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Hello, geeks!

Welcome to this week’s Geekout.

Grab a coffee. Switch on ‘do not disturb’.

I’m going to bring you up to speed on everything new in social from the past seven days.

But before we get into it…

This disturbing and surreal AI video everyone’s talking about.

Warning. It might give you nightmares! 🤣

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Help me, help you… (win a prize!) 🏆

I start writing Geekout Newsletter back in 2020. Social media platforms are constantly adding new features, changing their algorithms, creating new rules etc.

Trying to stay on top of it all as a busy social media manager is almost impossible.

I wanted to create a weekly newsletter that gave social media managers and marketers the MOST comprehensive round-up of everything new in social each week, all in one place… For free.

That goal hasn’t changed. And thankfully, 30,000+ of you seem to like it and find Geekout super-useful. But can I make it even more useful and enjoyable to read?

Now’s your chance to have your say.

Just hit REPLY on this email and tell me:

What’s the ONE thing you’d LOVE me to add, remove, change, improve in Geekout?

Your input will help shape Geekout for 2025.

PRIZE: Win 1 of 5 Geekout Pro 1-Year Memberships

I will pick FIVE people at random from everyone that replies to win a 1-year Geekout Pro membership.

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🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

Geekout’s pick of the hottest headlines in social this week:

2. Elon Musk deleted ‘joke’ X post asking why “no-one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala” [ALARMING]

3. EU Commission to conclude Elon Musk’s X does NOT fall under its Digital Markets Act [ESCAPING]

4. TikTok’s first day in court to fight U.S ban didn’t go well [JUDGING]

5. FTC study reveals social media companies are ‘spying’ on users [SNOOPING]

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🚨 EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT…

Instagram goes to high school

After all the fuss that forced Meta abandon its Instagram Kids app a few years, ago, you could be forgiven for thinking its launch this week of teen accounts would meet a similar reaction… But it actually seems to have been well received.

Here’s how they work: 13-15-year-olds will have a more tightly controlled experience, with private accounts, and a ‘safer’ content algorithm. Meanwhile parents will have the ability to see who their kids are messaging (although not what the messages say) and their topics of interest.

Overall, it’s nicely done but there are some question marks:

• How many kids will get away with lying about their age to get access to ‘full fat’ Instagram? Can Meta’s age verification tools keep up with cunning teens?

• Will the more restricted algorithm work or will we see headlines about harmful content popping up on teen accounts?

• Will parents be bothered enough to monitor their kids’ usage? Just last week, senior Meta exec Nick Clegg said most parents simply don’t use the tools Meta has provided for them.

Instagram’s move follows similar teen safety moves in the past by Snapchat and YouTube. It’s good to see the platforms maturing after years of treating the safety of minors as an afterthought or mere PR challenge.

Now let’s see if teen accounts make a meaningful difference…

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Has Musk’s assassination ‘joke’ really taught him anything?

I promise - I don’t stick every wild thing Elon Musk says in this newsletter, because he talks utter garbage day in, day out these days.

But the reaction to his X post this week wondering why no-one had tried to kill Joe Biden or Kamala Harris (which isn’t even true), showed that just maybe he realises there’s a limit to how edgy he can be on his own platform.

Within hours, he had deleted the post and claimed it was a “joke” that had worked better when he tested it on a small group of people. He also claimed he’d learned that jokes in plain text don’t work. That’s despite the fact that X/Twitter has been full of people making great jokes in plain text for nearly 20 years 🤷‍♂️.

But the White House didn’t approve of his joke, and Musk isn’t just a social media baron. He’s also a critical government contractor via SpaceX, with security clearances. Imagine the CEO of Boeing getting away with posting something like that

Musk gets away with a lot, given that he’s one of the world’s richest people. His sparring with the government of Brazil lately shows how he acts as something of a nation state in his own right. He’s part of a tiny class of mega-billionaires who operate almost above the law.

And surrounded by a bubble of bodyguards and yes-men whose livelihoods depend on him liking them, his understanding of the world as it really is must be almost zero. He probably believes the utter junk he spews because it’s what he reads, and he has no connection with every day life as the rest of us experience it.

It’s this that makes him a dangerous force in the world, and (sadly) one I won’t be taking my attention away from any time soon.

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✨ NEW & NOTEWORTHY

Everything else you need to know from the past seven days…

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💬 YOU CAN QUOTE ME ON THAT

When I’m quoted in the news, you’ll find it here:

I spoke to BBC News about Instagram's new teen accounts, and how effective they will be

I also spoke to…

• The Times about Instagram’s NEW Teen accounts

• The Drum about Instagram’s new default restrictions for teens, and what impact the changes might have on Meta’s ad business

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😆 LOL

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📈 TRENDING

“Reddit screenshots are flooding TikTok and Instagram. It’s giving Reddit some incredible visibility, though bringing users back to its platform may prove more difficult.”

