Weekend Musings 36
Notes on Elon's fight, Reddit war is over, X is paying, and Reels inspire action
August is my favourite month - my parents got married, my best friend celebrates his birthday and last year he even got married in August to his best friend. And I was also born in August.
Recently while watching actor Vijay Verma talk about how the movie Sadma impacted his childhood. (This conversation isn’t about any show promotion instead it is all about recommendations for movies, shows, video games, etc. Off late I have become a fan of these recommendation interviews done by Chalchitra Talks on YT.)
This made me dig into my childhood. But unfortunately, there are no movies or shows that created a big impact or moved me.
But a photograph of a sadhu did. I was in class seven and as always I had zero preparation for the weekly test. During this time I found a passport-size photograph of a sadhu on my father’s shelf. More than his striking posture I was interested in the lines that were written at the back:
"Whenever you are in danger, whether in ocean or in war or in the wild, remember Me. I shall save you. You may not know Me. You may not realize who I am. Just pray to Me with a little touch of your heart and I shall free you from gripping sorrows and miseries."
It made no sense but wanted to test it. Like an idiot, I took his photograph and called him. Neither he appeared nor he made me pass my exam.
But this incident remained with me. Especially the lines.
Cut to 2020 while I was reading “Autobiography of A Yogi.” the incident reappeared again. With the help of my parents, I was able to find the name of the sadhu - Loknath Baba.
And after some searching, I finally was able to order his biography - “The Incredible Life of A Himalayan Yogi” by Shuddhanandaa Brahmachari.
After listening to my story my mother shared that she accidentally visited his ashram. The travel arrangements were done by my father. During the course of our conversation, she revealed that every year on the anniversary Mr Naidu would bring gifts and sweets.
“Back then I would hardly appreciate. I was busy with my family life. Today I have time and all these memories to live with.”
And here is Mrs. Naidu posing with her camera-shy husband in Greenwich Park.
Will Elon Musk fight Mark Zuckerberg: In the latest twist, Elon has said that he is willing to fight. But first, there is surgery that needs to happen. Mark even proposed a date but Elon has backed off. Additionally, Elon has made a lot of claims but Mark says that he hasn’t agreed on anything. They need to sort out their communication game first. TC, Guardian.
Elon and media: How should media cover Elon needs to change writes Casey in his weekly free newsletter. “For most of you, I realize, it is no longer news that Musk stretches the truth until it disintegrates.” He further writes, “At the same time, it is in the nature of business journalism to assume that CEOs of public companies are not lying all the time. And it’s in Musk’s nature to make frequent, bold pronouncements about his companies, politics, the nature of consciousness, and so on, all of which are irresistible to editors.” Platformer.
New features to Threads: After being in the news that users are leaving Threads, the network is releasing new features such as the ability to share a Threads post to your Instagram DMs, a way to add custom alt text to photos and videos that you include in posts, and a new “mention button” that lets you “easily mention someone’s account in your Thread.” The mention button will drive the much-required attention to the platform. The Verge.
X is paying small creators: Create a unique tweet, pray to go viral, and X will pay you for the creativity. It has started paying small creators a decent amount. However, Elon told an X user "It’s not exactly per impression. What matters is how many ads were shown to other verified users.” I am confused. Mashable.
The logic behind X acc to CEO: X CEO Linda Yaccarino told CNBC “Even when we announced that I was joining the company, I was joining the company to partner with Elon to transform Twitter into X, the everything app.”
Today every social media app wants to be everything. But is the user interested? WeChat in China did it. However it failed in India, Whatsapp payments are still struggling in India when the market is dominated by PhonePe and GPay. So it needs to be seen how the ambitious plans of Elon perform in reality.
By the way, Linda says brands are coming back to X, has autonomy under Elon and he is training too. “Elon is training,” adding that a potential fight would be a “great brand sponsorship opportunity.” CNBC.
Reddit’s fight is over: These days one of my favourite go-to network is Reddit. I have subscribed to topics of my interest from politics to tech to cricket to Bollywood to cute pics and videos. I upvote topics I like and consume content without interaction.
Recently the community-driven network witnessed the worst fight between moderators and the CEO Steve Huffman. Reddit moderators decided to protest when the network introduced its controversial API pricing. After months of protest, the battle has come to a close and Reddit has won it. Some feel that the moderators feared and gave up the fight. The world is changing and API pricing is something every platform is thinking of. No one is going to provide data for free to train your AI capabilities. At the same time platforms like Reddit are still thriving in the world of Reels/Tiktok because of moderators. Gizmodo.
Lead Gen Campaigns on Meta: In the coming days when you create a Meta campaign with an objective of ‘Leads’ the platform will allow you to enable a browser add-on that adds a Facebook instant form to your website. So you can combine an instant form with your website URL to help you get more leads. This is another way to drive quality leads. After clicking the ad, the supporter will see your website and then the instant form. You can also test which one is driving more quality leads. Bram on LinkedIn.
Reels inspire action: 74% of consumers(Australian) purchased a product/service after watching a Reel on Instagram says a new report from Meta. The report also makes a bold claim that on this aspect it is even better than TikTok and YT Shorts.
Helen Black, Meta’s head of connection planning thinks the same and further states: “Reels is also part of the broader Instagram ecosystem, people are moving around that and it is leading to stronger actions for businesses — 3.8 billion people use Meta apps and services every month and Reels is strong across all demographics.” Report.
Good weekend :)