburger menu ㆔
Select ‘Your Activity’
Select ‘Interactions’
Select ‘Likes’
Filter ‘Oldest to Newest’
🚫 F8 Canceled: Facebook is pausing its F8 developer conference (often a source of major news and a chance to actually meet some of the Facebook and Instagram team) as they focus on “building the metaverse.” Instead they announced Conversations, a business messaging virtual event, taking place May 19. Register here.
👆🏻 CLICK THRU
💸 Elon Musk And Twitter’s Business Are On A Collision Course
Elon Musk invested $2.9 billion in Twitter to become its top investor with a 9.2% stake in the social network and a seat on the board. But as Big Technology writer Alex Kantrowitz pointed out, it’s gonna get messy since Musk’s free speech push is at odds with the company’s brand-safe moderation policies.
💳 Danielle Bernstein Is Launching a WeWoreWhat Credit Card
Influencer Danielle Bernstein launched a WeWoreWhat Rewards Visa Card. Reviews are mixed with 99.9 percent positive comments on her Instagram post versus criticism to the news on Twitter. As this In The Know recap points out, there’s a lot of controversy surrounding Danielle so the success of this collab remains to be seen.
✈️ New Airline Exclusively for Creators
Willa, an online payments company that caters to social media creators, just launched an airline called Willa Air. Its first voyage will take 12 influencers to Coachella on an exclusive, and free, flight. Apply here.
🎥 YouTube Is Facing An Identity Crisis As Its Creators Burn Out
YouTube is undergoing something of a vibe shift as some of the platform’s creators trade toxic controversy and scandal for more brand safe and potentially lucrative opportunities. “The next generation of video creators, who can leverage both TikTok and YouTube in their careers, seem to be more focused on audience building and less on notoriety. And they don’t need to stoop to the same levels as YouTube creators of yore to get clicks.”
🌟 Hollywood’s Revolving Social Door
In the past few weeks, Cardi B deleted her Twitter and Instagram accounts after clashing with fans for not attending the 2022 Grammy Awards; Doja Cat threatened to quit music after clashing with fans from Paraguay on social media; and Selena Gomez’s social media detox made it’s yearly splash as she confirmed she quit Instagram four years ago.
Seriously, check it out. Selena’s social detox gets mentioned every year. The thing is, someone still posts for Selena on Twitter and Instagram. So nothing’s been resolved, just outsourced to protect her mental health. (That’s not a bad thing but it sucks that it has to be at someone else’s expense.)
The takeaway here is that Twitter and Instagram really need to speed up their content moderation and anti-abuse efforts to protect people on their platforms. Everyone deserves to feel safe and in control of their experiences online. Not only will it benefit the users, but it will also squash headlines such as “Avoiding the Internet for Years Like Selena Gomez Is My New Life Goal” and “If only we all had Selena Gomez’s ability to switch off from the Internet.” As a brand, abandoning your product should not be the gleeful life goal of celebrities, influencers and regular users.
🌵 Coachella Watch: Meta partnered with Rolling Stone to host a Coachella Creator House April 15 and 16 in Palm Springs. Coachella takes place IRL and on your Feed April 15 through 24.
🎙 QUOTE OF THE WEEK
How One FoodToker is Making a Career as a Content Creator
“There’s so many creators coming into this space now. There’s only one way for anyone to differentiate themselves. …Your personality has to shine through or people, even if they follow you, won’t remember you,” -H Woo Lee
❤️ SPOTLIGHT
🤖 What You Need to Know About Virtual Influencers
I’m excited to share this mini interview with Makena Rasmussen who writes a weekly newsletter called The Splice for Virtual Humans about virtual influencers (aka CGI characters with massive social media followings who advertise for major brands).
It was a collab that made a lot of sense given our shared interest in influencers, virtual or otherwise. In fact, Virtual Humans is an entire site Christopher Travers created in 2019 as a directory to uplift and showcase the diverse range of virtual influencers. Now, they have over 200 virtuals listed on their website, where they regularly interview them and cover their latest campaigns and projects.
Are robots going to take our jobs?! Makena answered my (slightly ridiculous) questions about these synthetic social stars. And you can read my thoughts in Virtual Humans’ newsletter.
Once virtual influencers become mainstream will their lack of humanity count against them and will human influencers suddenly become more valued for their imperfections?
“I always like to re-state the importance that there are real human beings who run these virtual influencer accounts! Often their character is like a persona for them to express themselves through (but without the pressure of looking perfect 24/7 or revealing their IRL identity like a typical human influencer). Sometimes fictional imperfections like a robot virtual influencer being unable to pass a Captcha test are also appealing to their fans!”
How do we bridge the divide so that people see virtual creators less as robot overlords and more as collaborators? Or should real creators be freaking out right now and trying to destroy these digital beings? Kidding, sort of.
“Haha, no worries! I truly believe that virtual influencers can coexist alongside human creators online. Ultimately, they create very different content, so there’s little competition between them for brand partnerships. Virtual influencers are more like fictional characters you can interact with directly on social media. Imagine if Spider-Man had an Instagram where you could vote on what he eats for lunch that day— that’s the appeal of following a virtual being online.”
Are virtual influencers only for top brands with big budgets or is there a way small businesses can get involved?
“Ultimately, any brand working with a virtual influencer needs to consider how their content creation differs from working with a human. Whether the virtual influencer is CGI or 2D, paying an artist to create the content is always involved. So obviously, larger budgets give virtual influencers more freedom to create jaw-dropping campaigns in virtual environments. But there are absolutely ways for smaller businesses to get involved! I’ve seen micro virtual influencers with under 10k followers work with local businesses or local branches of major brands such as Kim Zulu’s recent work for PUMA South Africa and Wunni’s collaboration with numerous local Thai brands. You can check out our site directory to find virtual influencers with thousands or millions of followers."
» About: Makena Rasmussen is the lead writer of VirtualHumans.org, an online publication dedicated to documenting, cultivating, and empowering the virtual influencer industry. The Virtual Humans weekly newsletter 'The Splice' covers the new interviews, campaigns, and projects featuring virtual beings alongside our industry insights.
📖 ALSO ON MY READING LIST…
Creators say Instagram is cutting Reels payouts -The Verge
Ogilvy U.K. will no longer work with influencers who edit their bodies or faces for ads -The Drum
Could You Be Addicted to TikTok? Here's What It Means to Have 'TikTok Brain' -Distractify
TikTok’s Parent, ByteDance, Made Fake Accounts With Content Scraped From Instagram And Snapchat, Former Employees Say -BuzzFeed
Russian Oligarchs Keep Getting Screwed Over by Yacht Selfies -Vice
Biden group launches TikTok account to boost the president’s agenda -The Verge