the worst social media ‘growth hack’

Hello, geeks (and happy new year!) 🥳

How are we all doing? Hopefully fully digitally detoxed and revved up to start 2023.

I'm not impressed with John Cena’s social media manager. They’re stuck back in 2013.   

Anyway… I did fairly well at resisting the urge to lift my phone and peer into hell's kitchen (Twitter). 

How’s Elon doing? Still pushing out new dumb AF Twitter policies, account suspensions, and tiresome shitposting. More on that in a bit.

This is the first edition of Geekout for 2023. So it’s rammed full of EVERYTHING new and noteworthy in social that went down during the Christmas break.

So, settle in. Get comfy. Switch on ‘Do not disturb’ mode. I’ll bring you up to speed.

BUT FIRST…

• The most-controversial posts by social media managers in 2022 

• 11 social media experts to follow in 2023 (Do NOT follow #5. He’s weird) 

ALSO… 

Social Media Managers. This tool will save you hours in 2023 📊

• Fed up of spending hours building social media reports for your boss? 

• You’ll love this tool.

• It creates professional, slick social media reports in minutes. 

Seriously worth a look!... Try it for FREE [ad]

—

Ok folks… Let’s do this! 

First up… The hottest headlines in social during the Christmas break:

🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

1. Meta Fined €390M By EU, Threatens Personalised Ads Business [RISKY BUSINESS] 

2. TikTok Owner Bytedance Caught Spying On U.S. Journalists [SKETCHY BUSINESS] 

3. Elon Musk To Quit Twitter CEO Role Following User Poll Result [PINKIE PROMISE]

4. Facebook’s Attempt To Downrank Political Content Caused ‘Unintended Consequences’ [WHOOPS!] 

5. Andrew Tate Arrested In Romania On Rape + Human Trafficking Charges [BAD INFLUENCE] 

Opening my RSS reader this week was scary 😱. I hadn’t checked it in 3+ weeks. It had 2,000+ articles in over 150 different feeds to skim, read, or share. And I’m about to save you a lot of time and effort. Here’s the items most worthy of your attention, all in one place:

Instagram’s boss revealed the platform’s priorities for 2023 (not much has changed tbh)... WhatsApp launched a ‘Proxy server’ feature to help users bypass government internet blocks… Facebook added a quick way to share memes in your Instagram DM chats… Meta is bringing Messenger chat features back inside the Facebook app (make up your mind!).

Twitter’s controversial new ‘View’ count for tweets will soon be optional… Twitter Blue subscribers can now upload longer 60 min videos [in 1080p / max 2gb file size]... Twitter launched new brand safety controls for advertisers (but they’re super-basic)...

Twitter Blue for Business was launched (very light on details and no pricing)... Twitter changed profile avatars for businesses from circles to squares without warning (social media managers not impressed)… And Twitter may soon let you reward creators with awards for top tweets.

💥  DON’T MISS… GEEKOUT NEWS ALERTS SERVICE ON WHATSAPP (Free!) 🚨 

Social media managers… Be the first to know about:

• New platform features

• Platform outages e.g. #instagramdown

• Latest social media trends & tactics

Be quick!! WhatsApp limits channels to 5,000 members | REQUEST ACCESS

TikTok now reveals why its algorithm put a specific video in your feed… ByteDance is working with J.P. Morgan on a global payments platform for TikTok… TikTok now lets creators restrict videos to adults only (No. TikTok is not pivoting to porn)… TikTok also added a useful new ‘Comment history’ feature.

LinkedIn revealed seven new features coming in 2023… And it’s also testing a feature which auto-suggests topics to post about…  YouTube TV says split screen mode is coming in 2023… And added new tools for creators and livestreamers… YouTube is also working on clever new AI-powered features...Telegram launched a bunch of smart new features including a spoiler blocker… 

AND FINALLY… 

Tumblr launched a live video streaming feature (better late than never, I guess?)

DID YOU SEE…  👀

• 🤖 TOP TECH: 6 Ways Generative AI Will Help Social Media Managers In 2023 [HELP ME]

• 📆 FREE GUIDE: Super-Useful Social Media Holidays Calendar For 2023 [SHOW ME]

• 🌟 PRO-TIP: How To Set Smart Social Media Team Goals In 2023 [TELL ME MORE]

• 💥 BOOKMARK: 20 Useful Resources Every SMM Should Know About In 2023 [TOP RESOURCES]

I hope you find those bits and pieces useful.

