“Are you on ______ yet?”?These days, it feels like emerging social media platforms are popping into and out of the cultural zeitgeist like Flavors of the Month at a Baskin-Robbins. Mastodon, Post, Artifact, Bluesky… the list of so-called “Twitter alternatives” is growing. Now even Meta is rumored to be joining the party with a?Twitter-meets-Instagram?text-based platform (name: TBD) that could be coming to an app store near you as early as this month.?
A few words of caution as you give serious consideration to playing with any of these shiny new toys…?
The easy part is creating an on-brand username handle and bio description. The hard part is allocating the appropriate amount of time and resources to learning the intricate nuances specific to each platform (i.e. post cadence, post type, voice and tone, content mix, follower interaction, etc.). And even harder: Executing on a thoughtful strategy that leverages those nuances as you *try* to build your audience reach and engagement levels to a threshold that justifies the investment your organization is making.?
It’s worth noting that NONE of these “post-Twitter” contenders has yet to eclipse three million active monthly users. For comparison, Twitter has 450 million and Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok have over?1 billion. It’s not to say that one won’t ultimately capitalize on Twitter’s instability and move up the menu from?soup du jour?to?entrée?staple. But with a finite amount of time and resources at your disposal, keep that significant gap in mind as you consider building an audience from scratch on a new platform. Don’t abandon your core platforms where you’ve already invested in developing loyal fans.?
Another “what will the future of social media look like?” factor that made waves this past month:?government oversight. So, off to the headlines...
?Social Media Headlines
- Montana has become the first state to ban TikTok outright. Signed by Gov. Greg Gianforte on May 17, Senate Bill 419 subjects platforms like the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store to up to $10,000 in fines per day if they continue to offer up the app in their marketplace. The ban will take effect on Jan. 1, 2024. (NPR)?**record scratch**?There are just a few issues with the TikTok ban: it’s constitutionally problematic, logistically impractical and largely impossible to enforce.?(Washington Post)
- TikTok has already filed a lawsuit against the bill. (BBC)
- U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has issued a warning that social media poses a real threat to the mental health of children and adolescents. Murthy is calling on policymakers, platforms and parents to create safe limits.?(Axios)
- Senators have unveiled bipartisan legislation to ban kids under 13 from joining social media platforms. (CNN)
- Instagram is creating a Twitter alternative. It doesn’t have a definitive name yet (P92, Project 92, Barcelona?) but marketing slides have leaked outlining Zuck’s new “text-based app for conversations.”?(The Verge)?
- Bluesky has entered the “emerging alternative to Twitter” chat as well. (Vox) And more than a few news organizations have made the leap. (Nieman Lab)
- Twitter has a new CEO: Meet Linda Yaccarino. (NY Times)
- Elon Musk threatened to reassign NPR Twitter’s account to another company. In an email exchange with NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn, Musk wrote, “Our policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant. Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR.” Worth noting: @Twitter has not tweeted since May 11.?(AP)
- Musk admits he may have gone a little too far when he slashed Twitter’s employee headcount by 80% in an effort to cut costs (Fidelity recently valued Twitter?at one-third of Musk’s $44 billion purchasing price). He plans on rehiring some of the more than 6,000 employees he let go dating back to October. (Variety)
- May 24th was supposed to be a huge night for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as he announced his 2024 presidential campaign in an exclusive Twitter Spaces conversation with Elon Musk. Within minutes, it all came crashing down. (Washington Post)
- Meta has been slapped with a record $1.3 billion fine by the European Union for violating EU privacy laws by transferring the personal data of Facebook users to servers in the U.S. (CNN)?
- Look both ways before you click! There's been a recent uptick in verified Facebook pages getting hacked and paid ads with links to malware getting sent out on the platform. In some cases, the compromised accounts included official-sounding page names like "Meta Ads" and “Meta Ads Manager.” (TechCrunch)
- Shutterstock has acquired GIPHY from Meta. (PR Newswire)
?May's Biggest Platform Updates
- Meta has added a series of updates for Instagram Reels including a dedicated destination for trending audio and hashtags, new editing capabilities and two new metrics: “Total Watch Time” and “Average Watch Time.” (TechCrunch)
- Not up for writing out a reply to an IG Reel or Feed post in the comments section? Fear not. You can now drop a GIF! (The Verge)?
