What’s The Deal With TikTok and Congress?

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This week, the United States House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to ban TikTok unless its owner, Chinese company ByteDance, gives us control of the company.

While this does not mean the wildly popular social network is banned yet, it raises the heat on a long-brewing showdown between Congress and TikTok. Let’s explore why Congress is so concerned with TikTok, where the platform stands currently, and what will happen next.

Why Congress Wants To Ban TikTok

Since it started getting popular in the US, politicians have expressed concern about potential security issues that could put information on US citizens in the hands of the Chinese government. 

During Trump’s administration, the former president repeatedly railed against the company and pushed for it to be banned. (The former president has now switched his stance and opposes any efforts to ban TikTok following a closed-doors meeting with a major Republican donor who is also a ByteDance stakeholder.)

Since TikTok is owned by ByteDance, which is based in Beijing, the app is subject to Chinese law. Most notably, it is required to give over any information requested by the government, including data on American users.

What Happens If The Bill Becomes Law?

If signed into law, ByteDance would have six months to divest its ownership of the platform. However, ByteDance would need permission from the Chinese government to go through with selling the platform and China has stated it will oppose any sale of the platform forced by foreign governments. 

If ByteDance does not divest its ownership of TikTok, the platform will become inaccessible through US servers and will not be allowed on app stores for devices. 

This would be a major hit for brands in the US who market to Gen Z, given that the platform draws in primarily younger users and creates a unique opportunity for advertisers to reach this generation where they are most receptive. 

What’s Next?

Although the House overwhelmingly passed the bill, it faces a less certain future in the Senate. Members from both sides of the aisle have expressed concern for a variety of reasons. 

Notably, some warn about potentially increasing tensions between the US and China, while some Democrats have also expressed worry about losing influence among younger votes – especially ahead of a major election. 

Ultimately, we will have to wait and watch as the Senate has yet to schedule a vote on the bill. If it is passed through the Senate, President Joe Biden has already said he intends to sign the bill into law.

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Apple Wants To Charge You To Boost Facebook and Instagram Posts

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Apple is poised to attach a fee when advertisers boost posts on Facebook or Instagram iOS apps, but Meta is offering a loophole.

Apple’s Plans To Charge For Boosted Posts

Starting later this month, Apple will begin handling billing when advertisers use the Facebook or Instagram iOS apps to boost their posts. This isn’t just a change in billing processors though. When Apple handles billing for online transactions, they attach a 30% fee on the total payment (excluding taxes). 

Since the iOS Facebook and Instagram apps often include exclusive features and new features before the Android or desktop versions of the platform, this could potentially mean Apple would be charging advertisers for access to these features.

Additionally, when Apple takes over billing it will change how advertisers pay for boosting posts. Instead of being charged after the boosted post has run, brands using iOS apps will be forced to pay upfront using prepaid funds added to their account. 

Meta Offers A Way Around Apple’s Hurdles and Fees

Thankfully, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, has provided a way for advertisers to avoid these changes by ensuring all the features available in their iOS apps are also available in browsers and on desktop devices. 

This means that advertisers can avoid the fees, even when using iOS devices, by boosting their posts through their browser instead of the native app. 

As Meta said in the announcement:

We are required to either comply with Apple’s guidelines, or remove boosted posts from our apps. We do not want to remove the ability to boost posts, as this would hurt small businesses by making the feature less discoverable and potentially deprive them of a valuable way to promote their business.

We are committed to offering businesses flexible and convenient options to help them navigate this change and maximize the results of their ad spend. As part of our efforts to do this, we have invested in alternative ways to boost posts.

Specifically, advertisers can access Facebook.com and Instagram.com on both desktop computers or a mobile web browser to boost their content. When doing this, they will have all the same features as boosting posts from the iOS apps, except now they will avoid the Apple service charge.

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New Social Media Survey Gives Insights To Reach Your Audience

A new nationwide survey conducted by the Pew Research Center shows that YouTube and Facebook may still be the most widely used social media platforms by adults, but TikTok is continuing to grow significantly.

