June 26-2023: 10 Things That Happened in The Digital Space Last Week

Happy New Week ??

Wondering what happened in the social media digital space last week? You are on the right article

To new readers, welcome to my weekly newsletter?Digital Trends and Insights, where I curate, and aggregate social media feature updates, tech news, digital trends, and weekly insights to keep you updated and informed!

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We begin with this developing story, Mark Zuckerberg is ready for a cage fight with Elon Musk. He responded to Elon's Tweet daring him for a fight on Instagram with "Send Me location" That's why "Go Elon" was trending on Thursday on Twitter.

These two are "rivals" in that even Meta, is coming up with a Twitter Like app called Threads soon to compete with Twitter. I covered this in a previous newsletter post. Read it here.

NB:?Click on the links to read more about the story from the main sources

First off, last Saturday, I had the pleasure to talk to Marketing students at?Strathmore University?doing a digital marketing consumer behaviour unit on my journey into digital marketing and why I started my LinkedIn weekly Newsletter Digital Trends and Insights. Thanks to Thrity Engineer-Mbuthia?for the opportunity ??

It was a wonderful session speaking to young people about the power of LinkedIn and how they can tap into it for their personal branding

Also, I was privileged to be part of the KICTANet communications team that made the Kenya Internet Governance 2023 (#KeIGF2023) forum a success. The theme for 2023 was "The Internet We Want – Empowering All Kenyan People" Some of the subthemes discussed were:

• Enhancing Cybersecurity, Combating Cybercrime & Ensuring Online Safety
• Promoting Data Governance & Trust?
• Promoting?Human Rights and Freedoms and Tackling Harmful Content Online
• Bridging the?Digital Divides and Promoting Inclusion
• Harnessing the Power of AI & Emerging Technologies?

Much gratitude KICTANet team; Dr. Grace Githaiga , Ali Hussein Kassim , Mwendwa Kivuva , David Indeje , Neema Masitsa , Victor Kapiyo , Rosemary Koech-Kimwatu Barrack Otieno

LinkedIn

1. LinkedIn is testing the ability to generate AI posts using an AI assistant. According to Keren Baruch, Director of Product at LinkedIn use generative AI directly within the LinkedIn share box. ?

“You’ll need to share at least 30 words outlining what you want to say – this is your own thoughts and perspective and the core of any post. Then you can leverage generative AI to create a first draft. This will give you a solid foundation to review, edit and make your own, all before you click post.”

Twitter

2. Twitter has increased Twitter Blue character limit from 10,000 characters to 25,000 characters in a single Tweet with the ability to add Images

• ??Originally it was 140 characters
• ??2017 increased to 280
• ??February 2023 moved to 4000
• ??April 2023 moved to 10,000
• ??June 2023,? 25,000

??Since, Elon Musk's takeover, there has tremendous changes and feature updates on the platform. Twitter the once-known microblogging platform is now long-form content thanks to the paid subscription to Twitter Blue.

3. Twitter’s new ‘Highlights’ Tab is now available to Twitter Blue Subscribers. Highlights allow you to showcase your best tweets via a new, dedicated feed on your Twitter profile.

Make an effort and update this on your Twitter verified account

??Also, Twitter is working on the ability to search for followers and Elon Musk confirmed in a tweet that Twitter may look to stop brands from trendjacking via replies to trending tweets.

TikTok

4. TikTok's chief operating officer V Pappas announced she is stepping down after 5 years at the company to focus on her “entrepreneurial passions.”

??On the other hand, former Disney executive Zenia Mucha joined Tiktok as chief brand and communications officer

5. You can't ignore TikTok! You just know TikTok for dances? Surprise! Kenya is among the top 3 countries with the highest adoption of using TikTok for news according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2023. On the usage of other purposes, Kenya is leading at 54%

??Break....

This had to be the Tweet of the week in Kenya! A Twitter user @Dennohspinner shared his moments with his young son at the 70th edition World Rally Championship in Naivasha, Kenya enjoying the moments. The post has received over 1.8 million views, 4.8K retweets, 22.4K likes and 206 Bookmarks

Meta

6. Instagram rolls out the ability to download public reels by clicking the download button. One of the strategies TikTok used to grow. They allowed people to download videos from the platform and watermarked them. People could then share videos on other platforms. Free publicity!

7. Facebook and Instagram to restrict news access on its platforms to Canadian consumers after parliament passed a controversial online news bill. The bill forces big platforms to compensate news publishers for content posted on their sites.

8. Mark Zuckerberg announced that you can now automatically silence incoming calls from unknown contacts on WhatsApp for even more privacy and control.

WhatsApp is working on a feature to choose how long messages stay pinned within chats and groups making it easier for anyone in the conversation to highlight it for future reference

Snapchat

9. Snapchat and Generative AI! In April 2023, Snap Inc. rolled out the MyAI chatbot globally

• ??As of June, 150M people have sent over 10B messages to the AI Chatbot
• ??Snapchat has 750M monthly users
• ??Nearly 6 million conversations asking for art and design inspiration
• ??Nearly 2 million conversations looking for tips about planning a birthday party, wedding, graduation, or baby shower
• ??Approximately 4 million conversations looking for tips on playing guitar and writing songs

Google -Alphabet Inc

10. Some good news for YouTube content creators! YouTube introduces thumbnail Test & Compare also known as? A/B thumbnail testing which will help you compare the performance of up to three thumbnails and select a winning thumbnail. This will help you make more data-driven decisions about your thumbnail strategy.

Very Useful Additional Resources

• YouTube released Culture and Trends Report 2023
• LinkedIn Shares Tips on How to Make Your LinkedIn Ads and Posts Stand Out
• 17 Of The Best Social Media Marketing Courses in 2023

Thank you for reading!

??Did you find this insightful? Let me know through the comment section

I am a certified digital marketer and a trainer in love with digital trends and insights. I am open to collaborations, speaker invites, and suggestions.?Feel free to reach out via DM or [email protected]

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