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Hello, (Christmas) geeks!

So… We’ve made it to the end of 2024… I swear time is speeding up!

I’ve got a bumper edition of social media geekiness wrapped up for you, before you log-off for the holiday season.🎁

But before we get into it…

I love this free daily newsletter for marketers ❤️

It’s a quick 7-minute read and is sent to 63,000 smart marketers like you every week.

*this is not an ad. I just love the newsletter, and they offered to also share Geekout with their readers.

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Zuck’s Threads vs. Elon’s X 🥊

Earlier this week, Zuckerberg revealed Threads has reached 300 million monthly active users (MAUs), doubling from 100 million to 200 million in 10 months, and adding another 100 million in nearly half that time.

If this growth continues, Threads could surpass Elon Musk's X in early 2025.

When I suggested this possibility, Zuck replied to me to dampen my optimism 😆

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Geekout Wrapped 2024 🔥

First off, a BIG thank you from me (and Martin) for letting us continue to drop in to your inbox every Friday.

We LOVE writing Geekout for you, despite it taking up around 2 full days to pull together every week!

I thought I would quickly share with you some of the jaw-droppping Geekout Newsletter stats, taken from Beehiiv (our newsletter hosting platform… which rocks, BTW!)

We have sent you 48 (49 including this one!) editions of Geekout this year.

Across 2024, Geekout has featured an estimated 5,000+ new social media platform features and product launches spotted in the wild.

I also want to give a shout out to the following 7 OG social media geeks who have spotted many of the new features I include in Geekout every week…

You should go follow them all:

Ahmed Ghanem, Hammod Oh, Lindsey Gamble, Radu Oncescu, Jonah Manzano, Alesandro Paluzzi, WABetaInfo

And finally, this was the most popular edition of Geekout this year:

… Adam Mosseri was also a fan of our reimagining of his life at Instagram 💀

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Geekout’s Christmas Break… 😴🎄

Geekout is taking its annual Christmas Holiday digital detox for the next two weeks. 

It will be back in your inbox fully recharged, and filled with all the latest news that breaks during the holiday season, on Friday 10th January 2025.

P.S.. I got you a Christmas gift. 👇 🎁 (details below).

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With Geekout Pro, you get:

• Breaking News Alerts: Be the FIRST to know about platform updates and emerging trends – sent in real-time by me to you on WhatsApp

• Exclusive Insights: Unlock insider knowledge, app invites, and expert reports to stay ahead of the curve.

• VIP Chat Channels: Chat with social media pros from top brands like Red Bull, Netflix, and Apple to exchange ideas and get help with a social media crisis!

🎁 Geekout Xmas gift just for you 🎁

Two GEEKOUT PRO offers:

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OR

2️⃣ Save BIG: Get 30% OFF an annual plan – Use code GEEKOUT30OFF [50 available]

But be quick…Offers expire Christmas Eve!🎅 

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🔥 GEEKOUT HOT 5

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

2. TikTok’s CEO met Trump at Mar-a-Lago as US ban looms [PLEADING]

3. Apple says Meta is trying to get deep access to iPhone users’ phone data under EU rules [OUTRAGING]

4. Meta fined $263M over 2018 security breach that affected ~3M EU users, 29M Globally [PUNISHING]

5. UK Government to tweak social media rules in response to summer riots [REINFORCING]

63k of the World’s Smartest Marketers Swear By This FREE Daily Newsletter

Stacked Marketer curates the most useful and important digital and social media marketing news, trends and insights…

…Boiled down to a quick 7-minute read. ⏱️

Every weekday, you’ll get the must-know…

• Breaking news 🚨

• Marketing insights ✨

• Advertising hacks 🔥

…Plus the latest tips and tactics for all your digital marketing channels: Facebook, Google SEO, Snapchat, TikTok, email, and countless others.

If you’re a social media marketer looking to up your game, this is one free resource you need to be taking advantage of.

It’s one of my top news sources. Subscribe to Stacked Marketer for FREE.

🚨 EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT…

TikTok’s last stand

We talked about TikTok’s final chance to stay active in the US last week, but now we know a bit more about how things are going to play out.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case, fast-tracking its hearing to 10 January.