Based on the survey results, YouTube and Facebook remain the most widely used social media platforms across the US. More than three-fourths of American adults (87%) reported using YouTube, with 68% saying they used Facebook.

Most other platforms have retained approximately the same level of usage from past surveys, with the largest (Instagram) seeing use from around 50% of adults.

TikTok, however, saw a jump from 21% of US adults using it in 2021 to 33% of adults in the latest survey.

Age Continues to Influence Social Media Use

Just as in past surveys, Pew found notable differences in social media use depending on age.
For example, adults under the age of 30 were significantly more likely to say they used Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok compared to older adults.

YouTube and Facebook, however, were more likely to be used by adults of all ages – leading to their overall dominance. At the same time, Pew noted that both platforms were still more likely to be used by younger adults than older respondents.

Demographics Also Influenced Social Media Usage

  • Along with age, the Pew survey identified notable differences in the demographics that used each platform:
  • Instagram: More usage among Hispanic and Asian adults, women, and people with some college education.
  • TikTok: Increased usage rates among Hispanic adults and women.
  • LinkedIn: Most widely used among Americans with higher educational attainment.
  • Twitter (now “X”): More likely to be used by those with higher household incomes.
  • Pinterest: Still most popular among women.
  • WhatsApp: Receives more usage by Hispanic and Asian adults.

Why It Matters

As a business, you must know where to reach your audience where they are already spending time. When scrolling social media, adults tend to be more likely to engage with branded content, connect with unfamiliar brands, and discover products that they will later purchase. By making sure you’re there when your ideal audience logs on, you can give yourself the best chance to turn strangers into followers and followers into customers.

For more insights you can use to target your audience on social media, check out the full Pew report here.

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LinkedIn Launches Sponsored Articles For Brands

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LinkedIn is introducing a new feature called Sponsored Articles that allows brands to turn articles they publish on the site into ads that will reach wider audiences.

The goal is to provide a way for users to engage with sponsored content without having to leave the site or interrupt their experience.

Though it is already available to most business accounts, the company said some brands may not have access quite yet. 

As it rolls out, LinkedIn admins for business accounts will start seeing the option to promote their post on eligible content. If selected, brands can also opt to gate their content with a CTA like “Unlock Article”.

While some have suggested the new feature is similar to others on the site, such as lead generation ads, a statement from the company said Sponsored Articles have many unique benefits.

Baptiste Beauvisage, Lead Client Solutions Manager at LinkedIn, highlighted these particular benefits that Sponsored Articles will give brands.

  • “You can use the content you already have on your LinkedIn page.”
  • “Sponsored posts are more viral than a blog article hosted externally.”
  • “You can have all the comments from logged-in members on the article directly.”
  • “There is a better UX.”
  • “You can drive leads without sending users off Linkedin to consult your article.”

Though the feature is currently limited to business accounts, the company is working to bring it to entrepreneurs and others across the site. It is also looking to expand Sponsored Articles with new features and functionalities that may make it more versatile for brands.

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TikTok Continues to Become a Search Engine Alternative

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New research from Adobe indicates that more and more people are turning to TikTok to find information, music, recipes, and other things we used to rely on traditional search engines for. 

Analysts have increasingly been noticing that a growing number of people have been using TikTok as not just a social network but as an alternative to search engines like Google and Bing. 

This latest study, which surveyed over 800 consumers and 250 business owners, emphasizes that this trend is accelerating and that brands that are taking advantage of this shift are increasingly being rewarded.

Younger Audiences Are Drawn To TikTok as a Search Engine

Overall, the research shows that 40% of consumers regularly use TikTok to search for topics and information. Unsurprisingly, this trend skews heavily toward younger users.

Gen Z in particular has been driving this trend, with 64% using TikTok for search. 

Millennials have also been adopting this behavior, with almost half (49%) of millennial consumers using TikTok as a search engine. 

Interestingly, TikTok searchers aren’t looking for any particular type of information. Instead, they are looking up a variety of topics including cooking recipes, music, fashion, and DIY ideas. 

While TikTok users are increasingly seeing the platform as a way to find information, they aren’t quite giving up Google yet. Only 10% of Gen Z users said they preferred TikTok over traditional search engines. 

How Businesses Are Responding

As more businesses take note of the popularity of TikTok and its viability as a search engine, more are investing their time and marketing budget to promote their brands. 

The survey found that approximately half of businesses are using TikTok to promote their products and services, averaging 9 posts per month. 

As part of their marketing efforts, many of these brands (approximately 25% of small businesses surveyed) are partnering up with influencers to better reach their audience on the platform. 

When it comes to what type of content these brands are creating, the obvious lead was creative tangential content (43%), followed by product reviews (36%), and instructional videos (35%).

Why This Matters To Your Business

TikTok has proven it is here to stay, consistently increasing its already large user base and diversifying its options for brands to market and advertise on the platform. It is no surprise that users are finding surprising ways to use the platform as it has evolved and these shifts introduce opportunities for brands that are quick to take advantage of them. 

If your brand’s audience tends to be Millenials or Gen Z, we strongly recommend investing in establishing your presence on the site and optimizing your content for its search engine. If you act now, there’s a chance you’ll reach a large number of people before your competitors have a chance. 

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Threads Gets Its Own Version of Hashtags

Meta’s Twitter replacement, Threads, has added a new way to sort and explore content called “topic tags”. 

Similar to hashtags, these topic tags improve search functionality and make it easier to find new voices and brands to follow on Threads. 

This can help brands connect with their audience and keep in touch with the latest content trends on the platform.

What’s The Difference Between Threads Topic Tags and Hashtags?

At first glance, topic tags might seem like a superficial twist on hashtags but there are some key differences that may make topic tags more intuitive and natural to use. 

These differences include:

  • Topic tags do not require the use of a # symbol when adding tags
  • Topic tags support the use of spaces in phrases
  • Topic tags can include special characters
  • Only one topic tag can be added to each post

In a message posted to Threads, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said topic tags are “a great way to connect with people who are interested in the topics that you are talking about.”

“For everyone, it’s a great way to dive deeper into your interests. This is just one step on a much longer path to building a space that really fosters healthy conversation.”

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Fear of Missing Out Is Keeping Most Students On Social Media Despite Lack of Enjoyment

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Does anyone actually enjoy using social media? 

According to a new survey conducted collaboratively by the University of Chicago, UC Berkeley, Bocconi University, and the University of Cologne, the majority of users (particularly among young people) believe they would be happier if social platforms like Instagram and TikTok weren’t in their lives. 

However, the students also said they continue to keep using the sites because they are afraid of missing out on what’s popular with their peers.

About The Study

The study surveyed over 1,000 college students across the U.S. on their social media habits, focusing primarily on Instagram and TikTok use. 

The survey first asked students how much they would need to be paid to deactivate their Instagram or TikTok accounts for four weeks while their friends and peers continued using the platform. 

From there, the students were asked how much money it would take to have their entire university network (including themselves) deactivate their accounts on the platform for four weeks. 

Lastly, the survey asked how much people value the platform when everyone else is on it compared to when no one else is. 

The Results

According to the findings, students said they would need to be paid $59 a month on average to deactivate their TikTok accounts, and $47 on average to deactivate Instagram for one month – assuming their peers remained online. 

Notably, those numbers both dropped if the students and their peers were all to deactivate their accounts. In fact, students said they would be willing to pay $28 on average to delete TikTok and $10 to remove Instagram. 

As the authors of the study wrote in their findings:

“Taken together, these results imply the existence of a ‘social media trap’ for a large share of consumers, whose utility from the platforms is negative but would have been even more negative if they didn’t use social media.”

In other words, the only thing keeping many people on the most popular social networks is the fact that their friends and peers are also on these platforms but the platforms themselves are viewed overwhelmingly negatively. It is purely fear of missing out which is keeping people coming back. 

These findings highlight how toxic many people see social media as, and suggest there is a large opportunity for a radically different form of social media. The trick is establishing such a platform and drawing enough of a user base without falling into any of the pitfalls other platforms have trapped themselves in.

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LinkedIn Is Making Collaborative Articles More Visible And Engaging

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LinkedIn is making Collaborative Articles more visible across its platform, including within search, feeds, and notifications. 

