SOCIAL

Meta’s Shelving the Last Elements of its Social Audio Push

Published

3 months ago

March 16, 2023

Meta’s Shelving the Last Elements of its Social Audio Push

Then last remnants of Meta’s social audio push are being swept away, with audio channels in groups to be removed as an option after this month.

As you can see in this notification, shared by Radu Onescu, Meta is now alerting groups users that audio channels are going away, with members no longer able to create new audio channels in groups from this week.

It’s essentially the last remaining element of Meta’s audio social push, which it made a big emphasis in the wake of Clubhouse’s meteoric rise to fame in early 2021. In April that year, Meta announced a range of social audio features, including audio-only Rooms, new support features for podcasts, and ‘Soundbites’, which enabled users to create short-form audio clips using a range of effects.

Meta has since canceled all of these projects. That, in large part, reflects the declining popularity of audio-only interaction options, with Clubhouse’s popularity continuing to bottom out, and other social audio options either being shelved or de-prioritized in other apps.

But it’s also a part of Meta’s broader cost-cutting measures, which has seen it move away from a range of projects, as it looks to refine its focus, and reduce costs.

Indeed, this week, Meta announced a new round of job cuts, which will see 10,000 roles culled from the organization. That’s in addition to the 11,000 jobs Meta already cut in November last year, and with so many people being moved on, it’s inevitable that some projects are going to also be canceled within its broader re-organization.

In retrospect, it’s now clear that the sudden rise of audio social was a pandemic-induced fad, providing another way for people to get that much-needed human connection, in a less intrusive, and in many ways, more intimate form.

That’s not to say it’s gone completely – Clubhouse does still have a dedicated user base, and there are some communities that have gleaned huge value from these audio meeting elements. But as a general, broad appeal option, the demand is just not there, which is why most apps are now moving on, and cutting the costs associated with supporting live audio elements.

For Meta specifically, this has been a long time coming. It retired most of these tools in May last year, with audio channels in groups almost making it to another birthday. But now, it’s time has come, which will eliminate one more element from your engagement options within Facebook groups.

That, really, leaves just Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse as the final pieces standing from what was once seen as the next billion-dollar opportunity. Right now, it seems like both of those will remain – but then again, Clubhouse could run out of money, and who knows what’s coming next at Twitter 2.0.

It’s interesting to see how fast the tide can shift, and how quickly these huge trends can rise and fall. It’s another reminder to ensure you don’t put too much emphasis on any one channel – while also keeping in mind that trends are just that, until they’ve stood the relevant test of time.

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LinkedIn Adds AI-Generated Job Candidate Responses in Recruiter

Published

7 hours ago

May 30, 2023

EntirewebNewsBot

LinkedIn Adds AI-Generated Job Candidate Responses in Recruiter

LinkedIn continues to integrate generative AI elements, this time within its Recruiter platform, with AI-created messages that HR professionals can then send to potential candidates, which are customized and personalized based on InMail best practices.

As you can see in this example, the new process, built into LinkedIn Recruiter, will enable users to quickly and easily craft a message that they can then send to a potential candidate, simply by tapping the ‘Draft personalized message’ prompt at the bottom of the composer window.

As explained by LinkedIn:

“Using our own LinkedIn in-house generative AI model trained on successful InMails, we use the information from the candidate’s profile, job description, and the recruiter’s company to draft a highly personalized message to get the conversation started.”

Once the AI generated InMail is created, you’ll then be able to further customize the message by ticking the topic elements that you do or don’t want to include. You can then edit and send the message – which should help recruiters save time, while still maintaining personal outreach.

Though it also feels a little impersonal, like maybe this is an element that shouldn’t be automated?

I guess, when you’re dealing with such responses at scale, it’s not really personalized anyway. But as with some of LinkedIn’s other generative AI experiments, like AI created feed posts, it feels like this is taking some of the human interaction out of the platform, and removing the ‘social’ aspects out of ‘social media’.

Maybe that’s an idealistic viewpoint, and the time savings outweigh any overarching principles at play. But it seems like some of these things should be written by a human, in order to maintain that baseline of real connection within these apps – otherwise we’re headed to a future where it’s just bots talking to bots, and when you actually have to meet in person, you’ll never know what you’re going to get.

I mean, theoretically, the candidates could also have written their application via generative AI, and they could respond to these emails with their own generative replies. And if it’s a remote position, maybe you’ll never even meet in person, and it’ll all be just simulated engagement for simulated jobs.

Seems slightly off, but maybe these tools help in some cases, potentially a lot of cases – it just feels like LinkedIn is going to get a lot less genuine than it already is as a result.

Either way, it’s happening. LinkedIn says that it’s starting to roll out AI-assisted messages in Recruiter to ‘a handful of customers’ in the US and Europe, before an expanded launch beginning next month.

You can read more about LinkedIn’s latest Recruiter updates here.

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SOCIAL

YouTube Ad Revenue Forecast To Rise 4%, Hit $30.4B, In 2023 05/30/2023

Published

13 hours ago

May 30, 2023

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YouTube Ad Revenue Forecast To Rise 4%, Hit $30.4B, In 2023 05/30/2023

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SOCIAL

LinkedIn Launches New ‘Find Your In’ Ad Campaign

Published

19 hours ago

May 30, 2023

EntirewebNewsBot

LinkedIn Launches New ‘Find Your In’ Ad Campaign

LinkedIn’s launching a new promotional campaign, created by ad agency Droga5, which aims to highlight how you can use the platform to find your ideal career pathway.

The ‘Find Your In’ campaign looks to showcase how LinkedIn can unlock new possibilities, so you can be whatever you imagine, with the help of LinkedIn’s connectivity.

As explained by Droga5:

“It starts with a little girl who finds herself in a place that’s perfectly ordinary: the laundromat. But we quickly learn there’s more here than meets the eye. All it takes is a little bit of inspiration from a LinkedIn alert on a nearby phone to set off an unexpected and extravagant dance with her own potential. The future comes to life, teeming with opportunity and endless options to explore.”

Not sure that I felt inspired, as such, by the clip, but it is catchy, and it could prompt people to take another look at the app, and consider how they can utilize LinkedIn as a guide on their professional journey.

LinkedIn’s been working to maximize discovery, and capitalize on its record high levels of engagement, by better highlighting relevant influencers and niche creators, with a view to helping others discover new connections, and explore their passions in the app.

That, ideally, will help more people establish networks of likeminded professionals, which could indeed facilitate new career opportunities through the same.

The campaign could help to amplify this. The new push will run across TV, web and social media platforms over the coming months.

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