The 5 Personality Traits of Top Social Media Managers

...Do you have them all?

Author

Matt Navarra
December 02, 2022

Hello, geeks

Well hello there you! I hope you’ve had a solid week on the socials.

It’s been another week of batshit crazy stuff coming out of Twitter HQ (well, Elon’s tweets mostly). But perhaps, dare I say it, a little less bonkers than in previous weeks. 

On my new ‘WTF Elon!™’ scale… Last week we hit level 8 (out of 10). This week? Perhaps a level 6?

The biggest development this week has been Elon’s threat to go to war with Apple. (bless him). 

He chilled TF out later in the week, but I wish Tim Cook had replied to Elon’s tweet with this. 

Everybody seems to have an opinion on Elon’s Twitter right now: Ryan Reynolds summed things up pretty well for most of us. Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings says we should stop being mean to Elon. And Mark Zuckerberg’s take on it was 38 words of absolutely nothing!

Meanwhile… My week’s been as random as ever:

Anyway, before we get started:

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Alrighty… Let’s do this. These are hottest social media headlines this week:

🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

  1. Elon Musk Threatened War with Apple Then Chilled TF Out [ANGRY ELON] 

  2. Twitter’s Suspended Account Amnesty ‘Big Bang’ Began [CHAOS COMING] 

  3. EU Warns Twitter to Comply with New Rules or Get Banned [TROUBLED ELON]

  4. Ye’s Twitter Account Suspended Following (More) Offensive Tweets [STFU YE]

  5. Apple’s Mixed Reality Headset Details Revealed in New Leak [NEW REALITY]

What else went down this week? Here’s everything else that’s new and noteworthy:

Twitter is going to fill your feed with a lot more recommended tweets… Twitter has yet another new verification badge. This time it’s for verified phone numbers…  And Twitter is also adding a ‘verified views’ counter on tweets. (More info here)

Meta’s been issued with another huge fine by the EU... Creators are really fed up with Instagram’s ever-changing monetisation programs…. Instagram is testing a share Reel to Facebook option…  A bunch of popular apps now have a ‘Share to Instagram Reels’ option… Instagram has added a new Ray Ban Stories sticker.

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LinkedIn rolled out a new AI-powered Focussed Inbox feature and new spam prevention tools… LinkedIn also added new features for Company Pages, including an improved competitor analytics dashboard… Reddit is introducing the ability to add images to comments in some subreddits… YouTube is still struggling to make shopping a thing on its platform.

Discord launched ‘Server Subscriptions’ - its first creator monetisation feature. Twitch rolled out a new anti-harassment tool called ‘Shield Mode’... BeReal has been crowned App of the Year by Apple and Google… Kanye is no longer buying Parler (surprising nobody). 

And finally… We had blue ticks. Then grey ‘official’ check marks. Well this is Twitter’s NEW gold verification badge! 

DID YOU SEE… 👀

  • ⚡️ EXCLUSIVE: The Geekout Group On FB Now Has 30k Members[REQUEST INVITE]

  • 📺 YOUTUBE: The Top Songs, Creators, And Videos On YouTube In 2022 [REVEAL]

  • 🗣️ PODCASTS: The Most Popular Podcasts on Spotify in 2022 [TAKE A LOOK]

  • ✨ PRO TIPS I: How Looney Tunes Grew Its TikTok To 1.6M Followers [SHOW ME]

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  • 🎁 CREATORS: The Best Xmas Gifts for Creators 2022 [CHECK ‘EM OUT]

Time to get you up to speed on the news stories EVERYONE’s talking about.

Keep scrolling… Analysis of this week’s hottest headlines coming up next 👇

– Matt

P.S. JOIN US ON TWITTER SPACES at 5pm UK / 12pm ET / 9am PT today as we chew over Twitter 2.0 and Elon's Apple war. LISTEN LIVE / PLAY BACK

🚨 Everyone's talking about...

If a 'new normal' is emerging at Twitter, it's that we should expect weekly dramas, even if not all of them play out as expected.

As the week began, it looked like the big story was going to be Twitter going to war with Apple. Elon Musk tweeted that Apple was threatening to remove Twitter from the App Store without telling them why. 

What's more, Musk suggested Apple was withdrawing as an advertiser on the platform (worrying for Musk, as Apple was Twitter's top ad customer in Q1 2022, spending $48m on ads), while stating that Twitter was very much opposed to Apple's 30% cut of App Store fees. Musk went as far as claiming he might develop a new phone to compete with Apple (but don't hold your breath for a TeslaPhone, folks - it's highly unlikely to happen).

