Call It a Comeback!

Today In Digital Marketingis a daily podcast and daily newsletter showcasing the latest in marketing trends and updates. This week, Tod touches on:

• “Call It a Comeback!” — Meta
• Twitter: WTF is “Verified Views”?!
• Instagram Tests Lead Forms
• Me at the Zoo” is Still the Oldest YouTube Video

Below is the transcription from this week’s topics

“Call It a Comeback!” — Meta

TikTok's threat to Meta may be easing as Reels are gaining traction with users.

After a tough year for Meta, internal documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal suggest the company is starting to make a comeback from the blow that Apple dealt social media platforms in 2022 as users are watching its short-form videos and ad-targeting is improving as a result of its increased investment in AI.

AI Boosts Reels

AI tools have also helped boost Reels. Last summer, Meta was still struggling to get users to adopt its TikTok clone, but the documents indicate that Facebook, which remains Meta's biggest moneymaker, has seen viewership increase.

During an internal discussion in October, company executives, including Mr. Zuckerberg credited improvements to both Facebook’s algorithms and the computing systems on which they run with a 20% boost in Reels consumption.

While Apple’s privacy changes continue to be a source of pain, Meta's VP of Analytics noted they will no longer be a drag on earnings thanks to the company's adaptation efforts.

Trouble Ahead?

Despite industry skepticism, Meta appears to be making progress on at least some key fronts, according to the Journal's review of documents. But it's not all sunshine and rainbows.

Quoting the report:

They also contain reason for caution. They suggest that, even as time spent on Meta’s apps had increased as of the middle of last quarter, content production and engagement had continued to fall, especially among young people.
Creation of Instagram’s ephemeral “stories” posts—until recently the principal bright spot for user-generated content—was running about 10% below the company’s expectations in the middle of last quarter, and users across both Facebook and Instagram were posting and commenting less.

The report added that making money on Reels also remains a hurdle. Because ads in Reels don’t currently sell for as much as those sold against regular posts and stories, the format’s growing share of content consumption was hurting ad revenue. As a result, the company reduced promoting Reels by about a tenth to protect its earnings.

Image: Canva

INSTAGRAM TESTS LEAD FORMS

From Reels to lead generation — Instagram is testing a new 'Lead Form' option as a call to action button on business profiles.

With the update, users can select ‘Add Lead Form’ as an action button on their profile. To further guide queries, you can choose either a standard data collection CTA or add custom questions.

The process lets you choose multiple-choice or short-answer responses, which could be a handy way to gain information about your brand's profile visitors.

Although Instagram has not officially announced the new feature, more businesses are reporting having the option, so it may be worth checking your Instagram CTA options to see if you have access to it.

Images: Social Media Today/Canva

TWITTER: WTF IS “VERIFIED VIEWS”?!

Even the views are getting verified on Twitter. This week, several platform users started to notice a new ‘Verified Views’ counter appearing on their tweets. WTF are ‘Verified Views’?!

At the moment, it appears to be the regular tweet view counter that was recently added but with a different name.

However, Social Media Today reports that to further weed out spam, Musk has proposed adding a counter for interactions from verified users only, meaning those paying for Twitter Blue.

Quoting the report:

The theory here is that once the majority of Twitter users are paying $8 per month to ‘verify’ their accounts, that will dilute the impact of bots, because users will know that anyone who doesn’t have a blue tick is likely not a real person. Ideally, Twitter would be individually confirming that each user who gets a blue checkmark is, in fact, a real human being, but right now, Twitter’s relying on what it’s calling ‘payment verification’, or the fact that bots can’t pay, and bot providers won’t be able to afford to verify millions of fake accounts.
And if Twitter can get the majority of people to sign-up, that could indeed work – but it won’t, because Twitter can’t - because the vast, vast majority of Twitter users ain’t gonna pay $8 to get a blue tick next to their username in the app.

According to a recent analysis, there are about 325k Twitter Blue subscribers currently active on the platform, which is around 0.14% of Twitter's total user base. As the report points out, Twitter would presumably need about 70% of its total users to pay up for Twitter Blue before something like Verified Views would even be relevant. Shoot for the moon – Elon!

Image: Social Media Today

“ME AT THE ZOO” IS STILL THE OLDEST YOUTUBE VIDEO

Finally, someone really tried to fake having the oldest video on YouTube.

Recently, a video was posted that appeared to have been uploaded on April 5th, 2005, overtaking “Me at the zoo” as the oldest video on the platform. However, that date was only able to appear due to a bug.

In a statement to The Verge, a spokesperson for the company said:

We're aware of an issue that allowed the upload date of this video to be changed, and are working on a fix. Rest assured, the oldest video on YouTube will always be ‘Me at the zoo’

Credit to Tod Maffin and the Today In Digital Marketing podcast, Produced by engageQ.com