Right then… Let's bring you up to speed on the biggest stories that broke during the Christmas holiday break. Analysis of the hottest headlines coming up next 👇

– Matt

P.S. GEEKOUT IS BACK ON TWITTER SPACES: Join us as we ask what happens next with social media in 2023? LIVE at 4pm UK / 11am ET / 8am PT. LISTEN LIVE / PLAY BACK

🚨 Everyone's talking about...

€390M fine strikes blow to Meta’s ad-fueled business model

Thanks to a certain Mr Musk, drama at Meta has taken a back seat in the news headlines over the past few months, but a court decision in the EU this week changed that. It could have serious ramifications for Mark Zuckerberg and co down the line. 

It's no secret that Meta relies on mountains of personal data about its users to target relevant ads to them, but as the EU has tightened up its controls over how businesses use personal data, the company has leaned on the idea that by opting into using its apps, you are opting into being tracked. This week's decision not only fined Meta, it essentially said this way of opting users in by default was illegal.

As Politico explained:

"Relying on consent" would be a nightmare for Meta. We've seen how few people opted into tracking when Apple gave them the choice - it had a serious impact on Meta's business. Giving users a similar choice at a platform level could be devastating. Meta intends to appeal, so we'll see how this unfolds.

The challenge comes at a time when we're seeing Meta and Google's dominance of the ad market start to fade. And as Meta tries to remodel itself as a metaverse company, it's not going to have a clear path to dominance as Apple shapes up as a fierce rival in AR.

Meanwhile, Meta has been hit with a formal antitrust complaint from the EU regarding Facebook Marketplace allegedly squeezing rivals out of the market, oh and it settled a Cambridge Analytica class action lawsuit for $725m, showing that it can't quite leave its scandals of the past behind it just yet. 

Why TikTok’s future has never been so cloudy

TikTok's future in the US isn't looking any clearer. In fact, it looks bleaker than at any time since Donald Trump began his vendetta against the company towards the end of his presidency.

Just before Christmas it emerged TikTok employees accessed data from the accounts of journalists from the FT and BuzzFeed who had been investigating the company.

This will be a serious blow to ByteDance's efforts to save TikTok from a US ban. The company has been doing its best to come up with proposals that paint it as willing to work with American partners to restore trust. And then it goes and does something that was widely feared but always denied - individual surveillance by a Chinese company in millions of users' pockets. 

TikTok can say that this was simply the work of rogue employees, but it's still a terrible look for a company already at least partially blocked on government devices in 19 of the 50 US states. 

The US House of Representatives has also banned TikTok on official devices, and lawmakers continue to press for tougher federal action against TikTok while even some universities are restricting TikTok use on campus.

TikTok has proposed new transparency measures to allow it to stay active in the US. These include Oracle (which already hosts the app's US user data) reviewing all app code. TikTok has reportedly spent $1.5 billion to set up the team that will shepherd U.S. user data. 

Still, at a time when scepticism about China mounts in the US, and TikTok is bearing the brunt, these measures might not be enough.

But lawmakers looking for an outright ban might find the American people feel differently. 33% Of Gen Z trust TikTok more than doctors, a new survey shows. Make of that what you will, but taking their TikTok away could backfire come election time.

Elon Musk says he will resign as Twitter CEO when he finds a ‘foolish enough’ replacement

When Elon Musk posted a poll asking if he should resign as Twitter CEO, the result seemed inevitable. But even if 57% of voters (no doubt including many bots) wanted him to go, it was always part of the plan for him to hand over the reins to someone else within a few months.

And indeed, Musk said he'll remain in place until he finds the right person. It's not like they'll have much power though; Musk says he will still be in charge of the software and server teams once the new CEO is in place. As frustrating as it might be for any prospective new CEO to imagine the owner backseat driving constantly, the setup works at SpaceX, where others run the business while Musk gets to pretend he's a rocket scientist.

But with Musk still directly involved in Twitter, any new CEO might have limited scope to stop the litany of mistakes the company has made since its new owner took over.

