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China’s censors scrub viral Shanghai lockdown video from online platforms

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Shanghai's 25 million residents have been under lockdown since early April as authorities try to curb an Omicron-fuelled outbreak

Shanghai’s 25 million residents have been under lockdown since early April as authorities try to curb an Omicron-fuelled outbreak – Copyright AFP Hector RETAMAL

A viral video showing the impact of the prolonged coronavirus lockdown on Shanghai’s residents has been taken down by China’s internet censors Saturday, triggering an online backlash.

About 25 million residents in Shanghai have been shut inside their homes since early April as officials rush to curb its worst ever outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic.

The city has struggled to provide fresh vegetables and other essentials to those in lockdown, while patients have reported trouble accessing regular medical care as thousands of health staff were deployed to covid testing and treatment.

The issues were chronicled in a six-minute video titled “Voice of April”, which was widely shared on Weibo and WeChat — major social media platforms in China.

Shot against a simple aerial black-and-white view of the city, the video opens with audio clips from media briefings in March where officials say Shanghai will not have a citywide lockdown.

The decision was quickly reversed by April as the highly transmissible Omicron variant led to a spike in infections.

As the camera pans across the empty streets of Shanghai, audio clips are played in chronological order showing the dire situation of residents shunted into their homes without preparation.

“We have gone to the hospital twice, but no one is there to treat us,” a man whose father is ill is heard saying.

In another, a woman complains about not being allowed back home when she returned from hospital after chemotherapy.

There is also a clip of residents yelling, “Thank you, Big Whites” — a nickname for health staff dressed in white PPE gear deployed to various nieghbourhoods.

Internet censors battled for hours Saturday to scrub the video from Weibo and Wechat, as netizens kept uploading it into different cloud services.

The swift censorship led to an online backlash.

“The video was just presenting raw facts. There is nothing provocative!” said one commentator on Weibo.

“Its content is nothing new… But the fact of seeing that even that is censored, it bothers me,” wrote another.

While “Voice of April” is not accessible on any major social media platform in China as of Saturday afternoon, it can still be viewed on Youtube.

Shanghai reported 23,504 new coronavirus cases and 12 deaths on Saturday.


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WhatsApp Adds New Group Chat Controls, Additional Context Around Group Membership

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WhatsApp Adds New Group Chat Controls, Additional Context Around Group Membership

WhatsApp’s adding some new control options for group chats, which will provide more capacity to manage who can, and can’t, join a group, while it’s also providing new insights into groups in-common with other users, to provide more context for connection and discovery.

First off, on group controls – WhatsApp’s adding a simplified control panel UI to approve new chat members.

As you can see in this example, the new format will enable chat admins to approve and reject group chat applicants, while it will also show people that have been previously approved or rejected.

That could make it much easier to manage your group chats, and ensure you’re on top of all participating members – which will be handy for Communities, which WhatsApp added back in November, and enable users to connect around specific topics.

The idea is that this will expand WhatsApp usage beyond private chats, and facilitate a wider range of discussion. And with more social media engagement switching to private chats, it’s another means for Meta to align with that shift, and keep users engaged.

It’s a simple addition, in broader context, and could be beneficial for those trying to keep tabs on their group membership.

WhatsApp’s also adding a new ‘groups in common’ display, to help users glean more context about other members.

WhatsApp groups update

As per WhatsApp:

“With the growth of Communities and their larger groups, we want to make it easy to know which groups you have in common with someone. Whether you’re trying to remember the name of a group you know you share with someone or you want to see the groups you’re both in, you can now easily search a contact’s name to see your groups in common.”

The display could also assist in group discovery, helping you find more relevant Communities that you might also want to join to engage in related topics.

As noted, with more online interactions switching to private chats, and away from public posting on social platforms, Meta’s now trying to align with that change, and provide more ways to keep users engaged, and help brands also meet them where they’re active.

WhatsApp, which has seen big growth in US, is now a larger part of the equation, and with more people leaning into more private discussion spaces, it makes sense for Meta to provide more tools to facilitate such.

The next step is monetizing WhatsApp, which remains a work in progress – but Meta is indeed making progress on this front as well.

As such, group chats could be another way to help boost exposure for brand functionality in the app, which is why Meta will be keen to build on these tools wherever it can.

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LinkedIn Creates Profile Summaries, Job Listings Via Generative AI 03/22/2023

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LinkedIn Creates Profile Summaries, Job Listings Via Generative AI 03/22/2023

Microsoft-owned business and
employment-focused social platform LinkedIn is adding a new ChatGPT-powered tool Premium subscribers can access to create personalized writing suggestions for sections of their LinkedIn profile, as
well as other AI integrations.

LinkedIn Premium subscribers now have the option to “Enhance” their profile via AI-drafted options for the …



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Pinterest Provides New Tips on Effective Pin Advertising Approaches

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Pinterest Provides New Tips on Effective Pin Advertising Approaches

Pinterest has provided some new Pin ad tips, based on various brand lift studies, incorporating feedback from over 120,000 Pinners. The data shows that taking a multi-format, multi-stage approach can provide bigger returns, with brands that focus on awareness, consideration, and conversion seeing, on average, three times higher conversion rates than those aligned with just one objective.

Here’s a look at Pinterest’s key tips:

Experiment with multiple objectives 

As noted, Pinterest’s main action point is that advertisers should aim to target consumers at each stage of the purchase cycle, as opposed to focusing on just one aspect.

As per Pinterest:

“By adopting more than one objective, advertisers have seen up to a 57% improvement in sales lift. If you’re focused only on conversion, you may forgo reaching new customers further up the funnel.”

Of course, Pinterest would say that, as more ads equals more money for them, but the data shows that taking a broader focus, that incorporates each element, provides more scope to connect with Pinterest users, which can deliver better results.

Upweight your spend towards video 

As with all social platforms, video is the most engaging format on Pinterest, and is the most resonant messaging vehicle for brands.

So impactful is video in the app that Pinterest advises that brands should aim for video to comprise between 50% to 60% of their media plan, in order to maximize ROI and response.

Idea Pins are now Pinterest’s key format on this front, its TikTok-like full-screen vertical feed – and based on the data, that is proving to be the most effective brand messaging method.

Keep your campaign feeling fresh

Including ad variations in your creative mix can also improve your Pinterest campaign performance.

A campaign with 10-15 creative executions (across a two month period) can drive a 3.2x increase in ad recall. While a campaign with 16+ creative executions can drive 2x the lift in favorability.”

That’s a lot of variants to come up with, but Pinterest also notes that using 3+ ad formats can increase awareness 3x, so you don’t necessarily need 16 or more versions of each ad, just a few to keep things fresh, and keep your promotions more engaging.

Take a holistic approach to measurement

Finally, Pinterest advises that brands need to link their upper funnel brand building and acquisition efforts to lower funnel performance activity, in order to get a true gauge of campaign performance.

How-to videos, recipes and tutorials measure substantially stronger mid-lower funnel uplifts like 12x the impact on brand favorability and 8.5x on purchase intent. To maximize results pick the ad format that best fits your goals and aim to educate and inspire Pinners to incorporate your products or brand in their life in relevant ways.”

In other words, you need to consider the performance of each aspect in a broader campaign sense, as opposed to measuring each element against the same data points.

These are some interesting notes, which could help you put together a more effective Pinterest marketing strategy. And with 450 million users, and rising, and high purchase intent, it is worth considering the platform, and its potential value for your promotions.

You can read more Pinterest campaign set-up tips here.

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