Meta wants to find AI friends in Hollywood…

…while TikTok wants to zoom to the courtroom

Want to get in front of 30k SM marketers and creators? Collab with Geekout

Hello, geeks!

Buckle up, because this week's Geekout is hotter than a stolen credit card on the dark web.

Before we dive in… We may be about to get seven NEW emojis.

The first one will be used A LOT. » Reveal new emojis « 😍

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What’s been going down in social media land?

Well… There’s more drama from TikTok's U.S ban battle, messy tech breakups, political puppet shows, and enough AI intrigue to make your head spin faster than a social media manager trying to decipher the latest algorithm change..

First up, TikTok's throwing more legal tantrums over the U.S government’s ban bill. The U.S government is still singing "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," but with way more lawyers. And less Taylor. 🎤

Meta and LG's VR headset fling is going down faster than a LinkedIn bro’s dreams of becoming an influencer. 🏝️

TikTok is expanding its state-affiliated media policy right before a major election. Are they shielding democracy or simply dodging controversy? 🤔

Meta is flashing the cash to woo Hollywood into their AI love nest. Will this be a beautiful collaboration or a Frankenstein data monster of epic proportions? 💰🤖

And finally, in a plot twist that would make M. Night Shyamalan proud, Meta is trying to make nice with news publishers after years of, well, not being so nice…

They want to use their news articles to train their AI, but I'm guessing publishers are gonna need more than a fruit basket and a "sorry I stole your ad revenue" card to forgive and forget. 🙏

So yeah, another wild week in the world of social. Grab your nearest caffeine intake device and lets get into it…

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DON’T MISS THIS…

The social media scientists at Dash Hudson have just published a NEW case study that is download-worthy.

It uncovers how United Airlines grew their Instagram engagement by 85%, and reveals their social media playbook with tactics you can steal today. 👇🔥


Go Viral: United's Social Playbook, Now Yours

United is one of the most entertaining brands on social media right now. And its engagement stats have rocketed. 🚀 

Dash Hudson’s latest case study uncovers how United creates culturally relevant content, while elevating the brand and achieving an 85% increase in engagements on Instagram.

The full report leaks United’s top tactics including… 🧠
- Strategy rooted in a “creator mindset”
- Commitment to making its followers feel seen
- Curated UGC + always-on influencer strategy
- Measuring organic content to maximize paid media performance
…And lots more

Steal their social media playbook. Check out the FULL case study

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🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

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

  1. Meta + LG’s Headset Partnership is Reportedly on the Rocks [CRUMBLING]

  2. TikTok Expands its State-Affiliated Media Policy in Key Election Year [SHIELDING]

  3. Meta + Google Offer Millions to Partner with Hollywood Studios on AI [DEAL-MAKING]

  4. Meta Considering Deals With News Publishers to Train its AI [RECONCILING]

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And Newsflare’s Trust AlgorithmTM makes sure ownership is always authenticated (and you're always cleared to use it).

Newsflare’s in the business of stories, not stock…

  • Real stories: 75k+ global filmmakers, not actors 🌎

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🚨 EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT…

Could Meta and news publishers have a healthier partnership this time?

Run for the hills, news publishers! Meta might want to partner with you again.

How many times Meta has partnered with news outlets, given them traffic or revenue, and then changed its mind and turned off the tap? You have to hope media companies will be a little more wary this time.

As Business Insider reports:

As Meta goes all-in on generative AI work, the company is considering whether it needs to pay for access to better quality and more immediate training data to improve its tools — and it's looking at the news industry.

Teams within Meta, formerly known as Facebook, are discussing internally whether the company should strike new paid deals with news publishers to provide more and deeper access to news, photo, and video content, according to two people familiar with the considerations.

News content can a good source of timely, original, and accurate information, so the idea makes sense for Meta. But letting tech companies suck up their content into AI is a risky game for publishers.

