Social Media Portal: X-it Stage Left

Back in a?May interview ?with CNBC anchor David Faber, Elon Musk was asked about his amplification of conspiracy theories on X/Twitter. Musk: "I'll say what I want, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it." Musk was telling the truth. It's the untruths which he's given credence to that have led to the exodus of advertisers. His latest: The?endorsement of antisemitic rhetoric ?in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. In 2023, U.S. advertising was already down 60% on X/Twitter. In November, the likes of IBM, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Lionsgate all?paused their spending ?on the platform.?

Just 24 hours after yet another one of her boss's ?? moments, X/Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino tried to?play damage control publicly . Yaccarino: "[X/Twitter] has been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There's no place for it anywhere in the world -- it's ugly and wrong. Full stop."??

Musk not only hasn't retracted his highly-charged tweet, he's thrown more fuel on the fire IRL. His response to advertisers at the?New York Times' DealBook Summit ?on Wednesday: "What I see all over the place is people who care about looking good, while doing evil… If someone is going to blackmail me with money, go [bleep] yourself." Yaccarino was sitting in the front row as Musk continued to hurl four-letter epithets at advertisers, including directly calling out Disney CEO Bob Iger. This time around,?she appeared to come to his defense .

One anonymous agency strategist in a?Digiday Q&A ?on the executive leadership dynamic that's played out over the last six months: "If you put a different CEO in place and took a step back, yes. But [Musk is] making those executive decisions. That's the issue. You can have the greatest salesman in the world trying to sell you something. You're only going to buy enough buckets of shit before you realize it stinks."

There's most definitely a pungent stench. And there has been for awhile.?More than a year ago , we cautioned against any sort of ad spend or campaign on then-Twitter and encouraged the reallocation of those dollars on platforms with greater ROI. It's hard to argue against those who have wanted to take the additional leap of quitting the platform entirely if for no other reason than not wanting to play in the sandbox of a tech billionaire whose tweets fly in the face of a brand or organization's ethos.

In fact,?NPR did just that ?after being slapped with the "state-affiliated media" and "government-funded media" labels back in April.?First reported by Harvard's Nieman Journalism Lab , NPR recently circulated an internal memo to staffers showing that total weekly users to its website had only dropped by a single percentage point in the six months since its "Twexit."?

If nothing else, Musk and his volatile musings provide an important reminder: Companies should regularly be going through the thought exercise of evaluating whether or not to continue to dedicate time and resources to ANY social media platform — not just X/Twitter — based on the metrics they value. Why are you there in the first place? Is the juice worth the squeeze? Should more eggs be placed in other baskets? I think we can have a healthy debate about if simply being active on a platform is a de facto endorsement of the views and opinions of that platform's head honcho. What I think is absolutely not up for debate is "staying the course" when you're not reaching your audience in an impactful and engaging way.?

And maybe it's the spirit of the holiday season, or that I'm sipping on a particularly uplifting cup of coffee, but I'm actually thankful that nuanced conversations around how to navigate the constantly-shifting social media environment have become more and more widespread and commonplace at all organizational levels — even if they happen to sometimes be inspired by commentary that really doesn't deserve the time of day. On to the headlines…

Social Media Headlines

• Antisemitic rhetoric had already been on the rise online in the weeks following the Israel-Hamas war. Then Elon Musk stoked the flames on X/Twitter with one six-word reply tweet. (Washington Post )

• One day later, CEO Linda Yaccarino publicly stated that X/Twitter has "been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There's no place for it anywhere in the world -- it's ugly and wrong. Full stop." (Linda Yaccarino )
• Musk has yet to take down the tweet, and he's telling advertisers to kick rocks (that's the?VERY?family-friendly PG version). (Business Insider )??
• Advertisers including Disney, Apple, Paramount and Lionsgate have all started to flee X/Twitter. (New York Times )??
• More brands are opting to quietly quit X rather than publicly announce their reduction in investment. (Adweek )
• Yaccarino following Musk's DealBook Summit interview: "X is enabling an information independence that's uncomfortable for some people. We're a platform that allows people to make their own decisions." (The Hill )??

• Despite CEO Linda Yaccarino recently stating on record that X/Twitter was going to expand its election integrity division across the globe, the company has cut half of that team including X/Twitter global head of election integrity Aaron Rodericks. (Mashable )
• Meta is requiring political advertisers to disclose the use of AI. (CNBC )?
• Back in June, Google began an "experiment" to crack down on tools that allow YouTube users to bypass advertising. They have since expanded that initiative globally. The crackdown means that video playback may be blocked entirely after three videos if the user does not agree to allow ads. The alternative? YouTube's ad-free Premium service for $13.99/month. (Marketing Brew )??

• AdGuard, one of the biggest players in the ad-blocking market, told Wired that it typically sees 6,000 daily uninstalls for its Chrome extension. Since the crackdown, it's seen 11,000 on average, with a one-day high of 52,000 on Oct. 18. (Wired )

• Citing disruption to "social harmony," Nepal has banned TikTok. (BBC )?
• Re-released in June, Lapse is a photo-sharing app that doesn't allow for in-app photo alterations and doesn't display "like" counts when users post. It's the hot new thing in social media. (New York Times )
• Just five weeks after rebranding, Twitter competitor Pebble, previously T2, has shut down. (Mashable )??

November's Biggest Platform Updates

• TikTok will be shutting down its $2 billion Creator Fund on Dec. 16. Launched in 2020, the fund was designed to help pay eligible users making content on the app. The pool of money was distributed based on creators' shares of the platform's overall views. However, many creators said it actually made monetization on the platform difficult. With 8 million TikTok followers, vlogger Hank Green said he was only making 2.5 cents per every 1,000 video views through the fund. (NBC News )?
• To replace the Creator Fund, TikTok has launched the Creativity Program which rewards videos that exceed one minute in length. (BBC )
• TikTok has launched new "Creative Cards" for content inspo. (Social Media Today )
• Meta announced a new A/B testing tool for Facebook Reels. Creators will be able to set up to four different thumbnails or captions for a single Reel in a test, different versions will be shown to separate groups of a creator's audience for 30 minutes and the version with the most plays at the end of the testing period will "win." That version will show up on the creator's profile unless they change it. (The Verge )??
• The ability to share your favorite post replies to IG Stories has started to roll out to users on Instagram. The comment will appear in a sticker format in your Stories composer, so you can create a Story focused on that response. (Social Media Today )
• Instagram's "Close Friends" list feature can now be leveraged for feed posts and Reels in addition to Stories and Notes. (The Verge )??
• Announced by both Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram Head Adam Mosseri on their Broadcast Channels, Instagram is testing a feature that will let users turn off read receipts for IG DMs. (TechCrunch )
• Instagram is also testing out new options for users to respond to Notes via DM beyond just text including audio, photo, video, GIFs and stickers. (Business Standard )
• Threads is rolling out the option for users to disable posts from automatically showing up on Facebook and Instagram. (Fast Company )?
• Starting Dec. 14, LinkedIn will be removing all carousel posts and profile videos from the platform. (Social Media Today )?
• Rather than giving every viewer a single feed that recommends content from across multiple creators, YouTube's new TikTok-style "For You" feed is on a per-channel basis. If a channel has a "For You" feed, viewers will see a selection of algorithmically-selected recommendations from across just that channel's content. (The Messenger )??

Best Practices

• Start a WhatsApp Channel. The most popular social media messaging app on the planet, WhatsApp is used by more than two billion people worldwide for messaging, customer service, organizing communities, and sharing news headlines. Rolled out globally in September, Channels provide news publishers a new opportunity to reach audiences with those headlines straight from the source. (Nieman Lab )?

• One size doesn't fit all for social media content… and it doesn't for social media team structure either. While 64% of organizations take a "Network" approach to their social team structure (one member responsible for TikTok, another member responsible for IG), Sprout Social's Director of Social Media Rachel Goulet has seen success with dedicating one team member to each core aspect of their strategy — awareness, engagement and analysis. (Link in Bio )??

• Incorporate these 11 trends into your 2024 IG strategy. (Hootsuite )?

1. Challenges continue to rule on Reels
2. Replying with Reels fosters conversations
3. AI can generate new opportunities in the way of content ideas + captions
4. Carousels are currently generating 3x the engagement of single photo feed posts
5. Texts posts thrive on the 'gram (memes, tweet screenshots, etc.)
6. With the future of Threads still uncertain, continue to experiment but don't necessarily pull resources away from other proven platforms anytime soon
7. Expand your reach with the collaborator feature
8. Drive traffic off-platform with a link in bio
9. Spice up your still images with music
10. Eat and tell?
11. Soft launches aren't just for relationships

• Engage with silence. According to Dr. Sahib Khalsa, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa, OK, constantly bombarding your nervous system with sensory signals can have an adverse effect on your mental health. Setting aside 30 minutes every day where you stop doom-scrolling on social media, put down your phone and simply relax in a quiet room with as little stimulation as possible can significantly help reduce stress and muscle tension. (NPR's TED Radio Hour )

Research & Reports

• In a recent edition of her ICYMI newsletter, Lia Haberman asked her subscribers for insight into the tech and social media trends they think will carry into 2024 and beyond. (ICYMI by Lia Haberman )
• Two responses of note:?What is the primary platform you are focusing on for 2024 as a creator or brand? (1) Instagram - 58.6% (2) TikTok - 20.2% (3) LinkedIn - 13.8% (4) YouTube - 11% (5) Facebook - 2.8% // What content format are you focusing on for 2024? (1) Short-form video - 64.9% (2) Long-form video - 12.6% (3) Images - 10.8% (4) Text - 10.8%
• According to a presentation given to creators last month, TikTok executives said users now spend 50% of their time watching videos longer than one minute on the platform. And over the past six months, creators who post videos longer than a minute have five times the growth rate in followers of those who post only short videos. (The Information )?
• University of Amsterdam computer scientist Peter T?rnberg and his team built 500 chatbots using ChatGPT 3.5. Each had a persona, specifying its age, gender, income level, religion, politics, preferences, etc. The bots were fed news from July 1, 2020, and let loose inside three different models of a Twitter-like platform to discuss it. The whole point of the experiment was to understand how to build a better social network. The model that showed bots the posts with the most likes, but only from the bots with opposite political beliefs seemed to be the most ideal environment. (Business Insider )?

• New research from the University of Chicago finds that the major driving force behind college aged students staying on social media apps like TikTok and Instagram isn't the app themselves but rather "the collective trap," or?FOMO. (Becker Friedman Institute )
• Largely due to the continued popularity of Reels, Instagram saw a staggering 29% year-over-year increase in user engagement — topping TikTok (13%), SnapChat (10%) and Facebook (9%). X/Twitter was the only social app to see a YoY decline (-8%). (SensorTower )
• According to a 2019 survey, nearly 30% of kids ages 8 to 12 said their top career choice was "YouTuber." As a result, companies across the country have started to meet that demand by founding children's camps focused on content creation. (Washington Post )

Read, Watch, Listen

• ?? Death, rituals and outlaws: How PBS stations are using YouTube to reach young and diverse audiences. (Current )
• ?? Social media algorithms can be redesigned to bridge divides — here's how. (Nieman Lab )
• ?? There used to be a vibrant social media manager community on X, formerly Twitter. Which platforms are #SMMs flocking to heading into 2024? A thread. (Jon-Stephen Stansel )
• ?? What makes a good social media manager in 2023? Crocs Head of Organic Social Sarah Whittle on the hard and soft skills that are on her list. (Link in Bio )?
• ?? Confessions of a strategist on the strained relationship between X/Twitter and agencies. (Digiday )
• ?? Social media is turning into old-fashioned network television. (WSJ )?
• ?? Is Threads winning the war with X? (Columbia Journalism-Review )?
• ?? COMING SOON: FRONTLINE, GBH's award-winning investigative docuseries, teams up with The Washington Post to dive into the story of Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who leaked national security secrets on Discord.?The Discord Leaks?premieres Dec. 12 on PBS stations nationwide, the PBS App + FRONTLINE's YouTube channel. (FRONTLINE )?
• ?? More than three dozen state attorneys general have come together to file a lawsuit against Meta for deliberately designing addictive platform features that harm children, of lying about those harms, and of allowing underage users under 13 on Instagram. While the case isn't a slam dunk, it could be a moment of possible reckoning for social media giants like Meta. (The Daily )?
• ?? New research quantifies why you want to quit social media but can't: FOMO. University of Chicago economics professor Leonardo Bursztyn on the "collective trap" of it all. (NPR's Marketplace )?