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Hello, geeks!

Welcome to this week’s Geekout (brat summer edit). 🟩

Before we get into it…

What’s the DUMBEST question a social media manager has EVER been asked in a job interview?

I asked my followers on LinkedIn. You won’t believe the comments. » They’re WILD! «

Bonus: The BEST interview questions for a social media manager 

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A quick thank you to all of you who emailed and DM’d me wishing my son a speedy recovery from his operation.

I was really touched by all your messages. 🫶

He is finally back at home now and feeling stronger every day.

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Back to social media land…

A few quick things worthy of highlighting before we dive in:

• ✨ Big news for TikTok creators!: TikTok now lets you upload custom thumbnails and cover images. More info here. 🔥

• 🥊 Elon vs. Zuck fight back on?: Elon says he will fight Zuck “Any time. Any place. Any rules.” Read Zuck’s response. 🤣 
  

• 🏆 New world record: The slowest social media support request response EVER. WTF are they smoking over at X. 🤯

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DON’T MISS THIS…

Earlier this year, I teamed up with Dash Hudson to host a special Social Media Trends webinar.

It proved to be very popular. 1,300+ people requested an invite!

So… We’re joining forces again with another FREE Geekout x Dash Hudson event for social media marketing pros. Check it out! 👇

FREE Geekout x Dash Hudson Webinar: Social Media Pros, Claim Your Spot! 🔥

I've teamed up with Dash Hudson to create a FREE webinar for social media and marketing pros like you. 👇

Join me and Dash Hudson’s CMO, Kate Kenner Archibald, to dive into Dash Hudson’s latest Social Media Trends Report: The Revolution of AI and Creators in Social Marketing 👌

During this FREE webinar, you’ll learn about: 🎓

• The latest AI tools for creators and marketers on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest. ✨
  

• How to amplify customer engagement across the content lifecycle with AI insights 🤖
  

• How entertaining TikTok content drives sales: Brands with a 5.0+ entertainment score experienced a 67% sales growth in 2024 📈 
  

• How content from brand-creator partnerships is driving higher performance than in-house content 🔥

…PLUS even more insights to optimise your social strategy in 2024.

1,300+ people requested an invite to the last Dash Hudson x Geekout webinar. 🤯

So… Register NOW to secure your invite (spaces limited!)

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🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

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

2. EU threatened to fine Meta for saying Facebook is ‘free’ [MISLEADING]

3. Leaked docs revealed Meta staff debating its politics policy as X continues to drive the news [CONFLICT-ING]

4. Snap accused of struggling to protect teens from drug dealing and sextortion [COST-CUTTING] 

5. Reddit is now blocking major search engines and AI bots — except the ones that pay [RESTRICTING].

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🚨 EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT…

Meta is the real ‘open AI’

Meta’s popularity ebbs and flows what seems like constantly. One minute the company is the devil of social media, the next it’s the good guy.

This week it had a clear ‘good guy’ moment in Silicon Valley as it released its powerful new Llama AI models. Unlike the competition from the likes of OpenAI, Meta’s Llama is open source, meaning anyone can use it in their own products for free.

Mark Zuckerberg made a passionate case for the benefits of open source this week. He says it’s good for developers while also being good for Meta.

And while Meta has a long history of open-sourcing technologies that have become popular developer tools (React, for example), giving away what seems like such a crucial technology might see it yet again face regulatory scrutiny. That’s something the company is ready for a fight about.

While all of this might seem quite far removed from the world of social media, it’s not really. As generative AI creeps into seemingly everything we use, Meta benefits from having its own AI in-house. And by giving it away, Zuck gets to collect plenty of those ‘good guy’ points.

…even from Elon Musk!

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✨ NEW & NOTEWORTHY

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

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😆 LOL

Admit it… this is you 👇 (Via Girl Power Marketing on LinkedIn)

One of them is smart. The other… Not so much…

Can you relate to this… 💀

Zuck… you’ve changed, bro…

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📈 MEMES

Social media processed Joe Biden’s shock exit from the presidential race last weekend in the only way it knows how: through memes.

Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg leaned into his own meme-ification to promote Meta’s latest AI tech.

Which is your favorite AI-generated swaggy Zuck look? 👀 

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🌡️ VIRAL

Kamala Harris gave Charlie XCX’s marketing team an unimaginable gift, as the ‘brat summer’ went well and truly hyper-mainstream:

Dazed is getting heat from Charli XCX’s fans for saying brat is already a dead trend (thanks to Alison Battisby on Geekout Pro for that link), but as Bloomberg’s Dave Lee points out, the mayor of London using it does kind of point to brat having peaked.

