Rabbbits Weeekly: I Said a Tik Tok
The Tikie to the Tikie, To the Tik, Tik Tok, and you don't stop, a Tok it. Plus, podcasts, moderation, and things about the æconomy, algorithms, ads, analytics and attack vectors.
Oops, I did it again. The accidental TikTok essay pushed me past the mail limit, so part 2 is on the blog.
Tok-er’s Delight
Let’s start by rounding up a bunch of tweets news and tips around everyone’s favorite distraction: TikTok.
Gary Vaynerchuk knows how to get attention, so he and his team might not be the worst people to get some tips from.
What should you post? Try clips from your longform content that lives elsewhere.
Not sure which clips? Check YouTube analytics for engagement spikes and keep an eye out for comments that include time stamps.
The perfect clip combines education, entertainment, and utility.
If you want more ideas, check out this deck of his whose title alone exhausts me: How to Make 64 Pieces of Content in a Day
Of course, you can always steal like an artist advertiser.
Everybody wants to rule the world go viral.
Scroll down a bit here (about halfway or so) for steps to access song insights.
Is The Clock App trying to become the go-to search engine for short form video? (And can that really happen if it doesn’t index off-platform content?)
But maybe it’s already the search engine of choice for Gen Z. (Pretty sure the 40% number the article references is that Google presentation that caused a ruckus until someone clarified it was 40% of searches of where to eat lunch.) Ultimately, I think this signals the end of the monosearch. Users will use different platforms for different purposes, the key is to match your efforts to the ones that match your target intent.
Growth may be hitting a plateau for The (Former?) Trend Machine, as time spent watching isn’t growing nearly as fast as the previous 45% rates. Though, how much video can people watch on one platform in a day? (94 minutes on average, apparently.) It’s still the top performer though, and Meta is feeling the heat as both primary properties saw their numbers shrink.
But it’s definitely being used by Direct To Consumer (DTC) brands, thanks to lower CPMs and a younger, more engaged audience compared to Facebook.
The platform might even get to put the US’s national security concerns behind it. For a bit, at least.
I wonder how this can be used to feed the algorithm?
Or maybe it’s for…
Content in Moderation
Speaking of TikTok, it’s playing favorites. (This news probably isn’t surprising if you’ve been keeping tabs on social platforms over the years.) Specifically, accounts with more than 5 million followers get to break the rules a bit. These platforms live and die from attention and that attention is manufactured by users. They don’t want to rock the boat too much with the star “creators.” (Especially with platforms like YouTube offering cash.) Gift horse, mouth, etc.
All social platforms have their content moderation policies and procedures put under the microscope at some point. Meta and Twitter more or less live with them under the microscope these days.
Facebook already announced the consolidation of moderation teams but that’s not the only change. Big Blue might put the rulebook in the hands of users, letting them decide what constitutes “problematic information.” Guess that’s one way to shift blame the next time the shit hits the fan. “Senator, your constituents wrote our content policy, they’re the ones that don’t want to see your posts.”
Podcasts: Revisited
I’ve written a couple times about podcasts recently. Most notably, for the purposes of this update, on September 7 when I mentioned audiobooks being the next step for audio platforms after podcasts. Guess what the next chapter of Spotify’s playbook is?
But first, Spotify is officially the number 1 podcast network by reach. (Here, network (likely) means producers of podcasts. YouTube is still the number 1 platform.)
On September 8 (yes, I’m posting receipts and patting myself on the back (no, Aisha has no idea who I am and definitely didn’t get this idea from me)), TechCrunch shared Spotify had audiobooks in their plans.
On September 20, the platform announced the US launch of audiobooks. And yes, the books cost extra. Even if a licensing deal to include it as part of the premium tier were possible (I can’t imagine it is, Amazon would have probably tried it by now), I doubt Spotify even considered it. They want revenue and they don’t want it from new streams that function, at an accounting level, like music licensing.
Marc Weidenbaum shared some interesting thoughts on how this offering could evolve:
A few thoughts: (1) It’d be nice if audiobook apps let us also play music while we’re reading, and maybe Spotify can sort this out and even normalize it. (2) These could be new productions, as a means to distinguish its properties from those of other companies. (3) It could lead to a viable threat to Amazon-owned Audible’s strong grip on the audiobook industry. (4) Given the time commitment required for audiobooks, it could lead to a substantial reduction by existing Spotify users of the amount of music they listen to.
Let’s go ahead and touch on a couple more podcast notes while we’re on the subject.
Athletic Greens, aka AG!, opened up about their podcast advertising strategy. My takeaways (in descending order of “surprise”):
They’ve found baked-in” ads to outperform dynamically inserted ones, and they’ve only dabble in programmatic buying
They’re not afraid to define the relationship, they’re in it for the long run
They use a variety of metrics to determine performance (there is no such thing as “one metric to rule them all”)
It takes repetition for the message to sink in with listeners
A couple weeks back I shared some tips on why your marketing isn’t reaching hispanics. If that’s an audience you’re trying to reach, try podcasts.
Edison Research’s Latino Podcast Listener Report dropped, revealing 59% of the U.S. Latino population have listened to podcasts.
Finally, brand safety is coming to podcast ads.
Source Shoutout
If Rabbbits Weeekly isn’t enough for you (or you just want more, more, more), check out Sounds Profitable, all about the business of podcasts.
100 Days of Holidaze
These altruistic social platforms and their desire to help all us marketers and brands this holiday season are quite touching. Twitter has jumped in on the action and shared a helpful list of 10 dates to keep in mind, in case the 3 or 4 you already had weren’t overwhelming enough. Also, start now:
Algorithms
Instead of seeing their own data as a sign that should stop trying to make Reels happen, Meta has decided to double down. The New Product Experimentation division has been tasked with experimenting less to Reels more.
Facebook is getting sued over that whole sketchy in-app browser tracking thing. While trust in social media platforms is eroding.
Retail media isn’t just taking ad dollars from the digital giants, it’s taking adtech talent too. Employees are leaving the traditional tech giants for jobs at Amazon and Walmart, amongst others. Listen here for more details on the talent shift.
Your Instagram Story gone in 60 seconds? Now it will play as one piece instead of getting broken up into 15 second clips.
Using AI to monitor a person’s breathing while they sleep to determine if they have Parkinson’s. That sounds useful.
Darth Vader is officially more machine than man as James Earl Jones is ceding the voice work to AI.
But wait, there’s more!
Get your æconomy, ads, analytics and attack vectors fix over on the blog.
Yes, the title is from Sugarhill Gang.