by Tod Maffin (LinkedIn • social media)

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Today's News

TIKTOK • Are We Finally Getting Tappable Links?

LINKEDIN • Testing a “Premium” Company Page

AD INDUSTRY • 2023 Actually Didn’t Suck That Bad

TIKTOK • Their Instagram Clone Now In Testing

X • You’ll Have to Buy Your Accounts Now

TIKTOK • Are We Finally Getting Tappable Links?

Back in the good old days of the web, links worked. You’d type a web link and when people clicked it, it would go somewhere.

And then Instagram came along and realized that if they make links unclickable, that would increase the demand from advertisers who were willing to pay money to make those links work.

To service those that weren’t willing to pay, an entire new industry sprung up in the form of link-in-bio platforms.

I know that’s a big generalization, but it’s mostly true.

Other platforms followed Instagram’s lead, including TikTok — but that might be changing soon.

Digiday is reporting that TikTok is testing clickable links in organic videos.

In an off-the-record town hall between agency executives and TikTok executives, one attendee said the platform confirmed the test and that so far the results were “decent.”

LINKEDIN • Testing a “Premium” Company Page

LinkedIn is testing a potential new revenue stream aimed specifically at small and medium businesses.

It comes in the form of a Premium Company Page subscription that might cost up to $99 a month.

As for what it covers, it’s a little underwhelming — a custom call to action button, a list of people who’ve visited your page, a new badge, the ability to showcase testimonials, and the usual mumbo jumbo about AI-powered writing assistance.

The only thing I spotted that did seem interesting was this:

The introduction of these premium features comes at a time when LinkedIn is eager to shed its reputation as a platform known mostly for self-promotion and cringy hot takes.

This Premium Company Page was first mentioned on LinkedIn about a week ago and flew under the radar until TechCrunch spotted the update.

A spokesperson at LinkedIn wouldn’t comment, except for the usual “We’re always exploring new ways to enhance our customers’ experience” blah blah blah. But they did confirm the tool would be aimed at small- and medium-sized brands.

LinkedIn says it’s seen substantial growth in its premium services, contributing significantly to its $15 billion revenue last year.

AD INDUSTRY • 2023 Actually Didn’t Suck That Bad

We have new numbers from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) on the state of the digital ad industry — and it shows last year wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone thinks it was.

In 2023, digital advertising soared, raking in $225 billion, marking a 7.3% increase from the previous year, according to the latest report. Even amid economic uncertainties, the industry saw significant growth, particularly in the final quarter where revenues surged to $64.5 billion, boosted largely by holiday shopping.

Different segments within digital advertising saw varied growth rates, with audio ads leading the way with an 18.9% increase. Retail media wasn't far behind, growing 16.3%, and video advertising, particularly CTV/OTT platforms, grew 10.6%, making up 42% of the revenue in this segment.

Despite a sluggish start in 2022, social media advertising rebounded with an 8.7% increase in 2023. This boost was driven by a vibrant creator economy and was particularly strong in the latter half of the year, which accounted for $4 billion of the $5 billion year-over-year increase.

Looking ahead, the IAB report calls out generative AI and privacy-focused advertising practices as the new issues to think about.

TIKTOK • Their Instagram Clone Now In Testing

TikTok is branching out with a new app, TikTok Notes, launching in Australia and Canada today. This move marks its latest venture into the domain of photo and text sharing, challenging Meta's Instagram.

I tried it out — it feels a little like BeReal, but without the limitations on when you can post. Visually, it looks sort of like a Pinterest Explore page, or the Snapchat Discover tab, if you’re familiar with those.

It’s available on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, and it lets users log in using their existing TikTok credentials.

TikTok had been asking some users if they were okay with their image posts being copied over to this app. I said okay to that and added a couple of image posts on my main TikTok account, but I couldn’t find them on this new app.

And yes, the main TikTok app already supports image and text posts, but this new app presumably aims to refine and expand this, to move more firmly into Instagram’s lucrative territory.

X • You’ll Have to Buy Your Accounts Now

Sometimes, Gizmodo really nails the lede.

In a post this week, they wrote:

Yes, after months of ruminating on the idea, it seems Elon Musk has decided to charge people an annual fee to use the platform.

And no, I don’t mean to access the Premium features, I mean to use it at all.

Musk believes charging a $1 fee for new accounts will keep the bots away, though he also thought that the paid checkmarks would do that and it didn’t.

The new policy is a little confusing. It was described as an annual fee, but is only required for the first three months of use. It will only apply to new accounts going forward, not existing ones.

This is not X's first attempt at using fees to deter bots. In October, the platform experimented with charging $1 for new accounts in New Zealand and the Philippines.