How much social media managers *really* get paid

Spoiler: It sucks

Author

Matt Navarra
May 12, 2023

Hello, geeks

Welcome to another overloaded edition of Geekout!

To kick things off this week… Social media managers. This may hurt a little. 😬

  • Are you being paid enough? (almost certainly not, but anyway)

  • Want to know what other social media managers are being paid?

  • If you can handle it… 😱 Click here to find out.

Also… Are you better than Meta?

I stumbled upon this last night. How well can you handle content moderation?

I made some shocking decisions while playing this game. 😆

Can you do any better? Play Moderator Mayhem 

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Alright… Let’s get into it. First up: The hottest headlines in social this week:

🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

  1. Elon Musk Set to Hire NBCUniversal Exec As New Twitter CEO [WISH HER LUCK]

  2. Meta Unveiled New Views-Based Creator Payments [TIKTOK CHALLENGER]

  3. Twitter Launched Encrypted DMs With a Long List of Drawbacks [ENCRYPTED-ISH]

  4. TikTok Reportedly Tracked Users Who Watched Gay Content [OH BOY]

  5. Meta Launched New Generative AI Features For Advertisers [AI FTW]

What else is new and noteworthy in social this week? Here’s a round-up of everything else you’ll want to know about:

Meta / Facebook / Instagram / WhatsApp:

WhatsApp has also been spotted testing three useful new features: 1. Message editing feature, 2. Silence calls from strangers option, 3. New Broadcast channels feature.

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Twitter:

Elon Musk warned (again) about plans to purge inactive Twitter accounts … Elon also revealed plans to offer a cheaper verification plan for small businesses (He just figured out $1,000 p/m is ridiculous 🙄)… And he says his Twitter goal is ‘unregretted user minutes’ (no comment)... Twitter confirmed Circle tweets were temporarily not private…

Twitter also shipped a bunch of new features this week, including 1. Threaded DM replies, 2. Custom reaction emoji picker for DMs, 3. Highlights tab on profiles to showcase top tweets, and a bunch of other small twitter feature improvements.

TikTok / YouTube:

Google / Pinterest / BlueSky / Twitch:

Google’s new ‘Perspectives’ feature will place more Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube videos in search results… Twitch is making it easier to edit clips for TikTok and YouTube Shorts… Pinterest is combining Pins and Idea Pins and added several new features… BlueSky is testing an audio spaces feature…

And finally… Tinder says it will remove social handles mentioned in profile bios. ❤️

DID YOU SEE… 👀

  • ✨ FOR SOCIAL MEDIA VIPS: Have You Discovered Geekout Pro? [JOIN 550+ MEMBERS] 

  • 🛠️ TOP TOOLS: 10 Top LinkedIn Analytics Tools For 2023 [CHECK EM OUT]

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  • 🔥 LIMITED AVAILABILITY: Book a 30-Min Social Media Coaching Call With Matt Navarra [BOOK ASAP]

Right… It’s time to dig a little deeper into the hottest headlines in social this week. Geekout analysis is coming up next 👇

– Matt

🚨 Everyone's talking about...

Twitter’s new CEO is probably this NBC exec

After Elon Musk yesterday teased an announcement about having found a new Twitter CEO, it only took a few hours for a leading likely name to emerge. Linda Yaccarino is the current head of advertising and partnerships for NBCUniversal.

While it seems the deal isn’t entirely done, Yaccarino has reportedly been angling for the job for weeks. And as she recently interviewed Musk at a big conference for advertisers, she’s certainly had an opportunity to put herself forward in person.

Assuming she gets the gig, she’ll be taking over at a pivotal time for Twitter 2.0 as its new direction increasingly takes shape. This week, recently-axed Fox News firebrand Tucker Carlson announced he plans to bring his show to Twitter.

Musk said that Twitter is open to anyone from the left or right bringing their content to the platform, and he claimed that no deal was signed with Carlson to bring him on board.

But Carlson’s brand of hard-right ranting is pretty well aligned with Musk’s own political leanings, based on his tweets and Twitter network, and Musk isn’t shy about telling lies, so there could be a lucrative deal here for Carlson.

Yaccarino also seems to be something of a political fellow traveller of Musk and Carlson, and previously served on a committee for Donald Trump when he was President. Will people who aren’t right-wing want to bring their content to Twitter?

That said, the far-right conspiracy crowd have been freaking out about her links to the World Economic Forum, so maybe she’s going to upset both sides.

Politics aside, Yaccarino would be a strong player for bringing more advertisers back to the platform. But with Musk planning to continue to oversee the tech side of Twitter, she might have her hands full managing her boss and keeping the product aligned with advertiser expectations.

This week, Twitter launched a first version of encrypted DMs, but the initial version can’t be trusted yet and was criticised by experts

Launching half-baked encryption isn’t a great move it you want to become “the most trusted platform on the internet”. Recommending animal torture and mass shooting videos doesn’t help either.

Neither does announcing you’ll be purging old accounts (something Twitter has tried and cancelled more that once under previous management) without consideration for all the treasured dead people’s accounts you’ll be erasing.

Oh and vague, unmeasurable metrics like ‘unregregetted user minutes’ don’t help either.

So Linda–if you’re reading this–good luck. You’ll need it.

TikTok Tracked Users Who Watched Gay Content, Prompting Employee Complaints

If TikTok wanted to build a better reputation for itself around the data it collects, this won’t have helped:

For at least a year, some employees at TikTok were able to find what they described internally as a list of users who watch gay content on the popular app, a collection of information that sparked worker complaints, according to former TikTok employees…

Social-media and ad-tech industry practices, however, discourage tracking potentially sensitive traits such as sexuality, according to people who work with digital information. This data can essentially create a list of vulnerable users in parts of the world where some LGBT people face harassment and violence.

– Georgia Wells and Byron Tau, Wall Street Journal

While this data has supposedly now been deleted, it shows how social media companies, thirsty for ad targeting data, continue to disregard users at the expense of revenue. We’ve seen plenty of examples of this from Meta over the years, where internal targets have trumped concern for user wellbeing.

Even if TikTok has since cleaned up its act with regard to tracking viewers of gay content, headlines like this make the company’s life no easier as US politicians continue to look for any reason they can to get the app banned.

RIP Metaverse, we hardly knew ye

This week saw not one, but two big opinion pieces calling out Mark Zuckerberg’s now seemingly largely sidelined push into the metaverse.

First, Ed Zitron for Insider looked at how Mark Zuckerberg managed to get the tech industry, from Microsoft, to startups, to marketing consultants, excited about the metaverse long before it was ready to deliver on any of its promise.

With the reality of platforms like Horizon Worlds and Decentraland not living up to what Zuckerberg promised would eventually be possible, the concept quickly became boring.

In spite of all this hype, the Metaverse did not lead a healthy life. Every single business idea or rosy market projection was built on the vague promises of a single CEO. And when people were actually offered the opportunity to try it out, nobody actually used the Metaverse.

– Ed Zitron, Insider

Riffing on Zitron’s piece, John Herrman at New York Magazine suggests that a mix of Covid lockdowns and tech’s increasingly desperate search for its ‘next big thing’ led many to simply to take Zuckerberg’s vision as the best option in a world where we were spending a lot more time indoors.

What was unusual about the metaverse from the outside, circa 2021, was how little it offered to anyone but executives, who alternated between hyping it as imminent, far-off, or as already existing in games like Roblox, which was news to the millions of people playing them. It felt uncanny and hollow, and when people stopped talking about it so much, nobody who wasn’t directly invested seemed to care

– John Herrman, New York Magazine

Meta insists it’s still committed to the metaverse as a longterm vision, and only this week it published a report that claims a crazy-high future economic impact of the metaverse.

But when A.I. is a cutting edge, ‘next big thing’ technology delivering real benefits to users today, and getting better by the week, the company shouldn’t be surprised if most people are happy not to hear about the metaverse again for a few more years.

😆 LOL tweets

This one is painfully true…

And don’t miss:

📈 Trending memes

The King’s coronation provided plenty of fodder for memes last weekend.

And the ongoing Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool is also meme factory, as the final looms tomorrow night.

Don’t miss:

📈 Gone viral

LinkedIn is always good for poking fun at, and Fiverr reaped the rewards when it did just that. Here’s Jack Appleby’s analysis 👇

How Fiverr went viral on LinkedIn with ridiculous job titles

😬 We’ve all been there

A shout out to everyone who’s ever done this… Check your captions, folks. And then check them again!

Meanwhile, remember to check your hashtags before you post! 😮

😮 WTF?!

Don’t mess with Zuck!

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wins medals on jiu-jitsu debut

Also, remember that time he killed a bison?

📣 PSA

Little things worth knowing…

🤦‍♂️ FAIL

This is absolutely NOT what you want to do in your social app…

Twitter Disables Autocomplete After It Recommends Animal Torture and Mass Shooting Videos

Searching for dog and cat videos returned horrifying results.

🪦 RIP

Will many people miss Messenger for Apple Watch? Notifications are almost certainly enough for most people…

🪲 Bugging out

Most social media bugs are nothing more than annoying, but this one turned into a saga.

First, a Twitter engineer spotted WhatsApp seemed to be accessing his Google Pixel phone’s microphone while he slept…

Then, Elon Musk stirred the pot (unsurprisingly, as Twitter’s encrypted DMs were about to launch):

Eventually, WhatsApp announced that it actually seemed to be a Google bug after all.

So, it seems like nothing for WhatsApp users to worry about. Still, Twitter got a nice bunch of attention for encrypted DMs, didn’t it?

🪧 New guidance

As we learn more about how social media affects young people, advice for how they should use it evolves.

New recommendations for teens focus from the American Psychological Association include common sense tips such as:

  • reasonably monitoring social media use

  • 👇limiting time spent so that it doesn't interfere with sleep and exercise

  • minimizing use for social comparison, particularly related to beauty- and appearance-related content

  • Read more

New social media recommendations for teens focus on preventing harm

Many of these American Psychological Association guidelines are meant to help parents protect their pre-teens and teenagers.

🤖 A.I.-mazing

How A.I. is transforming social media:

A lot of LinkedIn posts read like they’ve been written by robots already, but soon they really could be:

Also:

💡 New feature spotlight

This is a good one for creators looking to boost their profile:

👀 Must-read

Forget A.I. becoming super-intelligent and taking over the world, what about A.I. becoming a ‘super-influencer’?

“The ‘super-influencer’ could be an avatar that looks like a real person, a bot that is automating social media messaging, or some combination of those things.”

Meet The Most Powerful And Convincing Social Media Influencer Ever

💬 You can quote me on that

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

The Times asked for my thoughts about the downfall of social-first news publishers

Vice and BuzzFeed rose and fell on the back of social media

📊 Stats of the week

Now THAT’s what I call a growth hack:

Also:

📈 Charts of the week

Also:

Meta News

Meta reworks its Ads on Reels monetization program with a new performance-based payout model

Meta is testing a new payout model for its Ads on Reels monetization program that pays creators based on the performance of their reels.

  • The UK could lose WhatsApp entirely, the government has been warned, as confusion over end-to-end encryption continues. [The Guardian]

  • Meta has doubled down on its threats to block news on Facebook and Instagram in Canada. [Gizmodo]

  • …and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has hit back at Meta’s stance. [Reuters $$$]

  • Meta must face a privacy lawsuit over the Cambridge Analytica affair, a judge in the US has ruled. [Bloomberg $$$]

  • WhatsApp has stopped a flood of spam calls, which blighted users in India this week. [TechCrunch]

  • Meta is closing the event creation feature in Horizon Worlds. [The Verge]

  • Instagram has launched a new youth and wellbeing ad campaign in the UK, France and Belgium. [Meta Newsroom]

New features and tests:

Facebook:

  • Facebook has added a section for saved audio and effects for Reels creation. [@oncescuradu]

  • Facebook now has a chat suggestion option for Groups. [@ahmedghanem]

  • Facebook now lets you end stars on Facebook for both photos and text posts. [@jonah_manzano]

  • Facebook now allows Group admins to feature community chats. [@oncescuradu]

  • Facebook is testing a ‘Smart invitation’ feature for community chats. [@oncescuradu]

  • Facebook is encouraging users to mention other accounts or pages. [@oncescuradu]

  • Facebook is testing new Notes creation UI elements on Android. [@oncescuradu]

  • Facebook has been spotted offering a Share feature for comments on Group posts. [@oncescuradu]

Instagram:

  • Instagram Branded Content Ads are now called Partnership Ads. [Instagram Business]

  • Instagram has been spotted offering a new UI for creating Notes. [@ahmedghanem]

  • Instagram now lets you add audience restrictions for branded content. [@ahemedghanem]

  • Instagram is rolling out the ability to receive message requests only from verified accounts. [@ahmedghanem]

  • Instagram now tells you when you last changed your password. [@ahmedghanem]

  • Instagram has added an ‘Add to Story’ option to the sharing menu. [@oncescuradu]

  • Instagram now lets you display a Shop button on posts. [@jonah_manzano]

  • Instagram now offers a ‘reminder’ feature for Reels. [@ahmedghanem]

  • Instagram is testing a fast-forward button for Stories. [@ec_wife]

  • Instagram has been spotted offering a ‘Professional’ tab for notifications. [@sammylwolfson]

  • Instagram is working on an ‘Open to collaborating’ status for creators. [@alex193a]

  • Instagram continues to work on adding polls to comments. [@alex193a]

Messenger:

  • Messenger is testing an Instagram-like Notes feature. [@MattNavarra]

WhatsApp:

  • WhatsApp has launched business payments in Singapore, in partnership with Stripe. [TechCrunch]

  • WhatsApp is testing to select a language for transcripts. [@ahemedghanem]

  • WhatsApp continues to work on a ‘Channels’ feature for one-to-many broadcast messages. [WABetaInfo]

  • WhatsApp has begun testing a WearOS app. [9to5Google]

  • WhatsApp is working on a feature to report messages to group admins. [WABetaInfo]

  • WhatsApp is testing message editing on the web. [WABetaInfo]

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

  • Meta has open-sourced a multi-sensory A.I. model that combines text, audio, visual, movement, thermal, and depth data. [The Verge]

Twitter News

Twitter confirms Circle tweets temporarily were not private

Twitter confirmed that a security error that made Circle tweets -- posts that only go out to a small subset of friends -- surface publicly.

  • Twitter is planning a lower-cost version of Verified Organizations, for small businesses, Elon Musk claims. [@elonmusk]

  • High-level staff have quit Twitter over reductions in parental leave. [@ZoeSchiffer]

  • Twitter has been criticised for allowing images of last weekend’s shooting in Texas to spread. [New York Times $$$]

  • Airlines Air France and KLM have stopped offering customer support via Twitter due to all the confusion over checkmarks. [Gizmodo]

  • Twitter bot detection tools aren’t very good, according to new research. [Fast Company]

  • Twitter has refined its application for for governmental grey checkmarks. [@AndrewJBelanger]

New features and tests:

  • Twitter has launched voice notes for DMs in select countries. [@TitterDaily]

  • Twitter has rolled out threaded replies in DMs. [@MattNavarra]

  • Twitter has launched a simpler user onboarding flow. [@TitterDaily]

  • …and it’s added an ‘I’ll join later’ option. [@TitterDaily]

  • Twitter has added a Drafts menu item on desktop. [@ahmedghanem]

  • Twitter now supports custom emoji reactions on DMs. [@TitterDaily]

  • Twitter is testing features including a Highlights tab, larger video file support, and inline media for long tweets. [@TitterDaily]

TikTok News

TikTok Denies US Shopping Platform Launch Delay

“The social media giant, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, denied a Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday that it was postponing the wider rollout of its US shopping platform.”

  • TikTok creators are eyeing Instagram as an escape route if TikTok gets banned in the US. [CNBC]

  • TikTok has partnered with Smartly.io for easier video shopping ad creation. [Social Media Today]

  • Fake sign language is becoming a problem on TikTok. [Washington Post $$$]

  • The New York Times is digging to find more dirt about Bytedance, and it wants your help. [New York Times $$$]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

  • How the Economist is reaching new audiences on TikTok. [INMA]

  • TikTok has published a new report on rising sports trends in the app. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

  • TikTok has launched 'TikTok World Hub' to help brands better connect with audiences. [TechCrunch]

  • TikTok has added a Text feature. [@jonah_manzano]

  • TikTok now lets you select a specific photo as cover in photo mode. [@oncescuradu]

  • TikTok has launched #NewMusic, a global music discovery hub. [TikTok Newsroom]

  • TikTok has been spotted offering a redesigned post options interface. [@crisu_avadanei]

  • TikTok now lets you use Optimus Prime’s voice for text-to-speech. [@jonah_manzano]

  • TikTok now allows effects creators to edit their effect featured video. [@ahmedghanem]

  • TikTok has a new ‘Use question sticker’ option for the text tool. [@oncescuradu]

  • TikTok has made it easier to toggle comments, duet, and stitch on new uploads. [@crisu_avadanei]

  • TikTok has added a ‘work with artists’ option in Creator Tools. [@jonah_manzano]

  • TikTok is testing a new process to help musicians maximise their exposure in the app. [Social Media Today]

💥 More social media news and updates

LinkedIn cuts 716 jobs as it phases out its China app

LinkedIn is cutting 716 jobs and will begin phasing out its local jobs app in China. In a letter today, LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslanky said the decision to shutter the standalone China app, called InCareer, was because of “fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic climate.”

  • Bluesky has asked users not to invite heads of state to its platform as it tries to deal with its sudden popularity. [The Verge]

  • Bluesky appears to have a list of reserved usernames for users it hopes will move over from Twitter. [@512×512]

  • Bluesky had 628,000 mobile downloads in April, representing a 606% rise from March. [CNBC]

  • Longtime Discord users aren’t happy about the platform’s new username system. [The Verge]

  • Donald Trump needs court permission to share information about his hush money court case on social media. [Axios]

  • Social media companies should reimburse online fraud victims, say UK bankers. [The Guardian]

  • Tinder will remove social handles from bios as part of its updated community guidelines. [TechCrunch]

  • Elon Musk has defended MrBeast against criticism for his hearing aid giveaway. [Insider]

  • EU lawyers say a plan to scan private messages for child abuse may be unlawful. [The Guardian]

  • Vietnam is preparing to require social media users to verify their identity on domestic and foreign-owned platforms. [Reuters $$$]

New features and tests:

  • YouTube is coming to more cars, starting with the Polestar 2. [TechCrunch]

  • LinkedIn now highlights links in notifications. [@oncescuradu]

  • LinkedIn has been spotted offering writing prompts based on skills listed on your profile, provided that you have Creator Mode enabled. [@LindsayGamble_]

  • Snapchat has added a voice control feature called Voice Scan. [@ahmedghanem]

  • Snapchat now offers a Memories widget on iOS. [@ahmedghanem]

  • SkySpaces wants to bring live audio to Bluesky. [The Verge]

  • Pinterest is combining Pins and Idea Pins into a single format. [TechCrunch]

  • Twitch has made it easier to edit clips for TikTok and YouTube Shorts. [TechCrunch]

  • News app Artifact, from Instagram’s co-founders, has added the ability to follow writers. [The Verge]

  • Google is adding a ‘Perspectives’ section to Search, featuring rich results from Reddit, YouTube, TikTok, and others. [TechCrunch]

  • Truecaller is launching a caller ID service for WhatsApp and otehr messaging apps, to help combat spam. [Reuters $$$]

  • Amazon’s TikTok-like ’Inspire’ shopping feed is now available to all customers in the US. [TechCrunch]

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📖 Weekend reading

Facebook fights for relevance as Gen Z turns away

"I don’t even remember the last time I logged in."

😳 And finally...

Being a successful YouTuber takes hard work, dedication, and lots of creativity. But DON’T crash a plane just for the views.

The guy who is pleading guilty to doing just that faces as much as 20 years in prison 😬

YouTuber Trevor Jacob admits to crashing plane for views

📅 Back next week...

…And that’s a wrap. Geekout download. DONE ✅

One last thing before you go…

I’d love you to check this out. I built it for people like YOU! 👇

Sarah and 550+ others ❤️ Geekout PRO…

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Goodbye, geeks.

– Matt

_______

This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant

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