NUTS & BOLTS

LINKEDIN HASHTAGS: The professional app’s hashtags are great for conducting research. They help to filter posts, flag potential new contacts and resources, and provide a wide eye’s look at conversations going on around particular topics. Thus, following hashtags that are relevant to one’s niche can provide an individualized professional setting style search engine. But what’s key is keeping track of what hashtags one is following and nixing any that are no longer of interest. This can all be managed by tapping into LinkedIn’s Network Manager. To access, follow these steps:

• Start on the LinkedIn home page

• Select My Network

• Tap #Hashtags

On this page, all of the hashtags followed by the account are on display. To unfollow, simply tap the icon that says ‘following’ to the right of the hashtag. To view posts that have been tagged with a hashtag listed, click on the the hashtagged term [ex: #newsletter].

#TRENDING - Trending TikTok content concepts to try this week!

The Randomizer: This content concept is a fun one and it uses an in-app effect. The effect spins through an array of pre-selected uploaded images from the creator and randomly lands on one of those images. Paired with the random rotation to selection element, the creator is able to add a question related to the theme of the images. To further explain, the question should be answered by the random selection. A quick example of how the Girl and the Gov® team put the randomizer into use:

@girlandthegov

Looks like im listening to our interview with @uduakfortx on today’s poscast walk — which eppy is in tour line up? #podcastwalk #lunchbreak #ootd

The Randomizer, which really has an Austin Powers vibe to it, can be used for a number of political account applications. A few that come to mind:

• The Question: What way should I get involved with the campaign

• The Slides: Various positions on the campaign – phone banker, text banker, door knocker, etc

• The Question: What action item should I take today

• The Slides: A selection of action items relevant to the account

• The Question: Which elected official in Congress am I most like?

• The Slides: Elected officials relevant to the account’s goals

TIKTOK HASHTAGS TO KNOW AND USE TO GROW

• Biden Campaign: #BidenHarris2024

• Tucker Carlson: #byetuck

• Don Lemon: #cnndonlemon

A MUST-KNOW TRENDING CAPCUT TEMPLATE

The “let me do what I need to do” template: This template is great for showing people, organizations, or institutions that are getting in the way of progress. The image used in the template should be of the person, org, institution, etc. The text should share how they’re getting in the way and what they’re getting in the way of. A great example of it in use is:

@lizluvsabortion

let me do my thing tysm #reproductiverights

TREND NOTE

CapCut templates are leading in in-app trending content. While sounds and original audio are certainly still trending on their own on TikTok, as well as sponsored music, CapCut’s chaotic structures are becoming the content type that goes viral most. Downloading the app and utilizing the templates has become an essential method for getting messaging on the app.

As a reminder, download the CapCut app to test these out. Grab and go with templates by selecting ‘CapCut - Try this template’ at the base of a video featuring the template you wish to use.

The Warning Label

For a trending song not to use, avoid Mother by Meghan Trainor. ICYMI the singer of the tune has gotten herself into hot water for her takes on teachers. The tune Mother has been trending for weeks and boosted by the app – a connected dance trend can also be attributed to its viral behavior. That said, the song has now become a ‘wouldn’t touch that with a ten foot pole,’ as with other Meghan Trainor songs over the controversy. Alls to say, avoid using Meghan Trainor songs in content.

INSTAGRAM REELS SOUNDS TO USE FROM THE MUSIC LIB

Sexyback sickmix by sickkickmusic: This audio starts with a spit of audio, ‘you ready?’ and then lets the beat drop. It makes the audio perfect for announcement videos. The videos can come to life a few ways, but these two options come to mind first:

• The creator can lipsync the verbiage and then walk into a space where they’re making an announcement [walking toward a press podium]. The accompanying words on the screen can share the announcement or be used to tease it.

• The creator can lipsync the verbiage, and then when the beat drops, transition the video to show the announcement [ex: the announcement in a headline]

Typing sound with long text - simple reel by justcollabco: This audio trend made its rounds on TikTok. Now it’s available on Instagram. The classic typing audio is versatile and can be used time and time again to imitate a texting conversation in the making. The creator puts this to use by acting like they’re typing on their phones. The text added to either the video itself or the caption then shares what they’re texting about and who they’re texting. Fave political applications include using the sound to show what it would look like to text one’s friends about an upcoming voter registration deadline, as well as using it to share info on a candidate.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope by the.office.alliance: Any creator thinking of using this song should stretch their neck and shoulders first, because it will include vigorous nodding of one’s head, no. This sound can be used to share disdain for the laundry list of unfavorable political decisions, colleagues, bills, commentary, and more. It can be used with a green screen to illustrate what the head nodding is about. It can also be used sans green screen, and with the creator conveying what they’re nodding their head about by typing it out on/across the video. Player’s pick.

