Social Trends & Tools, Dec 18
ICYMI, here's what happened on social media this week
[Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash]
Thanks for checking out my very first newsletter. I work with creators, entrepreneurs, marketers and students who can’t always be extremely online. This is a weekly roundup of trending content and key platform updates to help them — and you — catch up and make sense of it all. Let me know what you think is most useful!
🏆 Smoky Robinson can’t pronounce Chanukah
This Cameo video greeting is the sweetest thing you’ll watch today. To be fair, the request might have been easier for Smokey Robinson to translate if they’d spelled it Hannukah… maybe? (There are at least 16 ways to spell the Jewish festival of lights.)
Cameo continues to be a really interesting way to monetize attention in the Creator Economy and keeps attracting great talent.
‼️ Facebook is creating a Cameo competitor
Facebook is building a new product called Super that lets people pay to interact with creators and celebrities during a livestream (like Cameo meets Facebook Live).
“Viewers can tip creators by buying them digital gifts, or pay to ‘appear’ alongside a creator during the livestream to ask a question or take a selfie… Creators will also be able to sell merchandise or other products alongside the livestream.”
Whether or not Super is a worthy competitor remains to be seen. Creators have SO many platform options for content monetization (YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, Patreon, digital course platforms, etc.) AND so many content boxes to tick off every week (creating Reels, TikToks, Stories, YT vids, live streams, etc) it's not as simple as building a product, even if you are the biggest platform in the world.
😡 Facebook and Apple are feuding
And here’s how it might impact your paid social efforts…
Facebook is positioning itself as pro small business through newspaper ads and a social campaign #SpeakUpForSmall. Apple is positioning itself as defender of your right to privacy through iOS data privacy changes that would make it harder for advertisers to track users.
A lack of data tracking might make it harder for you to run effective Facebook and Instagram ads BUT since big tech is always changing the goal posts AND Facebook is otherwise fairly unresponsive to small business concerns, access to consumer data isn’t necessarily an immediate indicator of success or failure.
IMO, the golden era of Facebook-Instagram ads was 2014 and it’s been downhill from there.
Vice is betting you’ll pay for Food Porn
Vice’s Munchies channel is launching a food porn account on OnlyFans (known for its R-rated content). For $4.99, subscribers get exclusive but presumably PG weekly videos.
There’s some debate about brands® (and celebrities) gentrifying a platform created by and for sex workers but as the platform continues to expand, it will likely have to carve out spaces for its original audience and it’s new brand-safe partners.
In related news, OnlyFans creators and sex workers are getting kicked off TikTok.
📡 Twitter is launching a new audio feature
Are audio networks the future of social media? Twitter is testing Spaces, sound-based social which has been described as a Clubhouse knockoff. (Clubhouse is a buzzy but controversial startup app that’s basically a party line meets talk radio). Twitter is reportedly prioritizing platform safety (yay!) so they’re starting in beta mode with people from underrepresented backgrounds before rolling out to the rest of us.
Twitter’s blue check mark policy
There’s a new Twitter verification policy launching Jan. 20, 2021. Full details here.
📲 Instagram is rolling out all the Reels updates
Instagram is working overtime to catch up to TikTok. Earlier this week, they added a Reels watermark to your Reels and now they’re working on tagging people in Reels.
💰 Reddit bought DubSmash
Reddit bought DubSmash — a TikTok rival that Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter had all considered buying — as part of a big push into video.
💻 So, we’re all signing up for Hulu aren’t we?
TikTok royalty Charli D’Amelio is getting a show on Hulu alongside her sister Dixie and parents Marc and Heidi. “The D’Amelio Show” premieres on Hulu in 2021.
Plot twist: Hulu is also developing a new series starring the Kardashians.
This makes Hulu the streaming service to watch in 2021 to see if they can do for the D’Amelio family what E! did for the Kardashians, while also watching them give Kim & Ko. a second act.
🔥 Lizzo still wants no part of your diet culture
Because she’s militantly anti-diet, some people freaked out after Lizzo posted her 10-day green smoothie routine on TikTok. In a follow up Instagram post, Lizzo emphasized that her detox was not about weight loss:
“I detoxed my body and I’m still fat. I love my body and I’m still fat. I’m beautiful and I’m still fat. These things are not mutually exclusive. To the people who look to me, please do not starve yourselves. I did not starve myself. I fed myself greens and water and fruit and protein and sunlight.”
💖 Burger King donates social posts
Burger King France is getting a ton of free press and goodwill because they’re sharing their Instagram posts and Stories to help promote independent restaurants in Paris through Jan. 21.
It’s a big love fest all around. The restaurants have to post and tag Burger King, Burger King shares restaurant recommendations to its audience (hopefully driving sales for the struggling businesses) and the media covers Burger King because it’s a feel-good lockdown story.
There’s a good lesson here in sharing the spotlight or in Instagram speak:
Your light doesn’t dim when you ignite someone else’s flame.
💃🏽 Walmart is building an army of influencers
“Spotlight” is Walmart’s ambassador program that tests turning employees into public-facing company advocates and is very much in line with the organic phenomenon of employees who happen to be influencers and how brands need to come to terms with and harness that talent and attention.
It’s also created a micro-industry within Walmart. They organize regular speaking events with social media and copywriting experts to teach workers about social media. And employees from TikTok recently gave a session.
Walmart ❤️ TikTok. They’re also partnering on live stream shopping on the app. The first test goes live Friday, Dec. 18 on Walmart’s TikTok profile with the “Holiday Shop-Along Spectacular.”
🏆 Dionne Warwick is winning at Twitter
Ever since she turned 80, took on Chance the Rapper and The Weeknd and expressed her respect for the LGBTQ community, Dionne Warwick has been killing it on Twitter.
🔨 RESOURCE: Black womxn creators
Black Women Photographers is a new-ish Instagram account featuring a global community and database of Black women photographers. This deserves an instant follow as a great source of new creators you might want to work with.
*If there’s a new-ish resource you’re using that you think would benefit others, please submit for possible inclusion. TIA!
🤩 Honda salesperson goes viral
We are all buying whatever this Honda salesperson is selling. And after 3M views, Relly B. is now trademarking his copyright phrase: “Where the money reside.”
That’s it for now. Next week I’m sending a recap of 2021 social predictions 📩 then won’t be back until the new year. Thanks for reading!