Will the money they receive make up for lost traffic in the long run, if Meta’s AI just gives users the answers they need? And is this sustainable ongoing revenue? What if Meta decides it doesn’t need to renew the deals in the future?

The news business is in a perilous state at the moment, so ‘any port in a storm’ might be the logic that wins through. But given the AI companies like Meta need ever more high quality data, the price had better be right.

Meta is also reportedly in talks with Hollywood to supply content for its video generation AI, showing how content producers and AI companies could develop a symbiotic relationship if both sides treat each other with more respect than the content-scraping AI companies have to date.

So, news has an opportunity for a better relationship with Meta than it’s had in the past… if Meta decides to pursue these partnerships at all.

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NEW & NOTEWORTHY

Everything else worth knowing about from the past seven days…

Meta 👥

Instagram

WhatsApp / Threads 💬🪡

Twitter (‘X’) 🤡

YouTube 📺

TikTok 📱

LinkedIn / Snapchat / Reddit / More…

🔥 Want to see more hot NEW features spotted in the wild this week?
Just head to the More news’ section below!

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😆 LOL

Elon Musk's Grok AI on X is going well 😳

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🪧 BRANDS

Still using viral songs in your brand TikTok’s…? Be very careful. Music copyright is worth taking seriously for brand posts, as Marriott has found out…

Also, don’t miss:

  • 👌 The social media manager for Surreal Cereal keeping it real with some honest clickbait 😆

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📈 MEMES

This week, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak called a general election… in the pouring rain (GREAT optics, Rishi).

Someone at 10 Downing Street must have known the memes would quickly follow

Meanwhile, this baby provided high-quality meme fuel with an unusual level of enthusiasm for the Four Seasons Orlando:

@sobrizzle

If the @Four Seasons Hotels is looking for a baby ambassador my niece got you 😂🤣😂🤣😂

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🌡️ VIRAL

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

Viral ‘song of the summer’ on TikTok, ‘Looking for a Man in Finance’ got a fresh dose of attention this week, thanks to some new lyrics….

Also:

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🙊 WHAT DID YOU SAY?!

Instagram boss Adam Mosseri had a surprising answer when asked about what drives reach on the platform these days:

“More important than watch time or like and comment counts is send rates, [and] generally, I think the rate is more important than the count.

“The number of sends per reach, the number of likes per reach, the number of comments per reach. But sends per reach correlate more, in my experience, with overall reach than anything else"

Also:

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🔥 HOT TOPIC

Sure, creators know they have to label their ads and paid partnerships in posts… But what if they’re talking about their own brands?

At least in the UK, that question has been answered as regulator the ASA made clear promoting your own brands from a personal creator account is still very much an ad.

Grace Beverley found out the hard way….

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🪦 RIP

Social media features heading for the graveyard:

Twitch had news this week that will please third-party streaming software developers…

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😮 WTF?!

Remember the creator who sold her own bathwater five years ago? She only just got the $90,000 revenue this week!

Turns out PayPal wouldn’t let her have it, until news outlets started asking them about it this week:

Also:

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🤦 FAIL

Now it’s a publicly traded company, Reddit has been making big pushes forward with its product this year. But not all of them have been well received.

In a rare example of admitting it screwed up, the company has brought back its old awards system:

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🤖 SOCIAL AI

All the ways AI is transforming social media:

Meta has added an Imagine with AI option on Instagram DMs, Facebook posts, and Messenger

  • Facebook could be getting ready to launch its generative AI features in the UK around the 18th of June.