This looked like a fight many had predicted. It looked like Musk's loosey-goosey approach to moderation was going to come back to bite him, as safety-conscious Apple found Twitter in violation with App Store content rules while simultaneously following other advertisers in running away from a non-brand-safe platform.

Smelling blood, American politicians got involved as it looked like Musk might lure Apple into a fight with Republicans. Longtime Apple critics Spotify and Meta joined in with vague support for Twitter.

But then as quickly as the 'war' began, it seemed to fizzle out. Musk deleted a tweet in which he specifically described 'going to war', and by Wednesday he'd been on a tour of Apple HQ with CEO Tim Cook. Musk said they'd had a "good conversation" and established that Apple never considered removing Twitter after all.

What's more, third-party data appeared to reveal that Apple might actually have increased its ad spend with Twitter. The rule of thumb lives on: don't take Elon Musk at his word.

We don't know what else Cook and Musk discussed, but Cook is a skilful diplomat who seemingly calmed Musk down. Still, moderation and App Store fees are likely to remain bones of contention between the two of them. This week it was reported that Twitter has once again delayed the relaunch of Twitter Blue as it looks for a way to avoid the Apple 'tax'.

And Musk really needs Blue to be a HUGE success. The company's advertising business really hurting. A reported 1 cent price increase to exactly $8 per month might not go a long way towards that, but every penny counts.

Musk wants paid subscribers to account for 50% of revenue, but half of users won't pay for it, data shows. Indeed, it was reported this week that many changes Musk proposes were already researched and tested under Twitter's previous ownership - and they didn't work.

In the same week he said he "sees a path" to 1 billion monthly active users by 2024, Musk claimed user signups are at "all-time high". This is somewhat backed up by third-party data, but he should probably lay off the shoddy graphs with questionable data. 

Apple might not quote be ready for a showdown with Elon Musk over Twitter moderation but the EU certainly is. Musk has been warned this week that not complying with the new Digital Services Act could lead to Twitter receiving an EU-wide ban and fines of up to 6% of global turnover.

The warning followed news that Twitter had already started reinstating accounts that were previously banned, focusing on 62,000 accounts with more than 10,000 followers each. And it was spotted that Twitter recently quietly stopped enforcing its Covid misinformation policy, opening the door to harmful conspiracy theories that can get people killed.

This is all great if you're a supporter of Musk's brand of free speech, but the signs are already there that Twitter is struggling to balance freedom of expression with moderation that stops the platform becoming a mess.

Last weekend it was overwhelmed by Chinese spam as the Xi regime tried to obscure information about widespread anti-government protests (incidentally, videos from protests were a reminder of Twitter's brilliance at its best). Meanwhile, Twitter failed to identify footage of the 2019 New Zealand mosque shootings uploaded last week; it was warned against not tackling Russian propaganda; there were concerns in India over what looser moderation might mean, and in the US it was reported that left-wing voices were being silenced.

Twitter claims none of its policies have changed, which is patently false, but there is at least some sign that moderation is still an active concern at the company. Musk says Twitter is purging spam and scam accounts.

If you want a preview of what letting all those banned accounts back in could look like, Musk's friend, the increasingly far-right Ye, AKA Kanye West, was suspended again in the past few hours. Meanwhile, reports that some Musk critics were suspended for hateful conduct are hopefully just mistakes by inexperienced moderators. 

But if you saw viral claims Musk has virtually eliminated eliminated CSAM on Twitter, you've sadly been misled. The company's child safety team was gutted by the recent layoffs.

Twitter's analytics team was another department gutted in the recent layoffs. This led to questions over whether Twitter can accurately track data to moderate effectively. No wonder former head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth says the company is going off the rails as he predicted.

As all this unfolds, many big brands continue to pause Twitter ad spend. Musk reportedly called some ad execs to chastise them. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work, but the understaffed ad teams are at least working on aggressive deals to try to win clients back. 

With all of the drama swirling around Twitter, it's little wonder that many users are looking for a calmer, but still Twitter-like, experience elsewhere.

One platform, Post, had a good week as it was revealed it has received funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Scott Galloway. You can read more about its monetisation plans here, but essentially it's the latest startup to try making micropayments for news articles work.

Another Twitter-like platform had a rougher week. Hive has shut down temporarily after it was discovered hackers could read private messages and edit other people's posts. Ouch!

And Parler–one of the Twitter alternatives for the Trump crowd–had a setback as it was revealed that Ye won't buy it after all. It turns out that plans for the antisemitic, Nazi-loving Hitler fan formerly known as Kanye West to acquire the platform were quietly dropped last month.

