ChatGPT wants your social media job

Hello, geeks!

Let’s get straight to it. You don’t wanna screw with Instagram blue ticks 😲

…Oof! Moving along…

You lovely lot made last week’s edition of Geekout a record breaker. Thank you! ❤️

In the news this week… Well, we have LOTS to talk about…

• Twitter went full TikTok.

• YouTube creators are furious

• ChatGPT Pro is already a thing

…More on all those stories and more in a moment.

BUT FIRST

• ChatGPT is already starting to impact my work. Check out this email! 😱

• Twitter owes me money! I don’t expect Elon to pay up any time soon. 🤷‍♂️

• I am cloning myself. Matt Navarra v.2.0 is nearly ready 😆

ALSO...

This is sick!... Vista Social is the first social media tool to integrate ChatGPT!

• Vista Social has added an AI Assistant powered by ChatGPT

• Now, social media managers can create engaging posts 10x faster!

• Just ask the AI Assistant and it will generate endless post ideas and copy tailored to your target audience or topic.

• Get ready to save hours every week and never run out of new ideas!

It's pretty cool… Check it out [ad]

Right then… Let’s get into it. These were the hottest headlines in social this week:

🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

1. Meta Announced New Limits on Targeting Teens with Ads [BANISHED]

2. Twitter Rolls Out Default TikTok-Style ‘For You’ Feed [FED UP]

3. YouTube Creators Outraged As Updated Profanity Policy Wrecks Havoc [WTF**K!]

4. Major U.S. Lawsuit Labels Social Media Platforms Dangerously Addictive ‘Defective Products’ [REFUND PLEASE]

5. YouTube Finalises Launch of Shorts Revenue Share to Take on TikTok [‘SHOW ME THE MONEY’]

My RSS feeds got a refresh this week. New news sources added (200+ sources). You know the drill! Here are the most noteworthy developments I spotted worthy of your attention:

Instagram is removing the Shopping tab (‘+’ create button takes its place)... An internal Meta staff survey leak revealed employees are not optimistic about Zuck’s plans… You can now let Meta Quest track your heart rate data (I’ll pass thanks)... Facebook is testing an engagement bot for Groups… Instagram is working on a text only mode for posts.

Twitter may soon let you bid for and buy popular @-names (smart idea)... Twitter Coins and Tweet Awards are in the works (Reddit vibes)... Twitter looks likely to offer an annual Twitter Blue plan… Quote Retweets have been renamed ‘Quotes’... Elon Musk revealed plans for long tweets, bookmarks, tweet formatting… Twitter verification badges are changing again! (subtle though. Barely noticeable!)

🔥 POPULAR | GEEKOUT NEWS ALERTS GROUP ON WHATSAPP ✅

If you want to be the first to know about:

• New TikTok, Instagram, YouTube features

• Major platform outages e.g. #InstagramDown

• The latest breaking social media news

Sign up for Geekout News Alerts on WhatsApp. 2,500+ people have already!

REQUEST ACCESS… It's FREE!

TikTok’s Talent Manager Portal launched to make it easier for brands to collab with megastars… And for FYP addicts, TikTok is adding a ‘Sleep reminders’ feature… YouTube added Shorts features for creators, including more analytics and cover image creation tools… Snapchat added ‘Trending’ + ‘‘Favourite’ music tabs.

You can now register your interest for ChatGPT Pro. A new premium paid version of the viral AI tool… Did you know… CapCut has a Creators Program that pays cash awards… Also, you can register interest in CapCut Pro… And finally… The UK could jail social media company execs who break new child safety laws (if it finally gets round to approving the new Online Safety Bill.)

DID YOU SEE… 👀

• ✨ EXPLAINER: Twitter’s New Verification Badges in 2023 [REMIND ME]

• 🛠️ TOOLS: 15 Social Media Marketing Tools For Every Budget [TOOL UP]

• ⭐️ INFLUENCERS: The Top 100 Most Followed Social Media Influencers [VIEW LIST]

• 🎨 DESIGN: The 1980’s Style Instagram Logo [RETRO VIBES]

Right… Let’s bring you up to speed on the most-talked about news headlines this week.