The court will then have mere days to make its decision before the 19 January deadline (set in law!) for ByteDance to sell off its US TikTok operation or have the app banned from app stores in the country.

And things are getting real in that regard. US lawmakers have told Apple and Google to be ready to remove TikTok from app stores.

So why hasn’t ByteDance sold off TikTok US? It doesn’t want to, obviously. And prospective buyers have found this approach frustrating. Frank McCourt, the billionaire who has offered $20 billion to buy the platform without its algorithm, says ByteDance is too secretive. They’re unclear on exactly what it is they’re selling, he says.

And that comes back to ByteDance’s problem I’ve mentioned here many times in the past. How do you separate TikTok US from the rest of the world on a technical level? What does its business look like without US users?

It’s a mystery we might find out the answer to in 2025, depending on how the Supreme Court goes. The court leans right-wing and Trumpy, and Trump has softened his stance on TikTok this week, saying he has “a warm spot in my heart” for the app.

But there’s no guarantee the Supreme Court feels the same.

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Geekout’s cover images

As this is the last Geekout of the year, let’s talk about something we’ve started doing over the past year or so that have been a hit: our very silly cover images, like the one you see at the top of this edition.

Martin creates these each week using a combination of Midjourney and Photoshop, and everyone from the White House social media team to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri have commented on them.

So which is Martin’s favourite of the year? This one below. He writes:

We’re going to give Geekout a little bit of a refresh in 2025, but I think the cover images are one thing we’re definitely going to keep. With no billionaires snogging.

Want more of our favourite cover images this year? You’ll find them at the end of this newsletter… 👇

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✨ NEW & NOTEWORTHY

Everything else you need to know from the past seven days…

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🤖 SOCIAL A.I.

The newest social media A.I. features spotted this week:

Also spotted this week…

• Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses have added live AI and live translations, as well as Shazam support

• OpenAI will soon let you chat with ChatGPT via WhatsApp

• WhatsApp is testing a ‘Connect to AI’ feature for business accounts

• X now has a faster and more powerful Grok model and a new 'Grok button'

• X can now do AI post analysis

• X now lets you talk to Grok with your voice

• LinkedIn says it’s working to bring AI agents to its platform

• Messenger now lets you share messages and photos from a chat Meta AI

• Messenger now includes the AI-powered ‘Imagine’ feature in the gallery

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😆 LOL

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📈 MEMES

If anyone knows their memes, it’s Know Your Meme. The clue’s in the name.

So, here’s their top 20 memes of the year… Which was your favourite?

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🌡️ VIRAL

Take a look here and shock yourself at how time flies, and how quickly viral moments pass by.

From Reddit going public to the Olympics, there was plenty to get people excited about online this year. Tap through to read Buffer’s roundup 👇

Also:

• 18 of the funniest pictures that went viral on Reddit in 2024

• Giphy’s key discussion trends of 2024

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🙊 WHAT DID YOU SAY?!

“Please stop using hashtags. The system doesn’t need them anymore and they look ugly.”

– Elon Musk thinks the hashtag is dead on X

Also this week:

• Donald Trump said he has “a warm spot in my heart for TikTok” - but can he do much to stop a ban at this stage?
  

• Instagram head Adam Mosseri says social media needs more context because of AI, and we should consider the source of a claim, not just its content
  

• Mark Zuckerberg: It’s ‘sad’ that EU is left behind on AI. Meta’s AI boss agrees

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📲 NEW APPS

Flipboard’s new app lets you explore the open social web, including Mastodon an Bluesky, from one place.

But it’s currently an invite-only beta. 👎🏻

• Tapestry, a new app for tracking social media, news, blogs, and more, will launch in 'early 2025'

• Butterfly puts Bluesky on your Apple Watch with a beautiful app

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👀 MY FAV READS

“Breaking up is hard to do — especially when you can't control what you see online.”

Also:

• People left Twitter because “Twitter's product sucks, not because we don’t like Elon”.

  BUT… The comments here suggest people think it was both. 😆

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👌 PRO TIPS

Using X for marketing after the holidays? Read on…

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🪦 RIP

Social media features heading for the graveyard:

PSA for Instagram: It will soon stop providing video views data on carousel and standard video posts.