The fact is, there is no one platform perfectly primed to replace Twitter. Even if all the challengers worked perfectly, they lack the critical mass, the engagement, and the buzz that Twitter still has in spades even if it's not as safe and reliable as it once was. 

Some of these platforms might develop niche audiences (Mastodon has quietly nurtured a loyal user base for years) but if a true Twitter replacement ever emerges, it's unlikely to look much like Twitter.

👉 On-point tweets

😮 WTF?!

This deepfake Mark Zuckerberg is scarily good:

📈 Going viral

Spotify Wrapped seems to come around earlier every year, but there's no doubting the social marketing genius of its personalised music recaps.

Also:

🔨 Tool of the week

This impressive Chrome extension helps you "slash through repetitive tasks in seconds by teleporting data between your tabs" - it's really clever and depending on the kinds of tasks you regularly have to do, you might wonder how you managed without it.

🎧 New podcast

YouTube has launched its first ever official trends podcast. TechCrunch reports it will "tackle lesser-known stories behind the biggest YouTube trends". Here's the first episode 👇

📄 Report of the week

This is well worth a read, and its presentation is top-notch too. Creative agency We Are Social digs into the trends shaping the future of the internet...

Think Forward 2023

We are a global socially-led creative agency, with unrivaled social media expertise.

📱 TikTok famous

What does the woman behind TikTok's most popular text-to-speech voice think of her fame? The Verge found out...

Behind the voice: an interview with TikTok’s text-to-speech actress

Kat Callaghan is the voice of “Jessie” on TikTok.

🧵 Top threads

I've dropped a couple of explainers onto Twitter as threads this week. Have a read...

👀 Worth a watch

Forbes produced this video explaining how MrBeast became the highest-earning YouTuber in the world:

Could MrBeast Be the First YouTuber Billionaire?

Why would anyone spend 50 hours buried alive just to make a YouTube video? Jimmy Donaldson – aka MrBeast – had 54 million reasons last year. The world’s top-earning creator is already worth $500 million — and thinks he can double that.

And don't miss: 

🐣 Brand tweets

Is this tweet from Domino's bad taste and a cheap shot? Or is it fair game and harmless fun? Check the replies...

Meanwhile, always check your handles and then check them again!

💡 New feature spotlight

I get the feeling this is going to be VERY popular: WhatsApp is rolling out the ability to message notes and reminders to yourself. 

💬 Quote of the week

 Good advice for Elon Musk from his former head of trust and safety at Twitter:

👀 Reads of the week

This very funny piece captures the Instagram's biggest problem right now.

We at Instagram Want You to Know That if You Don’t Use Reels We Will Hurt You and Your Family

You’re not sinking this Meta ship. The Winklevoss twins couldn’t do it, and neither will you.

Also:

💬 You can quote me on that

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

What happens next when Elon Musk becomes Twitter's number one influencer? I gave my thoughts to BBC News:

Elon Musk set to become number-one influencer on Twitter

What will one man's unprecedented status as both top influencer and chief executive mean for the Twitter?

Also:

👌 Pro tips

This is good advice 👇. Being obsessive, consistent and persistent with whatever your passion, is an under-rated super power

I'm obsessed with new social media features. I have persistently and consistently tweeted about them for the past 12 years!

You can't control going viral but you can control being prolific.

What are some tactics that helped me grow an audience of over 45,000 across Twitter, podcast and newsletter channels?

🤦‍♂️ Fail of the week

Once again: in 99% of cases, your 'metaverse strategy' should just be 'understand it and then wait and see'!

A cautionary tale....

More fails:

📈 Charts of the week

Also:

📊 Stat of the week

Twitter's ad problems by the numbers:

Meta News

Instagram is being used as a marketplace for illegal drugs.

Instagram has a drug problem. Its algorithms make it worse.

If you express interest in buying drugs illicitly, expect a flood of solicitations to be funneled to you.

  • Meta has been testing a refined version of its anti-'revenge p*rn' technology. TikTok and Bumble have now signed up to use it. [Bloomberg $$$]

  • Meta has been fined €265m for a 2021 Facebook data-scraping breach. [TechCrunch]

  • Facebook approved 75% of ads threatening US election workers, new research has shown. [The Register]

  • Mark Zuckerberg says the majority of his time is still spent on Meta's traditional business, rather than the metaverse. [@sherman4949]

  • ...but he won't let the doubters put him off the metaverse. [CoinDesk]

  • Data about 500m WhatsApp users is supposedly for sale online. [Cybernews]

  • Beauty retailer Lush has no regrets about quitting Instagram and Facebook. [The Drum]

  • An alleged Instagram likes seller has been ordered to pay Meta $200,000. [The Register]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