In the time since the last Geekout newsletter, Twitter quickly u-turned on a widely criticised ban on accounts promoting other social platforms. It also restored a suicide-prevention hotline feature after outcry about its disappearance.

A decision to cut costs by shutting one data centre and downsizing another could have led to the serious outage Twitter users in Australia experienced this week. It was like a return to the Fail Whale days. Meanwhile, other features continue to become less reliable.

And it looks like Twitter Blue's new actual 'verification' of users before they get a badge isn't working.

The mistakes don't end there. Newsrooms are weighing up their future on Twitter after Elon Musk (in some cases temporarily) banned certain journalists in December.

In some cases, this was due to reporting on the Elon Jet ban story (see the last edition of Geekout). But a brief ban of Taylor Lorenz seemed more like a way of pleasing her loud critics on the right, without any clear explanation of what she did wrong. And a ban on Linette Lopez, who has investigated Tesla in the past, seemed equally vindictive.

The suspensions set a "dangerous precedent", the UN warned, and US lawmakers and the White House weren't happy, either. Many of the journalists remain suspended because they refuse to delete a tweet they believe broke no rules.

Musk's headaches could only just be beginning. The FTC has expanded its investigation into Twitter's privacy and data protection practices under Elon Musk. And he has plenty of hangovers from the previous management to deal with, too. Twitter is being investigated by the EU for a suspected data breach (pre-Elon) that could have compromised 5.4 million users' personal details.

And recent hacks of high-profile Twitter users have been linked to a leak of 400m users' details. One recent hack saw a British cabinet minister's Twitter account promote cryptocurrencies... and she isn't the only cabinet minister to apparently be hacked.

The breaches continue: hackers have also leaked email addresses tied to more than 200 million Twitter accounts. The data was compiled in 2021, before Musk took over, but it is he who will incur the wrath of the authorities and the public.

🐣 Top tweets

How are these for new year resolutions?

Twitter described in 37 words:

👉 On-point meme

Also:

• When the social media managers meet senior leadership

👋 Goodbye 2022...

Useful roundups of the past year...

2022 was the year a new name made a splash on the social media scene...

Also: 

• The 30 most-subscribed YouTube individuals as of December 2022

• The most cringe social media fails by brands in 2022

• 41 memes that defined 2022

• The 20 most liked Instagram posts ever (updated for 2022)

• The 20 most followed Instagram accounts in 2022

• The 10 largest internet outages of 2022

🗓️ ...hello 2023

Predictions for the year ahead...

Also:

• 4 things to watch in social media in 2023

• Big changes in social to expect in 2023

🕵️ New research

🛠️ Free tools

Manually writing your tweets is so 2022...

Also:

• LinkedIn Posts Generator: Generate LinkedIn posts in seconds from articles

• LinkedIn Profile Optimiser: Optimise your LinkedIn profile in a couple of clicks

• Remove Reels: This Chrome extension hides ALL Reels and Suggested Posts on Facebook

• TikTok and Instagram Reels safe zones templates for 2023

🪦 RIP

Did you ever use this? I doubt many people did...

😮 WTF?!

There are men out there who see Jordan Petersen as a guru, but I wonder if they'll go as far as copying his hideous Twitter suit...?!

🏆 New world record

He helped Argentina win the World Cup, and then scored the most liked Instagram post EVER. Not a bad December for Lionel Messi!

🗣️ Industry chatter

Potty-mouthed creators aren't happy with YouTube's latest tweak...

🧵 Handy thread

Struggling to keep up with all Twitter's changes to verification. Let me explain. Tap through for the full thread...

💡 New feature spotlight

I had a scoop this week, with screenshots of advanced Twitter search - coming to the iOS app soon. This really useful feature should have been added YEARS ago: 

Also:

• TikTok permissions manager: “Now you can request to promote the creators you love”

• TikTok has added video scrubbing thumbnails (thanks to my 13-year-old daughter for finding this - feature-digging clearly runs in the family!)

