Congrats, we all survived brands' April Fools' Day posts 😅

Check mark chit chat

Many of Twitter’s high-profile users are bracing for the loss of their blue check marks that helped verify their identity and distinguish them from impostors on the social media platform. On Sunday, Twitter removed the New York Times’s verification check mark after it said it would not be paying for it for its news accounts as well as its reporters’ accounts.

The costs of keeping the check marks ranges from $8 a month for individual users to a starting price of $1,000 monthly to verify an organization, plus $50 monthly for each affiliate or employee account. Unlike which was previously the case with the legacy blue check mark system, there will be no verification process with this new model. 

Over the weekend, a LeBron James tweet went viral when the NBA superstar declared he also would not be paying for his check mark. 

Bottom line: The blue check mark no longer has the prestige it had before the subscription model. We are suggesting that institutions save their money right now.

Time's up for TikTok? 

Universities are anxiously waiting with creators, brands and scrollers to find out the fate of TikTok here in the United States.

The stakes are high for those of us who are trying to reach Gen Z where they are.

It’s been quite the roller coaster for social media pros in recent months: The future of Twitter is still a big question mark, and Instagram is confused about what it wants to be. LinkedIn is seeing an explosion, but it’s not the best platform for reaching prospective undergraduate students. YouTube Shorts —- a platform higher ed in general has not taken full advantage of — may turn out to be a good alternative if the end of TikTok in the U.S. is near. 

If we can learn one thing from the proposed TikTok ban — regardless of the outcome, as lawmakers are still trying to figure out what action, if any, to take against the app — it’s that we should not be putting all our eggs in one basket: Diversification is key. We don’t own any of these social media platforms (anyone remember when Vine just left us one day?). What do we own? Our website, our emails, our community. 

And speaking of our community, there’s been a trend toward micro-communities on social media that will likely continue to strengthen: Gen Z already tunes out branded messages and promotions and craves safety, privacy and community connection. Companies are figuring out how to tap into this (many institutions already have groups on Facebook and LinkedIn). The newly launched Instagram Broadcast Channels seems to be a move in this direction. Some companies have Slack channels for their most dedicated customers or are using Discord servers. These are all possibilities for ways to better engage prospective students and other target audiences in a more community-based way than traditional one-way communication on social media. 

With TikTok still in the hot seat, its parent company, ByteDance, has launched a new app for creators. Lemon8 has quietly launched on app stores this year and is a current hot topic. Think of the platform as a hybrid of Pinterest's inspirational aesthetic, TikTok's hyper-specific algorithm and Instagram's mix of static images and video. We are exploring the potential for Lemon8 in the higher ed setting, but our first thought is that it could be a great way to showcase research or students' theater, dance, fashion performances. However, to take off, it will need to differentiate itself from TikTok, and if the platform indeed does collect user information, how long do you think it will last before the ban talk begins? 

Don’t be so hard on yourself.

That’s it, that’s the tip this month. A misspelling in a LinkedIn post is not going to bring your institution down. Chances are you, you’ll get a little snark or a nasty comment letting you know about it, but mistakes happen, we correct them when we can, and we move on. Or maybe you’ll have a “seank” moment (see image below) and your little fumble could go viral. For those who don’t know what we’re talking about: A developer at Starbucks was testing push alerts last week and mistakenly sent it to customers on production instead of test devices. The internet had a blast with it. (And hey, Starbucks probably sold more drinks that day.)

Around the socials

> Baby's First Social Media Handle

> Why is Gen Z always talking about Target on social media?

> Why did Elon Musk change the Twitter logo to the Dogecoin dog?

> Instagram testing full-length Reels replays in Stories

My favorite moments at RWJ have been meeting with social media managers and specialists at various campuses and talking over their pain points, successes and everything in between. A little social media therapy is good for the soul. That is why I have Social Media Office Hours. Are you stuck somewhere? Just need an additional gut check or some advice on a strategy? I am happy to help talk it over. Your first session is on me, and you do not need to be an RWJ client to access this.

RWJ Social helps higher ed institutions shape social strategy through a variety of services, including influencer engagement, benchmarking, monitoring and more.

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