Geekout’s analysis of the hottest stories in social coming up next 👇

– Matt

P.S. THE GEEKOUT WEEKLY WRAPUP is LIVE on Twitter Spaces today at 4pm UK, 11am ET, 8am PT with special guest Chris Stokel-Walker We'll cover TwitTok, raging mad YouTube Creators, A.I. overlords and more. LISTEN LIVE / PLAY BACK

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🚨 Everyone's talking about...

ChatGPT goes Pro: is it coming for your job?

It's been impossible to ignore the excitement around A.I.-written content since OpenAI launched ChatGPT late last year. Now it's announced a paid-for Pro version that promises unlimited, speedy, more reliable use of the app.

But given that ChatGPT can produce some pretty impressive writing if you give it the right prompts, should social media managers be worried that the creative side of their jobs could soon be outsourced to A.I.?

...nah, probably not. Let's face it, only a really reckless boss would fully automate the creativity of their social posts. Where ChatGPT and tools like it could be really useful is:

• Inspiration: Give it some prompts, see what it comes up with and tweak the results or just bounce off them to come up with something better - great for those days when your brain just can't think of anything.

• Volume: Save time by using it to come up with variants on the copy for a post

• Optimise: Feed it your idea and then see if it can make the results snappier

It's worth experimenting with ChatGPT, but don't expect it to save you hours of painstaking creative work just yet. With the right prompts, it could be a useful copilot for generating and tweaking ideas. You'll still probably need that human spark of inspiration to make an idea really stand out, though.

Social tools are already starting to emerge that take advantage of this tech - take a look further up the newsletter.

While it's still early days for tools like this, I expect the social media management software we rely on for posting and scheduling will eventually integrate ChatGPT-like tools that are tuned to social media use cases and include things like customisable brand safety controls.

But even if we get to the point where these tools can write and schedule great posts all by themselves, they'll still just be tools to enhance your job and save you time. Even the best A.I. generated idea will benefit from that flash of human talent to REALLY take off with your audience.

YouTube goes clean: "This is a death knell for so many creators futures."

Has YouTube been taken over by a particularly prissy primary school teacher?

News broke last week about a change to YouTube's approach to profanity. Wanting to keep things clean for advertisers, the platform now demonetises videos with profanity in the first seven seconds.

Not only that, but even profanity as mild as 'crap', right through to the f-word and beyond are treated equally. AND the issue affects creators' old videos, not just their newly uploaded ones.

To say YouTube has messed this up is an understatement. Eurogamer focused on the impact on gaming YouTubers. One creator said that they reached out for help from YouTube support for the issue, but that only seemed to make matters worse, with many more of their videos subsequently demonetised for "light-hearted swearing".

But it's not just gamers. I've heard from some very well-known creators in other fields who have had content demonetised as a result of the prudish new approach.

Hopefully YouTube rethinks this one, as it's not at all clear how the change really benefits anyone but the most pearl-clutching of advertisers, and stripping creators of revenue is unlikely to make them want to stick around.

Twitter goes TikTok with a 'For You' feed

Let's take a step back from all the organisational chaos that continues at Twitter (there's a summary further down the newsletter if that interests you), and look at some of the latest changes Elon Musk has made to the app.

The days of long, limited testing periods seem to be gone - Musk's Twitter ships new features widely as soon as they're ready, which may or may not be a good thing. But if you're a geek who likes to try new things, it at least means you don't get bored.

The big new thing this week for iOS users was a new tabbed design that forces the algorithmic feed on you first, whether you like it or not. Hilariously, it's now called 'For You', although the Twitter algorithm is nowhere near as magical as TikTok's.

While the algorithm used to be the default, you could switch–and stick–to the latest-first feed if you wanted it - and many pro users did that because they want to know what's happening NOW, not what got a lot of likes and retweets 12 hours ago.

You can see why Twitter wants to force the algorithm on everyone. It means they can prioritise Twitter Blue subscribers in the feed and juice engaging tweets to make users stick around longer, but it risks making Twitter less of a 'now' platform.

The added effort of switching across every time you want to see the latest tweets could lead even pro users to check that feed less, which in time could incentivise them to post about less breaking news, as the engagement on brand new tweets will be lower.

While Elon wants some of the magic of TikTok, he might end up with a feed as stale as Facebook's. Or, as I put it earlier this week, a really shit version of TikTok.

Other platform-transforming changes to look out for include:

• 4,000-character tweets rolling out next month. The feature could be only for Blue subscribers

• Bold, italic, and underline formatting options in tweets (accessibility experts on high alert!)