Also:

• SPUDS U LIKE: “Customers are coming to Preston’s Spud Bros from as far away as Australia thanks to a revival of the humble jacket potato on TikTok”

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🌡️ VIRAL

Leroy Lupton’s TikToks of him trying to pack bags before Aldi UK cashiers have finished scanning have been viewed 2 million times. 💨💨

This is worth a watch 😆

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🙊 WHAT DID YOU SAY ?!

“The worst polluters in human history”

– Stephen Fry thinks Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have polluted our culture

• Controversial EU Tech Enforcer Thierry Breton’s exit is a ‘good day for free speech,’ says Elon Musk’s henchwoman, Linda Yaccarino

• … And Thierry Breton couldn’t resist one last swipe at Elon Musk: “See you on Mars?”

• The UK Culture Secretary warned of plans to regulate streamers to tackle “pernicious, unchecked disinformation”

• Mark Zuckerberg called Meta the 'opposite of Apple' and questions its product strategy

• YouTube's CEO explained why he pays creators so much — and how he'll fight election denial

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👀 MY FAV READS

“As threats to his personal safety have become graver, the world’s richest man has barricaded himself behind a phalanx of bodyguards that operates like a mini-Secret Service”

Also worth you time reading:

• LinkedIn's Social Pivot: How the ~1B user professional network went from a cringe-inducing activity feed to a useful and less cringey social feed

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📖 TOP NEW BOOK

If you’re obsessed with the inner workings of the takeover of Twitter, this book is packed with new info.

‘Character Limit’ by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac is out now.

Check out some eye-opening extracts from the book:

• 11 WTF moments From ‘Character Limit,’ the Book About How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter

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📲 NEW APP ALERT

This is mad, and VERY 2024.

‘SocialAI’ from Michael Sayman is the Twitter clone where no other humans are allowed.

Surround yourself with adoring bots instead of humans.

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😮 WTF?!

No, Instagram isn’t notifying you if someone zooms in on one of your photos…

Also in WTF news this week…

• YouTube confirms your pause screen is now fair game for ads (oh great! 😌)

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🤦 FAIL

Oops: “Meta's efforts to stop people repeatedly viewing WhatsApp’s so-called View Once messages – photos, videos, and voice recordings that disappear from chats after a recipient sees them – so far remain incomplete.

“An interim fix deployed to stop people keeping hold of View Once data has been defeated in less than a week by white-hat hackers”

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🥇 RECORD BREAKER

Cristiano Ronaldo has become first person to hit 1 BILLION social media followers.

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👔 YOU’RE HIRED!

Hot new social media jobs worth checking out this week:

• Sky is looking for a Head of Social Media for Sports in the UK [Osterley, UK]

• Shopify needs a social marketing lead. [Remote]

• Doordash is recruiting a Senior Manager, Brand Social [Multiple locations, USA]

• GCHQ is hiring an Assistant Media and Social Media Officer [Cheltenham, London, or Manchester, UK]

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👌 PRO TIPS

Also worth checking out:

• How to use LinkedIn analytics in 2024: A marketer’s playbook

• The best time to post on TikTok in 2024

• The best time to post on Instagram for engagement in 2024

• How to do meme marketing, according to memelord Jason Levin

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🤖 SOCIAL A.I.

The newest social media A.I. features spotted this week:

• Snapchat’s My AI chatbot is getting new Google Lens-like features

• Snap is introducing new Text-to-Video AI video-generation tool for creators

• LinkedIn is using your data to train Microsoft, OpenAI and its own AI models. But you can stop it

• YouTube now lets you use AI to create custom thumbnails for playlists

• YouTube Shorts will integrate Veo, Google’s AI video model

• YouTube Studio now lets creators brainstorm video ideas with the help of AI

• YouTube is giving its auto-dubbing feature an AI upgrade

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📊 SOCIAL STATS

570 MILLION

– The number of monthly active users X claimed it has to advertisers this week

• 87% of branded vape posts on Instagram violate FDA guidelines

• Short-form video is the fastest-growing type of content on LinkedIn, with video uploads up 34% year-on-year

• The Center for Countering Digital Hate found that Musk made 50 false or misleading posts about the U.S. elections between Jan. 1 and July 31, generating nearly 1.2 billion views

• Three ways Gen Z is leading social media usage

• Women make up greater portions of regular news consumers on TikTok (62%), Facebook (60%), Snapchat (60%) and Instagram (59%).

