Facebook’s plan to poke Gen Z: cheap couches and AI

“How do you do, fellow kids?” – Steve Buscemi in 30 Rock and also Facebook in the year 2024. 

Attempting to disprove the stereotype that the platform is for your parents, grandparents, and destroying family relationships with bad political memes, Meta unveiled its plan to reverse course and go after Gen Z.  

Facebook execs presented their strategy for the “next 20 years” of Facebook at an event in New York City last month, and it involves 4 main shifts:

• Improved in-feed discovery: Using AI, Facebook says “by the end of 2026, our goal is to have the world’s best recommendation technology.” What this actually means: seeing less of your friends and family in your feed and more recommended content, especially reels, a la Instagram.  
• An emphasis on Marketplace, Groups, and Dating: Could Marketplace alone be enough of a draw for the younger generation to join FB? Meta certainly hopes so. While also attempting to inject some new life by growing communities via groups and finding some love matches via dating. 
• Tripling down on video: Video is king, haven’t you heard? Whether it’s a reel, a longer video, or Live content, Facebook wants to show you more, and they’re doing so with an updated fullscreen player and a slider to skip ahead in longer vids. Like IG, they’re also seeing a huge boost in users privately sharing videos with friends – a trend that’s “growing at over 80% year over year.”
• Prioritizing creators: Meta launched ‘Professional Mode,’ specifically for creators to build a following. They’ve also revised their payout model, rewarding creators based on how well their content performs and expanding monetization opportunities to all formats (photos, videos, and text). 

Do you know what’s better and easier than a trip to Ikea? FB Marketplace. There are some serious gems to be found on there and at least $50 to be made, but is it enough to lure younger users away from TikTok? Facebook is going for it, and albeit admirable, it might just be too little too late. According to a 2023 Pew Research survey, only 33% of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 ever use Facebook, while just 3% use it “almost constantly.” You never know, though, maybe they really do need one more platform where they can scroll videos endlessly. 

ICYMI:

• Carousels are getting an upgrade: Users can now add text overlays/captions to Instagram images.
• One size fits all? You can now choose different aspect ratios for images within a single Instagram carousel, selecting original, portrait, or square for each image.
• Join the community: Community chats on Messenger have arrived, which means you can have a massive group chat (up to 5,000 people) without having to be connected to a Facebook group. 
• Data nerds, rejoice: X announced more analytics features are coming to the platform that famously offers very little. The bad news? They’ll only be available to X Premium members. 
• You get a Community Post, and you get a Community Post, everybody gets a Community Post: Originally only available to channels that met a certain audience threshold, YouTube is now opening up the feature to all users.

LIKE//RETWEET//SHARE//ETC

The dictionary defines a noteworthy quote tweet as something that a) adds to the conversation, b) heightens the entertainment value, and c) connects to the original tweet, but is strong enough to stand on its own. Merriam-Webster is one of the best in the quote tweet game, so let’s crack open the latest edition and look up what makes this post so effective. 

• No trend or viral tweet gets past Merriam-Webster. Their company Slack must be the most fun place on Earth when they’re passing around what they’re seeing on the Interwebs. 
• The social voice fits within the brand as a whole. A dictionary account couldn’t/shouldn’t pull a Duolingo and go all unhinged. Instead every post is compelling, smart, insightful, and always with the right sprinkling of humor. 
• The timing is chef’s kiss. They pick their moments to perfection – always pinpointing tweets seemingly waiting to be expanded upon by MW.  
• MW makes you throw out your preconceived notions about boring, old dictionaries. They’re like the teacher you had in high school that made English class so interesting you almost forgot you were obligated to be there.   
• Every post accomplishes their mission to educate, inform, and share insights about the English language. They don’t have to do it in the most entertaining/extremely online way possible, but they do, and for that we are grateful. 

Make it work for you: One of the most admirable parts of MW’s Twitter strategy is their flexibility. Sure they have a content calendar, but MW’s account cooks best when reacting to the internet in real time.

TINY FRIENDSHIP BRACELET ON A PENGUIN. I REPEAT, TINY FRIENDSHIP BRACELET ON A PENGUIN. Taylor Swift’s Eras tour made its way to Edinburgh June 7-9th, and the zoo was … wait for it … Ready For It. Throughout the tour, cities have been going all out to welcome the superstar with keys to the city, streets being renamed, special signs and artwork, etc., etc., but Look What You Made the capital of Scotland Do. Here’s why this post will Forever & Always be a winner: 

• The Eras Tour kicked off on March 17, 2023. For almost 15 months, Taylor has been welcomed in nearly every conceivable way, but the zoo managed to create its own moment with a post that far out-performed the account’s typical content.  
• The song. The caption. The fact that someone took the time to make tiny lil’ bracelets. Even the replies. The hallmark of a strong post is authenticity and it’s clear there’s at least one Swiftie on staff at the zoo.

• Jumping on a cultural moment is one thing. But this carousel didn’t just accomplish its goal of reaching more users. It also achieved the main objective of running a zoo account: to bring in more visitors to the actual zoo, with many commenters writing things like “Now determined to visit the zoo when I go to Edinburgh ✨🐧” or “I mean if I can’t get tickets to taylor may as well just go to Edinburgh zoo 🥰.” 
• The zoo committed to the content. They tested the waters with a Taylor Swift post a couple days prior with an outstanding recreation of the Vigilante Sh*t choreography (complete with a penguin costume). This not only teased what was to come, it also brought in new followers – the post earned over 600K views – who no doubt helped the friendship bracelet post succeed. 
• I’m not even a Taylor Swift fan*, and I can respect the inventiveness here. 

*I am a MASSIVE Taylor Swift fan and will happily accept tickets to an upcoming show and/or a trip to the Edinburgh zoo.  

Make it work for you: TikTok is still pushing photo carousels pretty heavily on the FYP page, so lean into what the platforms are rewarding when it makes sense for your brand voice. When the content is good and it’s a fit for multiple platforms, blast it everywhere you can. This was also a highly shared IG post, even though they normally don’t cross-post. And lastly if Taylor Swift is coming to your city, get to brainstorming – the bar is now set at adorable animals rocking bracelets. 

Post of the week:

This ruined my day, so it’s only fair that it ruins yours as well. 

(via x/dieworkwear)