Provoke- The Social Media Issue
From Wealth Cosplay to The Influencer Accent and Beyond
“I think clubs like TuxedoSociety are the next evolution of the trend. While the whole thing is clearly a moneymaking endeavor by two Gen Z hustlers, and a hilarious example of how phoney influencer culture can be, I think it also taps into deeper cultural and economic shifts. At a time when economic mobility is increasingly out of reach for young people, cosplaying wealth has become more and more popular.”
Taylor Lorenz
“Dove works with a team of five community managers and strategists at Edelman, which is overseen by Kalie Dobrow, a senior supervisor of social strategy who helps manage the brand account. Their whole week, Dobrow told us, is centered around reading and replying to comments on Dove’s posts, as well as finding commenting opportunities on user-uploaded posts. “It’s important for us to be looking for fresh opportunities and fresh ways that people are talking on social so that we can figure out how to insert the brand into current and relevant conversations.”
Marketing Brew
“In an analysis of more than 35 million public posts containing links that were shared extensively on the social media platform between 2017 and 2020, the researchers found that around 75% of the shares were made without the posters clicking the link first.”
Penn State
Graphic from the A16Z post on Discord and Social Gaming
“Once you have established yourself in the creator ecosystem, a lack of expertise or experience is no matter; the audience simply wants more of you. The trick is either to create something of enduring interest outside yourself—a creation that surpasses its creator—or to be self-aware enough to cash out, through as many channels as possible, before your audience tires of you.”
Kyle Chayka - New Yorker
Political Disinformation in Africa
“Collard also noted that political actors frequently use a mix of human trolls, partially automated accounts, and fully automated bots on platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and X to spread false information about candidates before elections. According to the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, there has been a nearly fourfold increase in disinformation campaigns in Africa since 2022. Even more alarming is the revelation that nearly 60% of these campaigns are sponsored by foreign states, with Russia and China emerging as the primary culprits.”
African Business
https://www.reddit.com/r/shitposting/comments/1dd34qv/the_brainrot_cycle/#lightbox
“Academics remain divided on the impact of phones and social media. One day, they are to blame for society’s decline; the next, they are harmless. But ultimately, only you know how your relationship with your phone affects you. If you feel anxious without it, use it to suppress uncomfortable feelings, or struggle to spend time with friends without being glued to your screen, you probably have a problem – regardless of what the scientists are saying.”
Dazed and Confused
“Even with everything we know, we can’t easily predict what will take off. Unless I’m unaware of some secret cabal seeding campaigns with certainty, I see more mixed results than surefire successes from media professionals. I see more post hoc analysis from academics than clear foresight. Audiences are fickle, and the zeitgeist is spry, so we can’t call a winner beforehand. Our current media environment makes predicting virality even harder than a decade ago. We’re increasingly distributed, and our content depends more heavily on algorithmic recommendations. My students might tell me that “everybody” is talking about something on TikTok. Even if that “everybody” is tens of millions of people, I’m being served up an entirely different For You Page than my students. If I ever end up seeing their video of the day, it will likely be noticeably later, on another platform like Reddit. By then, I’ll be looking at embers instead of a viral fountain of sparks.”
Ryan Milner- Gizmodo
The Rise of Organic Social - Findings from Vayner Media./IPSOS research with leading marketers
“Instagram Reels that has been driving much of Nascar’s social growth, according to Fox. For about three months leading up to mid-November, 65% of the account’s new Instagram followers came via Reels, he said.. The best-performing Reels were “the ones with the most unique visuals, or just the most out-of-the-ordinary-type moment,” Fox said. As of mid-November, one post of a fuel cap coming off a gas can during a pit stop had been played 63 million times, and another demonstrating the 33 degrees of banking at the Talladega Superspeedway has been watched 10 million times, according to Nascar.”
Marketing Brew
“TikTok is a creator space, so we designed a brand page that felt like a creator page. Starting in January 2023, we developed a new “Always On” content model built for TikTok with a core creative studio that operated more like a late night sketch comedy show than an agency and partnered with a rotating roster of creators. This helped us serve fans interest-based content at scale, ranging from scripted entertainment to one-to-one fan engagements, to creator-led and real-time reactive content. We first identified categories where Jack in the Box could authentically show up. Lucky for us, Jack fans have some pretty relatable interests like: 420 Humor (“The Night Before Dankmas”) Fan Art (“Fan Art Stash” Late Night Humor (“I Didn’t Even Realize”) Pop Culture Moment (“Yes Chef!”) Once we got a feel for what content fans liked, we had to do it at scale. We identified over 1200 unique trends for co-creation over several months. Produced hundreds of original pieces of content.”
The Shorty Awards
Stanley Donwood- Dark Forces- 2024
Facebook’s AI Decides a Post is a Party
“I made the post, basically, to amuse myself. A short while later, during a less-interesting commercial break, I decided to see if any of my friends were equally excited about the weirdest of all possible mascots. (They were, for the most part, not.) However, I had received a notification from Meta saying I could manage invites to friends on and off Facebook by creating an event—and it had taken the liberty of choosing the time, date, and informational copy for this event, which it dubbed, “Puppy Monkey Baby Returns!” “The wait is over!” the page read. “Puppy Monkey Baby is back and better than ever! Join us for a fun-filled evening of laughter, joy, and excitement as we celebrate the return of our beloved Puppy Monkey Baby. With special performances, giveaways, and surprises, this is an event you won’t want to miss!” “This preview,” it added in small print at the bottom, “was generated by AI.”
Fast Company
“To the untrained ear, it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what defines the influencer accent. It includes ending sentences with a questioning tone, using vocal fry (where speech dips into a low, gravelly register), and uptalk, which involves raising the pitch at the end of sentences as though asking a question. While some may find it annoying, there is a reason behind it. Studies have shown that uptalk successfully grabs our attention, as it implicitly invites the listener to confirm that they are listening. As one creator explains, “Nobody actually talks like that. It’s a form of code-switching that influencers learn on this app because it keeps people watching their videos.”
Fast Company
Graphic from It’s Nice That’s piece on how creatives should navigate social media
Moving Beyond on the Big Platforms
“All this isn’t going to magically happen. It requires more people like my friend to get sick of these big platforms and move away from them. It calls for advertisers to ask, ‘are we reaching more bots than people?’, for them to stop their ad campaigns — and it will take some who may call some of these platforms, ‘the equivalent of smoking in the 21st century’ to realise we need to get back to technology that enhances and compliments our humanity, and doesn’t compromise it.”
Geoffrey Colon- Mediacat
How the Instagram Algorithm Works
The Rise of Private Communities
“As public feeds become oversaturated and social fatigue sets in, users are gravitating toward private communities on platforms like Facebook Groups, Keek Flex Groups, Discord and Slack. More than two-thirds of internet users already participate in online communities, and one report found that 60% of people are more likely to be loyal to a brand if there is community access. Therefore, offering a branded online space can significantly impact retention. Additionally, private communities offer brands and creators a unique opportunity to foster trust, belonging and meaningful connections in 2025.”
From Forbes Biggest Social Media Trends Shaping 2025
Misc
“Flashes” - Bluesky’s Alternative to Instagram
How the Brooklyn Nets Win at Social Media
Bellingcat Analyzes US Election Ads on Meta
How Russia Uses Disinformation in Africa
Soccer’s Evolving Relationship with Social Media
Highlight Reels Build Brand Trust
The Cost of Influencers in 2025
What it Takes to Be a Social Media Manager
Social Media Start Ups to Watch
A Deep Dive into Nutter Butter’s Social Strategy
We Are Social’s Blockbuster Guide to Digital in 2025