👀 Must reads

This is a great read on TikTok's "anti-aesthetic":

Don't miss:

• TikTok’s algorithm is ordinary. Its real innovation is something else

• Gen-Z is now shitposting on LinkedIn

• The Instagram Reels Gold Rush: How influencers discovered they could earn tens of thousands of dollars on the platform by making simple low-quality reaction videos

• Shadowbanning: How social media companies will decide who to silence in 2023

💬 You can quote me on that

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

Also:

• I spoke to the Press Association about Elon Musk's 'should I step down' poll

• I explained to Insider why Donald Trump might not return to Twitter

• What happens next with the Elon Musk Twitter shitshow? I gave my predictions to The Drum

• I shared my 2023 predictions for social media and journalism with Journalism.co.uk

🤦 Fail of the week

Getting hacked on Twitter was THE celebrity fail over Christmas. Among the mess-ups, ardent royalist Piers Morgan's account abused the late Queen. Oops.

Make sure two-factor auth is switched on, folks!

📈 Top charts

ALSO: How TikTok's popularity has skyrocketed since Q4 2020, which was when Donald Trump was busy trying to get it shut down...

And:

• Meta and Google's ad dominance is fading

• Elon Musk’s campaign to win back Twitter advertisers isn’t going well

• What Facebook users in the US typically see in their feeds

• The decline of creator funds from social networks

• How features on top social media networks compare

• The number of government requests to remove or restrict videos or accounts on TikTok has skyrocketed since 2019

📊 Top stats

Trouble for the metaverse?

Also:

• The most popular songs of 2022 have one thing in common

• Podcast ad revenue will grow by 28.8% in 2023 — nearly the same growth rate as in 2022

• Brands on Twitter tweeted a lot less in late 2022

Instagram's priorities for 2023 will be inspiring creativity, discovery, and sparking connections:

• Meta will devote 20% of its budget to the metaverse in 2023. [Bloomberg $$$]

• ...and Meta says ‘about half’ of its Reality Labs operating expenses go toward AR. [The Verge]

• Meta is still working on its decision whether to reinstate Donald Trump on Facebook. [Financial Times $$$]

• Meta has acquired 3D lens printing company Luxexcel to improve its future AR glasses. [Road to VR]

• Meta is working to reduce its reliance on China for its hardware production. [Washington Post $$$]

• Meta's senior leaders being based away from the company's HQ is causing organisational challenges. [The Information $$$]

• Mark Zuckerberg considered announcing Facebook was investigating Cambridge Analytica, months before the data leak was revealed. [Gizmodo]

• Meta says it has removed hundreds of Facebook and Instagram accounts connected to spyware. [Axios]

• Meta is reducing its office space in Europe. [Financial Times $$$]

• Games industry legend John Carmack has left Meta, where he was working on VR. [New York Times $$$]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• The best overall time to post on Facebook is between 8 a.m. and noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays, new analysis has found. [Hootsuite blog]

New features and tests:

Facebook:

• Facebook is testing bringing Messenger features back into its main blue app. [@ItsJeffHiggins]

• Facebook on iOS has a new slider for adding media to a new comment. [@MattNavarra]

• Facebook's Reels composer now has '#Hashtag' and '@Mention' buttons. [@TechnicalGulab]

• Facebook has been spotted highlighting when ads will play during a video. [@oncescuradu]

• Facebook Reels now offers the 'use templates' feature. [@oncescuradu]

• Facebook has added a new ‘Ready-Made’ tab for Reels. [@MattNavarra]

• Facebook now offers a reach widget for iOS. [@ahmedghanem]

• Facebook now lets you share posts as Instagram direct messages. [@MattNavarra]

Instagram:

• Instagram has launched new support to help users regain control of hacked accounts, and stop them being hacked in the first place. [@instagram]

• Instagram is testing the ability to shuffle suggested Reels. [@hammodoh1]

• Instagram launched a template to let you create your own 2022 Recap Reel. [TechCrunch]

• Instagram has a new way of displaying your shares of posts you're mentioned in. [@WFBrother]

• Instagram has been spotted letting users add music to their profiles. [@hammodoh1]

• Instagram is testing a 'reply with a drawing' option. [@hammodoh1]

• Instagram has introduced an option to edit a post caption before boosting it, along with a new caption tips helper. [@ahmedghanem]

• Instagram has been spotted offering multi-language pronoun support. [@hammodoh1]

