Social Media Portal: The ‘Gram(mar) School

In June of 2022, my oldest son Leo was just starting to take down a limited variety of solid foods, had only a handful of chompers in his mouth, was still a month away from crawling, and could not yet say "Mama," "Dada," or any word for that matter. Fast-forward two years (only two, folks!), he now runs our household as a dictatorial toddler, devours every sweet, treat and sugar-filled snack in sight, does Olympic-level somersaults off of our living room couch, and babbles about excavators and fire trucks (even when nobody else is around). A lot has changed.

In June of 2022, Instagram had just implemented pinned posts, a three-Feed view, extended the total run time of Reels to 90 seconds, and was still a year away from meeting its younger, more text-heavy sibling, which is now one of the most downloaded apps worldwide. A lot has changed.

Social media platforms are growing and developing at a lightning-quick pace. They're changing hands, getting slapped on the hand and, in some cases, getting their hands tied behind their back. Forget a couple years… a couple months can often render a platform completely unrecognizable. It can be hard, sometimes nauseating, to keep up.

As a father of two rapidly-changing, unpredictable, very messy lil' rugrats, the parallels between my personal and professional life are pretty hysterical. Dad jokes aside (believe me, I've got plenty), there is perhaps no better example of the bug fixes, performance improvements and cosmetic alterations that these apps endlessly cycle through than IG. And just like with the kiddos, a few hours in the classroom can be a welcomed and valuable reprieve. Off to 'GRAM(MAR) SCHOOL, we go!

• Meta's February announcement of removing political content from its recommendations surfaces across both Instagram and Threads has officially gone into effect (Explore, Reels, Feed Recommendations, and Suggested Users). Meta defines political content as "posts about laws, elections, or social topics." If you're following someone's account, you'll continue to see their content like normal. The new feature is now automatically turned on by default but it can be turned off.

Digital diplomacy author, scholar and creator Andreas Sandre believes that generating conversations around issues people care about is one way for content creators in the political news space to still remain relevant, get discovered and work around Meta's pullback from political content.

• Meta's large language model "Llama"?is now integrated into IG with the platform's search bars now doubling as an AI chatbot prompt window so you can get real-time web results in-app. The AI-powered assistant also appears in DMs and has its own dedicated website. While Meta claims you can't disable the new AI feature entirely, users can still search for query results how they normally would.
• Despite experimenting with 3-minute and 10-minute Reels uploads, Reels that exceed 90 seconds were one of several not-so-best practices that were called out by Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri at a creator event in NYC last month.

Five things that can hurt your distribution on IG:

1. Engagement bait
2. Reels > 90 seconds
3. Videos with 3rd party watermarks
4. Low quality videos
5. Posting content you didn't make

• In a Threads post, Mosseri also said to focus more on engagement and less on following. Mosseri: "I understand why people focus so much on follower counts; they're prominent and they're easy to find. But if you actually want to get a sense for how relevant an account is, look at how many likes they get per post and how many views per Reel instead."
• In a recent Q&A session on IG, Mosseri also said that shares, above watch time, likes or comments, are the most important determining factor in increasing post reach on the platform. Mosseri: "Sends per reach correlate more, in my experience, with overall reach than anything else, because we are looking to help people discover content they want to connect with friends over, and so sends is a great proxy for that sort of connection over creativity."?
• Hashtag in moderation. According to one Meta Media Expert that is actually employed by Mr. Zuckerberg, 3-8 hashtags is the sweet spot. After your eighth ########, the algorithm isn't guaranteed to disperse the content towards whatever hashtag you're tacking on the end. The hashtags should be in the post caption NOT the first comment, they should be related to the niche or audience you want, and random/viral/#ForYouPage-type hashtags aren't algorithmically-friendly.

Two additional nuggets for maximizing eyeballs on the platform:

1. The algorithm won't push your content consistently if you're not posting at least 3-5x per week
2. The algorithm prioritizes content containing trending audio

• Instagram's most recent platform-wide pivot is that it has begun removing serial reposters — aggregator accounts that share content that they didn't "create or enhance in a material way" more than 10 times in 30 days — from recommendations across the platform. In theory, this means that the IG Explore page or main feed recommendations won't include content from aggregation accounts. It also incentivizes brands, organizations and content creators to be original, above all else.
• IG's algorithm will no longer rank recommended Reels based on how an account's followers engaged with them. Instead, in a change that should level the playing field for smaller creators, the recommendation system will show a piece of content to a small audience that may be interested in it, whether they follow the creator or not. The top performing Reels in that group will then be served up to a wider audience.

Half the battle is staying informed. That's why we're here! ?? Class dismissed. On to the headlines…?