Original audio by djyuto: This sound is a remix of Destiny’s Child’s infamous No Scrubs. It also works as the perfect background tune for any Reels related to Tucker Carlson’s departure. In sue, it’s subtle shade done right.

Jeopardy Main Theme by geekmusic.co.uk: Oklahoma State Senator Carri Hicks has put the jeopardy song to use in the best possible way – sharing an update on the legislative process, while also throwing a bit of shade at her Republican colleagues. As done in her video here, the sound can be used to showcase a waiting time. Other political examples include: waiting for a campaign announcement, waiting for a bill to pass, waiting for legislators to do something about a particular issue.

WHAT THE ZUCK?!

INSTAGRAM - ADD UP TO 5 LINKS IN YOUR PROFILE BIO: This new update that’s in the process of being rolled out, may be the death of LinkTree on Instagram. The app has launched the ability for profiles to include up to five links in the bio section. Users will now have access to a ‘drop down menu’ of links on profiles – one of the links of course, could still be a LinkTree or Lnk.Bio if one wanted – bringing a critical access and ROI point for organizations, in-house. For accounts that already have access to this little update with big impact, account managers can add links to a profile by:

• Click ‘edit profile’

• Then click ‘links’

• Lastly, ‘dd an external link’

From there, the account manager can arrange the links in the preferred order they wish for them to be seen by dragging and dropping. From a political application lens, this will help to streamline the profile to link pipeline, providing a way to seamlessly display links to main campaign or organization websites, major press pieces, links to other social accounts that viewers should follow, and most importantly, an email subscription list sign-up.

LINKEDIN- NEW ID CONFIRMATION SECURITY ELEMENT: Verification has become a key part of social platforms and LinkedIn is taking the idea for a spin. Earlier this month, LinkedIn announced that it wanted to focus on verification amid rising concerns around identity theft, along with increasingly realistic bots. Their approach is to add more identity features for users, providing more ways for people to prove that they are who they claim to be using ID verification and workplace confirmation. To make this a reality, LinkedIn has partnered up with CLEAR [might ring a bell from airport experiences], which enables users to add a confirmation note to their profile by providing their Government-assigned ID. The confirmation note shows on the user's profile and is shown to other users who visit the profile. One of the arguments for it from the app, is that before the update [BTU], anyone could claim that they work for any organization on LinkedIn. This verification mode is designed to prevent that from happening. The new element is supposed to provide more assurance to users on who they engage with and in understanding who is an actual rep of an org versus who’s a fraud. Also, LinkedIn will also enable organizations to issue digital workplace IDs via Microsoft Entra, providing another verification element. On one hand the fraud prevention element is a win, on the other, a social media app having that many critical identity details on file? Eh…. and we’re worried about what TikTok data has? Really?

TWITTER UPDATES:

ADVERTISERS NOW HAVE TO PAY FOR VERIFICATION: What is the #VIRAL Newsletter without some Twitter news? First up, Twitter says that all advertisers will now have to pay for verification in order to run ads in the app. In our opinion, it’s giving “buy Twitter Blue or I’ll use brute force” - we see you, Elon. Earlier this week, Twitter informed all advertisers via email that they’ll have to sign up for either Twitter Blue or Verification for Organizations {$1000/month] in order to keep running ads in the app. This now means that brands will have to pay Twitter $8.00 per month for the blue tick, or $1,000 per month for its Verifications for Organizations offerings before they even throw down dollars for an ad spend. What an org could do with a $1,000 ad spend on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube is huge. The potential impact, reach, and ROI of a campaign at the level is well worth the spend. Paying $1,000 just to get in the door? What is this – a club in Soho? We think not. We’ll see where this lands Elon, but the point of entry for advertisers is so high that it’s not just a deterrent, it’s not feasible for most.