  • Meta has launched two new art projects to highlight the creative opportunities of the metaverse. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

Facebook:

  • Facebook has a new automated welcome message feature for Groups. [@MattNavarra]

Instagram:

  • Instagram now supports sharing to Reels from third-party apps. [AdWeek $$$]

  • Instagram has added a 'RayBan Stories' sticker. [@WFBrother]

  • Instagram is testing the ability to add a moving avatar when you add music to a Story. [@yousufortaccom]

  • Instagram has been spotted offering a 'share reel to Facebook' option. [@ahmedghanem]

Messenger:

  • Messenger has added new Avatar Quick Reactions in chats. [@MattNavarra]

WhatsApp:

  • WhatsApp is rolling out group chat polls on desktop. [WABetaInfo]

  • WhatsApp Business is testing a new device status feature. [@ahmedghanem]

  • WhatsApp is introducing the ability to forward images, videos, GIFs, and documents, with a caption. [WABetaInfo]

  • WhatsApp now supports Android tablets. [Android Authority]

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

  • Meta has added a new trusted email feature for business accounts to add more security for your business account. [@ahmedghanem]

  • Meta has developed an A.I. model capable of winning the complex game Diplomacy. [Washington Post $$$]

Twitter News

Twitter polls are trash, according to former staff. And yet Elon Musk uses them to justify big decisions.

Musk's Beloved Twitter Polls Are Bot-Driven Bullsh!t, Ex-Employees Say

“Polls are more prone to manipulation than almost anything else [on Twitter]. It’s interesting, given his [Musk’s] use of polls,” Yoel Roth, the company’s former Head of Trust and Safety says…

  • Twitter staff keep being mistakenly fired so often that HR created a new internal "accidental termination" label to identify them when rehired. [Insider $$$]

  • A senior Twitter exec in Ireland has obtained a High Court injunction to stop her being fired. She also says firings at the company have meant she has to work 75 hours per week. [Irish Times]

  • Twitter staff weren't paid on time in the UK and Germany last week. [@stokel]

  • Elon Musk says Twitter's development managers must write a "meaningful amount of code themselves". [@ZoeSchiffer]

  • ...and Musk says all coding and design work should be done on the "dense and intense" 10th floor of the company's HQ. [@ZoeSchiffer]

  • Elon Musk claims he will soon publish "'the Twitter Files' on free speech suppression" [Insider]

  • Donald Trump is not withdrawing his legal fight over being banned from Twitter, despite the fact he's been reinstated. [Bloomberg $$$]

  • Elon Musk's famous 'cocaine back in Coke' tweet has reportedly been framed on a wall at Twitter HQ. [Insider]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

  • Should you pause your Twitter ad campaigns? A look at the most recent concerns at the app. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

  • Twitter is going to show more 'recommended tweets' from accounts you don't follow. [TechCrunch]

  • Twitter has updated its US-only Community Notes feature to better identify 'low quality' contributions. [TechCrunch]

  • ...and it continues to tweak the ranking algorithm for Community Notes. [@CommunityNotes]

  • The forthcoming gold checkmark for company accounts has been spotted in code. [@alex193a]

  • ... and Twitter could soon make the business profile pictures square. [@nima_owji]

  • Twitter's 'Verified phone number' check mark is now live in India. [@MattNavarra]

  • Twitter has revised its ad targeting options. [Social Media Today]

  • Twitter has now removed details of the app used to publish a tweet info on the web. [@Bradley_Adams44]

  • Twitter is working on an alert that your checkmark will be temporarily hidden if you change your name or profile picture. [@alex193a]

  • Twitter seems to have stopped work on a chat feature for Communities. [@SBkcrn]

  • Twitter appears to be removing its birthday balloons feature. [@alex193a]

TikTok News

TikTok has been accused of not doing enough to protect children from the deadly 'blackout challenge'.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

  •  TikTok has reportedly outsourced more of its ecommerce operations. [Financial Times $$$]

  • TikTok videos by Russia's Wagner mercenary group are worryingly popular on the platform. [BBC News]

  • TikTok will ban videos that encourage sunburn and tanning after alarm from medical experts. [The Guardian]

  • TikTok and ByteDance staff were warned to change their fraud prevention measures or risk jail, after an internal audit last year. [Forbes $$$]

  • TikTok's CEO underlined its US data privacy initiatives in an interview this week. [Wall Street Journal $$$]

  • South Dakota has banned TikTok from government-owned devices. [Engadget]

  • TikTok users are being infected by malware after installing dodgy 'unfilter' software. [Gizmodo]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

  • Channel 4 and KFC are among the winners of the first TikTok Awards for brands. [Insider]

  • TikTok has launched an updated ‘Marketing Partners’ platform to help connect brands with promotional assistance. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

  • More images have emerged of TikTok's in-app verification request feature. [@jonah_manzano]

  • TikTok is giving its ‘Book Club’ with Amazon a big push in-app. [@MattNavarra]

  • TikTok has been spotted displaying a “apply previous video effect” prompt. [@oncesrucadu]

💥 More social media news and updates

The UK's Online Safety Bill returned to parliament this week with big fines threatened for social media companies if they don't stop sexist and racist content.