This metric will only be available for Reels as of January 8th, 2025.

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😮 WTF?!

This Ofcom job post on LinkedIn has caused a real stir 🫣

On one hand it was a badly judged post for the online content regulator, but on the other… they got their job vacancy on BBC News.

Also:

• You can now build your next car on TikTok 

• Fake X and Facebook accounts are stoking violence after the CEO’s UnitedHealthcare killing

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🤦 FAIL

The EU has tough privacy rules… but that hasn’t stopped it breaking them itself 🫣

Also:

• Nick Jonas got destroyed on X for a tweet seemingly supporting Elon Musk

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👔 YOU’RE HIRED!

Hot new social media jobs worth checking out this week:

• Amazon is hiring a Strategic Communications & Social Media Manager [Seattle, WA, USA]

• Nasdaq needs a Social Video Producer [New York City, NY, USA]

• Aston Villa FC is looking for a Social Video Editor [Tamworth, UK]

• Bannatyne is recruiting a Social Media and Content Creator [Darlington, UK]

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📊 SOCIAL STATS

2.6 MILLION

– The number of daily active users X lost per day in the U.S. in October.
For the entire month of October, X saw a drop in anywhere from 300,000 to 2.6 million daily active users in the US each day.

• …but X claims that total active user seconds, per day, are up 10% year-over-year, while video views up 40$ YoY
  

• SOCIAL MEDIA BAN: 59% of Americans want a ban on social media for children, similar to Australia’s⁠
  

• CREATOR ECONOMY: In 2024, ⁠the average creator payout reached $4,206 per transaction across all platforms and creators tiers, from nano-influencers (1,000-10,000 followers) to mega-influencers (1 million+ followers)
  

• METAGRAM: Instagram is expected to generate 50% of Meta’s US ad sales in 2025
  

• BLUESKY: Web traffic to Bluesky was up 75% from October to November
  

• TIKTOK SHOP: 45% of surveyed Americans have bought something on TikTok, as the app overtakes Shein and Sephora as a US online shopping destination
  

• REDDIT has recorded a 35% year-on-year increase in engagement in over 1,000 sports-themed Subreddits, according to internal data
  

• MOO-DENG was the most-rising search term on Giphy this year, up +98,588% (it must have started from an INCREDIBLY low base)

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📈 CHARTED

What happens on the Internet EVERY minute (2024 Version) ⏱️

Missing stat? Instagram users tag @mosseri to complain about reach 2.7 million times

Social media ad spend by platform in 2024

• TIKTOK: 39% of adults under 30 say they regularly get their news on TikTok
  .

• CREATOR ECONOMY I: Instagram leads creator marketing boom, TikTok gains ground, and Snapchat surges
  

• CREATOR ECONOMY II: How creators make their money in 2024
  

• TIKTOK: How government requests to remove content from TikTok have grown over the years
  

• PAID SOCIAL: The impact of a TikTok ban on ad CPM rates in 2025
  

• SURGING: Threads’ user growth, charted
  

• APP DOWNLOADS: The most downloaded apps globally in November 2024

  …Threads was the most downloaded iOS app in November

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• Former content moderators in Kenya are suing Meta because they say they got PTSD from the work. [The Guardian]

• Meta has asked California’s Attorney General to block OpenAI’s switch from non-profit to for-profit. [The Verge]

• Scotland is banning WhatsApp on government phones. [Politico]

New features and tests:

Facebook:

• Facebook now has a new account switcher. [@theahmedghanem]

• Facebook has added a Voting Reminders control setting. [@theahmedghanem]

• Facebook is testing a ‘Thank You’ feature to thank everyone who wished you a happy birthday on your wall all at once, tagging them (maybe not new…?) [@theahmedghanem]

Instagram:

• Instagram is testing an ‘Interested / Not interested’ option for ads. [@theahmedghanem]

• Instagram is testing a new, more compact profile design. [@theahmedghanem]

• Instagram is testing a new version of “followed by” label. [@jaskaransainz]

• Instagram has added a ‘Prompt’ feature for posts. [@oncescuradu]

• Instagram has been working on a new design for the social sharing buttons. [@oncescuradu]

• Instagram now has a ‘view rate past first 3 seconds’ metric view. [@reblmedia]

