SOCIAL
Elon Says Revised $8 Twitter Blue ‘Verification’ Program Will Resume on November 29th

Elon Musk’s $8 blue ticks for all ‘verification’ program, his first major user-facing initiative since taking over the app, has caused a broad range of issues, including rampant impersonation, internal confusion over how to enforce the platform’s rules, potential legal concerns, and even stock market impacts for some impersonated businesses.
Which is largely in line with what everybody said would happen – even Twitter’s own staff, who informed Musk of potential concerns before the release.
But Musk pushed ahead anyway, before eventually agreeing to pause the roll-out, just a few days after launch, due to the aforementioned problems.
Twitter also added a new ‘official’ checkmark to combat impersonation, then removed it, then added it again. Which is pretty indicative of the current state of the app – and now, with a few revisions, Elon has set a new date for the re-launch of his $8 checkmarks program:
Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022
Where the same problems will inevitably abound again, unless there’s a new process which includes, like, actual ID verification within the set-up, or maybe a different kind of checkmark to differentiate it from the current one, which is provided to notable, verified users in the app.
Thus far, it doesn’t seem like either of these elements are under consideration for Musk’s ‘great leveler’ program.
Musk views Twitter’s blue checkmarks as some kind of status marker, which separates the ‘haves’ from ‘have nots’ in the app. And while I’m not sure that anyone else sees them that way, Musk seems to believe that, because of this, he’ll eventually be able to convince millions of users to pay $96 per year for a badge in the app, which will then enable him to move to the next phase of the plan, in cracking down on bot profiles – because with so many people signing up, the only ones without a blue checkmark will, eventually, all be bots.
Even though there’s no chance, based on its current construction, that this, conceptually, is going work.
Because millions of people aren’t going to sign-up to pay $8 per month for a tiny graphic next to their name, which will mean nothing at all once everyone can buy one.
Sure, some people will pay. Fans of Elon, those who’ve always wanted a blue checkmark – there’s a percentage of Twitter users who clearly will pay $8 for the blue tick. Indeed, according to reports, 140,000 Twitter users signed up for the program in those initial days that it was available, which is more than the amount of users who signed up for Twitter Blue (100k), the platform’s initial subscription offering.
That shows promise, right? 140k sign-ups in a couple of days. That shows that Elon’s likely onto a winner. Right?
The thing is, 140k equates to 0.06% of Twitter’s total userbase. That’s still a lot in just a few days, but it’s nowhere near the amount that Elon would need in order to facilitate that next stage, in using this as a way to identify bot profiles versus real people via checkmarks in the app.
It’s also not enough to meet Elon’s plan to make subscriptions 50% of Twitter’s revenue intake.
Twitter brought in $1.18b in revenue in Q2, meaning that Elon needs to make at least $590 million from subscriptions, per quarter, to reach his target. That equates to around 24.6 million paying subscribers signed up to his $8 verification plan. Which is a lot – again, the original Twitter Blue only ever had 100k sign-ups, and while 140k new subscribers in just a few days, in limited release, seems positive, he essentially needs 175x that to even reach his 50% revenue benchmark.
And for it to work as a marker of bots vs humans, it’s way higher than that figure again. You would assume that Musk would need something like 75% of Twitter users (178m), or potentially more, to sign on in order for this to be a clear indicator of real people versus fakes.
I seriously doubt that 178 million people are going to pay to use the app, when they could just use any other social app, for free.
But then again, maybe Elon has new elements that’ll be revealed which sweeten the deal – while he has also threatened to reduce the reach of non-paying Twitter users as a means of forcing people to pay up.
But the majority of Twitter users don’t ever tweet anyway, so that probably won’t work either. But again, it’s impossible to judge till we see what comes next, and what refinements Twitter’s looking to make before re-release.
Though there is this:
With new release, changing your verified name will cause loss of checkmark until name is confirmed by Twitter to meet Terms of Service
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022
As a reminder, Twitter blocked all verified users from changing their name last week in response to many people changing their username to mock Musk specifically, along with other brands and celebrities.
Now, as a measure to combat impersonation, Twitter will implement a process to check altered usernames before letting you go ahead. Which is a good move that should address at least some of the recent impersonation issues – though who, exactly, is going to be checking and approving such is also interesting, given that Elon has sacked the majority of Twitter staff and contractors.
In summary, I still don’t think that Elon’s $8 checkmark program is the right way to go, and I don’t think anyone at Twitter thinks it is either. But Elon’s also made big announcements and proclamations around the offering – I don’t see him backing away from it now.
Which means that Twitter’s verification system will likely cause more chaos in a few weeks – but till then, we’ll have to hold ourselves over with Musk’s random public attacks on staffers and self-praise, as he learns the ropes at the app.
SOCIAL
YouTube Adds New Analytics Cards, Simplifies its ‘Product Drops’ Feature

YouTube’s making some updates to its Product Drops feature within live streams, while it’s also adding some new analytics cards, and testing a new format for its TV app.
First off, on Product Drops. YouTube’s changing the requirements for Product Drops in live streams so that more creators will be able to include drops to highlight their items.
Up till now, Product Drops have only been available to creators who’ve connected their Shopify stores, or have access to Google Merchant Center, while creators have also had to plan Product Drops in advance, and schedule them via Live Control Room. But now, YouTube’s giving more creators more ways to access the feature.
As per YouTube:
“Any creators who have connected to their first party stores, or are participating in the YouTube Affiliate Program can set up Product Drops in the live control room on YouTube. This means that more creators will be able to use Product Drops to boost sales and engagement on their live streams.”
YouTube will also now enable creators to implement Product Drops at any time during a live stream, eliminating the pre-planned requirement.
“This will give creators more flexibility to react to the moment, and drive excitement in real time.”
YouTube says that many creators have seen good response to their Product Drops, with the interactive, engaging process helping to drive hype, and spark more response from viewers.
Product Drops are available via the Live Control Room in YouTube Studio. You can read more about how they work here.
YouTube’s also updating its Community Posts creation flow, in order to simplify the process, and ideally get more channels posting text-based updated in the app.
Community Posts remain a lesser element, though YouTube’s been working to make them a bigger focus throughout the year, by adding additional engagement elements like polls, quizzes, disappearing updates, and more.
Simplifying the creation process is another step in boosting awareness, and potentially driving more interaction with you YouTube audience.
YouTube’s also adding some new revenue analytics cards, including “Total Members” insights (which includes subscriber data) and “Where Members Joined From”, which will provide more insight into what’s driving channel growth.
YouTube’s also adding new data on why users have canceled their membership within the insights tab in YouTube Analytics.

As you can see in this example, the new card will show the reasons why people have opted to stop their subscription to your channel, based on responses provided in the cancellation flow.
Finally, YouTube’s also experimenting with a new format for its TV app, which will make it easier to access different elements.

As you can see in this example, shared by 9t05Google, the new format will include bigger buttons to access different elements, and further customize your YouTube experience on the bigger screen.
Connected TV is the fastest growing viewer segment for YouTube, with more and more people now looking to consume YouTube content on their home TV set. As such, it makes sense for YouTube to roll out more updates aligned with big screen viewing in order to feed into this usage.
Some handy updates, across various elements, which are worth noting as you go about managing your YouTube presence.
SOCIAL
Musk regrets controversial post but won’t bow to advertiser ‘blackmail’

Elon Musk’s comments at the New York Times’ Dealbook conference drew a shocked silence – Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP Slaven Vlasic
Elon Musk apologized Wednesday for endorsing a social media post widely seen as anti-Semitic, but accused advertisers who are turning away from his social media platform X of “blackmail” and said anyone who does so can “go fuck yourself.”
The remark before corporate executives at the New York Times’ Dealbook conference drew a shocked silence.
Earlier, Musk had apologized for what he called “literally the worst and dumbest post that I’ve ever done.”
In a comment on X, formerly Twitter, Musk on November 15 called a post “the actual truth” that said Jewish communities advocated a “dialectical hatred against whites,” which was criticized as echoing longtime conspiracy theory among White supremacists.
The statement prompted a flood of departures from X of major advertisers, including Apple, Disney, Comcast and IBM who criticized Musk for anti-semitism.
“I’m sorry for that tweet or post,” Musk said Wednesday. “It was foolish of me.”
He told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin that his post had been misinterpreted and that he had sought to clarify the remark in subsequent posts to the thread.
But Musk also said he wouldn’t be beholden to pressure from advertisers.
“If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money?” Musk said. “Go fuck yourself.”
But the billionaire acknowledged that there were business implications to the advertiser actions.
“If the company fails… it will fail because of an advertiser boycott” Musk said. “And that will be what will bankrupt the company.”
Musk, who met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Israel earlier this week, insisted in the interview that he holds no discrimination against Jews, calling himself “philo-Semitic,” or an admirer of Judaism.
During the interview, Musk wore a necklace given to him by a parent of an Israeli hostage taken in the Hamas attack on October 7. The necklace reads, “Bring Them Home.”
Musk told Sorkin that the Israel trip had been planned earlier and was not an “apology tour” related to the controversial tweet.
SOCIAL
TikTok Encourages Creators To Make Longer Videos, With Focus On Ad Revenue 11/30/2023

A new report by The Information shows the company’s recent efforts to convince
creators to put out longer videos in order to provide more room for ad placements.
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