• Instagram is testing a redesigned settings and privacy menu. [@ahmedghanem]

• Instagram is working on the ability to react to stories with green screen. [@alex193a]

• Instagram is building the ability to create albums with friends. [@alex193a]

Messenger:

• Messenger now lets you change the active status colour. [@TechnicalGulab]

WhatsApp:

• WhatsApp will now let you undo ‘Delete Message’ in case you hit that button too quickly. [TechCrunch]

• WhatsApp is rolling out the ability to access the service through a proxy server, should it get blocked by a government, for example. [WABetaInfo]

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

• Reels metrics are now available via the video insights API. [Meta News for Developers]

• Meta Business Suite has new options for swipe-up links. [@ahmedghanem]

• Meta is working on a Quest 2 update that will improve app performance. [Road to VR]

Elon Musk has been seeking more investment cash to shore up Twitter.

• ...and one current investor says they expect to make a 4x or 5x return in "a few years". [Reuters $$$]

• Twitter is cutting employee benefits, but free coffee and snacks will still be available. [@ZoeSchiffer]

• Elon Musk says he thinks Twitter will be "okay" following the recent heavy cost cutting. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Twitter continues to reinstate previously rule-breaking accounts where it deems permanent suspension was "disproportionate". [Bloomberg $$$]

• ...and many reinstated accounts are back to tweeting Covid scepticism, election denialism, and QAnon content. [New York Times $$$]

• Twitter's new verification badges have been criticised for being a challenge for colourblind users. [@evacide]

• ...and advertisers and their agencies are hesitant to sign up for Blue. [Campaign $$$]

• Twitter is relaxing its policy around political ads in the US. [@TwitterSafety]

• Many Twitter Blue subscribers push misinformation, new research has found. [Fast Company]

• 70% of Twitter’s top 100 ad spenders from before Elon Musk’s takeover weren’t spending on the platform as of week ending 18 December. [Wall Street Journal $$$]

• Brands on Twitter tweeted a lot less in late 2022. [Marketing Brew]

• George Hotz has resigned from Twitter just weeks after he joined as an "intern" with a mission to improve the platform's search features. [The Verge]

• The Elon Musk jet tracker is back on Twitter as @ElonJetNextDay, to comply with new rules. [Insider]

• Twitter's Community Notes doesn't work well with divisive content, where acurate fact-checks an struggle to gain enough votes to reach public view. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Twitter has reportedly laid off part of its infrastructure team. [Engadget]

• ...and members of its Policy team have also been let go. [The Information $$$]

• ...oh, and members of its data science and engineering teams, too. [Gizmodo]

• Twitter has settled with a former executive who has fired after failing to respond to Elon Musk's 'hardcore' decree. [Bloomberg $$$]

• ...but 100 ex-employees have filed complaints about the recent layoffs. [Reuters $$$]

• ...and laid off employees in California have heard nothing about their severance pay yet. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Twitter has asked a judge to throw out a class action suit alleging disability bias in its layoffs. [Reuters $$$]

• Twitter has been sued for breach of contract by one of its software suppliers. [Bloomberg $$$]

• ...Twitter has also been sued for more than $136,00 in unpaid rent in San Francisco. [The Guardian]

• ...and Twitter has been hit with a $228.9m copyright infringement lawsuit. [TorrentFreak]

• Twitter users are employing ChatGPT to generate replies auto-replies to tweets. [Gizmodo]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• Twitter says the World Cup generated 147 billion tweet impressions. [Twitter blog]

New features and tests:

• Twitter's advanced search filters on mobile are nearly ready to launch on iOS. [@MattNavarra]

• Twitter has added a view count on every tweet. [The Verge]

• ...and it's already testing an updated design for the feature. [Social Media Today]

• ...and users will eventually be able to turn view counts off, Elon Musk says. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Twitter could soon add trend view options on iOS. [@MattNavarra]

• Twitter Blue subscribers now get ‘prioritised ranking in conversations’. [The Verge]

• Twitter has launched Blue for Business, with square profile badges, gold verified badges, and verified affiliate accounts that feature a small version of the main account's logo next to the gold checkmark. [The Verge]

• Twitter has released new brand safety features for advertisers. [Twitter Business]

