Welcome to Part II of Edition No. 39 of my weekly newsletter, providing practical analysis in the world of digital content strategy.
ICYMI Tuesday Thursday: Do You Have What it Takes To Launch That Account?
Contents
I. What Metas Layoffs May Mean
II. TikTok is Rating Creators Behind Their Backs
III. Some Tweets from Elon This Week
IV. Verification Consternation
V. Verified Twitter Notifications for Non-Verified Accounts
VI. A Viable Twitter Alternative?
VII. Algorithm Insights for Top Social Networks
VIII. TikTok Extends its Lead as Teen Favorite*
IX. Shorts are Coming to TV
I. What Metas Layoffs May Mean
Meta laid off more than 11,000 workers – 13 percent of its overall workforce – Wednesday in the latest tech correction.
“At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth. Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote. “I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.”
Someone recorded a portion of Zuckerberg’s video message to employees, which, in my opinion, comes off as sincere and self-aware.
Email accounts were kept active through the end of the day “so everyone can say farewell.”
🛠 Why does this matter? It remains to be seen where this will most impact users.
That is, where will Meta now have fewer resources? That will be telling as far as what parts of the company it deemed most expendable.
Here, perhaps, is an unsurprising hint:
Dorrine worked in News Partnerships at Meta since 2015.
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II. TikTok is Rating Creators Behind Their Backs
In documents marked as confidential and shared with merchants and brands currently testing the company’s commerce platform, the Bytedance Inc.-owned company discussed a new ranking system that’s powered both by the number of sales a given creator generates, and a host of proprietary measures. These included a “cooperation index,” meant to measure how enthusiastic that creator is when working with brands, a “diligence index,” meant to measure how willing they were to load their feeds up with shoppable products, and more.
These ratings are live in the U.K. (and every other country where TikTok Shop exists), but not in the U.S.
🛠 Why does this matter? For some creators, TikTok (and other platforms) are a hobby. For others, it’s a significant part of their livelihood.
For TikTok to be passing information about creators – behind their backs – to the brands that could make or break them is chilling.
Sure, if you rate high on the “cooperation” and “diligence” index, TikTok could be more likely to send you new business.
But if – for whatever subjective reasons – you’re not deemed a good fit for collaboration, this could sink you.
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III. Some Tweets from Elon this Week
Touché.
Who knows if this is true?
This is what verified accounts are for, Elon.
🛠 Why does this matter? Musk sure is having fun with his new toy. But even he acknowledges that the clock is ticking.
“Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn,” Musk wrote Tuesday to staff.
He told staff Thursday that bankruptcy "isn't out of the question."
It was also reported that VP of U.S. client solutions Robin Wheeler resigned a day after hosting a Q&A with Musk to ease advertiser concerns. A few hours after the report surfaced, though, she tweeted, “I’m still here.”
So are we, Robin. So are we.
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