This week has us giggling over Travis Kelce's old tweets, budgeting for the holidays (and Hamburglar Crocs), downloading Britney's audiobook on Spotify, and marking our calendars for Abbott Elementary (and our other favorite movies/series) returning to the big screen.

Hollywood is Back

The recent SAG-AFTRA strike that halted Hollywood for 6 months is ending after a tentative deal was reached, allowing filming on major movies like Mission Impossible 8 and Gladiator 2 to resume along with TV shows like Abbott Elementary and Grey's Anatomy.

With the strike over, A-list actors can return to promoting their projects on talk shows and social media after the 118-day hiatus, just in time for upcoming award season campaigns. In the first week since the strike ended, actors like Timothée Chalamet, Brie Larson, Tom Hiddleston, and others have returned to late night shows, red carpets, social media, and interviews to generate buzz for upcoming or recently released projects.

The revived activity signals an economic recovery for the entertainment industry and more new content in the pipeline for audiences in 2023 after an unusual lull this year. Overall, Hollywood is ready to bounce back now that writers and actors have new contracts in place.

Micro-acts of JOY

While we adjust to shorter days and darker evenings and prepare for the winter months, it's important to take our Vitamin D and practice micro-acts of joy. Scientists found that doing even one small act of joy each day can boost your mood by over 25% each week. It's based on an analysis of surveys involving at least 11,000 people. According to the study, anything from a gratitude list to doing something kind for others had a sizable impact on mood each week. As one researcher put it, it could lead to "greater well-being, better coping, less stress, more satisfaction with relationships." As I dread the impending doom that is Minnesota Winters, it's good to be reminded to appreciate the little things.

TikTok: Go-To Channel for News and Activism

TikTok's role as a news source has grown substantially, with the share of users getting news on the platform nearly doubling since 2020. According to a new Pew Research study, 43% of TikTok users accessed news regularly on the app in 2023, up from just 22% in 2020. This increase is happening across age groups, not only among younger Americans. Overall, half of U.S. adults now get at least some news from social media, representing a massive 255% increase since 2020.

Amid this growth, TikTok has become a place for creators and followers, alike, to promote activism and raise awareness of issues, reflecting Gen Z's desire to use the platform for collective action. Users raised awareness and funds to help people affected by the Maui fire and have utilized filters and Tiktok Creator Fund to raise funds for people in Gaza.

TikTok facilitates authentic engagement with anonymous users and private likes. People opt into participation, enabling activism on their own terms. But with misinformation spreading, TikTok must prioritize truth, especially as more users turn to it for news. Maintaining integrity is critical as TikTok grows.

SOCIAL CHANNEL RECAP

TikTok X Hubspot

You can't spend 5 minutes on Tiktok these days without a push towards Tiktok Shop. The channel's recent partnership with HubSpot, a CRM and marketing platform, will enable B2B lead generation even more. This integration will allow HubSpot customers to collect leads from TikTok directly within HubSpot CRM. The partnership aims to help B2B companies tap into TikTok's large userbase and drive leads and sales through natively formatted video ads.

New Meta Features

Instagram has launched new creation tools for Reels and Stories, including new text-to-speech voices, fonts, and styles, the ability to add clips with audio from Instagram's GIF library, updated drafts management, new filters and camera search capabilities, and additional metrics for Reels. These updates aim to provide more creative options and improve the posting experience ahead of the holiday season when usage and posting typically increases. The goal is to encourage more Reels and Stories content creation during the high engagement periods around the holidays.

Meta has released a new A/B testing feature for Facebook Reels that allows creators to test different captions and thumbnails to optimize engagement. The tool lets you insert up to 4 caption and thumbnail combinations and surfaces the top performing variant, while Meta is also experimenting with AI-generated captions. Along with the testing feature, Meta introduced new achievement badges and content management tools in the Professional Dashboard to help creators maximize views.

YouTube Testing A/B testing, too

YouTube's A/B testing for thumbnails is still new, with debate on ideal test length and trends showing creators optimizing existing styles vs dramatic changes; there's also discussion around using click-through-rate vs watch time metrics, as compelling thumbnails should align with video quality, and YouTube may integrate AI-generated options as they expand access to 50,000 creators by year end.

LinkedIn hit 1B members, but some are skeptical

LinkedIn has launched new AI tools for Premium subscribers to summarize feed posts and job ads, which could enable users to skip reading content and feign expertise, while also announcing it's reached 1 billion total members, a questionable milestone as LinkedIn only reports total members not active users like other platforms, and its member count seems inconsistent with recent reports of under 1 billion members.

Users Abandon X, but Sports Twitter endures

While many users have abandoned the platform since Elon Musk's takeover, sports fans and reporters continue to use X (formerly Twitter) for real-time updates, commentary, and community around games and teams; alternatives like Threads don't offer the same level of instant interaction, and the loyalty of sports communities makes it hard for some to leave the platform they've invested time in building up. X remains indispensable for sports talk despite its issues as creatures of habit and the need for live sports discussion keeps core users on the platform.

Spotify Premium add audiobooks!

Spotify has expanded its audiobook offering to U.S. Premium subscribers, providing access to 200,000 titles as part of its monthly subscription with 15 hours of listening included upfront and additional 10-hour top-ups available for purchase, marking a major move into the audiobook market to compete with Amazon's Audible and provide more content options alongside music and podcasts.

DYNAMIC DUOS

• McDonalds and Crocs release Grimace and Hamburglar-inspired footwear
• Drake and J. Cole announce "It's All a Blur" Tour
• Apple and Android get just a little closer to being friends with Apple's announcement that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year (In non-techy terms — green bubbles won't mess up your group chats anymore)

Crafty, Affordable Holiday Season

It's not just me — we're all feeling the recession-y vibes this year, right? Because of this, we're seeing an interesting balance between splurging and cutting back this holiday season. Black Friday sales are still on the rise — Consumers spent a record $9.8 billion online on Black Friday, according to data from Adobe Analytics. That's up 7.5% from last year — people are still looking for ways to responsibly cut back this year.

It's predicted consumers will be making tradeoffs this season, spending less on gatherings and celebrations due to high inflation and cost of living. Many will shop earlier and focus on necessities. But that doesn't mean we'll be lacking in holiday cheer. Tiktok is buzzing with crafty ways to spend less on decor — whether through DIY or finding affordable items at Target. We're also seeing the girlies put on their craft hats to create handmade, low-cost gifts (I, myself, am knitting! Time will tell if I actually finish all the scarves I plan to gift this Christmas). It's still the season of giving, no matter your budget!

*shuts laptop to find micro-joy*