🐦 Bird Brained

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In This Issue:

📰 ELON MUSK's attempt to transform TWITTER into a super app, dubbed "X", is likely to fail, say some experts. We have their analysis.

🐦 Hackers exploit TWITTER's transition to "X", sending phishing emails to Twitter Blue users, falsely claiming they're from X.com.

📸 INSTAGRAM is working on integrating generative AI elements, including AI sticker creation, visual editing tools, and an AI chatbot.

🕺 TIKTOK collaborates with influencer marketing platform JoinBrands, integrating with TikTok's Spark Ads format.

💼 INTUIT unveils SMB MediaLabs, a B2B ad network aimed at small businesses, offering access to more than six million QuickBooks Online customers.

🧵 THREADS by Instagram reveals its plan to introduce an in-app DM function, not just relying on Instagram’s DM setup.

🔍 BING’s ad labels have been redesigned in a test, and I challenge you to spot them in the first five seconds of looking at them (below).

Is Elon Musk's "Everything App" Already Doomed?

Elon Musk's move to turn X into an "everything app" like China's WeChat — the app that combines chat, dating, payments, and social media — may already be doomed.

While Musk sees this as a path to profitability, a think-piece up on Business Insider today suggests he might be missing a major plot point: The U.S. isn't China.

🏁 WeChat's Headstart

A big challenge for Musk is that WeChat was originally designed as an all-in-one app from its inception, giving it a headstart and contributing to its success and its now more than 1.3 billion monthly active users. Far ahead of Twitter's 368 million.

The piece notes that a big part of WeChat's success is also because of China's strict tech censorship, which bans major Western competitors like Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

But when Musk looks at these user numbers and simply assumes that adding functions to X will make it the WeChat of the West, he's missing the point. WeChat is a social ecosystem in itself that's locked its users in from the get-go, something that Facebook and the entity formerly known as Twitter will likely never be able to achieve.

That's not to say that Musk can't find a way to make these features appealing enough to the Western world to lock more consumers into a potential X ecosystem. But it's worth noting that when Tencent introduced WeChat over a decade ago, the digital space in China was still growing, and lacked a major power player.

Musk, however, is attempting to carve out a space in a crowded tech market... Right now, we have yet to see or hear enough about X to know for sure if he even stands a chance of winning. But Musk may be too late to the game for the odds to be in his favor.

Scammers Exploit Twitter’s Rebrand

Heads up brand managers who have admin access to your company's Twitter account, scammers are now targeting its paying Blue subscribers with phishing emails that mimic X.

According to recent reports, these fraudulent emails have the subject line “Preserve your status. Transition smoothly,” prompting the recipients to switch their subscription from Twitter Blue to X.

Clicking on the link takes the user to a site that has no connection to Twitter or X. The URLs then direct users to a seemingly legitimate API authorization screen, requesting permission to use a program that impersonates an official Twitter app.

Opting to "Authorize the app" grants the hackers almost full control over the user’s account.

Scammers can also delete paying customers' accounts in order to sell them to third parties.

Instagram's New AI Image Creation (and Labels!)

More generative AI tools are coming soon to Instagram, including:

👉 Generative AI Stickers

A new AI-generative sticker tool for posts and Stories, which lets you create custom graphics based on text prompts.

📷 Visual Editing Tools

The platform also now lets you remove or replace elements of your pictures within the creation process, including:

• AI Brush: This lets you replace parts of your image by using generative AI to fill in the gaps.

• Restyle: This lets you recreate sections of an uploaded image with text prompts.

🤖 AI Chatbot

Instagram is also testing a new AI chatbot, similar to Snap's My AI, built into DMs which you can summon by typing @ai into the chat field, and ask questions.

💬 Message Summary

The platform is also testing another DM AI tool that summarizes your inbox messages for you.

🏷️ Labels on AI-generated Content

Finally, Instagram is adding new labels to content that identify when an image has been created by AI. Brands and creators will also be asked to add a ‘created by AI’ marker to posts uploaded from other tools.

Images: Meta / Instagram / Social Media Today

JoinBrands Sparks TikTok Marketing Deal

Influencer marketing platform JoinBrands is the latest company playing matchmaker between TikTok creators and advertisers. The company recently launched an integration with TikTok’s Spark Ads format.

Spark Ads let advertisers access pre-existing creator content and use it in their campaigns with the creator's consent. Now, JoinBrands’ corporate partners can access this feature without a TikTok account.

Beyond TikTok, the marketing platform also features built-in ad tools for:

• Reels

• YouTube Shorts

• Amazon Shoppable Videos

Brands pay to use the platform only after a creator accepts their job, and can maintain full content rights to reuse and repurpose promotional materials.

Intuit Launches Media Network for Small Businesses

Fintech giant Intuit has launched a B2B ad network targeting small businesses, called "SMB MediaLabs."

The ad network lets brands and marketers target QuickBooks customers via several digital media properties, including:

• Social platforms like Meta

• Audio and podcasts

• Online publishers

• Vizio will be its exclusive CTV partner

The ads will be designed for QuickBooks Online customers in the U.S. based on their type of business, product offerings, and location.

The company said that instead of a self-serve setup, advertisers will work with its account managers and media planners on strategy.

Intuit’s core products also include:

• TurboTax

• Credit Karma

• Mailchimp

Two Small Items…

📥 Slide Into Your Threads DMs

First, your brand's followers will soon be able to slide into your Threads DMs. Adam Mosseri, Instagram's head, recently confirmed the app is adding support for direct messaging.

Meta’s new platform is continuously evolving, with recent updates like translation and a new following tab. And soon users will be able to chat with brands and creators without leaving the platform.

👀 Sneaky Bing Search Ads

Second, it seems like Microsoft Ads in Bing Search results are adopting a "hide and seek" approach with their ad labels.

Typically, the "ad" label appears before the description line, but Search Engine Roundtable reported today that the platform is testing some very discreet-looking ad labels with microscopic-sized text at the end of the ad.

I'm sure this won't raise any red flags. 😉 

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