Suddenly everyone knows... I'm awful

Hello, geeks…

Yep, someone finally came out and said it: I’m awful.

Actually–cards on the table–today’s edition isn’t written by Matt, it’s written by Martin SFP Bryant (hello 👋) as Matt is having non-stop fun at Glastonbury Festival for the next few days.

Okay, we HAVE to do it. As totally dumb as it is, we need to talk about that Zuck vs Elon cage fight.

Bottom line: it’s not going to happen (can you imagine the insurance premiums on a billionaire brawl?).

But if it did happen, Zuck would win hands down. Elon’s happy to talk tough for attention but I’m not sure his special move would get him far.

Right, let’s check out the biggest stories of the week:

🔥 GEEKOUT HOT FIVE

1. Reddit Mods Go NSFW As User Revolt Rages On [DIRTY PROTEST]

2. Instagram Brings Ads To Reels At Last [SWIPE THROUGH]

3. Twitter Eyes Video, Creators and Commerce To Get Back On Track [CLEANING UP]

4. TikTok’s Star COO, V Pappas, Quits The Company [MOVING ON]

5. Meta Pulls News In Canada As New Law Passes [NO IDLE THREAT]

Ready? Time to check out everything else new and noteworthy. It’s been a busy week…

Facebook / WhatsApp

Facebook now lets you add an animated avatar as a profile picture… Facebook has launched an in-app Creator Education Academy… A Facebook algorithm change has caused websites’ traffic to plummet… WhatsApp has been spotted blocking screenshots of ‘View Once’ messages… WhatsApp now makes spam calls less intrusive… WhatsApp is working on a new look for Communities on Android….

Instagram

Instagram will let you download Reels at last (with a watermark)… Instagram is testing A.I. to optimise music in single-image Reels ads… Instagram is working on an audio notes feature… Instagram is testing a Link History so you can go back to links you’ve tapped before… Instagram is testing showing like and view counts on posts in Explore… Instagram could soon let you customise subscription benefits…

Twitter

Twitter now lets Blue subscribers post 25,000 character tweets (you could post an entire essay in a tweet!)… Twitter is testing a two-column feed… Twitter rolled out the new ‘Highlights’ tab to Blue subscribers… Twitter is exploring a refreshed ‘Following’ tab… Twitter is building a video app for smart TVs, according to Elon Musk…

TikTok

TikTok video descriptions can now be 4,000 characters (up from 2,200)… TikTok has launched interactive add-ons to boost ad engagement… TikTok has announced an in-app product showcase feature call ‘Trendy Beat’… TikTok has added a ‘tap and hold to fast forward’ video feature… Looks like TikTok’s Q&A feature will be replaced by Add Yours custom prompts… TikTok has added a new ‘On this Day’ feature as a way to reuse your old content…

YouTube / Twitch / Snapchat

YouTube’s 1080p Premium option has started showing up on Android... YouTube is testing the ability to create Shorts replies to comments on other people’s videos… YouTube has re-added the “Oldest” filter for sorting a channel’s videos. YouTube is launching a live shopping channel in South Korea…

Twitch will let viewers pay to pin messages in streamers’ chats…. Twitch has replaced its mature content mode with more granular 'labels'… Snapchat is working on a Chat Effects feature for Snapchat+ subscribers.

DID YOU SEE… 👀

• 📱 INSPIRATION: TikTok Username Generator [GIVE ME A NAME]

• 🤬 VENTING: 29 Brutally Honest Things Social Managers Want to Tell Their Boss [SPILL THE TRUTH $$$]

• 😱 CRISIS COMMS: Social Media Crisis Communication Guide [KEEP A COOL HEAD]

• 🗑️ BAD APPS: The Worst App Updates of 2023 So Far [DOWNLOADING]

Time next for our Geekout analysis of some of the week’s biggest stories, and lots more besides. But first, some interesting A.I. insights…

– Martin

AI: Interest in ChatGPT is down 58% in two months

A.I. is the hot tech topic of the year. But you should be careful how you use the topic in your campaigns.

If you were thinking that mentioning ChatGPT was a ticket to success for a campaign, maybe you should think again. A new study by Fedica reveals a decline in interest around ChatGPT.

Fedica investigated ChatGPT and generative A.I. conversation across the Twitterverse by analysing around 18,000,000 tweets. They uncovered a growing momentum of generative A.I. globally, but mentions of ChatGPT declined 58% in the last two months. This shift of interest was also confirmed beyond Twitter by analysing Google Trends.