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📈 CHARTED

The latest social media insights spotted in charts and infographics this week

Bleak! Almost half of U.S. Gen Z wishes social media platforms like X and TikTok didn’t exist…

• BREAKING NEWS: TikTok is becoming a popular news source for American adults… Around half of TikTok users (52%) now say they regularly get news there, up from 43% last year and just 22% in 2020

• BREAKING NEWS II: 54% of US adults say they get at least some of their news input from social apps

• GEN-Z: Visualising Gen Z's favourite social media platforms in the US

• ⁠ELECTION SOCIAL: Positive sentiment about Kamala Harris increased from 34% to 54% in the days after the debate

• TIKTOK AROUND THE WORLD: Countries with the largest TikTok audience as of July 2024

• SPORTS ON X: Sports remain the top topic of discussion on X

• TIKTOK BAN: Public support for a TikTok ban in the US has dwindled since last year

• GLOBAL APP DOWNLOAD CHART: The most downloaded apps in the world in August 2024

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• Here’s everything to expect at Meta Connect 2024 next week: AR, AI and the cheaper Quest 3S [Engadget]

• A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Facebook over iOS privacy settings. [Apple Insider]

• Meta wants to hire a specialist to help service Amazon’s ad account. [AdAge $$$]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• Meta has published a checklist for holiday marketing planning. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

Facebook:

• Facebook appears to be applying a bold text effect to shorter status updates [@oncescuradu]

Instagram:

• Instagram is testing a new “Delete for you” action button for private messages. [@oncescuradu]

• Instagram is testing a new post preview format on the Explore tab, similar to the Reels view. [@theahmedghanem]

• Instagram is testing moving the story editing tools to the right in a vertical layout. [@theahmedghanem]

• Instagram now lets you follow, unfollow, and add to favorites all the accounts that you mentioned in a collaborative post in bulk. [@theahmedghanem]

Threads:

• Threads now lets you toggle your Instagram badge on your profile. [@oncescuradu]

• Threads has been spotted offering an account analytics icon on user profiles, but it doesn’t work yet. [@varma.adwaith]

Messenger:

• Messenger has moved the toggle button to a new location to enable sending images in HD. [@theahmedghanem]

The rest: Creator Studio / Adtech / Quest and more:

• The upcoming Meta Quest 3S appears to have an 'Action Button' that toggles passthrough. [UploadVR]

• Meta Business Suite now has its own iOS widget. [@theahmedghanem]

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• The UK government says it has had “constructive” talks with X over disinformation on the platform [CNBC News]

New features and tests:

• X has added an ‘Analytics’ section for Communities. [@oncescuradu]

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• ByteDance is stepping up efforts to produce its own chips, with the aim of mass-producing two chips by 2026 in collaboration with TSMC. [The Information $$$]

• Sephora and TikTok are partnering to help beauty marketers make more inclusive branded content. [AdWeek $$$]

• TikTok and Variety have previewed the future of gaming trends at a joint event/ [Variety]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• TikTok has announced a marketing tips webinar for SMBs on 26 September. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

• TikTok has added a ‘double tap to like a comment’ feature. [@jonahmanzano]

• TikTok now lets you promote posts on desktop. [@jonahmanzano]

• TikTok’s new label to highlight the “first comment” rolled out to more users [@jaskaransainiz]

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💥 EVEN MORE SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS & UPDATES

• EU Commissioner Theirry Breton has resigned, criticising Commission president Ursula von der Leyen for ‘questionable governance’. [Deadline]

• The US Kids Online Safety Act is moving forward towards law. [The Verge]

• Snapchat reserves the right to use AI-generated images of your face in ads. [404 Media]

• The EU has picked Finnish lawmaker Henna Virkkunen to be in charge of enforcing the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act. [Bloomberg $$$]

• YouTube CEO Neal Mohan testified that Google did what was best for consumers and the ad industry, at the start of the second week of an antitrust trial in the US. [New York Times $$$]

• …and YouTube could suffer the worst impact from the fallout from the case. [The Information $$$]

• YouTube's product chief has explained the platform’s approach to AI as the tech becomes a bigger part of content creation. [Business Insider $$$]

• Mozilla is exiting the fediverse and will shutter its Mastodon server in December. [TechCrunch]

• A hacker used Telegram chatbots to leak data of top Indian insurer Star Health. [Reuters $$$]

• YouTube is pushing into the Asian online shopping market in partnership with Shopee. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Twitch has set up a home for brand partnerships inside Fortnite. [TubeFilter]

• Twitch is cracking down on unoriginal content by banning “waiting room” streams. [Dexerto]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• Reddit has shared practical tips on how to maximize ad performance on the platform. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

• YouTube has added a 'Post Activity' tab under Community on channels. [Lindsey Gamble]

• Discord has launched new end-to-end encryption tech for audio and video calls. [Discord blog]

• Google is testing a ‘recent posts’ carousel showing social videos. [Search Engine Roundtable]

• Substack is adding a live video feature. [Engadget]

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😳 AND FINALLY…

Dating apps are lame, tired, and old-hat. So some singletons are switching their attention to Instagram to find that special someone… 💖

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📅 BACK NEXT WEEK…

… In the words of porky pig. That’s all, folks!

Your Geekout social media debriefing is done. 🙌🏻

I’m heading off to pull the trigger on buying my new car.

Shockingly, nobody at Mercedes saw / responded to my invitation for a Geekout x Mercedes collab idea last week 😆 How rude!

So I’ve decided on the Audi e-Tron Q4. I can feel the money draining from my account.

Memo to my kids: What would like for Christmas that is £10 or less?

Goodbye, geeks!

p.s. This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant