#5Things: This Week in Social

Welcome to the Five Things This Week in Social. This is the Webby award-winning
podcast that looks at five stories from social data, content, ai, e-comm,
and tech. To give you something smart to say to your agency partners, your media partners,
or your partners in crime. If you are a marketer, an advertiser, or a creator, or anyone who makes a living by using social platforms, then you are listening to the Right podcast. We have a great show for you today. First up, we have for the first time from Grey Midwest,
it's our Director of Shopper, Rick Schumann. Hello, Rick.

Hey, how you doing my friend?

Doing well, doing well. Excited to have you on the
show. Question for you. Do you have a favorite Super Bowl commercial of all
time?

Oh, super Bowl commercial of all time. I'm gonna go, which I don't know if it's
actually started on the Super Bowl, but we're gonna go. Budweiser Wazzup Guys.

That was a Super Bowl spot was up. That's a good one. That's a good one. And back again,
it's our friend, Abby Ness. Hello Abby.

Hi Joey. What's up?

Not too much. Same question for you, my friend. Do you have a favorite All-time? Super Bowl commercial.

Yeah. I love the, uh, Betty White. “you're not you when you're hungry”. It's just iconic.

It's a classic. It's a classic. I'm Joey Scarillo, and I know this commercial was
from before my time, but you can't go wrong with the classic Coke Mean Joe Green ad.
It's also iconic and I love the Volkswagen commercial with the kid dressed up as Darth Vader. Those are like two of my all-time favorites. Alright, here are today's five things. First up, Abby wishes a happy birthday to Facebook, who turns 20. Then Rick tells us about Amazon rolling out new AI tools to help shoppers. Abby reveals a slew of trend reports that explore the latest in social behaviors. Rick breaks down Walmart stepping into the ring against Amazon's Omnichannel EcomTech. And finally, Abbey talks TikTok, who continues to incentivize creators towards shoppable posts. Alright, so, so much to get into Abby. Let's kick it off with a happy birthday to Facebook.

Awesome. Can you believe it? 20 years of Facebook. I, I am, I'm shocked. Um, you know,
it kind of started as that student directory at Harvard and now it's one of the most popular,
not the most popular, but one of the most popular social media platforms of all time.
And they've really, you know, it kind of started the, this whole thing that we're now doing,
which is kind of crazy. But, you know, what would the world be without? Facebook just to
give a quick trip down memory lane, 20 years in the making. Facebook started in 2004. Zuck
and his roommates launched at Harvard as the only, uh, Harvard only social network.
Um, and in that same year, Yahoo attempted to acquire Facebook for $1 billion in the
year that it started. Pretty crazy in 2009, uh, to the delight of,
you know, grandparents everywhere the like button was introduced. Uh,
I know my grandparents were super happy about that and still continue to use it every day.
Um, and then in 2012, Facebook went public and reached 1 billion users. Later that year in 2016,
marketplace launched, so now everyone can sell all of their XYZ online. And then 2018 we had a major
scandal re revealing that user data was being used, uh, for political purposes. And in 2021,
we saw the infamous rebrand to meta hinting at that shifting sentiment towards a metaverse
driven future, which at this point in time seems unlikely to happen, but never say never.
But where's Facebook today? It's sitting right behind YouTube as the second most
popular social media platform. And in terms of users, it's not too different from 2016,
around seven in 10 U.S adults say they use Facebook, which has pretty much
remained flat. Flat for the last eight years, and it's a lot of college educated women.
Surprisingly, 76% of women say they use Facebook, and around 70% of adults with a four year degree
use the platform and it's becoming a little bit less of a news destination and returning
to its roots a bit. We're seeing in 2020 there was about 54% said they regularly
get news on Facebook. Now in 2024, the number has decreased kind of significantly to 43%.
So it's a lot less of that kind of going for, for news. And maybe it still is a bit,
but for the most part, it's being used as that social platform that
it originally started as. So what's the future? It's probably not the metaverse,
but maybe that's okay. Maybe not. We'll see. Uh, but perhaps they're exploring,
you know, new facets of the current platform features we could see, you know, like an IRL.