• Highly desirable but disused usernames could be auctioned to the highest bidder. But before you go after your @firstname, consider the trash notifications you'll get from people who can't use Twitter properly

Maybe you love these changes, but there's no doubt Twitter has had a huge vibe shift–and not necessarily for the better–since Musk took over.

It seems many Twitter addicts have just decided to keep using the platform until it dies, no matter how bad it gets. But with advertisers still unconvinced, that might not count for much.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk has broken the world record for the largest loss of personal fortune in history. And as his halo of hype fades (thanks in no small part to his Twitter antics), he may never regain the top spot. Maybe he should spend less time on social media, eh?

🚨 Breaking news

A worrying one here for Twitter power users who hate the official app. Let's hope it's just a glitch...

🐣 Top tweet

👉 On-point memes

📈 Going viral

Wakey Wines 'banned' from TikTok after advertising Prime Energy drink for £100

Prime has been such a hit drink on social media that one shop in the UK marked up the price of cans to £100 each. It backfired though - Wakey Wines' popular TikTok account was removed as a result.

🎧 Top podcast

The Verge's 'Land of the Giants' podcast series is well worth diving into, especially the latest episode, which explores how a scrappy team of twenty-somethings transformed dating forever with the launch of Tinder.

🪧 Sign of the times

How Gen Z social media managers became the new CMOs

"Suddenly, 24-year-olds are finding themselves in charge of brand development for major corporations. What could go wrong? Maybe nothing."

😜 Just for fun

A fun, free tool to try:

Here's what happened when I gave it a try...

🪦 RIP

Apps and tools that are saying goodbye forever:

Meta is shutting Creator Studio. Its tools will be rolled into Meta Business Suite.

Also:

• Twitter is ending support for embedded Likes, collections, and moments timelines from today

😮 WTF?!

🗣️ Industry chatter

Social media managers are increasingly becoming the stars of content they produce for brands, but the brands are usually the main winners...

There's more on this from Rachel Karten here:

Also:

• There's an ‘urgent need’ to understand link between teens self-diagnosing disorders and social media use, experts say

🧵 Top threads

Take a look through this thread, where I dive into data about the state of social media over the past year.

💡 New feature spotlight

Twitter is the new Microsoft Word. Are they adding Clippy next?

👀 Must-read

What happened when Elon Musk tried to hire someone to be his 'Twitter voice'. This is a wild read if true!

Also:

• How KnowYourMeme became the ultimate guide to internet culture

💬 You can quote me on that

If I'm mentioned in the news, you'll find it here:

I was interviewed as part of the researching into Reuters' Media Trends and Predictions 2023. In this thread I share some of the most interesting findings in the report 👇

❓ Question of the week

Check the replies here for how social media managers feel about the rise of ChatGPT. Some replies were more serious than others 😄

Hit Reply to let me know your thoughts:

📈 Charts of the week

For all the noisy talk about the problem of social media 'censorship', most Americans actually want MORE content to be removed:

Also:

• The fastest growing news publisher accounts on TikTok

• Mastodon is struggling to keep users engaged

• Twitter checkmarks in 2023: an explainer

📊 Stats of the week

Instagram and Facebook are tightening the rules on advertising to minors:

• Meta has confirmed that it's still on track to determine Donald Trump's fate on Facebook in the next few weeks. [Washington Post $$$]

• Meta's Oversight Board has overturned a decision to remove a Facebook post calling for the death of Iran's leader, because it's a commonly used opposition slogan. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Facebook tested sending users fewer notifications. Users reported higher satisfaction with app following the change, but started using the app a lot less. [Analytics at Meta]

• Facebook considered reviving a disused railway line to improve travel to its Menlo Park HQ in 2017. [New York Times $$$]

• Meta has accused a surveillance company of collecting data on 600,000 Facebook and Instagram users via fake accounts. [The Guardian]

• Meta's East African content moderation hub is closing after its operator rejigged its business. The work will shift to another contractor. [Financial Times $$$]

• Meta has been named the favourite web stock for 2023 in a JPMorgan survey. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Meta has fallen off Glassdoor's Best Places to Work list this year. [AdWeek $$$]

• ...and internal morale isn't great. [Vox]