Social Media Headlines

• To the courts we go! TikTok and its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, officially filed a legal challenge against the U.S. over a law that would ban the app nationwide unless it finds a buyer within a year. In the petition filed in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the company said the legislation exceeds the bounds of the constitution and suppresses the speech of millions of Americans. (NPR)

In order to hold up to the "strict scrutiny" standard required of First Amendment-related cases, the government will have to demonstrate the app is a national security risk and that speech suppression was the least restrictive option on the table. (Axios)

• Real estate billionaire and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt has thrown his name into the TikTok ownership bidding bonanza ring. Under McCourt's proposal, TikTok would operate on an open-source, decentralized protocol where users control their own data no matter what social media app they use. No word yet on how he aims to convince the Chinese government to warm up to a forced sale. (CNN)
• Welcome back, Taylor and Billie. After a three-month standoff, music's largest label group has finally reached a new licensing agreement with TikTok. (Vulture)
• TikTok is laying off 1,000 operations, content and marketing staffers. (Contxto)
• The European Union has opened an investigation into Meta over concerns that both Facebook and Instagram have breached the Digital Services Act, a landmark law passed by the EU last summer that makes digital companies liable for disinformation, shopping scams, child abuse and other online harms. The EU contends that neither platform has done enough to mitigate the risks of negative effects to the physical and mental health of young European users, in accordance with the DSA. (The Guardian)?
• Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has said bye-bye to Bluesky's board. He’s urging X users to stay put on the platform he used to call home. (Time)
• Rest easy, Twitter.com. ?? (The Hill)

May's Biggest Platform Updates

• TikTok will begin labeling AI-generated content when it's been uploaded from outside its own platform in an attempt to combat misinformation. (AP)

Portal note: This follows in the footsteps of a similar move announced by Meta back in February RE: AI-generated images. (AP) LinkedIn is joining the party, too, with clickable C2PA tags that will appear in the top right of an AI-generated image. (Social Media Today)??

• TikTok is launching TikTok Studio, a new in-app management platform that allows users to “create, edit, upload, manage and analyze” their account and content performance. (Annie-Mai Hodge)
• TikTok has beefed up its desktop presence with a "Floating Player," which will keep a small video window playing in the lower corner of your screen while you're "working" in other tabs. (PR Daily)
• Mirroring Instagram, TikTok is testing out a collaboration feature that will allow users to "partner up" with up to five friends on a collab post. (The SpAndroid)
• Cover your eyes, YouTube. TikTok is testing out 60-minute uploads with a limited group of users in select markets. (TechCrunch)
• Doubling-down in an area where it continues to see strong user activity, Instagram is testing out "Lately," an automatically-generated highlight feed that showcases your most recent Stories activity from the last seven days. (ICYMI by Lia Haberman)?

Portal note: Beyond extending the shelf life of a Story past 24 hours, the "Lately" feature also provides brands, organizations and content creators the opportunity to give profile visitors more context as to the type of content that they post to their Stories feed. (Social Media Today)

• Instagram is testing out a "Reveal" Sticker which allows users to post a hidden, blurred Stories slide that will only reveal itself once a follower has replied with a DM. (Mashable)
• Users can now see how many times their Threads posts have been viewed on the mobile app. The metric is shown at the top of the expanded display when you tap on an individual thread. (The Verge)
• X is removing the publicly visible LIKES tab from user profiles. The likes count on individual posts will still be visible, but you will not be able to tell who liked the posts now. (Beebom)
• LinkedIn has reduced the size of article link previews in organic posts "to help members stay on LinkedIn and engage with unique commentary." The change will not impact ad campaigns or boosted posts. (LinkedIn)
• Similar to subreddit groups on Reddit, Tumblr's newly-launched "Communities" are semi-private spaces dedicated to niche topics that have their own moderators, rules and privacy settings. Users can now request to create a community but will have to get in line. The current waitlist is nearly 6,000-deep. (TechCrunch)?
• AI-generated emojis may be coming to an iPhone store near you! ?? (Mashable)?

Best Practices

• BE ENGAGING… LITERALLY. The number one mistake brands make in their engagement strategy? Not engaging with other people's content. Show up in comments sections, replies, live chats, DMs, etc. and you're more likely to have the gesture reciprocated. (Hootsuite)
• ALBUM DROP MARKETING — PROCEED WITH CAUTION. New music releases are a great way for brands to jump into buzzworthy conversations dominating the cultural zeitgeist. But, above all else, there should always be an authentic reason for the brand to join that convo in the first place. Q's to ponder >> Is there overlap between the artist's audience and your own? How can you tie the album back to your product? (Ad Age)
• EMBRACE EMPLOYEES AS SOCIAL AMBASSADORS. TikTok creator and Chick-fil-A employee Miriam Webb built a following of tens of thousands of people by reviewing the fast food chain's menu items. In April, she was notified by the company that her videos violated a rule in its employee handbook and she would no longer be posting them. Less than a week later, Shake Shack scooped her up. (Marketing Brew)
• FIND YOUR (SUBREDDIT) NICHE. With a reported 82 million of its 500 million users visiting the site daily (16.4%) and over 1 billion posts getting shared across 100,000+ active communities, Reddit is one of the top visited and most active sites on the Internet. And with Google's recent $60 million per year deal with Reddit to have real-time access to Reddit content and to use its content to train Google's future AI models, marketers that can effectively generate meaningful, genuine, and honest interactions with Reddit's highly-engaged communities can also earn some great visibility on the most popular search engine on the planet. (Search Engine Journal)?
• OK. TIME TO PUT THE PHONE DOWN. 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night. That's the maximum amount of time that ILIA Beauty Social Media Director Tyra Booker allows herself to swipe and scroll outside of office hours. Booker: "Since social is a part of my job I want to protect my sanity when it comes to the habit of being online." (Link in Bio)

