The Weekly Cull 7-6-23

Here we are the first week of July.  Some big things happened in Social Media this week.  

META 

This was HUGE week for Meta.  They finally launched their Twitter Competition App called Threads.  24 hours after release over 11 million subscribers and counting.  Have you downloaded it yet.  It is super easy, uses your Instagram profile information and you can autofill your contacts.  As of last night no one was really sure on how to use it but it was obvious that people were having fun with it.  It will be interesting to see if it brings Twitter to its knees.

Here are few things you might want to know about Threads:

• It really is like Twitter in many ways
• You can post up to 500 characters
• Posts can include link, photos, videos (up to 5 minutes in length) , memes, gifs, pretty much anything
• You can connect with Creators, Businesses, and Friends
• You can share your threads to your IG stories
• Available in the App Store or Google Play
• The Algorithm for Threads is based on an AI model and at the moment it is designed to show you many accounts that you do not follow. 

Even if you aren't planning on using it, make sure you get the app, log in, and claim your handle or any new handles you might want to use.  

Now, Meta doesn't have the best track record when rolling out new apps.  BUT this might be a winner for awhile as it capitalizes on the increasing discontent that people have with Twitter.

Speaking of Twitter:

They announced some crazy things this week in order to try to funnel more and more users into their Twitter Blue Program then backtracked a couple days later.  Who knows what is going on over there.  

AI 

Let the lawsuits begin.  Two authors are suing ChatGPT for using their books to help create the model.  This is just the beginning I think.  I guess not everyone wants their words used by the company. I get it.  I want my site searched through Google but I don't want it used for AI searches.  So I still believe that when the dust starts to settle in the new AI world, we will start  seeing a checkbox that allows up to opt our sites out of AI searches.  I think that is many years off still though. 

And if you are still sitting back thinking that machine designed learning it just a trend. You might want to reconsider that perspective.  Kids these days are learning in and AI world. There are entire University Degrees focused on Machine Based Learning.  AI is here to stay so we need to adapt and grow with it.  

That is the wrap up this week!