What's notable is the shift in who is tweeting about generative A.I.: marketers, media professionals, and artists take the lead, comprising around 33% of the global discussion, much higher now than 23.3% before ChatGPT’s launch.

So, should generative A.I. be a topic to use in your content strategy? Each audience is different, but Fedica used their own product’s engagement dashboard to zoom in on the audience engaging with generative AI and discovered a strong alignment with their target audience’s demographics.

Fedica can help you figure out whether generative A.I. (or any other topic) works for your audience:

• Know which content resonates with your different audience segments for maximum engagement

• Find the brand advocates among your followers, using AI-driven filters

• Maximise ad spend by identifying hyper-targeted accounts with specific demographics and other criteria

• Schedule advanced content like spreadable threads (to increase impressions by over 20x), media tagging, and polls

Join millions of marketers who use Fedica: try it now _[Ad]

🚨 Everyone's talking about...

If Reddit CEO Steve Huffman thought relations with some of the platform’s biggest users would get easier this week, he was sorely mistaken.

As TechCrunch explains:

Reddit has responded by threatening punitive action, and in some cases going as far as to remove moderators.

The protest about new API fees has hit the site’s traffic. It was down by 4 million daily visits as last week’s blackout hit.

The nub of the problem, as the New York Times puts, it is that Reddit wants to grow up. Will its community let it?

If you started a site like Reddit today and knew how big it would become, you’d probably strictly limit what third-party developers could do so you could remain in control of the user experience and maximise revenue.

But to do that retrospectively is asking for trouble–however necessary it might be–especially given the kid of communities Reddit fosters.

Huffman says Elon Musk inspired his tough stance on API pricing. Throwing third-party app developers out in the cold didn’t meet a great deal of resistance when Twitter did it recently. But Twitter is built differently, making user protests harder to orchestrate.

Reddit is structured more as a home for individual communities, and it’s understandable that those communities feel ownership of their little corner of the site, and ownership of the spirit of Reddit, too.

This all presents Reddit management with a tricky problem.

And they faced another tricky problem this week: hackers have threatened to leak 80GB of confidential data stolen from Reddit. Their demands? $4.5 million ransom… and changes to the new API pricing policy.

When Twitter’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino recently took on the role, much was made of the challenge she’d face getting anything done while owner Elon Musk was free to publicly overrule her on a whim at any time.

But there are early signs that Yaccarino’s influence is already having a positive effect. The recent standoff with Google over cloud computing fees has been resolved and Twitter has agreed to comply with tough EU disinformation laws after officials in the bloc had grown increasingly frustrated with Musk’s attitude to moderation.

And while neither Yaccarino or Musk were at ad industry shindig/conference Cannes Lions this week, Twitter has been working to calm advertisers’ fears about the platform with extra reassurance that it’s a safe place to be seen.

Meanwhile, Twitter’s new direction under Yaccarino appears to focus on video, creators, and commerce. Indeed, Twitter is even working on a video app for smart TVs, according to Elon Musk.

Still, with Elon Musk stirring up arguments with off-the-hoof moderation changes like declaring ‘cis’ and ‘cisgender’ as slurs, and Australia threatening to fine Twitter $470,000 per day over hate speech, Yaccarino doesn’t have completely calm seas ahead.

😆 LOL tweets

🤖 A.I.-mazing

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

LinkedIn has announced a new A.I. image detector that it says has a 99% success rate in catching fake profiles.

• Snap is using 10 billion messages sent to its ‘My AI’ chatbot to better target ads to teens (so that’s what it was for!) [Bloomberg $$$]

• Instagram is working on the ability to generate comments with A.I. [@alex193a]

• YouTube is working on A.I.-assisted translated dubs of video audio. [The Verge]

• Meta has announced the “most versatile A.I. for speech generation'. [Meta Newsroom]

• Instagram is working on the ability to use A.I. stickers in Stories. [@alex193a]

• Snap has created a new text-to-image generator that it says can create images on-device in seconds. [Snap Newsroom]

• …but LinkedIn’s A.I. job application assistant isn’t quite ready for prime time, it seems. [Insider]

🪧 Brand social

If you’ve watched the first episode of the new season of Black Mirror, you’ll know just how clever this campaign from Netflix is:

Indeed, by yesterday it was clear that people who had used Netflix’s ‘… is awful’ image generator were–just like Joan in the episode–the star of something much bigger - posters on large advertising screens around the UK.

Also:

• TikTok memes are proving far more effective than TV ads for Duolingo. [Wall Street Journal $$$]

📈 Going viral

It’s official: millennials are now old and incredibly cringe.

