The Week in Social: Twitter tweaks, Instagram takedowns, and spotify podcasts

Twitter tweaks Retweets

A picture is worth 1,000 words. We cannot be certain what a GIF or a video clip are worth, but Twitter still has a 280 character limit. Users often have a lot more to say, and need a concise way of saying it. The best possible response to a post might be best encapsulated in a look, a photo, or an animation. Thus, Twitter has enabled users to add photos, gifs, and video clips to the retweet feature.

User Acquisition is dead, long live Creative

Fads come and go. Marketing techniques are not immune to that paradigm. Hence, it should be no surprise that manually managing user acquisition campaigns is on its way out. Today, AI assistants are better and more scaleable for running paid campaigns in the bidding market. More and more companies are going to adopt those AI solutions, so what will be the differentiating factor in paid media? It should be no surprise that the quality of the message will still make or break campaigns. Creative is King.

Twitter’s Transparency Report

Twitter claims that freedom of expression is the cornerstone of their existence. That said, allowing free expression from those that promote violence and exploitation may draw the attention of the authorities. In their latest transparency report, Twitter revealed the full breakdown of requests for user information. The U.S. lead the number of inquiries, followed by Japan and the U.K. In addition, the report provides figures for accounts banned directly by Twitter for hate speech, exploitation, and platform manipulation.

Instagram bans anti-vax hashtags

Instagram provided their AI department with a new task: block anti-vax content. It’s a razor thin line to walk when finding the divide between expressing an opinion and blocking blatantly bad information. In this case, the World Health Organization is stepping in to earmark the bad science. Instagram is combining that information with commonly included hashtags, and setting AI to remove that content from their platform.

… but you can appeal a takedown

We don’t expect moderators to get it right every time. Likewise, we don’t expect AI to score 100% accuracy. Instagram is adding a new feature where users can appeal when a post is taken down. Takedowns can occur when AI or hasty moderators flag for nudity when there is none. Similarly, they might flag a post for hate speech when the intent is actually satire. The appeal process provides a second opinion from a second moderator.

A look at Facebook and democracy

How do disinformation campaigns strain through social media? Why do people share polarizing stories? What’s the real impact of fake news? To answer, Facebook will be providing anonymized data to 12 research companies. From Italy, Chile, Taiwan, and the U.S., researchers will strive to understand how social media is used to impact people’s opinions, and how processes sway the democratic process.

Facebook for small business

If you own a small business, statistics say you’re likely running the whole show. Further, if you’re running the show alone, you may not have time to sit down and become a paid media master. Facebook has an app for that. The idea behind the new feature is to have small businesses answer a few questions about themselves, their products, and their campaign goals. Following that input, Facebook will provide a campaign recommendation which marketers can edit an launch as they see fit.

Spotify betting on Podcasts

60 million people listen to a podcast every week in the U.S. Spotify wants in on the action. In an upcoming design update, Spotify will introduce a “Podcast” tab to the top of the user interface. In addition to the update, Spotify states they’ll be introducing algorithms to recommend new podcasts based on user listening preferences. Time to start that brand podcast you’ve been ruminating about!