FREE BLUE CHECKMARKS FOR 1M FOLLOWERS?: The chaos over at the prized app for keyboard warriors continues with a flip flop approach to account verification [the Blue Checkmarks]. Of the many moments that have spurred crazy in this department, last week’s decision to remove Legacy Checkmarks [verification given to those before Musk took over the app] caused an uproar and a you-better-hope-you’re-on-Elon’s-good-side approach. In reaction to celebrities and influencers not wanting to pay $8.00 for verification and not bothering to care, Twitter decided to “gift” verification back to users with over a million followers. So, they created a whole new class divide instead of evening the playing field in the game of free speech. Overall however, the Blue Checkmark has become in just a few short months the equivalent of the scarlet letter – no one wants to admit they pay for clout, and that’s what having a blue checkmark screams. What stood out to us in the reporting around this circus was Social Media Today’s take on the 10K profiles that were gifted verification, which goes as follows:

Sometimes when it’s not broke, don’t fix it, and that’s how we feel about the original verification system that’s now a relic of the past.

SHADOWBANNED TWEETS NOW LABELED: Now, moving away from the blue checkmark and to a more ‘shadowy’ topic. Twitter recently announced that it rolled out its new label system which notifies users when a specific tweet’s reach is being limited. In trendier terms, the system notifies users when their tweet has been shadowbanned. Users will now see a label added to any tweet of theirs that’s been shadowbanned. The label will read: “Visibility limited: this Tweet may violate Twitter’s rules against “Hateful Conduct.” Currently, Twitter defines hateful conduct as “racist or sexist slurs, tropes, and intimidation and also includes hateful references, imagery, and incitement.” The transparency angle of this is positive for both the user and the viewer, but the real question is enforcement. Will this practice actually be enforced with an even hand and in a truly transparent way, something that Musk’s Twitter isn’t exactly known for…? Debatable.

BEREAL - A REINTRODUCTION & NEW ELEMENTS: You may remember all the buzz around BeReal when it first launched in the U.S. last summer – and yes, we agree this does feel like five million years ago at this point. However, while the chit chat around the app has died down recently, BeReal has announced that it’s adding new elements to ‘amp up’ the hype around the platform. If you’ve gotten this far, and are you saying to yourself, wait what….is….BeReal, let us lay the groundwork:

BeReal is a social media app that encourages users to share a photo of themselves and their immediate surroundings during a randomly selected two-minute period every day. About once every 24 hours, users receive a notification from the app and have to act quickly to take a photo. The photo snapped uses the front and back cameras of their phones to show the full context of what the person is doing and where they are. If the user doesn’t post within the allotted 2 minutes, the post will say “late” and users' friends will be able to see that they didn’t make it “before the cut.” Users can then upload their photos to their feed and can see what their friends are up to in the current moment. The timed aspect of the app intends to capture an authentic, unfiltered, snapshot of the user's life.

We see the app’s use ‘reentering’ the political media space during the upcoming 2023 and 2024 elections and these new elements may be a nice addition to a campaign. First up, is the integration of the music app we all know and love, Spotify. The new feature allows users to share the music and podcasts [like Girl and the Gov, The Podcast] users are listening to when posting to BeReal. To use this feature, users must connect their BeReal and Spotify accounts using the music icon on the homepage of the BeReal app. Once connected, BeReal will do all the work and automatically display the cover art of the song or show the user is listening to at the bottom of the posted photo. Users will also be able to see what their friends are listening to if they also have connected the two accounts. At the moment, the feature is only available to Spotify users – sorry Apple Music listeners.

In addition, the platform is also working on a feature dubbed “Bonus BeReal,” where users will be able to share two more BeReal’s a day if they post on time. The incentive to post within the 2 minute time is now more than being able to say you posted on time. This feature is not included in the app quite yet, (we’ll keep you updated) but we’re interested to see how users will utilize it and if it will cause another “resurgence” for the app.

GET INFLUENCED

Speaker of the Philly House of Representatives, Rep. Joanna McClinton, took her followers through ‘a day in the life of speaker Joanna McClinton’ and we’re here for it. In the vid, Rep. McClinton dons power pink of course, and took on the day as her team captured perfect tidbits of a typical day in the life. The vid shows how a handful of 5-10 seconds clips can be turned into a whole larger visual story that resonates with constituents, voters, and even those outside of PA. We’ll also note that having clips on hand is useful for numerous platforms, from Reels like this example, TikTok and Shorts.

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Social Media Today: TikTok Moves to Ban Climate Change Denial Content

• Forbes: Why Staying On Top of Social Media Changes Matters

• Social Media Today: Meta Plans to Expand its Reel Monetization Program to More Creators

• Tubefilter: No, the D'amelio's Are Not Buying TikTok  

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