Each week the Insights Team at The Goat Agency pull together the latest news from the social space in a weekly social media industry news round-up. This week MrBeast breaks records with his burger business, Ninja leaves Twitch, Instagram’s latest updates and Twitter’s edit button!
Don’t forget you can follow us on Linkedin, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter for real-time announcements of all our new blog content!
Contents
Consumer Spend During Cost Of Living Crisis
MrBeast’s Burger Store Breaks Records
Meta’s Video Distribution Insights
Linkedin’s Native Post Scheduling Tool
Instagram Scales Back In-Stream Shopping
Snapchat’s Job Cuts
Snapchat has announced it will be cutting over 1000 jobs due to disappointing revenue.
According to Snap’s CEO:
“We are restructuring our business to increase focus on our three strategic priorities: community growth, revenue growth and augmented reality. Projects that don’t directly contribute to these areas will be discontinued or receive substantially reduced investment”
According to reports, Snap is shutting down its web3 team in light of a company restructure. Thus far, Snap’s web3 division has explored technologies that Snap could develop aligning with digital clothing, AR and NFT projects.
However, this update will see such projects shelved. But could this be a mistake, considering Meta’s huge investment in web3 projects?
Consumer Spend During Cost Of Living Crisis
As the cost of living crisis continues to be a huge concern, GWI explored how consumers are reacting.
Key insights from this research revealed the following:
- 67% of consumers say inflation has had a moderate or dramatic impact on them
- 25% of consumers say they’re not very/not at all financially secure
From all the markets explored in this recent study, UK consumers appeared to be the most likely (44%) to say they’re spending less compared to two years ago. Across all markets, 31% of consumers were spending less in comparison to 2 years ago.
In addition to inflation, fuel and energy shortages are being reported, which may explain the recent rise in eco-friendly intentions. 44% of consumers plan to walk or cycle more, and 38% plan to reuse more products. But just 10% plan on buying secondhand clothes. It is expected that this shift is driven by the need to conserve cash, rather than the desire to save the planet, but it’s driving more sustainable changes nonetheless.
Finally, the data shows consumers are most concerned about the cost of food (59%), utilities (56%), and transport (49%). Therefore, these industries may face the most notable cutbacks in terms of consumer spending.
Meta’s Neighborhood’s Update
Meta is ending its Nextdoor competitor product Neighborhoods, which has been in testing in the US and Canada.
The test was first launched due to the rising interest in local social engagement, as the Nextdoor app exploded in popularity during the pandemic due to its ability to connect people in local communities.
However, momentum was certainly lost as we moved into a post-pandemic era, with Nextdoor downloads slowing and Facebook groups proving to be a better feature to connect with local communities rather than another product that essentially had the same functionality!
MrBeast’s Burger Store Breaks Records
MrBeast headed to North Jersey for the grand opening of the first physical store to directly purchase MrBeast Burgers. A huge crowd of fans headed to the location, with the store selling more burgers in one day than any other restaurant!
MrBeast first launched his burger business in December 2020 – amid the pandemic. The venture was popular from the start, leveraging MrBeast’s already loyal fanbase, cultivated from years of entertaining videos across YouTube.
The burger business operated out of ghost kitchens, leveraging kitchens that were empty due to the pandemic. Soon after launching in one area of the US, MrBeast was able to expand to service millions of customers.
MrBeast has cleverly crafted burger meals inspired by creators, much like other fast food brands have been doing in recent years! In true MrBeast fashion, the creator announced the new physical restaurant plans on his YouTube channel, gathering fans at the location and giving 100 of the spectators a briefcase containing $10,000.
What followed was a very expensive game of hide-and-seek, with anyone remaining unfound at the end of the game, ultimately winning the money in the briefcase. Then one day after the video went live, MrBeast had his grand opening!
Ninja Leaves Twitch
Ninja has shared his frustration with Twitch after removing himself from the platform and Twitter. The creator shared a Tweet that highlighted his need for a break from social media:
“I just need a break…I don’t know when I will be back or where”
After which, Ninja deleted his profile picture and removed his name from the account.
Ninja, who is one of Twitch’s biggest streamers, highlighted his frustration with Twitch in a recent stream, sharing how he had enough and was done. After removing his profile image from his account on Twitch, he most notably removed his verification badge which is only available to creators who are a part of the platform’s creator partnership programme.