“Baby boomers were once the universally mocked generation in comedic TikTok videos, but now Gen Z users have turned on millennials by mocking their perception of "millennial humor."

👀 Reads of the week

“Parents, scientists and the surgeon general are worried. But there isn’t even a shared definition of what social media is.”

This is a good look at the problem with actually doing anything about social media’s (perceived) harm to teens. [$$$] 👇

And don’t miss:

• China’s banned online communities have found a new home on Reddit

• The company teaching influencers how to get rich without going viral

💡 New feature spotlight

It’s surprising this one took so long, given how useful it has been for TikTok…

🪲 Bugging out

Keeping an eye on annoying bugs:

Twitter might not be quite the essential conversation hub it once was but a (now fixed) bug this week showed how much many of us still rely on tweets to share information, even away from the platform itself:

Meanwhile:

• Google has confirmed that when Android showed WhatsApp as having continuous mic access recently, it was a bug. [9to5Google]

❓ Question of the week

There already are lots of fun answers to Matt’s tweet here. Add your own! 👇

💬 You can quote me on that

When’s Matt’s mentioned in the news, you’ll find it here:

Matt spoke the Telegraph about Meta’s chances of success with its upcoming Twitter rival. Read the non-paywalled version from Yahoo Finance here 👇

📈 Charted

• Website owners say traffic is plummeting after a Facebook algorithm change. [Gizmodo]

• Meta’s A.I. leaders are keen for you to know that fears over the existential risk of A.I. are, they say, "ridiculous". [MIT Technology Review $$$]

• Meta has announced a ‘Community Forum on Generative A.I’ to gather public feedback on the technology. [Social Media Today]

• Meta is lowering the minimum age for using the Quest platform to just 10 years old. [The Verge]

• Meta is facing growing pressure to curb the rise in scams on its platforms in the UK. [The Guardian]

• Meta is trying to stop the Taliban from using WhatsApp for official business. [Insider $$$]

New features and tests:

Facebook:

• Facebook now lets you add an animated avatar as a profile picture. [@jonah_manzano]

• Facebook has launched an in-app Creator Education Academy. You can earn ‘Education Badges’ for completing topics. [@MattNavarra]

Instagram:

• Instagram has announced the ability to download Reels. [TechCrunch]

• Instagram is introducing ads to Reels and testing A.I. to optimise music in single-image Reels ads. [Search Engine Journal]

• Instagram has been spotted offering a ‘Link History’ feature, letting you go back to links you’ve tapped in the app in the past. [@newinsocial]

• Instagram can now back up drafts to iCloud. [@hammodoh1]

• Instagram now lets you clear your search history automatically through the accounts centre. [@ahmedghanem]

• Instagram is testing showing the number of likes and views on posts in Explore. [@ec_wife]

• Instagram now offers Code Verify to ensure your Instagram Web code is legit and hasn’t been tampered with. [Engineering at Meta]

• Instagram is testing an ‘Open to Collaborating’ label. [@hammodoh1]

• Instagram is working on an audio notes feature. [@alex193]

• Instagram is testing a new floating Story button. [@ec_wife]

• Instagram has moved the ‘Supervision’ feature to the main hamburger menu. [@oncescuradu]

• Instagram is working on the ability to customise subscription benefits. [@alex193a]

WhatsApp:

• WhatsApp has been spotted adding new protection to ‘view once’ messages, by blocking screenshots. [@JackHorwood]

• WhatsApp now lets you automatically silence calls from unknown numbers, following an epidemic of spam calls in India. [TechCrunch]

• WhatsApp is testing an improved media picker on Android. [WABetaInfo]

• WhatsApp is working on the ability to choose how long messages stay pinned within chats and groups. [WABetaInfo]

• WhatsApp is testing a new interface for the Communities tab on Android. [WABetaInfo]

• WhatsApp is rolling out new icons for Communities and their linked groups. [WABetaInfo]

• Some scientists have had enough of Twitter, following Joe Rogan’s recent antics on the platform. [Axios]

• …and Mark Cuban says Joe Rogan and Elon Musk have become everything they say is wrong with the mainstream media. [Insider]

• Elon Musk declared ‘cis’ and ‘cisgender’ to be considered slurs on Twitter, in the latest example of ad-hoc moderation decisions on the ‘free speech’ platform. He later clarified that people can call themselves what they want. [Gizmodo]

• Twitter’s metrics have been questioned after a tweet hit 1 billion views. [Insider]

