Today in Digital Marketing - Has the "Bootleg Ratio" Come for TikTok Too?

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Wednesday, September 22nd. I'm Steph Gunn filling in for Todd Maffin. Today, has TikTok finally peaked? Google's new reputation management tool lets you remove search results? Why Instagram kept crashing today? And Florida escalates the fight for free speech on social platforms. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. Has social media's current golden child reached the end of its golden years? There's an excellent think piece up today on the verge on the cycle of social media platforms and how they turn boring. Even TikTok.

Starting point is 00:00:35 The author, Russell Branham, suggests this is because its on-platform culture is being infiltrated with viral hogwash that's already blown up elsewhere. You've probably run into these accounts before. They're aggregators of usually funny videos, sometimes even just scraped from YouTube, progress bar and all. While the content isn't necessarily bad, it's an ominous sign for the platform. He notes that as the platform gets bigger, it gets more generic, as there's less to distinguish it from every other mass market social network.

Starting point is 00:01:04 Quoting Brandom, This dynamic is larger than just TikTok. After following half a dozen platforms through this shift, I've come to see it as a test for platform health in general. I call it the bootleg ratio, the delicate balance between A. Content created by users specifically for the platform and B. Semi-anonymous clonymous clout chasing accounts drafting off the audience.

Starting point is 00:01:26 Any platform will have both, but as B starts to overtake A, users will have less and less reason to visit and creators will have less and less reason to post. In short, it's a sign that the interesting stuff about the platform is starting to die out. Unquote. A great example of bootleg ratio is Instagram. Brandham notes that while Instagram's culture had its ups and downs, now it's hard to find anything that resembles a unique Instagram aesthetic. Instead, it's filled with more generic content, such as reposted tweets, inspirational quotes from Pinterest, and clips from The Office turned into reels. As a result, the bootleg ratio has tipped in favor of reposting, and Instagram-specific content is being pushed out.

Starting point is 00:02:07 This represents a change in how users relate to the platform. Instead of a space for creation, it's become a space for distribution. But what does all of this mean for your brand? Quoting Brandon McGann, This is good for business in many ways. Ultimately, a social media company lives or dies by advertising, and advertisers are generally paying for the network effects. They're sharing content from outside the platform, ads we call them, and hoping the network boost helps them reach a new audience.

Starting point is 00:02:35 Most of the business metrics, monthly active users, ad impressions, are actively encouraging the viral hog effect, which is one of the reasons we see this shift so reliably. It's good for business, but for a user with no stake in the business, the impression is a rising tide of scamminess, leeching away all the interesting things about the platform. Google is cracking down on doxing and making it easier to manage your online reputation with the rollout of its new Results About You tool. Some users are now seeing the new Results About You menu item in the Google app as of yesterday. More significantly, the tool lets you remove personally identifying

Starting point is 00:03:15 information about yourself in search, such as phone number, home address, or email. With the tool, you can make a request directly from the search page. If you see a result with your info you can tap the three dotted button to access the about this result panel which includes a remove result button. You can then request its removal. You can also access the results about you screen by tapping your profile picture in the app which lets you track information removal requests and see their status. According to 9to5Google, this page also lets you make a new request with a Why would you like to remove this result step? Options include, it shows my personal contact info,

Starting point is 00:03:54 it shows my contact info with intent to harm me, it shows other personal info, it contains illegal info, or it's outdated. Google points out in its support document that this process only de-indexes those web pages from its search results. Someone can still access that information directly from the site. It's not clear whether brands and businesses are able to use the tool to get content removed from Google's index. Bad news if you market a mobile app that sells things. E-commerce app installs are taking a hit. The number of non-organic installs is declining,

Starting point is 00:04:30 according to a new report, as e-commerce is no longer a dominant force coming out of the pandemic. Installs of Android-based e-commerce apps dropped 5% in the first half of the year, while iOS installs dropped 4% globally over the same period. Marketing Dive points out that the rising prices have put a strain on marketing budgets in recent months, which is contributing to the decline as campaigns promoting app downloads are stagnating. The study found that spending on user acquisition dropped 50% year over year. As a result, apps are using different tactics to maintain their user bases,

Starting point is 00:05:06 such as remarketing and use of owned media, which jumped 360% year-over-year. As Q4 nears, the study suggests marketers push notable events to drive installs like Black Friday, Singles Day, and the World Cup. Data has been provided by AppsFlyer's e-commerce app marketing report. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage

Starting point is 00:05:46 today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. It's not you. It's Instagram. The company says it's recovering from some issues that affected users trying to open the app from their devices. Multiple users reported the app was crashing, making it difficult to see posts according to down detector the outage lasted for about an hour from 12 30 p.m and 1 30 p.m eastern time during the outage other meta applications didn't appear to be affected including whatsapp facebook and messenger so if you're seeing a decrease in engagement reviews on your brand's content you posted this morning, that may be why. If you were recently logged out of your brand's Twitter account, here's why. Yesterday, Twitter said it recently fixed a bug that let accounts stay logged in from multiple devices after a password reset, meaning that if you proactively changed your password on one device

Starting point is 00:06:42 but still had an open session on another device, that session may not have been closed. This, of course, could have serious implications for those who manage brand accounts, as those accounts are often accessed from different devices. Twitter noted web sessions were not impacted, explaining that this bug was introduced after it made a change last year to the password reset system. The company has now notified the affected users and proactively logged them out of all their open sessions across devices to address the issue. They did not say how many accounts were impacted. Which brings us to the lightning round. Several UK media companies pulled advertising from TV, radio,

Starting point is 00:07:26 and billboards following the Queen's death and during her funeral this past Monday. According to analysts, the ad blackouts could have cost media companies more than $100 million in lost revenue. Yesterday, Florida appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on whether states have the right to regulate how social media companies moderate content on their platforms. The proposed social media laws would bar platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube from blocking or limiting certain types of political speech. Trump may be allowed to use Facebook again. A Meta executive says the former president's ban could be lifted as soon as January. In making its decision, Meta says it will consult with experts and assess whether there is a risk of real-world harm.

Starting point is 00:08:11 Speaking of real-world harm, the American Food and Drug Regulator recently issued a warning to consumers that cooking chicken in NyQuil is, and I know this might come as a shock, dangerous to your health. The warning refers to a viral video posted at least a year ago in which a TikToker fries two chicken breasts in the cold and flu medicine. The video has since been removed. Now what will I make for dinner? I've recently become obsessed with the Betty White estate auction that's happening right now. You can check it out online on julianslive.com. You might not want to though. I'm obsessed with the Betty White estate auction that's happening right now. You can check it out online on julianslive.com. You might not want to, though.

Starting point is 00:08:49 I'm giving you fair warning because there's a lot of stuff on there that I really want. There's hundreds of items from her engagement rings to scripts. There's even her director's chair from the set of the Golden Girls. And I am a huge Golden Girls fan. The bids for those items are already at like $17,000 though right now, but there's hundreds of items on there that are still in my budget, which I don't think is necessarily a good thing.

Starting point is 00:09:13 Right now I have my eye on a vintage mirror that she had in her house. There's a photo of her actually looking in it. There's also some really cool art, which features mostly portraits of dogs that I'm into. There's also a ventriloquist dummy and a nun doll. The current bid for the nun doll is $600, which seems fair. Although, you know, they can't guarantee that it's not haunted. Thanks for listening, and I'll be back

Starting point is 00:09:36 to talk to you tomorrow. Outro Music

Today in Digital Marketing - Has the "Bootleg Ratio" Come for TikTok Too?

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