This Week in Social Media, January 11, 2021

Social media takes a stand against Donald Trump. Facebook drops the page "like" button. Twitter doubles down on audio with a big purchase. And Blob Opera and humor on social may help lighten the mood when we need it most.

Here are some quick hits to kick off your week.

Fast 5

1. [News] In case you're keeping score, here are the 13 (and counting) platforms that have banned, suspended, or restricted Donald Trump.
2. [News] And let's not forget Parler, the Conservative-leaning social platform that's acted as an incubator for misinformation, right-wing violence, and crime. Apple and Google have banned it from their app stores due to a lack of moderation on its posts, and Amazon kicked the app off its web-hosting service due to violations of Amazon's rules.
3. [Platform Update] Facebook has redesigned its pages for creators and public figures. Among other changes, it dropped the page "like" button (you can still like posts) to focus more on page followers.
4. [News] Doubling down on audio, Twitter has acquired podcast app Breaker. Expect Twitter Spaces to emerge in a big way this year.
5. [Platform Update] Making it easier for admins to stay on top of popular conversations, Facebook has expanded Engagement Alerts to more admins. Among some new alerts is the option for admins to be notified when a previous post was edited by its author, which would be particularly useful if the author edited a post to add an element that breaks the group's rules.

I Wish I Made This

ICYMI, artist and programmer David Li created Blob Opera, a machine learning experiment in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture. You can easily create your own operatic music using technology that goes way above my head. It's pretty fun and entertaining, and might be just what you need right now to take a break from it all. Dive in here.

Parting Shot

(Yuk It Up Edition)

Twitter wants to lighten the mood a bit, so it's going to start serving users funny tweets. "But how does Twitter understand my sense of humor?" They're going to start by throwing a lot of different things your way, then based on how you engage with the tweets (liking and retweeting vs. selecting "Not Interested"), the platform will get smarter.

So that's something for you, personally. But what about the brands you manage on social? How important is it for brands to be funny? And how do you inject humor into your brand's social presence? The Drum posed this question to social media managers, also asking what brands do it best. Check out their responses here.

So what do you think? Where does humor belong in your brand, especially during these serious times?

That's it for today. See you next week...