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🪧 BRANDS

…Meanwhile, brands (as you’d expect) were keen to jump on the ‘brat summer’.

Annie-Mai Hodge pointed out on LinkedIn that even a local council got in on the act, with a dance routine to promote good litter practice:

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👀 MY FAV READS

What is it about British men called Nick, who have link to Yorkshire that make good right-hand men for US tech CEOs?

• LinkedIn turns to AI and games to build ‘daily habit’ among users

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🙊 WHAT DID YOU SAY?!

“One of the most BADASS things I’ve EVER seen in my life”

– Mark Zuckerberg isn’t endorsing a political candidate and it seems a stretch to imagine he’s into MAGA, but he’s keen to throw the potential next president a compliment

Some other interesting comments for social media CEOs and execs this week:

• Mark Zuckerberg imagines content creators making AI clones of themselves

• "It is impressive and Zuck does deserve credit for open-sourcing" – Elon Musk isn’t a big fan on Zuckerberg but he agrees with open-sourcing AI models

• …and Zuck agrees with Musk that OpenAI’s name is misleading

• Meta warned its regulations could lead to advanced AI not being available in the EU

• Zuck says he used to be awkward but is getting “more comfortable just being me” as he gets older

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📺 MUST WATCH

It was a good week for AI newsletter The Rundown, which got an interview with a tan-lined Zuckerberg about the new release of Llama.

Tap through to watch the video 👇

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😮 WTF?!

As Geekout friend Taylor Lorenz explains, “two fashion and lifestyle influencers are locked in a contentious court battle that could set a major legal precedent for protecting creators' online content.”

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🤦 FAIL

Oh dear. This MAGA dork tweeted from the wrong account 🤦🏻‍♂️

He blamed it on using "a friend's device" without convincing elaboration. 🙄

Some other noteworthy FAILS this week:

• X users reported problems trying to follow Kamala Harris' account, but despite Elon supporting Trump, it was probably just a glitch

• Instagram users are claiming the app has been flooded with inappropriate content following a recent update for the app.

• X’s pro-Trump #MAGA icon looks like teeny tiny copyright infringement

• P**n ads reappeared on YouTube, despite Google's promises

• X's Grok chatbot is misleading voters about the presidential election

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👔 YOU’RE HIRED!

Social media jobs worth checking out:

• Duolingo needs a Senior Social Media Manager. Work with the owl! [New York City, NY, USA]

• Ogilvy Health is looking for an SVP, Head of Influencer & Social Strategy [Hybrid: New York City, NY, USA]

• The BBC wants a YouTube Channel Manager [Hybrid: Salford, UK]

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👌 PRO TIPS

Even more top pro-tips, guides, and insights worth checking out:

• Instagram has published a guide to getting the the most out of Instagram Live

• A Threads marketing guide for businesses and creators 2024 (Thanks for the mention here, Metricool!)

• TikTok has published a new marketing guide for SMBs

• YouTube has shared some quick tips and pointers on how to grow your channel

• 20 confirmed facts about YouTube's algorithm

🤖 FUTURE TECH

Looks like we got a clear view of Meta’s next Quest headset this week…

Also:

• Could these be Meta’s ‘true’ AR smart glasses?

• Meta seeks to add a 'Blood Pressure' app to their future Meta Watch

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.📲 NEW(-ISH) APP

Openvibe connects Mastodon, Bluesky, and soon, Threads. 🧵

Just log in with your accounts and everyone you’re following appears in the same feed.

You can also cross-post across platforms and there is an aggregated trending section.

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🤖 SOCIAL A.I.

All the ways A.I. is transforming social media:

• Meta has launched the the newest version of its Llama AI model, in the three different versions, including what it calls its biggest and most capable AI to date.

• Meta's AI assistant is coming to Quest headsets in the US and Canada

• Meta AI is now available in Spanish, Portugese, French, and more

• Meta AI might get a dedicated video-generation option, allowing users to generate longer videos.

• WhatsApp is testing AI Studio feature with additional chatbots

• WhatsApp is testing the ability to choose which Llama AI model you use

• X has launched an underwhelming Grok-powered 'More About This Account' feature

• X now lets you ask Grok about any term or phrase by highlighting it in the app

• CapCut now lets you create an AI character of yourself

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📊 SOCIAL STATS

100 MILLION

– The number of monthly active users WhatsApp now has in the US

• Telegram's userbase climbed to 950 million as it plans to launch app store

• TikTok's attempt to challenge Amazon's Prime Day was a limited success

• YouTube ad revenue has hit $8.66 billion, up 13%

• 54% of people in the US, aged 18 to 60, would quit their jobs if they could make a living as a full-time content creator

