Digital Digest
February 13, 2023
Super Bowl 57 became the most bet-on game in US history due to numerous states recently legalizing sports betting. Naturally, this sparked social conversations, which accounted for 2% of Super Bowl mentions on Sunday. Pregame conversations were more positive (13% positive, 7% negative) as various prop bets were discussed ranging from traditional (National Anthem length, coin toss, Rihanna’s first song, Gatorade color for winning team) to truly bizarre (Tom Cruise parachuting into the stadium, aliens invading, Andy Reid to be doused in BBQ sauce). Super Bowl betting mentions turned more negative once the game kicked off (19% positive, 27% negative) as peoples’ bets lost (Examples 1, 2, 3, 4). Mentions were most negative at the end of the game due to the late penalty (Examples 1, 2, 3, 4). Super Bowl betting should remain prevalent next year, as the game will take place in Las Vegas for the first time.
Users will soon no longer be able to tag products in live broadcasts on Instagram. This feature, which currently allows viewers with checkout-enabled accounts to seamlessly buy or save products on Instagram, provided a way for brands and influencers to drive sales.
Instagram is testing a new way to get users to re-share old content, with a ‘Memory’ Story prompt now showing up in some users’ feeds. While the update is essentially a build to the platform’s Archive feature, some worry it could be a sign that IG engagement is on a decline.
Meta plans to increase consumer transparency around ads. With this update, the platform will summarize information about ad targeting into consumer-friendly topics that tells users how their digital activity informs its machine learning models.
TikTokers are now telling their audiences which products are not bringing the bang for their buck. In the span of a few months, the #deinfluencing hashtag has gone viral and gained 150M+ views. This trend further validates how much Gen Z shoppers truly value authenticity, as influencers who hop on the trend are viewed by many as trustworthy and credible.
YouTube reduced its team handling misinformation from 12k employees to one, after leadership at Twitter and Meta also made cuts in these departments. Part of this job is to push out warning labels on social media surrounding sensitive topics (e.g. current events, mental health debates, etc.) to decrease the spread of false claims. Knowing Millennials and Gen Z utilize social media to inform POVs, these cuts now place the onus on influencers to ensure they’re sharing accurate information.
To help YouTube Shorts creators convert more viewers into subscribers, YouTube announced a new “comment reply” feature, where users can respond to the video with a direct comment back to the influencer. In addition, the platform will allow creators to add their Shorts as a comment in someone else’s stream (e.g. a comment replying with their video rather than a traditional comment). Both capabilities will be rolling out over the next few months.