i need to apologise to mark zuckerberg

Hello, geeks!

It’s been a crazy week… 😁

Meta’s comms team have probably been sticking pins in their Matt Navarra voodoo doll.

I may have woken up Zuck (or Meta’s comms team at least) early on Sunday morning 😬

I’d spotted (and leaked) what turned out to be the BIG social media story of the week… Meta Verified.

Meta’s take on Twitter Blue stirred up lots of conversation this week. Personally, I don’t think it offers a great deal, but maybe this one perk will make a lot of ‘regular’ Instagram users very jealous.

We’ll dig into everything you need to know about Meta Verified in a moment. And a few other things I may have leaked about Meta this week. (sorry. not sorry).

BUT FIRST… I want to help YOU

My career in social media spans 15+ yrs

In that time, I’ve worked with some of the world's most popular brands

So, maybe I can help you:

• Develop a winning social strategy

• Take your social media career to the next level

• Turn your ADHD into a super-power

Book a consultation with me

Alrighty folks… Let’s get into it!

These were the hottest headlines in social this week:

🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

1. Meta Unveils ‘Meta Verified’ Subscriptions [CHECKMARKS FOR ALL]

2. Musk Wants Twitter Ads Revamped in a Week [BOLD MOVE, ELON]

3. EU Commission Bans TikTok on Staff Phones [MORE BANS COMING?]

4. Meta Copies BeReal (Again) with Messenger Roll Call [PREDICTABLE]

5. Instagram Engagement is Dropping for Brands [WORRYING]

Alrighty folks… Let’s get into it. These were the hottest headlines in social this week:

More job cuts look likely at Meta. Meta wants to help you become the next MrBeast. Instagram now lets soem creators request inactive Instagram usernames. Instagram has added green screen AND animated avatar reactions for Stories. Instagram has added easier archiving. Instagram could soon let you post with multiple collaborators. Instagram is testing country tagging on Reels. Instagram is working on a ‘Before and After’ sticker. Instagram has added a ‘watch time’ metric for Reels. Instagram now lets you mute recommended posts for 30 days. Instagram now lets you add snarky GIFs in comments. Instagram is working on a repost feature for Stories.

Shh… Facebook is testing Quiet Mode. ‘Facebook Jail’ has new rules. Facebook has a new ‘Early access for top fans’ post audience feature. Messenger is working on its own broadcast messaging feature, meaning all Meta platforms will have their own. Messenger is testing ‘MSN-like’ status updates. Messenger could soon let you edit messages. And so could WhatsApp. WhatsApp is working on a very interesting ’newsletter’ feature. WhatsApp is rolling out picture-in-picture for video calls.

🛠️ REVEALED! MY SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLKIT

What’s in my social media toolbox?

Product Hunt asked me to put together a list of the apps I use the most.

From post scheduling and engagement data to the latest smart A.I. tools, it’s all in here

VIEW THE FULL LIST 📃

Elon Musk has threatened legal action over the recent story about his fragile ego. Twitter will now tell you when a tweet you’ve interacted with gets a Community Note fact check. Twitter might open-source its algorithm next week, but maybe it was a joke. Twitter could open a merch store. Captions have disappeared from Twitter Spaces - more cost-cutting at play? Twitter has added a thumb-down reaction in DMs.

YouTube is rolling out multi-language audio tracks to more creators. YouTube is testing an upgraded version of 1080p as a premium feature. YouTube is testing new features for podcasters. YouTube Music now lets you create custom radio stations. The king of TikTok, Khaby Lame, has launched a YouTube channel.

TikTok now shares which products are most popular on its platform. TikTok has a new creator fund, with a focus on longer content. TikTok profiles are getting a reposts tab. TikTok has opened up its API to US researchers. TikTok is coming to a Mercedes Benz near you. Lemon8 is a new app from the people behind TikTok that has been described as Instagram-meets-Pinterest.

LinkedIn will soon let you customise the content shown on your profile. LinkedIn is rolling out post scheduling for Pages. LinkedIn now lets you ‘star’ chats. Snapchat has some neat new audio features. Tumblr’s fake verification joke seems to be a moneyspinner. Twitch is opening up more about its feature tests, and lets you tag other channels in stream titles. Houseparty and Meetkat’s creator is back with a new chat app called Towns, and the Instagram creators’ new news app is now open to all.

Phew…

DID YOU SEE?… 👀

• ON AIR: What it’s like to be a social geek (me!) on TV [LIVE IN 3,2,1]

• TRENDS: 10 social media trends to look out for in 2023 [SHOW ME]

• MEMES: The 6 biggest memes of the year so far [IT’S NOT EVEN MARCH]

Okay, time to dig into the week’s news in detail.

Ready, let’s gooo…

– Matt

🚨 Everyone's talking about...

On Sunday, I spotted what looked like support pages for an official Instagram verification programme. Within hours, Mark Zuckerberg had officially announced Meta Verified.

The new subscription offers a ‘verified’ badge, what looks like pretty speedy personal support, impersonation monitoring, plus exclusive stickers for Stories, priority placement in other people’s comments, and placement in recommendations in the Explore page and in Reels.

Meta has been working on this for a while, so it isn’t a mad dash to copy Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue (even though Musk says it was inevitable that Meta would take this route). But some of the perks, like the badge and the priority placement in comments certainly sound familiar.

However, Meta confirmed to me that there will be no ‘fewer ads’ perk; something Twitter has promised for the future (although Elon Musk promises a lot of things).

The question is: do you want it? At $11.99 per month on Android and web or $14.99 per month on iOS, it’s not cheap, and the perks won’t be enough to persuade most people to part with what could be almost $180 per year.

It’s maybe best thinking of this primarily as an ID verification service to help you if you’re a creator who gets impersonated or gets your content stolen, or if you want to build trust with your audience.

Still, with this news, the meaning of a Instagram verification badge has changed from one of notability to one of identity. That’s because Meta says it actually will check government-issued ID, something Twitter started out not doing, then said it would but hasn’t.

And those ID check are very much essential to Meta Verified’s credibility. Just this week, we saw news that Russian propagandists are buying Twitter checkmarks to help get their message across, and the BBC was fooled by a fake ‘verified’ Will Ferrell.

And as data the company released this week shows, Meta itself still has plenty of spam, fake accounts, and policy violations on its plate.

A few other things to note:

• In related news, you can now request inactive Instagram usernames.

• There are some restrictions over what you can do with your account when you sign up to Meta Verified

• Currently verified accounts won’t lose their badge (at least not for now)

• Meta Verified is launching in Australia and New Zealand first, with other countries set to follow soon

• If you’re interested, you can join the waitlist now

For years, social media companies have largely avoided charging users. Even though some users have always said they wanted to pay rather than have their data collected, companies like Meta focused on building a large, unpaying audience they could advertise to.

But as their growth stalls and the advertising market looks less rosy, things are changing. Welcome to the new new business model - ads are still very much a thing but things you once took for granted go behind a paywall.

News broke over the weekend that Twitter would start charging for SMS-based 2-factor authentication. SMS 2FA isn’t the most secure way to protect your account (other methods are better), but by saving money on sending out SMS messages, Twitter will be making its platform less secure for people who aren’t paying attention or don’t want to pay.

Meta isn’t putting anything it already offered behind a paywall, but basic support and protection against impersonators should be something offered to everyone as standard. "That’s called a protection racket when mobsters do it," as one columnist put it.

And while Twitter continues to fumble with Blue (perhaps because it’s rushing to deliver ideas that come from nowhere by Elon Musk’s gut instinct) Snapchat is putting many of its best new features behind its Plus paywall and seems to be faring pretty well in signing up users.

Hilariously, Tumblr’s iOS revenue increased 125% since it launched its joke verification badge that some users are happily paying for.

So, paywalls can work on social media. Meta's new subscription plan could have 12 million subscribers generating $1.7 billion in revenue by 2024, according to a Bank of America research note

But what these paywalls do to the state of the ‘online public square’ in the long run remains to be seen.

A quick shout out to this week’s ridiculous demand on Twitter staff: Elon Musk reportedly ordered them to completely overhaul how ad targeting works… in one week.

Here’s the thing, former Twitter staff have seen it all before - making targeting work like Google is something that was apparently investigated years ago at the company, and it didn’t work. Search engines and social platforms are not the same.

That’s not to say it can never work, just that laying off a bunch of people (yes, there was another round of layoffs this week) as you demand staff complete a major product overhaul in very little time with very little preparation seems as doomed to fail on the first go as almost anything else Twitter has shipped lately.

That said, it’s hard to tell what’s serious when it comes to Musk’s proclamations. This week, he claimed the Twitter algorithm would be open-sourced next week… but that could easily have been a joke 🤷‍♂️

😆 LOL tweets

📈 Going viral

This new trend is a nightmare for TikTok’s moderators…

🎧 Must-listen podcast

Ever wondered what it’s really like to build a social app yourself? This episode of the Vergecast is well worth a listen to hear from the founder of Hive Social

😮 WTF?!

Welcome to the world A.I. is building: “The mesmerizingly freakish, constant live stream of AI-generated versions of Joe Rogan, Amourath, Alinity, PewDiePie, Hasan Piker, and more is run by a group that's been called a ‘cult’ and ‘pseudo-religion.’”

Also:

• A TikTok A.I. voice generator turns US presidents into Discord goblins

• “Are we dating the same guy?” - A Facebook Group where women check if their male partners are seeing other people and warn each other of glaring "red flags"

📄 Industry reports

There’s lots of useful stuff here:

Meanwhile, things are looking a bit 😬 for brands on Instagram:

🤦‍♂️ Fail of the week

Twitter’s new, less authentic checkmarks have claimed a big victim:

Also:

• Oops: Instagram briefly reinstated Pornhub's account… and then shut it down again

📝 New research

Here’s a very concerning piece of news…

🧵 Top thread

In this thread, I break down top insights from Meta’s latest Widely Viewed Content Report. Tap through for lots of essential info if you work with Facebook 👇

💬 You can quote me on that

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

I spoke to Vice about TikTok’s serious failings in the tragic case of Nicola Bulley:

• I shared my thoughts with the Press Association about the amateur detectives and social media algorithms that added to the Bulley family’s agony

• I spoke to the Telegraph about Meta Verified

• The Drum also asked me about Meta’s new checkmarks

• Wired asked me whether Meta is running out of ideas

• I spoke to Insider about the growing social media business model of charging users

📈 Charts of the week

TikTok is an increasing source of news for American young adults. And check the graph below: a small number of tech-savvy boomers are finding their news on the app too!

Also…

📊 Stat of the week

Okay, this is largely guesswork by Bank of America, but they’re numbers to remember. Can Meta do it…?

• Meta could lay off thousands more staff. [Washington Post $$$]

• …and Meta gave thousands of employees subpar performance reviews, suggesting more layoffs are coming. [Wall Street Journal $$$]

• Reels engagement is falling for brands, new data shows. [Fast Company]

• Meta is to shift UK Users to US data agreements, something it first announced in 2020 as a post-Brexit change. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Meta has filed a patent for tech to predict if your video will go viral. [Patent Drop]

• A $3.7 billion UK mass legal action against Meta over its market dominance has been rejected - for now. [Reuters $$$]

• Tencent is in talks with Meta to sell Quest VR headsets in China. [Reuters $$$]

• Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen has told Meta shareholder to use their financial clout to force Mark Zuckerberg to be more transparent. [Gizmodo]

• Meta’s ‘impatience’ to make Instagram a ‘super app’ hurt its shopping features’ chances, a former employee says. [Insider $$$]

• Meta has lost its bid to have the $175 million verdict in patent case against walkie-talkie app maker Voxer thrown out. [Reuters $$$]

• WhatsApp has a years-old security problem that can see your account taken over if you change phone numbers. But there are ways to combat it. [Gizmodo]

• A viral Instagram photographer has admitted his photos are A.I.-generated. [Ars Technica]

New features and tests:

Facebook:

• Facebook now offers an ‘Early access for top fans’ post audience feature. [@oncescuradu]

• Facebook has been spotted readying Stories insights in its dashboard in Professional mode. [@oncescuradu]

• Facebook is testing a ‘Quiet Mode’. [@_Youssef]

Instagram:

• Instagram now lets you snooze all suggested post for 30 days. [@ahmedghanem]

• Instagram is testing GIFs in comments. [Android Police]

• Instagram now lets you mute Notes. [@ahemedghanem]

• Instagram now allows you to share a subscription in a message. [@oncescuradu]

• Instagram has added the ability to save Stories to your archive without ever needing to post them. [@techjalal]

• Instagram has been spotted showing the country an account is from in Reels. [@salman_memon_7]

• Instagram now offers animated avatar reactions for Stories. [@MattNavarra]

• Instagram has added a ‘React to stories using a green screen’ feature. [@MattNavarra]

• Instragram is testing the ability to add products in group chats. [@ItsSachinShah]

• Instagram could soon let you use your Google account to restore your chats without a PIN. [@alex193a]

• Instagram has been spotted offering a ‘watch time’ metric for Reels. [@hammodoh1]

• Instagram is working on a new ‘Before and After’ sticker. [@alex193a]

• Instagram could soon let you share music in Notes. [@alex193a]

• Instagram appears to be still working on a repost/co-posting feature for Stories. [@ahmedghanem]

• Instagram could add a shortcut to the Add Yours section on the Explore page. [@alex193a]

Messenger:

• Messenger is set to get its own broadcast channels feature like Instagram’s. [@MattNavarra]

• Messenger is working on a BeReal-style ‘roll call’ feature. [The Verge]

• Messenger is testing a ‘bump’ feature to remind friends about chats. [@MattNavarra]

• Messenger is testing a custom status feature. [@MattNavarra]

• Messenger is working on the ability to edit messages. [@alex193a]

WhatsApp:

• WhatsApp is rolling out picture-in-picture for video calls on iPhone. [9to5Mac]

• WhatsApp is experimenting with a private newsletter-like tool. [WABetaInfo]

• WhatsApp still working on an ‘edit messages’ feature. [9to5Mac]

VR, adtech, and more:

• Meta Quest now lets you use your fingers to swipe through VR menus. [Meta Newsroom]

• …and data from Twitter proves Musk wrong. [Mashable]

• Twitter has cut off Slack access for employees, and not explained why. Even thought the company hasn’t been paying for it, it seems Twitter itself cut the access. [Platformer $$$]

• Twitter’s transparency reports have stopped under Elon Musk. [Rolling Stone]

• Twitter has removed captions from Spaces on iOS, and they don’t work on the web or Android. [The Verge]

• Spain will extradite a British citizen to the US in relation to the big Twitter hack in 2020. [BBC News]

• The US Supreme Court is sceptical that Twitter bears responsibility for a terrorist attack in Turkey. [NBC News]

• Tesla workers have accused Twitter of hiding their union account from search results. [Motherboard]

• Twitter owes $400,000 for branded merch, a Californian company says. [The Register]

• Twitter merch for sale? The company appears to be considering a shop. [@ehikian]

• Twitter says it now handles most suspension appeals within three days. [@TwitterSupport]

• …and the total bill in claims for unpaid bills Twitter faces is over $14 million. [Wall Street Journal $$$]

• Elon Musk’s lawyers want his ‘Twitter sitter’ agreement with the SEC thrown out following his recent court victory over his notorious ‘taking Telsa private’ tweets. [CNBC]

New features and tests:

• Twitter will now alert you if a Community Note is added to a tweet you replied to, liked, or retweeted. [@CommunityNotes]

• Twitter has simplified its Blue sign-up page. [@chrismessina]

• Twitter is working on a leaderboard showing all the people who have tipped a tweet using its incoming ‘Coins’ feature. [@nima_owji]

• Twitter is still working on video chat. [@alex193a]

• TikTok has expanded access to its research API to nonprofit academic institutions in the US. [TechCrunch]

• TikTok owner ByteDance has launched a new app called Lemon8 in UK and US... and it's paying creators to post on this ‘Instagram meets Pinterest’ platform. [Insider $$$]

• TikTok is now banned on European Commission staff work devices. [Wall Street Journal $$$]

• Canadian privacy regulators have launched a joint investigation into TikTok. [Reuters $$$]

• TikTok parent ByteDance is cutting hundred of jobs from its Pico VR division. [South China Morning Post]

• TikTok videos are using AI tools to turn Biden, Trump, and Obama into Discord goblins. [Polygon]

• A viral TikTok video by his daughter took a first-time author’s book to the top of the Amazon chart. [BBC News]

Insights to give you an edge at work:

• How popular are specific products on TikTok? The platform’s new tool could tell you. [Social Media Today]

New features and tests:

• TikTok has rolled out a ‘Reposts’ tab on profiles. [@MattNavarra]

• TikTok Now has added an option to capture more than one photo at the same time. [@ahmedghanem]

• TikTok has partnered with Mercedes Benz to display TikTok content on in-car screens. [Social Media Today]

💥 More social media news and updates

• New malware has been found that hijacks YouTube and Facebook accounts. [Bleeping Computer]

• Russia is flooding YouTube with RT videos. [Forbes $$$]

• A fake LinkedIn ad could be one of the first AI-generated phishing campaigns. [TechRadar]

• TikTok star Khaby Lame has launched a YouTube channel. [@MattNavarra]

• The AI-generated Seinfeld spoof is set to return to Twitch with new guardrails in place. It was shut down after it went rogue with transphobia and homophobia. [The Verge]

• 66% of videos from the most popular '“kid influencers" on YouTube contained at least one appearance of junk food, a study found. [Forbes $$$]

• The Instagram founders’ new news app is now open to all. [TechCrunch]

• A new Washington state bill offers proposals to protect child influencers. [Mashable]

• Jim Carrey has threatened a YouTuber with lawsuit for falsely tying him to Jeffrey Epstein. [Daily Dot]

New features and tests:

• YouTube has expanded multi-language audio tracks to more creators. [Variety]

• YouTube is testing podcast management options within YouTube Studio. [Social Media Today]

• YouTube has added more Shorts performance insights and updates to chat moderation. [Social Media Today]

• YouTube is testing a high-quality version of 1080p as paid-for feature. [The Verge]

• LinkedIn has added an option to tag chats with a ‘Starred’ function. [Social Media Today]

• LinkedIn will soon let you choose which type of content is shown first in the Activity section of your profile. It’s also adding newsletter scheduling. [Social Media Today]

• LinkedIn is rolling out scheduled post for Pages. [@MattNavarra]

• Snapchat is adding audio recommendations and song syncing features for creators. [The Verge]

• Snapchat now lets you ‘favorite’ lenses. [@ahmedghanem]

• Snapchat has added new spring-themed app icons for Plus subscribers. [@ahmedghanem]

• Twitch now lets streamers tag other channels by entering @[channel] into a stream title. [@TwitchSupport]

• Twitch has launched a new 'Experiments' hub telling streamers about new features currently being tested. [TechCrunch]

• Clubhouse now lets you connect a crypto wallet to your account. [@ahemdghanem]

📖 Weekend reading

😳 And finally...

Here’s to you, social media managers - from a movie star, football club owner, and personal brand genius 🫡

📅 Back next week...

…And that’s EVERYTHING new in social. 🤯

How social media managers' brains don’t explode each week with all this new stuff, I do not know!

A quick thank you from me to Martin SFP Bryant who pulled most of this week’s Geekout together as I’ve come down with a virus and spending most of my time 🤮.

Hopefully back in business next week!

Goodbye geeks

– Matt