• Meta has rescinded some full-time job offers. [TechCrunch]

• The FBI is using Facebook ads to find Chinese language speakers in the US who have been harassed or digitally stalked by malicious Chinese government actors. [Axios]

• Meta’s Quest 1 VR headset will stop getting bug fixes and security patches in 2024. It's also losing some social features as it moves towards obsolescence. [The Verge]

• Roblox could arrive on Meta Quest VR later this year. [The Verge]

• The viral Instagram brand ‘Overheard’ has been acquired by Doing Things Media. [Hollywood Reporter]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• How to take advantage of Meta’s Advantage+ shopping campaigns. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

Facebook:

• Facebook is testing SparkBot in Groups. The bot will auto-post questions to spark conversations and help members get to know each other. [@MattNavarra]

• Facebook's Professional dashboard now displays a 'Net Followers' metric. [@techjalal]

Instagram:

• Instagram's UI is changing next month, with the Shop tab going, Reels moving, and the Create button getting the centre spot in the bottom nav bar. [TechCrunch]

• Location stickers can now give your Instagram Stories a boost. [@ahmedghanem]

• Instagram's 'trending business' feature has started rolling out. [@WFBrother]

• Instagram is working on a 'Text Mode' for posts. [@alex193a]

• Instagram has been spotted testing a new design for displaying images sent via messages. [@yousufortaccom]

WhatsApp:

• WhatsApp has added a 'Media Auto-Download' option on desktop. [@ahmedghanem]

• WhatsApp is testing the ability to detect text within images . [WABetaInfo]

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

• Meta is adding a heart rate tracking feature and Health Connect by Android integration on Meta Quest. [The Verge]

• Horizon Worlds is getting a new ‘Account Status’ feature, and a way to prevent vote-to-kick spam. [The Verge]

• Meta is rolling out AI-powered ad-targeting tech in an effort to reduce discrimination, following a settlement with the US Department of Justice. [The Verge]

Twitter denies that a recently highlighted data breach involved a breach of its systems.

• Many laid off Twitter staff have now received their severance agreements, but they offer a much lower settlement than many expected. [Fortune $$$]

• ...and many thought the severance emails were a phishing scam. [@ZoeSchiffer]

• Former Twitter staff in the UK have filed a legal challenge over what they call a "sham" redundancy process. [The Guardian]

• Many of Twitter's international offices are closing or being forced to close by landlords due to nonpayment of rent. [Insider $$$]

• Twitter has reportedly not been living up to Elon Musk's promise to tackle child abuse material. [NBC News]

• ..but that report led to child abuse hashtags being blocked. [NBC News]

• Twitter has laid off more of its Trust & Safety team. [Bloomberg $$$]

• ...and laying off Brazilian content moderators looks like a bad move following Bolsonaro supporters' storming of government buildings on Sunday. [Rolling Stone]

• U.S. House Republicans want former Twitter staff to testify on their handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story. [Axios]

• Twitter has been sued for almost $400,000 in unpaid fees by a San Francisco marketing company. [Insider]

• Twitter has restored the accounts of US two election deniers, two years after the January 6 attack. [CNN]

• ...and others back this week include QAnon kingpin Ron Watkins. [Rolling Stone]

• Germany has warned Elon Musk about breaking EU misinformation laws on Twitter. [Gizmodo]

• WhatsApp is allowed to sue Israel's NSO Group over its spyware, the US Supreme Court has ruled. [Reuters$$$]

• Twitter Blue has launched in Japan. [TechCrunch]

• ...but fake users keep getting checkmarks. [@conspirator0]

• Piers Morgan has apologised to Ed Sheeran, after his hacked Twitter account abused the singer. [Sky News]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• Brands shouldn't quit Twitter, but instead treat it like an emerging channel, Forrester says. [AdWeek $$$]

New features and tests:

• Twitter is working on easier tweet bookmarking. [@ehikian]

• Twitter has added a ‘Hashfetti’ effect to branded hashtag campaigns. [Social Media Today]

• Twitter seems closer to launching a 'Coins' feature. [@nima_owji]

• And Twitter is still working on an Awards feature. It appears to have a minimum payout of $50. [@wongmjane]

• Twitter has been spotted shortening 'Quote Tweets' to 'Quotes' [@wongmjane]

• Twitter is working on redesigned verification badges, each with a different shape. [@alex193a]

• Twitter is working on an annual subscription for Blue. [@wongmjane]

• Twitter is still working on a Follow button on tweets. [@nima_owji]

• Twitter could show you when your profile is under review, so you'll know whether you're allowed to change your name and profile picture. [@wongmjane]

• Twitter Spaces now has a background music feature. [@MattNavarra]

• Twitter now displays a warning about copyright following the launch of its longer video uploads feature. [@MattNavarra]

Wisconsin's governor plans to ban TikTok from state government-owned devices, following many other US states.