In an announcement today, the company said it plans to show more Collaborative Articles when users are looking for information about specific problems or topics. 

In addition to making Collaborative Articles more visible in these spaces, LinkedIn says it will also start showing your contributions to people outside your network and might even notify members “who would benefit” from your knowledge when you make a contribution. 

Other New Changes Coming To Collaborative Articles

LinkedIn announced several other big new changes coming to Collaborative Articles”

  • New “Top Contributors” section: If members found you to be one of the most noteworthy contributors in an article, you will now be featured at the top of the article.
  • Better browsing for readers: A better browsing experience for readers leads to more people seeing your contributions. The new design allows members to easily explore multiple contributions, and new cross-article hyperlinking allows members to easily jump from one article to the next. 
  • Better articles: LinkedIn says it is working closely with our editorial team to continuously improve the quality of the AI-powered article text and titles — you’ll start to see a lot more depth in the articles recommended to you.
  • Improved Top Community Voice badging: If you’re one of the most noteworthy contributors in a skill, your badge for that skill now shows up not only on your profile but also next to your contributions in the article. Badges will only remain active for members who continue to meet our selective criteria and provide noteworthy contributions within a specific skill.

For more, read the full announcement from LinkedIn here.

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X is Joining The Google Ads Display Network

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X (previously known as Twitter) is partnering with Google Ads in an attempt to make up for the declining ad revenue seen by the company since its takeover by Elon Musk. 

In the near future, X will be included as part of the Google Display Network, making it possible for many of the ads run by Google Ads to appear on the social network.

Why Is X Partnering With Google?

Since the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk last year, the company has seen an estimated 59% drop in ad revenue from the US. While numbers are not available globally, most analysts agree that this has dramatically hurt the social network’s profits 

Much of this reduction in ad revenue was sparked by Musk’s decisions to reduce moderation on the platform and to unban controversial accounts. Since then, advertisers have seen their ads appearing alongside increasingly objectionable content including hate speech, slurs, and nazi imagery. As you might expect, this has led many advertisers to completely stop advertising on the platform.

Can You Opt Out?

For brands concerned about potentially having ads shown alongside hateful or controversial media, it is important to know that you can choose to not have your ads shown on X or any other website. As a Google spokesperson told Ad Age:

“This is an opportunity for our advertisers to reach a broader audience, but as always they can choose what sites and apps their ads run on. Any publisher who participates in this type of partnership must abide by our publisher policies.”

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X Is Likely Going To Start Charging All Users For Access

X (formerly Twitter) is likely to do away with free accounts in the near future and shift to a strictly paid business model according to a recent statement from owner Elon Musk. 

Rumors had been swirling that Musk is considering moving away from free accounts, and the controversial business leader confirmed as much in a live-streamed interview with (similarly controversial) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week. 

In the discussion, Musk mentioned that he X is “moving to a small monthly payment” as a solution to problems on the platform. 

Specifically, Musk said this approach is “the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots. Because a bot casts a fraction of a penny – call it a tenth of a penny – but even if it has to pay … a few dollars or something, the effective cost of bots is very high.” 

How this paid model would prevent issues that have been seen on other platforms with a small entry fee is unclear. 

At the same time, it is hard to believe Musk isn’t also considering introducing a mandatory fee for users as a solution to continuously dwindling ad revenue. 

Since taking over Twitter, ad revenue has fallen throughout Musk’s ownership, largely due to reductions in moderation and increases in objectionable content including hate speech. The platform has had several high-profile incidents of advertisers being unwittingly shown alongside nazi imagery, slurs, and calls to violence.

Meanwhile, Musk argues these incidents are rare exceptions and blames organizations such as the Center for Countering Digital Hate saying they are “actively working to prevent free expression.”

Despite the series of controversies and questionable decisions, Musk touted several milestone achievements throughout the livestream, including saying that X has 550 million monthly users who post between 100 to 200 million times a day. 

For businesses continuing to include X as a part of their social media strategy, it is important to monitor these continued changes and assess whether the platform is worth paying for access.

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