Neither the platform nor the creator have confirmed the end of a partnership. However, this is likely to be the case, especially since Ninja has been posting significantly less in comparison to previous months/years.
It is to be noted that the creator has previously left the platform after being signed by Microsoft’s gaming platform Mixer. Ninja then returned to Twitch nearly a year later, due to Mixer’s failure to take off.
Twitch often comes under fire from creators for lack of support and opportunities, we’ve already dug deeper into this with our article on Twitch’s creator crisis, could this be another example of the platform pushing a popular creator off Twitch?
Meta’s Video Distribution Insights
Meta has shared an overview of key elements that factor when ranking a video’s algorithmic placement, providing valuable insight into Meta’s evolving approach to video distribution. This is crucial information for creators and brands who hope to maximise the performance of content across Meta-owned platforms.
The factors outlined in the overview include:
- Originality
In a push to amplify originality, Meta downranks content that has been repurposed or reposted. Creators must share unique content or share a unique spin on another piece of content to improve performance.
- Capture and Retain Attention
Content that’s watched until the end by viewers will see increased distribution, as it is a strong indicator of how well the content is received by viewers and how well it matches their interests. Creators/brands should focus on structure for optimal retention – using an engaging storyline and elements such as voice-over, audio and on-screen captions to engage viewers.
- Loyalty and Intent
Repeat viewership and consistent viewership results in Meta recognising and distributing a creator’s content. When choosing influencers, ensuring their content has consistent viewership is crucial. Optimising content for search by using clear titles, descriptions and relevant tags also benefit content reach.
- Engagement
Meta prioritises content that sparks conversation and meaningful interactions. Content that hosts conversations rather than one-off comments will rank higher.
Twitter’s Edit Button
Twitter is finally testing the edit button after becoming one of the most requested features on the platform.
The feature will alert users when a tweet has been edited – much like Linkedin’s edit feature. However, users will also be able to see older iterations of the tweet when clicking on the pencil icon.
The tweet edit was first tested internally with staff and has since rolled out to Twitter Blue subscribers, providing a 30-minute window to edit tweets. Users will be able to edit text, images, videos and alt text info.
Twitter has had a number of issues this year, originating with plans for Elon Musk to take over the platform. The turmoil that followed has put the platform under heavy scrutiny, but this edit button is a sign that the platform is listening to users. The edit feature aims to roll out to all users for free, but for now, it remains a feature in testing!
To catch up on the story of Elon Musk Vs Twitter and the future of the platform, read our article on the topic here!
Linkedin’s Native Post Scheduling Tool
Linkedin is developing new native post scheduling capabilities, aiming to help creators and businesses maximise content reach and performance.
The feature will allow members and pages to schedule content to be shared at specific times. This is currently available through third-party apps. However, Linkedin’s functionality will be more reliable in comparison to third-party platforms.
Instagram’s New Topics Option
Instagram is testing the option to add topics to Reels uploads to enhance content recommendations.
The aim of the feature is to categorise content in order to reach users with similar interests, helping to maximise engagement.
Instagram’s main aim is to get more people creating and watching Reels content, which is why the format has taken over the app, going as far as to turn all video uploads to a Reels format for some users.
But, people have been resistant to this focus on video, with many user and celebrities getting behind a movement that demands Instagram to stop trying to become TikTok.
Instagram Scales Back In-Stream Shopping
Instagram is scaling back its shopping tools, abandoning some e-commerce efforts after Western markets fail to fully embrace in-stream shopping. This will eventually lead to the complete removal of the platform’s ‘shopping tab,’ which will be replaced by a much simpler version of the page.
The platform has announced a greater shift towards ad-focused revenue streams. Not all of the platform’s shopping capabilities will be abandoned, but the lack of user demand for e-commerce on the platform will result in simplified features and fewer developments for the platform’s shopping capabilities.
There are various problems that could occur as a result of Instagram scaling back e-commerce capabilities, but the underlying factor is that Western platforms can’t always look to the Chinese market as a guiding light for immediate feature development.
There has been no clarification from Meta regarding which Instagram features aside from the ‘shopping tab’ will be removed or adjusted at this time, including the live shopping capabilities and product tags.
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And that’s all for this week, but don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter for real-time announcements of all our new blog content!
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