• Twitter is restricting Community Notes editing to users who have rated enough of other people's notes. [The Verge]

• Twitter has added stock price and cryptocurrency price graphs in search. [TechCrunch]

• Twitter is testing a latest/personalised feed option for Communities. [@MattNavarra]

• Twitter is working on the ability to swipe between different kinds of feeds and content. [@elonmusk]

• Twitter now offers new notification controls. [@ahmedghanem]

• Twitter Blue users can now upload 60-minute-long videos at 1080p resolution and 2GB in file size. [TechCrunch]

• Twitter could soon add a Follow button in Tweet view. [@wongmjane]

• Twitter is still working on a 'tweet awards' feature. [@wongmjane]

• Twitter no longer supports Google Voice numbers for 2FA. [9to5Google]

TikTok says it's getting better at detecting “sexually explicit, suggestive, or borderline content.”

• TikTok has laid off a 'significant portion' of its employees in Russia. [Insider $$$]

• TikTok owner ByteDance wants to expand into the US enterprise software market. [The Information $$$]

• ByteDance has laid off hundreds of workers in China. [Reuters $$$]

• TikTok and Vevo are collaborating on a new music show. [AdAge $$$]

New features and tests:

• TikTok will now show why its algorithm put a specific video in your FYP. [Axios]

• TikTok now has a ‘Comment History’ feature. [@MattNavarra]

• TikTok has added IMDb integration so creators can add a link to the film or TV show referenced in their video. [Hollywood Reporter]

• TikTok now lets creators restrict content from children. [CNet]

• TikTok now offers video scrubbing thumbnails. [@MattNavarra]

• TikTok has added new messaging privacy options. [@MattNavarra]

• TikTok now offers a 'More video views' promotional goal. [@ahmedghanem]

• TikTok now has an 'Add Friends' button. [@oncescuradu]

• TikTok has introduced a shortcut to Now in the camera app. [@jonah_manzano]

• TikTok has added a 'pin and promote your LIVE goal' option. [@jonah_manzano]

• TikTok now offers a 'Draw & Guess feature during livestreams. [@jonah_manzano]

• TikTok has been spotted offering 'permissions manager', letting you send and receive requests to promote creators' content through your account. [@ahmedghanem]

• TikTok now offers the ability to choose your livestream's video quality. [@ahmedghanem]

• TikTok has added a ‘Reposted’ tab on profiles. [@MattNavarra]

• TikTok is testing a 'Turn-off captions' button on iOS. [@oncescuradu]

• TikTok now offers some users the ability to create TikTok effects within the TikTok app itself. [@heydanschenker]

💥 More social media news and updates

YouTube has signed a $14 billion deal for the rights to stream NFL’s Sunday Ticket.

• YouTube banned P*rnhub's channel over alleged rule violations. [Variety]

• [Bloomberg $$$]

• YouTube removed more than 10,000 videos related to the US Midterm elections. [Bloomberg $$$]

• YouTube will now automatically demonetise a video if profanity appears in its first eight seconds. [TubeFilter]

• Social media interactions with news articles in the US fell 14% last year compared to 2021, compared to a huge 65% drop between 2020 and 2021. [Axios]

• TikTok and Twitter users spread misinformation around toxic influencer Andrew Tate following his arrest in Romania. [The Guardian]

• ...but the Twitter spat between Andrew Tate and Greta Thunberg gave both a substantial follower boost. [Insider]

• Snap is shuttering its app that put filters on your desktop video calls. [TechCrunch]

• Love Island producers will ask UK contestants to suspend their social media accounts during the series, for their own protection. [The Guardian]

• Teens who frequently check social media show an increasing sensitivity to peer feedback, a new study has found. [New York Times $$$]

• The UK's Labour Party has pledged to toughen the "weakened and gutted" Online Safety Bill. [The Guardian]

• ...and more than 80% of UK adults want social media bosses to be held legally responsible if children hurt by content, according to a new survey. [Sky News]

• Mastodon's userbase jumped from 300,000 monthly active users to 2.5 million between October and November. [The Verge]

• ...but Mastodon's founder says he's declined multiple offers of VC investment. [The Guardian]