• Micro-influencer rates are rising with ’10-20% fee jumps year-over-year'

• 69% of US social media users say they have been de-influenced

• Meta has taken down 63,000 romance scammer accounts

• X seems to be failing at policing election posts. Nearly 8,000 fact checks have been drafted about immigration on Community Notes, but only 471 of them have been approved by users and made public on X, according to MediaWise

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📈 CHARTED

Video now accounts for almost 60% of average time spent on social networks

• Reddit has seen the biggest growth of average time spent per day by US active users among major social platforms

• LinkedIn has become a $15 billion business

• LinkedIn’s year-on-year revenue growth has stalled

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• A court has ruled that Meta's mass layoff severance agreements were illegal. [TechRadar Pro]

• WhatsApp has teamed up with National Trading Standards to raise awareness of online scams. [Meta Newsroom]

• Meta has been fined $220 million by Nigeria for WhatsApp data sharing. [Reuters $$$]

• Influencers radicalising boys in a 'terrifying' way, say UK police. [BBC News]

Instagram:

• Instagram’s option to allow or disallow website embeds has started showing up for users who previously didn’t have it [@theahmedghanem]

• Instagram has introduced a new chat and broadcast channel theme celebrating the Olympics. [@theahmedghanem]

• Instagram now allows users to send saved replies in broadcast channels. [@theahmedghanem]

• Instagram has added Notes to the profile activity section. [@theahmedghanem]

• Instagram now shows accounts what will happen when they accept a collaboration tag. [@theahmedghanem]

• Instagram has added a fixed ‘Follow’ button in the header while scrolling through a profile. [@theahmedghanem]

• Instagram now lets you choose to post a live photo as a loop. [@jonahmanzano]

• Instagram has refreshed the Reels editing interface on Android. [@jonahmanzano]

WhatsApp:

• WhatsApp is rolling out a feature to automatically add a background gradient filter to status updates. [WABetaInfo]

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

• Meta Verified has added a yearly subscription option for both Instagram and Facebook. [@jonahmanzano]

• Meta has filed a patent application to copy Vision Pro's EyeSight feature. [9to5Mac]

• Meta Quest 3's mixed reality occlusion is now higher quality with better performance. [Upload VR]

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New features and tests:

• X has launched an in-app hub for the upcoming Olympic Games. [@oncescuradu]

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💥 EVEN MORE SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS & UPDATES

• Kamala Harris deepfakes are going viral on TikTok and X. [Mashable]

• The US Senate is set to vote on bills regulating social media for kids next week. [NBC News]

• Cameo, once valued at $1 billion is now so broke it can't pay a $600,000 FTC fine. [Business Insider]

• Snapchat is powering a new AR art experience in partnership with New York City’s LincoIn Center. [Social Media Today]

• Snapchat has announced the latest participants in its 523 support programme. [Social Media Today]

• A zero-day vulnerability in for Android allowed malicious files to masquerade as videos. [The Record]

• Malaysia and Singapore are tightening social media regulation. [Nikkei Asia]

• A man was convicted for ‘sextortion’ of more than 100 children on Omegle, Snapchat, and TikTok. [The Verge]

New features and tests:

• Linktree now supports scheduled links. [@theahmedghanem]

• CapCut has added a new search button in the editor to make it easier to find features and stickers. [@theahmedghanem]

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📰 WEEKEND READS

Geekout’s pick of the best longer reads to sink into over the weekend:

• Has social media made sightseeing deeply uncool?

• How Mark Zuckerberg's teaching assistant at Harvard rose to become Meta's CTO

• Why the AI boyfriend business is booming

• Inside the online army supercharging Kamala Harris’ campaign

• Why aren't there breakout YouTube stars like there used to be?

• Beyond the bio: The evolution of ‘link in bio’ and its role in shaping the creator economy

• What really drives Gen Z to make a purchase on social platforms?

• For years, TikTok told us what to buy. Now the trend is to consume less

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😳 AND FINALLY…

Button Stealer is a super-geeky Chrome extension that automatically “steals” a button from every website you open.

It's fun, useless, and free!

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📅 BACK NEXT WEEK…

… And that’s a wrap. You weekly social media news download is done. ✅

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Can you do me a quick favour? ❤️

I spend 2 days every week writing Geekout.

I give it away for FREE to help as many social media managers and marketers as possible.

If you enjoyed reading it… Share this link on your socials, in your work chat channels, or forward it via email to a colleague who might love it too.

Thank you! 🫶

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Alrighty folks, let’s get you outta here.

I’m heading off for a night out partying in Bristol with my girl Sarah.

Still very much loved up. 🥰 I haven’t given her the ICK… Yet 😁

Goodbye, geeks!

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