  • TikTok has launched Symphony, a suite of generative AI tools for brands

  • TikTok is launching a ‘Create with AI’ assistant and has invited some users to early testing

  • YouTube AI Dream Tracks can now generate instrumentals from simple text prompts

  • WhatsApp is working on an AI-generated profile image feature

  • X is developing a ‘Grok, Analysis!’ button for AI fact checks

  • xAI is working on making Grok multimodal, allowing you to input images as well as text

  • Meta’s AI chatbot can now scan news outlets and summarise their latest stories and headlines for anyone who asks

  • Meta is working on a paid version of its AI assistant

  • Meta has introduced Chameleon, a state-of-the-art multimodal model

  • Meta is adding generative AI features to its marketing API

  • LinkedIn has added labels for AI generated content

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📊 SOCIAL STATS

600 million

– How many monthly active users Elon Musk claims X now has

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📈 CHARTED

A TikTok ban is popular with voters in the US, a Bloomberg poll shows

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MORE TIKTOK NEWS

  • TikTok says it has disrupted more than a dozen influence campaigns this year. [The Verge]

  • TikTok is working to remove posts about weight loss drugs like Ozempic from the For You feed. [New York Times $$$]

  • TikTok plans layoffs among operations and marketing employees. [The Information $$$]

  • Canada’s security intelligence chief warned China can use TikTok to spy on users. [Reuters $$$]

  • TikTok faces a lawsuit from Nebraska over allegations of deceptively targeting teens. [Tech Times]

  • South Korea has banned a viral TikTok music video praising Kim Jong Un, calling it 'psychological warfare'. [TechTimes]

  • TikTok is being used to sell e-cigarettes to children, according to a new Oxford study. [Tech Times]

  • TikTok parent ByteDance has acquired earbud maker Oladance, with an eye on future hardware. [Bloomberg $$$]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

New features and tests:

  • TikTok has announced ‘TikTok One’, a new hub for marketers to access creators, agency partners, and creative tools. [TechCrunch]

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💥 EVEN MORE SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS & UPDATES

  • YouTube still serves as host for extremist communities, according to new research. [TechTimes]

  • Sony is suing Marriott hotels for copyright infringement for including unlicensed music in Instagram and TikTok posts. [@RobertFreundLaw]

  • Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said he has shifted his focus to AI after improving the company’s ad business. [Bloomberg $$$]

  • Snapchat has announced a new partnership with data management platform Tealium. [Social Media Today]

  • Snap has its eyes on growth as TikTok faces uncertain future in the US. [DigiDay $$$]

  • Reddit has banned r/GoonCaves has been banned for violating Reddit’s non-consensual intimate media rules. [404 Media]

  • The UK’s data protection watchdog has ended a privacy probe of Snap's GenAI chatbot, but has warned the industry it’s keeping an eye on AI. [TechCrunch]

  • A Russian rights group says YouTube has threatened to block its anti-war channel. [Reuters $$$]

  • AI-generated kids are drawing predators on TikTok and Instagram. [Forbes $$$]

  • Linktree now has more than 50 million users and has rolled out its social commerce program to more creators. [TechCrunch]

  • Bumble has acquired community building app Geneva to expand further into friendships. [TechCrunch]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

New features and tests:

  • Snapchat has redesigned and unified its ad formats. [AdWeek $$$]

  • Twitch has introduced new filtering tools that let you exclude sexual and violent content. [Engadget]

  • Twitch has launched new Discord servers for partners. [Twitch blog]

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📰 WEEKEND READS

Longer reads to get stuck into when you have the free time:

“Many creators bend over backward to optimise videos for the algorithm, but some are experimenting with another concept: trusting their audience.”

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😳 AND FINALLY…

81-year-old Joe Biden isn’t exactly king of memes himself, but his campaign staff have seen the power of ‘Dark Brandon’ and they want more.

Are you the expert meme lord Biden’s team needs?

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📅 BACK NEXT WEEK…

…And that’s pretty much everything you need to know this week.

__________________

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Forward this email on to a few people who might like it
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__________________

Right… I’m heading off for a wild night out with friends in… Worcester. 👇

Yeah… I don’t think Worcester gets wild. But maybe we can change that.

Look out for drunken social posts by me at around 1am.

Goodbye, geeks!

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

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