Melanie
Monday Morning. The Monday morning marketing podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premiere online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. Welcome back to another episode of the Monday morning marketing podcast. Today we're talking about what's new in social media. Maybe the question should really be, what isn't new in social media? There seems to be so much stuff happening right now across all platforms, but today we're going to be talking about some new platforms that are coming out. Yippie. To really just mess with all of us, it seems. So you want to kick us off, Melanie?
Melanie
Well, let's start with A, shall we? I think one of the first ones I've come across is Artifact, unsurprisingly, to do with artificial intelligence. It's an AI generated story writing tool. I suppose it's like chat GPT, but people are using it to create music as well as computer generated art as well. It's a little bit different. It really depends on how you're going to be using it. We haven't tried all of these, by the way. They're just ones we've heard about, so they're only going to be relevant at the time of recording. Yeah. Some of them we haven't. I just realised we've just dated this podcast.
Esther
Well, all our podcasts are technically dated, but some of them we haven't been able to try first because they're still in beta, so we haven't been given access to them yet. But others we have.
Melanie
Or they're available in the US and not available here.
Esther
That's another thing. Sometimes we are the last to join the party. But one that I have tried and I quite like is Mastodon. It's along the same lines as Twitter in that there are feeds, there are hashtags, there are different information you can connect with people, you can find people, retweet, that re massed, I suppose it would be, that idea. So that one has come along as a competition for Twitter. And a lot of people who are not loving the way Twitter is going at the minute are jumping on to Mastodon to try it out.
Melanie
There's quite a few bits of competition for Twitter actually, because there's also post as well. Post. N use is his full name, but most people just call it Post. And out of the two, because I've got access to both as well. I actually prefer post to Master Don. But I haven't really got behind it too much. I'm currently doing a little bit more research on the old Twitter, but that's only because I wanted to see, is it going to bounce back after me losing a shocking amount of followers from November? Now I'm paying for it. I was just wondering if I was going to get any more followers and it's not going great so far.
Esther
Oh, dear. But some of those missing followers could be from bots that have been kicked off the platform.
Melanie
Well, this is true. It could just be other people who've just moved from Twitter to Post or to Mastodons.
Esther
Yeah exactly. I have tried Post a little bit and I always thought it was more like the layout is more like Facebook for me.
Melanie
I think that's why I like it.
Esther
I was looking at it more for the layout and the friendliness of it. I prefer Mastodon for the user experience and post just looks, because it's that longer form of articles and information, I just find it was not as Twitteresque as it could be. Okay, so those are ones that have come out in competition to Twitter. There is one actually that's been made by the guys from Twitter, which is called Blue Sky. Now, this was only launched very recently, I'm talking days, maybe a couple of weeks ago at the time of recording. So it's definitely still in beta. We're still waiting to get let in, but I hear good things about it and there's a lot of FOMO going on around it because there's a lot of chatter between other social media managers and people in the social media world asking others if they've been let in yet because they are just chomping at the bit. So that will be interesting to see when that comes out. Apparently it was also part funded by Elon before he bought Twitter so that could be interesting. Another one that I've just come across recently is RTRO. I think it's pronounced like retro, but it's spelt RTRO. And it is very bright and teething. Yeah. So I've just literally just downloaded it and just gone in and all the icons are very fluorescent and it just seems like a happy place to be. Because a lot of social media can be very dull and dark and you know. But this one tries to promote mental health and tries to promote you know definitely no bullying. It says this when you go in, no bullying, no hate speech, and because they're trying to look out for people's mental health. But
Melanie
What format is it? Is it the Twitter or?
Esther
No, it's... We're going back a while because it's a Google circles look to it.
Melanie
No.
Esther
Yes, you've got circles and you can invite people into different circles. And then you've also got a channel, which is more like a community that you can join.
Melanie
it's like Google My business used to be.
Esther
Yeah, So you can join the different things. You can invite people to say they've got one pre set up for you to invite your family into a circle, invite your colleagues into a circle. But the wording of circle and channel just seemed very Google plus to me. It has those vibes coming off it on initial inspection. Like I say, I've been playing with it for about five minutes, but that's one that I've just come across as well. Others that I've heard about through other social platforms. There's one called clapper, which is basically TikTok. But for an older generation, there's no young people dancing on it. So it promotes itself as Gen X and Millennials. It promotes itself for those two categories, which is basically you and I, Melanie, and a few people younger than us. Not too much younger than us. So you'd get less of the dancing and more of the informative TikToks type things. So it was from a TikTok that I heard somebody saying that they were going to release stuff on their clapper.
Melanie
Okay. Well, there's another one that I have come across. And again, I haven't had the chance to really have a look at it, but it's starting to crop up more in searches when I'm looking under this topic. I think it's pronounced DM, D IE M, and it's a social search engine. And it's a place where it's made for women and non binary people where they can exchange stories, resources, information, giving a whole new home, I suppose, building a community and a safe space for people who are invested in that area. I guess it's quite niche, isn't it? Being just for women and non binary people. But it's a nice outlet and hopefully if they build up a safe space, it's where you can be around other people who share the way you think.
Esther
Yeah, well, obviously, I don't know. We say, we haven't been able to get into it, but I would hope that it would be more than just claiming to be a woman or claiming to be nonbinary, that is the basis for them letting you in. Because as we know, there are lots of people out there who claim to be 13 year old girls and are actually 47 year old males. So I would be very interested to see how they're going to create that space to be as safe because lots, and I mean, every platform suffers from this. There are people who claiming to be other people that they're not and unfortunately.
Melanie
And how they keep it safe, how many strikes do you get? I guess that's going back to the old forums that we used to have many, many years ago. Do you remember those?
Esther
Yeah. Those were fun. Now you're dating us.
Melanie
Amen to that.
Esther
Now you're dating us. Now, another one that I've been playing with is Lemon 8. It's lemon and the number eight. So it's lemon and the number eight just to...
Melanie
No eight.
Esther
Well, it is for us. It's the number eight. But it's very much like pinterest. On first look, it looks like pinterest. The way that it's laid out and the way that the feed comes up and it's got two sides it's two columns on the screen. But it's also got a For You tab, so that's very TikTokesque. And it's got ways that you can browse, but you do put in your interests, which is very much pinterest. So it's mishmashing some of the platforms that we know and love and like with other ones that we maybe don't know or like as well and trying to get the best of both worlds, maybe?
Melanie
Well, I suppose because these are new as well, they're not being horribly infiltrated by thousands of ads as yet either. So getting there early, I suppose.
Esther
Yeah, well, that's another thing that I just... Because I literally downloaded retro just before we joined or just before we recorded. And I was able to choose a name that was just my name. I didn't have to put in my surname or didn't even have to put in my letter of my initial or choose some random name. Because when you're one of the early adapters, then you can put a shorter name or a shorter username in these. So it is something to be on the lookout. And obviously, if your name is very common, mine's not, so I'm lucky that way. But if your name is very common, then you might not want to be Melanie4723.
Melanie
I should hope not. Relatively new. There's another one I'd want to mention. Again, it's not one I've actually used as yet. It's just one I've come across that you might find useful if it's available to you. And it's called Pear Pop, PEAR, POP. So if you are what most people would refer to as an online content creator, this is apparently a fabulous place to actually create content and get paid for it. Okay, so the whole benefit of using this is you can start making money from it allegedly from the beginning. So as I'm sure you're aware, you can make money off a lot of these platforms, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and so on and so forth. But then you need to have a certain amount of audience, normally quite a large one. They're saying here that it's a very simple process to earn money from it. What you do is you link your social media accounts, maybe TikTok to it, and then you choose challenges to do that mesh well with your vibe and your previous content. You enter the content onto the platform, submit your entry and essentially start earning from it.
Esther
Wow.
Melanie
Again, it's not something I've used.
Esther
I wonder what the challenges are.
Melanie
I'm still doing a bit of research. I had never come across it before. This is all about giving you guys the heads up as soon as we do.
Esther
I wonder what the challenges are. Would there be something really energetic or really far out or really It.
Melanie
Could just be Olympic challenges or hopefully it's nothing too dangerous like cave diving or something like that. Who knows? But everything's open to interpretation on each of these platforms. And as far as I can tell, certainly everything I've mentioned is available on Android and iOS. I'm sure it's the same for yourself, Esther?
Esther
Yeah, everything that I've. Seen has been available for both.
Melanie
And they're all free to set up as well.
Esther
Yeah, obviously you're giving your information so as much freedom as possible.
Melanie
And things can change a year from now. Like I said, we've already dated this really. These are free right now, but this could change in the not too distant future. Who knows?
Esther
Yeah. Just before we go, I just want to say you don't have to be on all these new platforms. You don't have to jump on them. Melanie and I love this thing in a way because it gives us other options and helps us to see what there is out there. But it doesn't mean that you have to jump on the bandwagon from the very start. You might want to wait. I mean, clubhouse has been out for years at this point and some people are now coming away from it because it's changed so much. Other people are only starting to join it. So maybe if you don't need to be there, obviously these are new and like a small audience on them. So if your audience isn't talking about it and jumping over to it, then don't feel the need to jump on them either. This is just an information podcast to let you know that these options are available out there. And if you're not feeling the love for some of the more traditional traditional that makes everything sound really old. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. If you're not loving those these days, then do take a look around because there are lots of options and lots of other people are in the same boat as you with the way things are going on the original social media platforms. Let's call them that rather than traditional.
Melanie
The OGs.
Esther
The OGs. And on that note, we'll say goodbye for now. We'll be back next week with more Monday morning marketing. Until then, bye bye.
Melanie
Bye, guys. Have a great week.
Esther
We are really old though, aren't we?
Melanie
Well, I don't know. I think my kids keep me young. That's where I got the OGs from.
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