Photo album or an expansion of video content in a way that we've never seen before,
maybe to kind of compete with that number one spot that YouTube sits at. But there's also,
you know, a possibility for, for taking it outside of the current platform features and
actually expanding marketplace. You know, we could definitely see an in-person, um,
opportunity similar to what Amazon has done with their Amazon Go stores.
So there's a lot in store and, and the futures is, is bright for Facebook.
Wow. I actually forgot about the near Yahoo acquisition. So it's, it's interesting to
think about what weird timeline we could have been on, had Yahoo bought Facebook back in the early,
early days. And you also mentioned the like button, which reminded me of the poke button.
I don't know if you guys remember the Poke button, but that was a fun feature. Okay,
so better for worse. Facebook is a juggernaut in the social media space. It's easy to criticize
Facebook and you know, there's a lot that Facebook needs to be held accountable for. Rick,
I'm just curious, what do you think has led to its longevity over these two decades?
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, the, the ease of use, the ubiquity, you know, people really being
able to connect with such a wide range of people and kind of the constant evolution, really trying
to understand what's next. You know, I think that, you know, we talked about the like button for
example. You know, that's something that's really perforated into so many other channels, right?
You know, teams, messages, text messages, you know,
this is behavior that started really with. Facebook. So I think it's really interesting
in terms of how they're kind of trying to see a little bit further ahead and,
um, roll out features that are gonna add value for Choppers consumers.
Abby, you laid out, uh, quite a nice timeline there.
Was there anything in there that you also forgot about, like, I forgot about the Yahoo acquisition
or near acquisition? Was there anything that jumped out to you as like a turning point?
Well, for me, I used Facebook for, um, all of those game features like Fashion World
and Farmville and all of those. And I, we can't talk about Facebook without talking
about that very special era where we spent a little bit too much time playing online games.
I remember that time I didn't engage in that as much, but what's so interesting is that. Across
this entire timeline, you see entry points for different people into different places
in the app or on the website, and. Everybody can say that they have a slightly different
experience on Facebook, which I think is unique versus like any other app that's out there.
So I mean, like I said, for better or for worse, it is a juggernaut. It is paved the
way for a lot of things, but also, you know, picked up on a lot of features and trends from
other platforms and pulled that into there. So I guess happy birthday to Facebook. I hope it's a
wonderful year. Alright, let's move on to Amazon rolling out some new AI tools to help shoppers.
Rick, why don't you tell us about that? I.
Absolutely. This is a really exciting piece of technology that Amazon has launched. So
they've launched this new solution. It's AI powered, it's called Rufus,
and it's really aimed at helping shoppers across their journey,
right? Finding answers to their questions, product comparisons, making purchase recommendations.
You know, I think we're starting to see, you know, there, there had been so much buzz around
chat GPT and, and other AI models. I think what you're starting to see is the incorporation of
those models into existing platforms. So you know, you're not gonna have to go somewhere
separately. You're gonna go to Amazon as you would typically search, and you're gonna be
able to type in things like, you know, tell me the benefits of different types of TVs.
For example, you know, that's a search that would've started on Google in the
past. You know, there's all these different types. OLED, QLED four, K,
there's an eight K tv. Now you can start that search right on Amazon. It's gonna
give you product information, it's gonna allow you to do comparisons, um, and it's
gonna give you personalized recommendations based on your purchase history as well.
You know, I think it's one of the really cool things about this is when you compare
versus Google or Microsoft and their AI solutions, the thing
that's really unique about Amazon, I. Is they've got purchase data,
right? Google and Microsoft know what you do throughout the day. They know what you search.
They know what sites you like to go to. They really don't understand what you purchase,
and that's really the million dollar question for within,
especially within the CPG industry. You know, shoppers say they will do one thing and then
they do something different with their dollars. So this is a really powerful way
to really start connecting some of this AI technology into a real everyday occurrence.
Already, Amazon is the number one place where product searches happen. You know,
you can see this being a direct. Attempt to gain more share of voice for search in general away
from people like Google and Microsoft. I think the, you know, the unknown with all of this AI
model is, you know, how is this gonna skew people towards Amazon products, potentially.
I think that's one interesting area here. You know, you could see Amazon obviously has many
private label products in most categories. And are there, is there gonna be preference given to
their products over branded national brands? You know, only time will tell, but it's this really
interesting way that they're potentially gonna change search behavior in general.
We've been trained forever to type in keywords rather than to type the way
that we talk or to build command prompts. And that's kind of where this is heading,
right? It's moving away from just typing in a bunch of words to actually real sentences,
a deeper searching ability and, and really powerful for the, for the shopper at the
end of the day, you know, Abby, with all these tools coming out to help shoppers,
you know, one of the newest ones to hit the market, I think is the,
the Apple Vision Pro, which I personally have not had a chance to play around with.
I don't know if you have, but do you know if there are any ways
that that platform is looking to help shoppers
as well? I think for me it would be fantastic if there were some sort of try-on feature,
especially given like if you're able to upload, say your entire camera roll,
which I know some people would probably have an issue with.
But being able to upload your entire camera roll and actually having a sort of, um,
AI generated wardrobe and giving you different shopping opportunities specifically based on,
you know, your style, the evolution of your style. Style. Um, and pulling in some of
those pieces maybe that you forgot about or something similar, but like you could
actually tell the specific tool why you don't wear that, and so it gives you new options.
I think that would be a game changer for me personally.
Me too. Oh wow. If I had that, that would be awesome. Rick, I have another follow up question
here. This is more something I've just been always wondering about Amazon, so if this is a short
answer, great, but if it's a long answer then we can have another conversation about another day.
With all the information that Amazon has on our shopping behaviors, as you pointed out,
which make them, which set them apart from the other apps and search engines,
does Amazon know when I'm buying something as a gift? And why do they keep thinking I wanna
buy it again? If you know it was a one-time thing for the holidays, do they know that information?
It's a fantastic question. You know, I think they know it through certain channels. For example,
if you've marked that this is for a gift because you're basically gonna give a gift receipt,
or if you're going to do some type of gift wrapping, which is an option they, that they do
offer there. So there are ways, but it's far from foolproof, you know, and you know, adding to that,
the other area that's a challenge is my wife and I share an Amazon Prime account, right?
So getting a true one-to-one. Perspective on people in a household. That's,
that's one area where they're, they're still trying to figure that out as well.
Great. Well, Amazon keeps sending me ads for Legos, which is great 'cause I
buy them for my nephews, but, you know. Okay. Let's face it. I want the Legos.
All right. Let's move right along. As I say, maybe you need another
side
hobby. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. All right. Let's move right along. Abby,
there are a slew of trend reports that have come out recently from almost all
of our favorite platforms and even some bigger research centers. Why don't you
tell us about what they're putting out and, and how they relate back to social behavior?
Yeah, there has been a lot in the past few weeks. Um, we've seen, you know,
a new Pew research study that's speaking about, you know, the specific behaviors on all of the
different platforms. Who's using it? What they're doing. Um, we've also seen some Instagram,
Pinterest, TikTok and they all kind of have their own spin based on who I think they perceive their
audience to be, um, and what they value specifically, um, in those interactions.
So we'll start with Instagram, I think. Um, it's very Gen Z focused,
which is not entirely surprising considering the predominant, um, audience that they have
on that platform is that Gen Z audience. Um, but we see, you know, a lot of different things
across fashion, beauty, wellness. Media finance and just lifestyle in general.
Um, some of the most notable to me were, uh, this encouragement of, and again, I am a Gen Z,
so this is definitely from that Gen Z perspective. But, um, there's this encouragement of sustainable
shopping habits, you know, thrifting looking at, um, how you can wear one 10 ways. Um,
and also just this sort of idea of modest, uh, dressing, which is interesting.
I think normally that's kind of been a taboo in my generation, but that's,
um, uh, a shift that we're, that they're predicting. Um, and then there's also this
piece of strengthening relationships. Uh, gen Z is predominantly single, and
their focus supposedly for this year is on kind of building the current relationships that they have.
And really what I think that means is. We're looking for stronger connection.
It's not about those one-off small talk situations, but rather getting deeper
and really understanding each other in our relationships. And then of course,
I think we see this with Gen ZA lot is taking action when it comes to social change, whether
it be, um, you know, we're in an election year, whether it be, uh, climate change, whether it be
numerous wars that are going on, it's having that really active voice in that community.
Taking it even a step further, it's brands that are having an active voice in,
in those societal issues and taking a specific stand. So that's on Instagram. On TikTok,
they have taken a little bit more of an imperative driven approach. They've kind
of set this theme for themselves, which is bravery, breakthrough,
and that's kind of their whole platform for 2024 and potentially for the future as well.
But they're hoping to kind of see this sort of continuation of curiosity and storytelling. I
think one of the great, great resources on TikTok is, is learning new information you never thought
you would've needed to know. I. And, and I think that brands specifically have that sort of
opportunity to, to step into that conversation if they haven't already and really build that trust.
You know, it's, it's not just about entering the conversation. It's about really speaking to,
to truth and, and. To furthering that story and, and I think that TikTok is hoping to see
more brands kind of actively involved in that conversation. And so I think,
you know, within both of those, something becomes really clear.
It's that consumers are really using social to connect with brands they
feel represent their core values. And so brands who can tell a great story,
provide value, and really choose to take action on numerous issues,
whether it be societal or otherwise, are really gonna win with consumers in 2024.
Rick, with all this data and trends that just came out, does any of it jump out to you particularly?
When it comes to marketers, is there anything here
that you think marketers could really take away and should hone in on? Yeah,
I mean, I think one thing that stood out to me even kind of connecting back to the
Facebook twenty-year story that we talked about a little bit ago was Facebook is the
number one source of news among all of these platforms that we talked about.
30% of people get there. News from Facebook, which I think is really interesting for a whole lot of
reasons, especially as we've talked about maybe some, uh, you know, troubled past with Facebook
and how they may have led certain things in certain ways. But I think that's just a really
interesting point in that, you know, people are getting their daily news through this source.
Uh, it just really stood out to me as something interesting.
Abby. Going back to the data here, which of these trends specifically,
maybe from TikTok or Instagram, do you think that, you know,
we as like agency folks can really use in the work we do and the creativity that we put
out? I think definitely having, um, that team that's, you know, the kind of the
voice of reason, if you will, like, I hate to say that, but it's like pressure testing.
Whether the concepts and the creative that you're putting out actually resonates with an audience
and. Avoiding that sort of like tone-deaf, uh, perspective that sometimes, you know,
we've seen in the past years with brands, I think Gen Z especially sees right through
that. And so having that specific dedicated team, um, to really gut-check, I think is is crucial.
Well, I love talking about trends on this show because then it gives us a
chance at the end of the year to be like, oh, that came true, or,
oh, that didn't. But the reality is we usually never actually look back at these things, but
it is really cool to see what the brands and what the platforms are focusing on in the year ahead.
Alright, let's move on to Walmart. We talked about Amazon earlier, and now Rick, I wanna know
about how Walmart is stepping up to Amazon's, omni-channel E-Comm Tech. Yeah, absolutely.
So Walmart's launching a whole range of new technology solutions,
and this is aimed at really creating a better omni-channel experience.
They're really focused on trying to integrate both their physical and their digital storefronts,
really bring this together to one unified, cohesive experience. And they feel like
they have this distinct advantage, right? They're the number one physical retailer,
and they're going after the number one e-commerce retailer, which is obviously Amazon.
Um, and so a way for them to do that is to lean a little bit heavier on the ability to leverage
these physical spaces accompanied with the digital tech stack that they've built out.
So what this starts to mean, right? What does this look like in a real Walmart store? You know,
in the next, over the next couple years, they're going to be remodeling hundreds of their stores.
It's all part of the new plan that they've rolled out called the Store of the Future
Concept, and this is really about incorporating different Interactive technologies to really,
again, blend online and in-person shopping,
kind of bringing the best of both worlds to the other world, if that makes sense.
For example, in-store shopping, you've got a great ability to discover products. You
can roam through the aisles, you can see touch, feel, so there's a lot of benefits
to that in-store channel. Digitally, you've got convenience, ease. You can get it shipped right
to your house. There's low friction. So how do you kind of combine the best of those things,
the experience that you get from a physical store, but the ease and convenience of online shopping.
So some of the things that they're trying to roll out in this, you know,
store of the FutureCon, things like bringing more digital signage that's easy to follow,
video formats in store things down. This sounds a little bit tactical,
but if you think about the labels that are on every single product, there's price.
Promotions that happen every single week in stores. And so they're,
they're testing digital labels that'll allow you to change prices, you know,
in real time and really just help make it an easier navigational experience at the
shelf. Really call attention to certain benefits, features, things like that.
So, you know, you think about all these different things that they're bringing in, it's. They're,
they're testing and trying, what is going to work, what's gonna resonate? They're even going
as far as, uh, you know, apparently testing virtual, uh, and augmented reality. Trying to
use pairs of actual, you know, whether it will be like an Apple Vision Pro.
They haven't really gotten that far, but trying to bring, like,
literally bringing that type of technology into a Walmart store,
which I think is really interesting when you think about Walmart, low cost every day,
no frills. They're really trying to turn it into an experience that is a lot more enjoyable
'cause they know it's not the most enjoyable experience to shop at Walmart in, in store.
So really exciting and a lot of changes. I think they're, they're just heating up and
trying to figure out this, this space and, and really trying to battle and,
and protect what they've built physically. And can they ladder in the online presence?
Abby as a, as a consumer, putting your consumer hat on. When you
walk into a store and you see some of these new experiences and new
ways of information being given to you, whether it's, you know.
In, in-store, digital price tag or even, you know, coolers that have video screens
in them. What's your takeaway from that? Do you, do you appreciate that amount of
technology in a storefront and Yeah. Do you engage with that sort of thing?
I think at first when we saw a lot of that technology, not to say that there has been
anything to this extent, but, um, I was really excited by that as a consumer.
I think now we're shifting into a space where it has to have some sort of function. It has to
have some sort of added value. It can't just be for show because I think we've become so
accustomed to living in this sort of digital world that unless it's helpful in some way,
I have no interest in it. I think it's just kind of a waste of money.
But that might just be my specific perspective.
I don't know. I would be curious to see what the listeners think.
Absolutely. You know, it's almost like it, it's taking it from toys to tools,
right? Okay. First you can show me what it does, and now that's great and that's,
you know, really cool. But now I need to know how it's gonna actually fit into my life.
And I, and I kind of feel, we know we mentioned the Apple Vision Pro earlier,
and, and I'm sure it'll come up in many more things throughout the year,
but it sort of feels that way with the evolution of Google Glass,
right? So you have this tool, or you have this toy that people are wearing on their face.
And now the Apple Vision Pro is turning more into a tool. For better or for worse,
uh, the look of it and seeing people in public using it may or may not. Be cool,
but it is still, I think it's moving into that very practical phase when
it comes to AR. Alright, friends, let's move on to our fifth and final thing.
Abby, tell us about TikTok continuing to incentivize creators towards shoppable
posts. So TikTok has introduced a couple of very new platform features. The first,
I think, perhaps most notably, is the removal of all of universal
music groups. Extensive catalog. So any, you know, really popular artists,
really popular songs are now no longer going to be available for use on the app.
They're gonna be muted and users will then have to kind of find a select alternative that,
you know, take toxic just. But in that same vein, and I think perhaps they're kind of
trying to make up for this as they're gonna introduce this new feature called
AI Song that basically will generate original songs, uh, using text prompts.
So although you're losing some of that popular music,
you have the opportunity to kind of generate something new. And it really incentivize users
to continue to kind of keep that sort of audio element that has made TikTok so popular, um,
in mind. The next is kind of this TikTok video experience, and it's really kind of,
again, just changing the way that, that the platform works in terms of the length of video.
So it will basically boost posts or boost videos that are over a minute long in term
in order to kind of get users to continue to use the platform for longer, which of course is their
overall goal. Then there's this TikTok Creative Center, which kind of is, I think, a little bit
of opportunity for them to limit the data element that, that TikTok has kind of been been grabbing.
I, I know that there's been a lot of issues with, you know,
how tailored the algorithm has been. So the final one is really looking at
this kind of TikTok shopping experience, which will essentially give users, um,
the opportunity to kind of turn their own videos into a shopping moment or shoppable moment.
Um, and so anything that's featured,
uh, users will be able to kind of tag and link to an e-commerce website and it will
actually prompt viewers to then continue to explore similar products and features,
almost kind of like what we were talking about with the Apple Vision Pro. And they can actually
find specifically what they're looking for, depending on what's featured in that video.
Rick, as our shopper expert at Gray, I am so curious what you think about TikTok Shoppable.
Posts, it's something that we know that TikTok has been pushing and, and, and really trying to
get more adopted on the platform. And we know that it works in some countries and
not others. But I'm just curious, like what are your thoughts on, on Choppable posts?
Do you, do you think there's a bright future for them, uh, at least in the US on TikTok?
Yeah, I do. I think it's, it's an area that is still, you know, trial and error to figure
out what is gonna resonate and really what's gonna build that consumer receptivity. But you
know, it, it's just a natural extension of how people are using social as a discovery platform.
You know, I think it's interesting to see kind of the, the bridging of the online and
the offline world as you talk about being able to upload your own content, you know, be able
to. Purchase anything that's in that content. I think it's really interesting and, you know,
just a general focus, I think for TikTok is gonna be on monetization over the next few years.
They, they, you know, they're gonna keep figuring out ways to
find ways to monetize the platform. And you're seeing it even with things like
partnerships with other retailers like a Walmart, where Walmart is now feeding
first-party data to TikTok to allow them to get much smarter with their targeting.
Yeah, that's great. I mean, you know, at, at the end of the day, you know,
the, the, the consumer journey definitely goes through social and, you know, ends either at
the point of purchase on places like Amazon and Walmart.com, or in store like Walmart or you know,
your grocery store. Abby, what, what do you think, what's your big takeaway from TikTok shopping?
What do you think? Where's it gonna go?
I think if anything, it's just an opportunity for smaller businesses to kind of have that
voice that the major retailers typically don't have. And so if you're, you know,
mom and pop shop and you have a TikTok presence and
you're offering something that people find valuable, they're gonna be able to find it
there.
I. Yeah, that's absolutely right. I mean, long live the mom and pop shop, especially on, uh,
TikTok and it's a great platform for, uh, brands like that. Alright, well, friends,
that does it for us today. If you don't already, be sure to follow us. Share us,
review us like us, or write to us with your questions, comments, concerns,
points of interest or complaints, or just send us a thing you want us to discuss.
You can do all of that. By emailing us at podcasts at Gray.com Connect with us on
Spotify by sharing your thoughts on the show. Just look for the Q&A field. The
topics discussed on this show are primarily written and researched by the teams at Grey,
New York and Grey. Midwest led this week by our panel Abby, Ness and Rick Schuman.
Rick. Come back again. Let's make it a thing. This podcast is produced by me,
Joey Scarillo and Samantha Geller with Post-production by Amanda Fuentes. Guy
Rosmarin and Ned Martin at Gramercy Park. Studios Marketing and communication support from Christina
Hyde and Jayda Hines. Listen to Grey Matter, A Podcast About Ideas where we speak to founders, artists, and innovators about bringing their ideas to life.
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