What am I thinking about?
Returning to a frequent topic of thought and conversation: the frequent rise and fall of new social media platforms (see LOL news in the platform updates section). As always we continue to see a churn of new and “exciting” social platforms appear regularly…but few have staying power in general and it’s even more elusive to find new platforms we can use in the political organizing work we do.
The most recent example of this is TikTok. This month alone I read over 20 articles detailing various strategies for using TikTok to connect with the next generation…but in reading them and experimenting with the platform myself I’m not yet seeing a clear need for us to use it for the work we do unless you have the luxury of going down the rabbit hole of experimentation.
I don’t think TikTok is going anywhere anytime soon given the number of download and users…but will it be a useful platform for the work we do? That remains to be seen. Stay tuned.
Trainings and Webinars
Digital Organizing Bootcamps:
Applications for the Digital Organizing for Advocacy Bootcamp April 8-14 in Nashville, TN close this weekend so apply now!
Applications for June’s Electoral Digital Organizing Bootcamp and August’s Advanced Digital Organizing Bootcamp will be open a little longer but seats are going fast so apply soon.
Social Media Recipe (Webinar)– Tuesday March 26 at 3pm Eastern
Introduction to Digital Organizing– Saturday March 30 & Sunday March 31 in Huntsville, AL
Organizing 2.0– Friday April 26 & Saturday April 27 (note: I won’t be there but you should go and tell me what I missed!)
Introduction to Digital Organizing hosted by Asian Americans Advancing Justice-LA– Wednesday May 16 & Thursday May 17 in Los Angeles, CA
Kentucky Digital Organizing School– Tuesday May 28 through Friday May 31 in Louisville, KY (note: this training is only open to organizers living and working in Kentucky)
Train the Trainer-Monday July 8 and Tuesday July 9 in Philadelphia, PA (note: not just for digital folks!)
What am I reading?
Supreme Court justices seem unlikely to extend First Amendment protections to users of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter- Keep an eye on this one given it could impact the ability of platforms to ban users (think Alex Jones for example) from the platform.
Buying and Selling Followers and Likes Ruled Illegal in Precedent-Setting Case and Florida bans company for selling millions of fake social media followers– May all 50 states and territories quickly follow suit
Does Vertical Video Make a Difference? We Spent $6,000 on Tests to Find Out– Good data to use when thinking about the optimal video to be using for the various platforms and video placements within those platforms
Bonus read of the month: Pottery reveals America’s first social media networks – It’s interesting how researchers used modern network mapping to map out the social and political networks of people who lived long before the internet was even a dream
New Tools
Bannersnack – We haven’t started using it yet, but it comes highly recommended for creation of creative content for online ads and we’ve signed up for an account…if you start using it let us know what you think!
Platform Updates
Big change coming in Facebook Ad transparency with the “why am i seeing this ad” section now disclosing when someone has been uploaded as part of a custom audience. We are told that this is just custom not lookalike audiences (at least for now). Note: related to this last year Facebook updated their custom audience terms of service and made it necessary for two parties to have an audience sharing relationship through Business Manager
New advertising targeting dimension: US Zip Code household income averages and while on the topic of FB Ads…budget optimization is moving to the campaign level starting in September of this year
Farewell LOL, we didn’t even get to know you at all
Coming soon: Fundraising stickers for Instagram stories
Twitter finally gives us an edit option…but only for images 🙁
Keep an eye out for a new desktop layout coming to a desktop near you soon
Other Platforms
Heads up if you use Flickr for photo storage
TikTok is already starting to test advertising
Speaking of advertising, LinkedIn is now offering interest targeting for their ads
Don’t Try This at Home
Check out this blooper reel of social media fails by the military
Winning the Internet
Best newsjacking ever or just best newsjacking of 2019? You decide.