• Elon Musk says he has improved ‘corrosive’ Twitter for most users 🤔 [Bloomberg $$$]

• …but Twitter has run ads for Disney, Microsoft, and the NBA beside neo-Nazi videos. [Gizmodo]

New features and tests:

• Twitter now lets Blue subscribers post 25,000 character tweets. [Social Media Today]

• Twitter’s new ‘Highlights’ tab is now available to Twitter Blue subscribers. [Social Media Today]

• Twitter is testing a two-column feed. [@nima_owji]

• Twitter is exploring a refreshed ‘Following’ tab. [Social Media Today]

• …and Disney’s former communications czar, Zenia Mucha, is joining TikTok to lead brand marketing and communications. [The Information $$$]

• TikTok has expanded access to its TikTok Shops ecommerce programme. [Social Media Today]

• ByteDance has spent $1 billion on Nvidia GPUs for A.I. processing to get ahead of incoming sanctions. [Tom’s Hardware]

• TikTok and Candle Media have announced a partnership to co-develop new premium content and branded entertainment. [TikTok Newsroom]

New features and tests:

• TikTok has increased the character limit for video descriptions 4,000; up from 2,200. [@oncescuradu]

• TikTok has launched Interactive Add-Ons for promotions: stickers, pop-ups, and other visual markers to boost ad engagement. [Social Media Today]

• TikTok is launching an in-app product showcase called ‘Trendy Beat’, which will display products made by TikTok itself. [Social Media Today]

• TikTok has been spotted offering the ability to go live only to subscribers. [@jonah_manzano]

• TikTok now has a tap n’ hold to fast forward video feature. [@MattNavarra]

• TikTok has been spotted offering picture-in-picture so you can watch videos while using other apps. [@jonah_manzano]

• TikTok has added a new "On this day" feature, letting you repost your videos as a story or new video. [@ahmedghanem]

• TikTok has redesigned the Creator Marketplace, including a fresh selection of badges. [@ahmedghanem]

• TikTok’s Q&A feature will be replaces by Add Yours custom prompts. [@jonah_manzano]

• TikTok is prompting users to edit video on desktop. [@oncescuradu]

💥 More social media news and updates

• YouTube's fight against medical misinformation has come to the UK. [TubeFilter]

• LinkedIn has begun removing hibernated and restricted accounts. [@oncescuradu]

• Discord still has a problem with child predators. [NBC News]

• Twitch’s new Partner Plus programmes will seemingly benefit just 2.5% of streamers. [Gizmodo]

• Campaigners have demanded yet more changes to the UK’s Online Safety Bill, to force platforms to be more transparent. [The Guardian]

• Roblox now allows creators to build content for people 17 and older. [Engadget]

• ..it follows a settlement in a lawsuit in which Roblox was accused of deleting purchased content under the guise of keeping children safe. [Fast Company]

• Pinterest has joined a new initiative aimed at boosting in-app safety for kids. [Social Media Today]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• LinkedIn has offered some tips on making your ads and posts stand out. [Social Media Today]

• Reddit has published a guide to how consumers conduct product research on its platform. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

• YouTube has re-added the “Oldest” filter for sorting a channel’s videos on Android. [@oncescuradu]

• YouTube’s 1080p Premium option has started showing up on Android. [9to5Google]

• YouTube is launching a live shopping channel in South Korea. [Social Media Today]

• YouTube is testing a new option to create Shorts replies to comments on other people’s videos. [Social Media Today]

• Discord’s ‘Activities’ for collaborative gaming are now free for everyone. [The Verge]

• Twitch has replaced its mature content mode with more granular 'labels'. [Engadget]

• Twitch will now let viewers pay to pin their messages in streamers’ chats. [Engadget]

• Snapchat is working on a Chat Effects feature for paying subscribers. [@alex193a]

• Patreon has launched new content options and commerce sales through its platform. [TubeFilter]

• Bumble is testing a separate app for finding a BFF. [TechCrunch]

📖 Weekend reading

• Meta and Mastodon – What’s really on people’s minds?

😳 And finally...

I felt like a plumbing genius after I used YouTube to learn how to re-pressurise my boiler. I imagine these robots get a similar feeling…

📅 Back next week...

…and you’re done! That’s everything you need to know this week ✅

I’ll be back next Friday with more, but never fear, even if I’m typing the words, the influence of Matt is never far away.

And Matt will be back in the driving seat in two weeks’ time.

Okay - I’m off to spend as much of my weekend as possible playing through the excellent Final Fantasy XVI.

‘Do not disturb’ sign… on!

– Martin