• Instagram is testing a ‘Customer Details’ feature for business accounts to help save and easily access important customer information. [@theahmedghanem]

• Instagram has added a ‘Winter Wonderland’ chat theme. [@oncescuradu]

• Instagram is testing a new tabbed UI for music pages. [@theahmedghanem]

• Instagram now lets you choose whether or not members can reply to your broadcast channel, directly from the creation page. [@theahmedghanem]

• Instagram now allows you to edit your profile directly from its full view. [@theahmedghanem]

Messenger:

• Messenger is testing shared stories with your friends. [@theahmedghanem]

• Meta has introduced four new chat themes for Instagram and Messenger: Squid Game Season 2, Christmas, Winter Wonderland, and New Year. [@theahmedghanem]

Threads:

• Threads is encouraging some of its iOS users to become beta testers. [@oncescuradu]

WhatsApp:

• WhatsApp is testing a feature to mention group chats in status updates. [@wabetainfo]

• WhatsApp is testing a larger format for content stickers on Android. [@oncescuradu]

• WhatsApp is testing a new UI with playback speed controls and “Picture-in-Picture” mode for video playback. [@oncescuradu]

• WhatsApp is rolling out a new gallery interface for sending photo and video albums. [@WABetaInfo]

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• The EU has opened a probe into TikTok’s role in Romanian election interference. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Civil society groups want the US Supreme Court to drop the TikTok ban on free speech grounds. [The Verge]

• A judge ruled that a former engineering manager for ByteDance, who alleged in 2022 the company had operated as a “useful propaganda tool” for China, had “engaged in serious, bad faith conduct that has abused the judicial process.” [The Information $$$]

New features and tests:

• TikTok seems to be testing a reward coupon. [@liahaberman]

• TikTok is testing a new UI for recommended stickers. [@oncescuradu]

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💥 EVEN MORE SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS & UPDATES

• Bluesky suffered a moderation crisis over controversial writer and podcaster Jesse Singal. [TechCrunch]

• Families are going after Snapchat for the teen Fentanyl crisis [Bloomberg $$$]

• A $1 million fund has been launched to offer grants to people building on Bluesky’s AT protocol. [TechCrunch]

• The US Kids Online Safety Act has just days left to pass. [The Verge]

• Telegram recommends extremist content to users, a study has found. [BBC News]

• Malaysia says major social media platforms must get license to continue to operate in the country. [Bloomberg $$$]

• Telegram says it has removed 15.4 million suspect groups and channels in 2024 with the help of AI. [TechCrunch]

New features and tests:

• Snapchat+ subscribers can now customise the Post View Emoji for each friend. [@theahmedghanem]

• Snapchat has introduced a new “Bookmarks & Browser History” feature. [@theahmedghanem]

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📰 WEEKEND READS

Geekout’s pick of the best longer reads to sink into over the weekend:

• More Americans get their news from YouTube and there's no going back

• Forget Bluesky. The real refuge from Twitter is the group chat

• Another new Twitter? Good luck with that.

• Kate Nash on using OnlyFans to fund her tour and call out the live music industry

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😳 AND FINALLY…

It’s almost like Geekout’s ‘And finally…’ is James Blunt’s second home… 🏆

So, it seems fitting he gets the final spot in this final edition of Geekout in 2024.

P.S. If anyone knows James, tell him i want to hire him as my social media manager.

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📅 BACK NEXT WEEK…

…Alrighty folks. You have reached the end of the final edition of Geekout for 2024!

I don’t want to keep you here any longer. Especially if you’re still in holiday social media post scheduling hell!

Reminder: Geekout is taking 2 weeks off for Christmas, but will return Friday 10th January to fill you you in on EVERYTHING new in social over the holiday season.

Once again, thank you so much for reading Geekout in 2024!

Have an awesome Christmas break… I hope all your scheduled posts fire correctly!

Goodbye, geeks!

p.s. This newsletter is edited by Martin SFP Bryant . Supreme Court photo credit Joe Ravi, CC BY-SA 3.

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🎄 XMAS BONUS!

As promised further up today’s newsletter, here are a few more of our favourite Geekout cover images this year? Which did you like best?

And finally….