Social media firms face big UK fines if they fail to stop sexist and racist content

Revised online safety bill proposes fines of 10% of revenue but drops harmful communications offence

  • ...and requirements to block 'legal but harmful' content have been dropped from the legislation. [Financial Times $$$]

  • YouTube's shopping features aren't impressing all creators. [Insider $$$]

  • Google and YouTube are investing to fight misinformation with a new $13.2 million grant to the International Fact-Checking Network. [Mashable]

  • Chinese police searched protesters' phones for foreign social apps as they tackled the widespread anti-lockdown and anti-Xi action. [The Verge]

  • TikTok and Twitter could be told to pay news companies for content under Australia’s news media code. [The Guardian]

  • Telegram has shared user data in an Indian court case, showing the kind of data the company can make available to authorities. [TechCrunch]

  • Telegram's CEO plans to introduce more cryptocurrency features into the app. [CoinDesk]

  • Snapchat is putting $125,000 up for grabs in its festive December challenges. [TubeFilter]

  • The US Army planned to pay streamers millions to reach Gen-Z through Call of Duty, as a recruitment drive. It didn't end up happening. [Motherboard]

  • Pinterest is ending its creator rewards program. [The Information $$$]

  • BeReal has been named Apple's App of the Year. [@MattNavarra]

  • A Zendaya GIF has been named Giphy’s top GIF of 2022. [AdWeek $$$]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

  • How advertisers are approaching YouTube Shorts. [Marketing Brew]

  • Find out what all those 'chief metaverse officers' are doing. [Axios]

  • This is how employers do social media background checks when you apply for a job. [DailyDot]

New features and tests:

  • YouTube is rolling out filters, text and stickers in community posts. [@jonah_manzano]

  • LinkedIn has launched new anti-spam and safety tools focused on messaging. [TechCrunch]

  • LinkedIn has added new tools for company pages, including updated competitor analytics. [Social Media Today]

  • LinkedIn now has its own emoji picker tool. [@MattNavarra]

  • Snapchat has launched an audio-visual AR ad experience with New Balance. [Social Media Today]

  • Snapchat has added a new toggle switch to comply with the California Privacy Rights Act. [TechCrunch]

  • Discord has launched its first creator monetisation feature in the US, called Server Subscriptions. [TubeFilter]

  • Clubhouse is rolling out its 'Houses' private audio groups feature. [AdWeek $$$]

  • Reddit is adding images to comments in Subreddits. [AdWeek $$$]

  • Twitch has launched a 'Shield Mode' as a one-button anti-harassment tool for streamers. [Engadget]

  • The maker of Tweetbot is working on a Mastodon client called Ivory. [MacRumors]

  • Hive has launched a content moderation API among other updates. [@TheHIVE_Social]

💲 Advertise in Geekout

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  • Geekout subscribers manage social media for the world’s biggest brands including Apple, Amazon, BBC, Edelman, Redbull, Twitter, McDonalds, Nike, and more

  • Geekout has an industry-beating open rate of 51% and a 30% click rate!

You should advertise in Geekout! Get in touch: [email protected]

📖 Weekend reading

A Twitch User Who Livestreamed Every Moment Of Her Life For A Year Wants To Do It All Again

Emilycc is a master of compartmentalization.

😳 And finally...

"He was carrying 300 iPhone 13s in three bags and walking to his car at 1:45 a.m"

I have so many questions.

Man Robbed After Buying 300 iPhones From Apple Fifth Avenue

An unnamed 27-year-old man who purchased 300 iPhones from Apple Fifth Avenue on Monday morning was robbed shortly after leaving the store, according...

📅 Back next week...

… And that’s a wrap!

Geekout. Done. 💥👊

I know i ask every week… but your support makes a big difference ❤️

  • I rely on word-of-mouth to add new Geekout subscribers.

  • I’d really appreciate it if you said nice things about Geekout. 

  • A tweet, LinkedIn post, or IG story mention is much appreciated.

  • Here’s the link you need

Right… I’m off to measure up new carpet in my lounge. My life is so rock n roll.

Goodbye, geeks!

– Matt

_______

This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant

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