Research & Reports

• For the first time ever, social video will account for > 10% of all U.S. time spent with digital media this year. And that's not just a tip of the cap to TikTok. Meta is expected to account for nearly 41% of adults' social video time in 2024. (eMarketer)
• A recent Fohr survey asked influencers with more than 10,000 followers who make $$$ on TikTok if they thought the app would actually be banned by 2025 under the new government legislation that passed in April. 62% said: "NOPE." (WIRED)?

83% of the influencers who responded said their sponsorships have been unaffected

7% said a brand had paused or canceled a campaign they worked on

8% said a brand had asked to shift a deliverable to another social media platform or at least inquired about such a change

• Common Sense Media, in partnership with Hopelab, just released its third report in a three-part series exploring the influence of social media experiences on mental well-being. Frequent social media use continues to be widespread, and the study shows an interesting dichotomy of it being both supportive and challenging for young people. (Common Sense Media)

53% of young adults (people ages 18 to 22) say they can't control their social media use or use it longer than intended, compared to 42% of teens (people ages 14 to 17). But 1% of young adults and 68% of teens say they enact strategies to avoid content they dislike.

74% of LGBTQ+ social media users say social media is important in helping them feel less alone. But 72% of LGBTQ+ young people feel that posting content to public accounts would open themselves to harassment.

78% of young people with moderate to severe depressive symptoms say that social media is important for cheering them up. But 64% of those with moderate to severe symptoms indicate that when they use social media, they feel as if others' lives are better than theirs, compared to 38% of those with no symptoms.

• Before Meta removed news-related content from Canadian users' Facebook and Instagram feeds following the passage of the Online News Act (the legislation requires platforms like Meta and Google to pay publishers for linking to their content), only approximately 19 posts per week featured a screenshot of Canadian news. After the ban, the number of posts with Canadian news screenshots tripled to an average of 68 posts per week. (Nieman Lab)?
• 61% of TikTok users discover new brands/products on the app, 1.5x more than any other platform. Why is it such a fertile ground for discovery? TikTok claims its visual, community-driven approach delivers more entertaining (41%), authentic (28%) and concise (25%) search results than traditional engines. (Search Engine Land)
• Gen Z ?? Pinterest. According to a new report released by the platform, more than 200 million young users are now coming to Pinterest every single month. Pinterest: "From self-exploration to shopping lists, Gen Z is increasingly turning to Pinterest. In fact, they're our fastest growing audience, making up more than 40% of our global monthly users. And they're even more engaged than other generations, searching and saving at higher rates." (Social Media Today)

Read, Watch, Listen

• ?? Why social media is the most misunderstood job in Corporate America. (Forbes)
• ?? While TikTok influencers are trying to diversify their social media portfolios as a workaround to the ban legislation, the eyeballs and paychecks they're seeking may not be a 1:1 tradeoff. (NPR)
• ?? Even if TikTok is a 2025 casualty, publishers are confident that their short-form vertical video production and distribution strategies will be just fine. (Digiday)?
• ?? Is TikTok playing its greatest hits album before the curtain drops? (Link in Bio)
• ?? In "The Anxious Generation," social psychologist and writer Jonathan Haidt contends that the teen mental health crisis can be solved in four easy steps including no smartphones before high school and no social media before the age of 16. Media literacy expert Michelle Ciulla Lipkin's response: "I believe the conversation should not be about how we shield young people from the world that surrounds them but about how we prepare them to thrive." (NAMLE)?
• ?? Pixar is using a slightly different voice that caters to the dominant demographic of each platform. Is it worth it? (Future Social)
• ?? Social media-focused email newsletters worth the subscription (outside of this one, of course! ??). (Social Insider)
• ?? From GBH's NOVA, “Secrets in Your Data” explores the often surprising extent of personal data shared online and via social media. It is available for streaming on NOVA's YouTube channel. (NOVA)

"Whether TikTok is here or not in a year from now is not super material. The storytelling we do, the formats that we use really carry through [to other platforms]. We use a lot of the same type of storytelling on our own website [and] apps."

— Washington Post Director of Video Micah Gelman