• ...and Tumblr also plans to add ActivityPub support in the future. [The Guardian]

• Spill is a Twitter alternative built by former employees of the 'bird app'. [TechCrunch]

• Twitter alternative Post has attracted 610,000 people to its waitlist, with over half having activated their accounts. [CNet]

• Pinterest has partnered with LiveRamp to let brands use their own first-party data for ad targeting, without having to share it with Pinterest. [Social Media Today]

• VR headset sales declined in 2022, in a blow to metaverse hype. [CNBC]

• Nearly half of Donald Trump's recent Truth Social posts would likely violate Facebook's community standards, research has found. [Fast Company]

• Donald Trump Jr. has signed a seven-figure podcast deal with Rumble. [Axios]

• UK politician Matt Hancock has announced his own social app will shut down. [The Guardian]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• AI creation tools will change the way we create, engage and interact in 2023. [Social Media Today]

• Inside Hulu’s winning social media strategy. [Fast Company]

• 6 ways A.I. can support content creation for social media managers. [Buffer blog]

• 5 creator economy and influencer marketing trends to watch in 2023. [Insider $$$]

• Influencer marketing in 2023: What the experts predict. [Econsultancy]

• How brands are experimenting with deals and exclusives on BeReal. [Marketing Brew]

• How do you create LinkedIn posts that resonate? The company has some tips. [LinkedIn Ads Blog]

• What will be big on YouTube in 2023? The platform has made some predictions, [Search Engine Journal]

New features and tests:

• YouTube has announced Courses, a feature to help users publish educational material on the platform. It's set to launch in India soon. [TechCrunch]

• YouTube has introduced new Shorts insights among other new data features for creators. [Social Media Today]

• YouTube is working on the ability to watch multiple videos simultaneously. This will tie in with the company\s big new NFL deal. [9to5Google]

• YouTube is testing a feature to let users in India watch a video in multiple languages. [TechCrunch]

• YouTube is also testing a 'search in video' feature. [Android Police]

• YouTube is rolling out a grey progress bar design. [Android Police]

• YouTube has brought back back comments on auto-generated music videos. [9to5Google]

• YouTube now suggests relevant hashtags when you upload a video to Shorts. [@jonah_manzano]

• YouTube is testing its video queue system on iOS and Android. [The Verge]

• LinkedIn is helping creators boost follower growth by automatically turning connection requests into followers. [@MattNavarra]

• LinkedIn has previewed new job listing categories based on location, company, role flexibility and more. [Social Media Today]

• LinkedIn is working on a feature that suggests a topic to write a post about. [@nima_owji]

• LinkedIn is merging the "Add image" and the "Add video" buttons. [@nima_owji]

• Snapchat has added three new Snapchat+ features: a customisable capture button, new chat wallpapers, and gift subscriptions. [TechCrunch]

• Mozilla has launched a Fediverse presence as a "healthy social media alternative". [Mozilla blog]

• Telegram has announced temporary QR codes for quick contact sharing. [@ahemedghanem]

• Telegram has added a spoiler prevention feature, zero storage usage, new drawing tools, and more. [Telegram blog]

• Tumblr has launched a livestreaming feature in the US on iOS and Android. [The Verge]

• Clubhouse is working on the ability to allow public rooms in Houses. [@alex193a]

📖 Weekend reading

• Inside the EU’s ambitious bid to clean up social media

• How Mastodon is scaling amid the Twitter exodus

• This virtual Twitch streamer is controlled entirely by A.I.

• Twitter changed science — what happens now it’s in turmoil?

• TikTok and Twitter are starting to feel a lot like Tumblr

😳 And finally...

Was your last LOL an actuaLOL?

📅 Back next week...

…And that’s the first edition of Geekout for 2023… DONE! ✅ 👊

Before you go… 

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The spot rarely becomes available! 

• Previous sponsors: Hootsuite, Emplifi, Khoros 

• Geekout has a massive 50%+ open rate / 25% click rate

• Subscribers manage social for the world’s most loved brands incl. Apple, Amazon, BBC, Disney, Redbull, Twitter, McDonalds, Nike, and more.

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Right… Time for me to go take down some Christmas decorations! 🎄

Goodbye geeks!

– Matt

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This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant