Episode 119

unskippable Instagram ads? oh my. 🫢

As someone who has recently gone viral on social media, let me tell you, it's not all fun and games! And I learned a lot of lessons along the way—mainly, don't read the comments.

Other lessons I learned?

You won’t hit ONLY your target audience
You will get trolls in your comments
It doesn't mean you will grow your following
Hooks are super important
Always add a CTA to your post

But enough about me—let's get into this week in social! And wow, oh wow, is there a lot going on this week. From Meta doing all of its usual Meta things to a brand new app hitting the market, here is this week in social:

Unskippable Instagram ads 🤳

Well, well, well, what’s that? Instagram is doing something that users will hate? Color me shocked!

Meta is currently testing unskippable ads on Instagram. As you scroll down on your main feed, you will suddenly be stopped by a video ad that you have to watch all the way through before you can continue to scroll.

Talk about interrupting the user experience!

While unskippable ads have been a thing for a long time over on YouTube, it seems a bit different to have it on Instagram and really interrupt someone’s flow scrolling on the platform.

Especially as there are already lots of ads on Instagram currently—this just seems to be one more thing that might push users off the platform permanently.

Finally! You can now customize your Reels cover images in app.
I guess Meta thinks hashtags are cool again—Threads will be removing Topic Tags for hashtags.
Is this new app really the next big thing?
Want feedback on your Reels before posting them? You’ll soon be able to do just that.
Instagram finally heard my plea! You can now share photos of different sizes on carousel posts.
Don’t like a post on Threads? Swipe left!
X is working harder than ever to help you find a new job.
LinkedIn has officially launched its TikTok-style video feed.
New York is the latest state to restrict social media for teens.

How storytelling can turn you into a better marketer

With Mackenzie and Ben Leavitt

Listen to the episode

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Facebook wants to win back the youths 🙃

Facebook is ready to be cool again and rolling out a whole new plan to win over Gen Z.

As Facebook turns 20 this year, it’s looking for new ways to get younger audiences engaged and active on the platform. And they even handed out pamphlets at an event last week claiming it’s “not your mom’s Facebook!”

That’s definitely not cringe-y at all.

At the event, Meta explained Facebook will be more focused on “connecting young users to experiences via groups, events, dating, etc., while Instagram will focus more on content discovery and creator connection.”

Will this actually help get younger users on the platform? I’m not so sure, especially as more and more states are starting to ban social media for teens.

The most neglected social media accounts of all!

No, you can’t opt out of Meta’s AI training 🤖

Unless you’re in the EU, at least. As more and more people share posts to their Stories saying, “Meta I don’t consent you using my photos!!!,” let us be clear, this won’t help.

In Instagram’s Terms and Conditions, it states “you hereby grant to us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable, worldwide license to hot, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content (consistent with your privacy and application settings).”

AKA: Meta can train its AI off of your public data and you can’t do anything about it.

Not even posting about your non-consent will help.

The only people that can give their right to object are those in the EU and UK—but if you’re not in those places, you’ll have a mighty hard time stopping Meta from training its AI with your posts.