Hashtag Social Media — Musings From Brafton’s Social Team — The Turkey, Twitter & TikTok Edition

Hello (Goodbye?), November! It’s been a big month for social media as an industry, with everything happening at Twitter and layoffs not only just in social media, but within tech overall

Nov 24, 2022 - 21:04

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Hashtag Social Media — Musings From Brafton’s Social Team — The Turkey, Twitter & TikTok Edition

Brafton’s Monthly Newsletter from the Social Team

Hello (Goodbye?), November!
It’s finally feeling like Thanksgiving here in Nashville, after several weeks of sunny and warm days!
It’s been a big month for social media as an industry, with everything happening at Twitter and layoffs not only just in social media, but within tech overall— and this newsletter will focus on shifts occurring within our social industry.

In this month’s edition, you’ll find…

Fun Thanksgiving facts!News on the ongoing Twitter situation…And news on an investigation into TikTok!

#DYK

1. Americans eat 704 million pounds of turkey every Thanksgiving.

According to the National Turkey Federation, around 44 million turkeys were served at Thanksgiving in the United States in 2017. That’s compared to 22 million pounds at Christmas and 19 million at Easter. The average weight of each, meanwhile, was 16 pounds, which means we’re gobbling up 704 million pounds of turkey across the country.

2. Frozen had the biggest Thanksgiving opening of any movie.

Thanksgiving is a big weekend for movie releases, especially flicks the whole family can go out and enjoy together. As of today, the 2013 Disney animated musical Frozen is the No. 1 Thanksgiving release of all time, pulling in $93 million domestically.

3. More people travel to Orlando, Florida, than anywhere else on Thanksgiving.

According to estimates by AAA, more than 55 million Americans traveled 50 miles or more for Thanksgiving in 2019. The most popular of these destinations — according to booking info — were Orlando, Florida, closely followed by Anaheim, California, then New York City.

For more interesting Thanksgiving facts, look here.

#OMG

I know we’re all either confused about, tired of hearing about, or extremely interested in how this is going to play out, but Elon and Twitter continue to shake the social media world.

But, what does this mean for advertisers and agencies alike? Well, many of them have stopped campaigns on the platform, including General Motors, Pfizer, United Airlines, Dyson, and Balenciaga—which left the platform altogether.

Per Gizmodo, “Twitter controls just a fraction of the digital ad marketplace. For most big companies that buy ads on Twitter, the money they spend there is almost an afterthought in their overall marketing budgets. Cutting off that flow of ad dollars may not be a difficult business decision at a lot of companies, which means the general feeling in the air about Twitter could have a huge impact on the social media company’s bottom line.”

Here’s a timeline of some of the most recent events, per ABC News and NBC News:

October 4, 2022: Musk proposes the completion of a deal to acquire Twitter, reversing a monthslong effort to terminate the agreement. The proposal would complete the deal at Musk’s original offer price of $54.20 a share at a total cost of roughly $44 billion, a person familiar with the proposal told ABC News.

October 28, 2022: Musk closes a deal to acquire Twitter on the final day before the Delaware Chancery Court trial would have moved forward. Some of Twitter’s top executives were fired, including CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde and general counsel Sam Edgett, according to a source. Musk also announces a content moderation council.

November 4, 2022: Twitter begins layoffs that will roughly cut half of its 7,500-person workforce.

November 9, 2022: Twitter launches a new version of Twitter Blue, which allows users to access verification if they pay a monthly fee of $8. To address impostors, Musk says the site will permanently suspend users who attempt to impersonate others, unless the account is clearly marked as a parody.

November 10, 2022: A flood of fake accounts impersonating public figures and brands on Twitter after the launch of paid verification badges prompts the company to reinstate a second layer of “official” tags, the company said.

November 11, 2022: Twitter Blue becomes unavailable for some iOS users.

November 15, 2022: Musk announces an updated version of Twitter Blue, launching November 29, 2022.

Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022

November 16, 2022: Musk sends a companywide email to remaining employees demanding they commit to working “long hours at high intensity” or receive “three months of severance,” if they did not consent to these conditions or support his vision for “Twitter 2.0.”

November, 17, 2022: Twitter is ablaze with millions of tweets of its supposed “death” after hundreds of employees who refused Musk’s required commitment walk away from the company—including everyone from engineers and coders to building custodians. Users begin to flood other platforms, like tumblr, which leads to its own crashing late Thursday night.

Interestingly, entire teams no longer exist at the company due to layoffs, walkouts, and removals. We on the social team are keeping a close watch on this situation, and will keep you all updated as it develops.

#INOTHERNEWS

Ah, TikTok. You bring hours of joy and a seemingly endless stream of content.. But you pose a national security threat, apparently.

Per Reuters, The U.S. operations of Chinese-owned TikTok raise national security concerns, FBI Director Chris Wray said on Tuesday, flagging the risk that the Chinese government could harness the video-sharing app to influence users or control their devices.

Possible risks include data collection by the Chinese government, which could subsequently influence operations, or control software on millions of devices, or technically compromise said devices.

A TikTok spokesperson said: “As Director Wray specified in his remarks, the FBI’s input is being considered as part of our ongoing negotiations with the U.S. Government. While we can’t comment on the specifics of those confidential discussions, we are confident that we are on a path to fully satisfy all reasonable U.S. national security concerns.”

A review of security concerns regarding the app is currently underway.