•  ...New Jersey and Ohio are the latest states to announce such a ban. [Insider]

• ...but one US senator thinks a broader ban of other apps would be more effective than singling out TikTok. [Axios]

• Any kind of significant TikTok ban could mean massive pain for creators. [Digiday]

• TikTok's CEO met EU lawmakers to discuss data safety, disinformation, and more. [TechCrunch]

• ...but talk of a TikTok ban seems distant in the EU, compared to the US. [Bloomberg $$$]

• TikTok has been fined €5 million in France for a manipulative cookie-consent flow. [TechCrunch]

• TikTok parent ByteDance’s ecommerce business surged in 2022, according to leaked internal data. [The Information $$$]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• How TikTok influencers are helping companies recruit new workers. [CNBC]

New features and tests:

• TikTok is testing a Talent Manager Portal to make it easier for brands to work with big-name creators. It's currently invite only. [TechCrunch]

• TikTok is testing a 'sleep reminders' feature that nudges you when it's bedtime. [TechCrunch]

💥 More social media news and updates

YouTube creators: Shorts monetisation is just a couple of weeks away:

• LinkedIn usage is surging, partly due to businesses laying off staff. [CNN]

• Reddit and Pinterest promoted their brand safety credentials at this year's CES. [AdAge $$$]

• Seattle schools are suing tech companies including TikTok and Meta for allegedly harming young people's mental health. [Axios]

• Social platforms are "defective" products that can be held legally responsible for harms they cause to younger users, alleges a new US lawsuit. [Axios]

• The UK could jail social media bosses who breach child safety rules, under amendments being considered for the long-delayed Online Safety Bill. [The Guardian]

• Social media stoked the attack on Brazil's Congress last weekend. [NPR]

• ...and Facebook and YouTube have removed content supporting the attack. [Reuters $$$]

• Reddit is making inroads with ad sales but still has work to do. [Digiday]

• Parler's parent company has laid off most of its staff, throwing the future of the app into doubt. [The Verge]

• Messaging services like WhatsApp have been left out of Australia's new misinformation code. [The Guardian]

• WeChat’s TikTok-style video feed reportedly saw views triple in 2022. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Angry airline customers need to work hard to kick up an effective fuss on social media... unless they're celebrities. [The Guardian]

New features and tests:

• YouTube has added new analytics, including data on subscriber growth, Shorts thumbnails, new subscriber recognition options, and more. [Social Media Today]

• LinkedIn now shows related posts from the post authors in the feed. [@oncescuradu]

• Snapchat now has a 'Trending' tab for music. [@jonah_manzano]

• Snapchat has added a tab for finding saved and recently used music. [@ahmedghanem]

• CapCut now lets you request early access to CapCut Pro from within the app. [@MattNavarra]

• CapCut has updated its nav bar to make it easier to find templates. [@YasserM86]

• Medium has launched a Mastodon instance to help its writers join the fediverse. [Medium]

📖 Weekend reading

The quest to make the metaverse a world of new smells and tingles

Mark Zuckerberg's vision of a metaverse might be years from becoming reality, but that hasn't stopped a whole industry building up around the concept.

• The tiny Indonesian village that makes YouTube stars

• Inside Facebook’s high-stakes debate to reinstate Trump after a two-year ban

• When grandma is a TikTok star and the grandkids are the managers

• Why 'man on the street' TikTokers are a public menace

😳 And finally...

Well that escalated quickly...

📅 Back next week...

…And that’s about it, Geekout friends. 👊

Sorry for the very Black Mirror-esq ending! 😱

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Right… I'm heading off to get ChatGPT to ‘write a quote about [xxxx] in the style of Matt Navarra’ for a journalist asking for my comments. 😆

Goodbye geeks!

– Matt

_______

This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant