Newsletter: February 12, 2021

Social Media Headlines

• Facebook will test reducing the distribution of political content, including news articles and videos, in users’ news feeds. The test will not apply to videos in Facebook Watch or articles in Facebook’s News Tab. (Axios)
• TikTok’s sale of its American operations has been paused indefinitely as President Biden reviews efforts to address potential security risks from Chinese tech companies. (WSJ)
• YouTube has become a second home for TikTok content. (Tubular Labs)
• Twitter has delayed the launch of its new account verification process, long scheduled to be January 22. Applications for Twitter account verification will reopen “later in the year,” the company has confirmed. (Twitter)
• Reddit and TikTok made more significant strides in combating hate speech and the spread of misinformation in 2020 than Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. (Reuters)
• Facebook Instant Articles can boost article readership by a third. (Press Gazette)
• Facebook publishes new resources demystifying the News Feed algorithm. (Tech @ Facebook)
• TikTok now has a podcast. (TikTok)
• TikTok pays Group Nine Media’s Seeker brand to create science videos. (Digiday)
• Instagram and Snapchat say it will no longer promote content that was originally posted to TikTok. (The Verge)
• An explainer on the streaming dominance & history of Twitch. (Quartz)

Research & Reports

• Usage: US users spend more time on TikTok per month than on Facebook or Instagram, according to a new report from App Annie. Twitch clocked up 17 billion hours watched in 2020 (up 83% on 2019).
• Users: Discord, a chat platform popular with gamers, doubled its monthly users to 140 million. Snapchat’s TikTok rival feature, “Spotlight” is a success, with 100 million monthly users two months after launch.
• Fact attack: Did you know over 40% of internet users ages 16 to 64 use social media for work? That fact is among 300+ pages of global social media and digital insights in the Digital 2021 report from Hootsuite and We Are Social.
• Podcast: Tiktok’s uncertain future, an influencer gets in trouble, and 2021 social media trends (eMarketer)

Best Practices

How TikTok creators can stay on the right side of copyright law (Raconteur)

The News Publisher’s Guide to TikTok, including: Feature the people in your station or newsroom; emphasize stories rather than breaking news; interject news-related content into the popular meme format; and mix in lighter news and offbeat stories. (TwipeMobile)

How to build better calls-to-action (Stanford Social Innovation Review)

Secret TikTok optimization tips to build awareness, trust and buzz (LiJin.co)

How to know when a meme is dead (LifeHacker)

Repurposing your best content for social media (Sprout Social)

A step-by-step guide to getting started on Clubhouse (Social Media Examiner)

Facebook Page 101 workbook from AgoraPulse (AgoraPulse)

How marketing on Reddit works — and how to do it right (Sprout Social)

Editorial Standards

• Case Study: Spreading Panic in a Pandemic. A local reporter for an evening news program shared unverified information on Twitter. How should she handle the widely-shared erroneous tweet? Note: This link is available to public media colleagues only, through the PBS Hub.
• Superb Digital Engagement: NEWSHOUR Leverages Twitter for Filibuster Primer. The PBS Editorial Standards encourage robust, yet civil, digital engagement with the audience. NewsHour producers turned to Twitter to solicit and address questions about the filibuster.

Spotlight: Social Media Marketing

More than two-thirds of US marketers will use influencer marketing in 2021 (eMarketer)

Social media advertising: how to run a compelling campaign (Sprout Social)

Social media crisis checklist and related tips (Social Media Today)

Twitter’s 2021 marketing calendar (Twitter)

Best practices and ideas to run better Instagram contests (Business2Community)

Key trends for influencer marketing in 2021 include livestreaming and local campaigns (Smartbrief)

Platform Updates

• TikTok has rolled out a new Quizlet feature to support users creating educational content. (TikTok)
• LinkedIn now allows you to go live from LinkedIn.com using an RTMP stream key.
• LinkedIn live streams now include an option for automatic captioning within select third-party tools. (Switcher Studio)
• YouTube launches a ‘Clips’ feature that lets users share short, looping segments of longer videos. (9 to 5 Google)
• LinkedIn now lets you control who can comment on your posts. (Social Media Today)
• Instagram is preventing some users from sharing feed posts in Stories. (eMarketer)
• Pinterest has launched “Story Pins” at the top of its home screen, similar to the interface of Instagram and Facebook. (The Verge)
• TikTok now lets users with photosensitive epilepsy remove videos that may cause seizures from their feed. (TikTok)
• LinkedIn is rolling out new Page admin roles and permissions, with new admin tiers Super Admin, Content Admin (creating and editing content posts, live streams, events and stories), Analyst (viewing and exporting analytics), and Curator (curating on the “My Company” tab). (LinkedIn)

• Instagram is adding a “Recently Deleted” post recovery feature. (The Verge)
• LinkedIn rolls out “event group chats” that are automatically generated for the organizer after they create an event, creating a space for attendees to engage before, during, and after your event. (LinkedIn)
• Text in Instagram Stories can now be animated. (Adam Mosseri)
• TikTok has added a replay feature for TikTok Live videos. (Matt Navarra)
• TikTok now has a recipe card feature via an integration with Whisk. (TechCrunch)

Long Weekend Reads

• Sara Wilson for HBR labels the shift of young people towards closed social media platforms “digital campfires,” and separates the experiences into three categories: private messaging, micro-communities, and shared experiences. (Harvard Business Review)
• A New York Times columnist reckons with the advantages and disadvantages of being a journalist on Twitter. (New York Times)
• The Creator Class: Axios visualizes social media in a new way, separating it out into creator economy, social networking, chat, Q&A, and subculture apps. (Axios)
• Why Clubhouse is the Anti-Twitter. (OneZero)
• Read of the Week: A fascinating academic study into “social media” and how it is proliferating into different logics / functions in society. (Knight First Amendment Institute)