- Seeing a follower dip? According to Twitter’s former CEO, the platform is purging accounts that have been inactive for several years. (The Hill)
- Twitter Blue subscribers can now upload two hour (!) videos. Not a typo. (Mashable)
- RIP YouTube Stories. (The Verge)
- TikTok has a new font. (TikTok)
- A new platform policy taking effect in December will allow YouTube to delete accounts that have been inactive for 2+ years. Primarily a security concern, YouTube’s analysis shows that?abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have 2-step verification set up.?**However, the policy?update does not include plans to delete accounts with YouTube videos. (Rolling Stone)
- Reddit is trying out live chat channels in select subreddit groups… again. (The Verge)
?Best Practices
- Brands that try too hard to market to Gen Z on social media come off?poorly. The most effective approach? A former social media strategist for the entire country of Greece at the age of 20 (!) has the goods. (Link in Bio)?TLDR,
Erifili Gounari
's three high-level pieces of advice:?
Start taking risks and having some fun
Make community one of your content pillars
Make sure you're showing up in the right spaces??
- Based on the analysis of more than 34,000 users,
Sprout Social, Inc.
compiled a list of the best times to post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn and Pinterest. (Social Media Today)
On Facebook: Mon 8am-1pm, Tues 8am-2pm, Wed 8am-1pm, Thurs 8am-12pm ET
On IG: Mon 10am-12pm, Tues 9am-1pm, Wed 10am-1pm, Fri 9am-11am ET
On Twitter: Tues through Fri 9am-12pm ET
On LinkedIn: Tues and Wed 10am-12pm ET
On TikTok: Tues through Thurs 2-6pm ET
On Pinterest: Tues through Thurs 1-3pm ET??
- Accessible Social?author
Alexa Heinrich
?with tips and tricks to maximize the accessibility of your social media content. (Sprout Social)?
- On July 6, the Reynolds Journalism Institute will host a two-part virtual workshop that will cover the ins and outs of creating engaging and informative vertical storytelling experiences. Registration ends June 13. (RJI)
?Research & Reports
- Sprout dropped its 2023 State of Social Media report. Among its insights: 96% of business leaders surveyed agree that companies must continue to invest in social media marketing to be successful and about four in 10 expect their social media budget to increase at least 50% in the next three years. AI and data also take center stage. (Sprout Social)
- In?this year's “trust in media” poll?conducted by
YouGov
, only LinkedIn earned a positive net trust score (+3) out of 11 social media networks. TikTok (-36), Snapchat (-26), and Facebook (-22) earned the lowest scores. (YouGov)
- Based on the analysis of 2,000 posts published on LinkedIn between February and March, the Creative and Innovation Network has compiled key algorithm recommendations that can help any brand or organization with their marketing approach on LinkedIn. (Social Media Today)
- In an analysis of 1,350 news publishers across the globe, 27% of page views coming from external, search and social?media in January 2018 came from Facebook. As of April 2023, that number was down to 11%. (Press Gazette)
?Case Studies
- With the goal of disseminating edutainment-type content to the next generation of subscribers,?
The Economist
has amassed more than 230,000 TikTok followers and driven more than 100,000 new visitors to its website from the platform?—?an estimated 60% of whom are below the age of 35. (INMA)
- If the ice machine isn’t broken, don’t fix it. How McDonald’s continues to be one of the best brands on Twitter. (Future Social)
- How one Washington Post reporter is using Instagram to foster a closer connection to both her readers and her sources. (Nieman Lab)
- The meteoric ascension of TikTok has drastically changed the way Saturday Night Live recruits on-air talent and ideates and produces show content. (Business Insider)
?Read, Watch, Listen
- ???‘Tis the summer of decentralized social networks. Before you grab a scoop of your favorite flavor, get a primer on the protocols that power them. (New_ Public)
- ???For the second consecutive year,
L.L.Bean
went “off the grid” for the entirety of May In honor of #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth, pausing all organic social media activity. (LinkedIn)
- ???The TikTok influencer to brand social media manager pipeline is gaining steam. (dot.LA)?
- ?? The mission to preserve Black Twitter, the “world’s largest Black group chat.” (The 19th)
- ?? Former BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief Ben Smith on what's next after the social media era in news. (The Verge)
- ???In order for Montana’s TikTok ban to be upheld, the state will likely have to legally prove that it is serving an important government interest and that it’s not infringing significantly more free speech than necessary to achieve that interest. (Greater Boston)
??“The latter part is where the Montana bill is going to run into some trouble because even assuming these concerns about preventing intelligence from going to the Chinese government are legitimate concerns, a flat ban on the app completely infringes far more speech than necessary to accomplish that goal.”?—Boston College Law School Professor and Associate Dean Daniel Lyons??
- ???“What I was thinking as we were sinking.” Former Twitter Head of Trust & Safety Yoel Roth on his final days before jumping ship. (This American Life)
- ???Will Elon Musk turn Twitter into Yahoo Mail? (On with Kara Swisher)
