So here we are back for another dose of social media news, eating too much chocolate aside it’s been a busy month for us at Giraffe and social media as a whole, Elon Musk anyone?
Anyway, take a moment out of your day to check out some of the big things that have been happening within social media this month, enjoy!
TikTok Expanding Test of Downvotes for Video Replies
Downvoting! Is it becoming a thing? Seems that way with more and more platforms experimenting internally, we have even seen some test them with users.
TikTok is the latest to give downvoting options a go, users have reported seeing downvoting prompts in-app, enabling them to mark video replies that they don’t want to see.
As explained by TikTok:
“We’ve started testing a way to let individuals identify comments they believe to be irrelevant or inappropriate. This community feedback will add to the range of factors we already use to help keep the comment section consistently relevant and a place for genuine engagement. To avoid creating ill-feeling between community members or demoralize creators, only the person who registered a dislike on a comment will be able to see that they have done so.”
Social media expert Matt Navarra posted an example, users are seeing thumbs down icons at the right of video replies, allowing them to signal their disinterest and hide the comment, this is very reminiscent of how Reddit handles downvoted comments, although currently downvoted comment rankings are not dictated by the community like Reddit. TikTok may decide to go that route based on future insights on testing, but that remains to be seen. Interestingly TikTok hasn’t outlined at all how and if comment ranking will be affected and if this will change how comments are displayed overall for users. At this point, TikTok is probably gathering information and feedback on what its users don’t like to refine its systems further.
As noted, several platforms are testing similar, with Facebook also trying out downvotes for replies, and Twitter also working on the same. Maybe that’ll lead to variable ranking of responses, or maybe it’ll help the platforms detect more trends and patterns in negative replies for enhanced action on such. By being vague about how the response data is being utilized, they leave the door open for different approaches, but you would assume that, eventually, this will enable better comment ranking, which could help to improve engagement. Time will tell how TikTok’s final approach will look, so watch this space!
YouTube Launching New ‘Search Insights’ Feature for Creators
In other social media news, YouTube has announced it is rolling out ‘Search Insights’ to all creators, for those not in the know this provides a range of new data points to help refine creator YouTube strategy, based wholly on what people are looking for in the app.
YouTube originally gave an overview of Search Insights last November (2021), breaking it down this will include info on what people are searching for in the app, both concerning a creator’s channel and content specifically on top of more general search queries. This will hopefully help creators tailor their content by offering deeper insight into what their audiences find compelling.
Search Insights will be housed within the Research element of YouTube Studio on desktops, offering up key insights, overall search volume, key topics of interest and the amount of traffic a channel has gained based on each query. YouTube will also go so far as to highlight ‘Content Gaps’, making it even simpler for creators to focus on creating content that will best fit their audience’s interests that are currently not being fulfilled by current content offerings in-app.
This could be a very powerful tool moving forward for creators and marketers, allowing for more effective and engaging content and faster channel growth. In the initial rollout, YouTube notes that data used to power search trends will only incorporate user data from the US, UK, Canada, Australia and India. YouTube will naturally be adding more regions over time to further its effectiveness.
This will be worth a look if YouTube is a big part of your marketing campaigns – you can check out the new feature today inside the desktop version of YouTube Studio.
Elon Musk Buys Twitter
Elon Musk and Twitter have been all over social media news as well as gaining mainstream coverage, due to Musk’s bid to take over the micro-blogging platform. It seems now that Twitter’s board have voted to accept his $44b takeover offer. It is a surprising turn of events as the media and world at large expected Twitters board to reject any offers laid down by Elon Musk, however, it seems his offer was too good to resist. So what does that mean for Twitter moving forward with Elon Musk at the helm?
So what does that mean?
According to Elon Musk, he’s still working through his plans for Twitter. However, there are some key areas Musk has publicly mentioned previously that we can only speculate that he would be looking to improve, including restoring ‘free speech’, combatting bots and algorithm transparency.
Restoring Free Speech: Musk has been very vocal previously on how Twitter handles silencing users, also criticising Twitter’s decision to banDonald Trump, whilst also having his share of issues relating to his tweets and statements.
Open Sourcing the Algorithm: Elon Musk has also gone on record to state that Twitter should be allowing users to understand, and even control, how algorithms decide what’s most relevant to them.
As per Musk:
“Any changes to people’s tweets – if they’re emphasised or de-emphasised – that action should be made apparent, so anyone can see that that action has been taken so there’s no sort of behind-the-scenes manipulation, either algorithmically or manually.”
The concept that regular users could have a better understanding of such systems does make sense – though the complexities may well be lost to the vast majority of Twitter users.
Eliminating Bots: Musk is also keen to eliminate bots, which he has stated that all humans should be authenticated through a new checkmark system. Twitter has been trying to solve its bot problem for years, so hopefully, Elon Musk can bring a few new ideas on how to tackle them, certainly a shift to increase accountabilities for all human users will be a benefit to the platform.
These are three key areas we know Elon Musk will be looking to improve, with many more unknowns, we are sure. How long changes will take to filter through to users is anyone’s guess, but it will be very interesting to see how Twitter evolves with Elon Musk at the helm.
What a month for social media news, so much happening, keep it dialled to Giraffe for more news next month. Thirsty for more? Check out all our blogs and articles to help you make the most of your social media marketing and master engagements and interactions with your followers. Check it out here, See you next time for more social media news! Giraffe Out!
