The Content Planning Issue
An AI made a podcast about me after being trained on 277 posts from Social Signals, and it’s actually good
This issue of Social Signals was written to Lava La Rue’s “Starface,” an LP that Scoope calls an epic Sci-Fi inspired adventure that at its lyrical core is concerned about what makes us human.
So much goodness in this issue. Let’s just jump right in…
I once got into a good-spirited argument with my colleague Mark Singer (who now is Deloitte Digital's CMO) about if social media was more about content than community.
Mark believed social was more about content. And I believed social was more about people, culture, and the technology that connects them.
“But what do they connect over, Greg?” he would ask. “Content.”
Damn it. He wasn’t wrong. (Note: I’m not saying he was right. I still believe social is more about people connected via tech than content. So there. But also, he wasn’t wrong).
And here we are looking at 2025 and still playing in that tension between content and community.
So I’m sharing four things today related to content, and we’ll do community in a future issue:
2025 content planning fodder
TikTok FYP changes to consider
A quote about how Apple thinks of photos (aka content)
And an example of AI-created content that is incredibly compelling and actually solves a problem.
Let’s go! 🚀
Sprout’s 2024 Social Media Strategy Report
I spent some time digging into Sprout’s new 2024 Social Media Strategy Report this week, and there’s some great stuff here. And yes, they are a FINN #client, but that’s not why I’m sharing (note: I’ve written about them before they were a client). Anyway…
For this report, Sprout surveyed over 4,500 consumers in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Ireland to find out what users actually want from brands on social, and how their responses differ from network to network. I’ll pull out some highlights below…
The above chart shows which platforms the survey sample claimed, and while Instagram is the clear winner, I think it’s critical to note how strong Facebook still is among the general population, YouTube is still hitting high marks (ahem, put YouTube Shorts into your content strategy), and although X is still hanging on, we can’t discount that 10-17% of users claiming Threads. I’m super bullish on Threads long-term (more on that here).
Key takeaway on the content strategy side: The number one thing users want from brands is entertainment. No surprise.
But here’s the kicker—66% of people say “edutainment” (yep, educational content that doesn’t bore them) grabs their attention the most. They want to see the product. People use the product. And it needs to be entertaining.
It’s not just about cat videos today; it’s about showing your product in action while making people smile or learn something new. With a cat, maybe.
Think about what makes you stop your own scroll. Even for B2B audiences, this is a key takeaway. And then check out what the young people in your life are watching on YouTube. Way more explainer, history, and demo videos than you may have imagined.
And quality is increasingly a factor:
91% of social users say the production value and budget that goes into brands’ social content impacts whether they engage with it, and younger consumers are more likely to say it impacts their engagement. Further, the number one reason we unfollow brands is unoriginal or repetitive content, intensifying the creative strain further.
The report goes on to share some pretty compelling stats on each platform, the fact Insta is emerging as a customer service hub, and that Gen X and Millennials are dominating LinkedIn, with 39% of all social users having a LinkedIn profile. Note: see my thoughts on LinkedIn from last month here: It’s not just about being on LinkedIn; it’s about using LinkedIn to its fullest potential.
See the full report here. Boom.
📲 Users Can Now Customize TikTok’s FYP Page
In marketing, if you view the algorithm as the audience, you have to trust it as much as anything else. Of course. But what if folks have opted out?
TikTok introduced a feature that allows users to “customize their FYP” by sliding a scale for each genre of content in settings (want less dance and more news? you can tell your algorithm that now). Before this feature, the only way to adjust your FYP was by selecting “show less often” on suggested videos and/or resetting it completely.
This means that TikTok users can now better control what kinds of content they see AND what kinds of content they don’t want to see.
Here’s mine with my updated setting (get those dances off my FYP!):
Adjust yours here: Profile > Settings > Content Preferences > Manage Topics
If you’re in marketing and continuing to invest resources in organic social content on TikTok, this may have some implications. Does the algorithm think your content is news? Pet-friendly? A dance? And will your potential earned audiences see or not see it as a result now? Probably. Yes.
Either way, you can see where paid targeting and whitelisting will continue to be a complementary factor to organic on TikTok.
🎧 The Latest Episode of is LIVE!
Remember pagers? Landlines? Ah, the good ol' days before TikTok… or were they?
Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, follow @The.Cave.Project on Instagram, and sign up for our Substack here.
🎤 Quote of the Week
"Here’s our view of what a photograph is. The way we like to think of it is that it’s a personal celebration of something that really, actually happened.
Whether that’s a simple thing like a fancy cup of coffee that’s got some cool design on it, all the way through to my kid’s first steps, or my parents’ last breath, It’s something that really happened. It’s something that is a marker in my life, and it’s something that deserves to be celebrated. And that is why when we think about evolving in the camera, we also rooted it very heavily in tradition. Photography is not a new thing. It’s been around for 198 years. People seem to like it. There’s a lot to learn from that. There’s a lot to rely on from that.
Think about stylization, the first example of stylization that we can find is Roger Fenton in 1854 — that’s 170 years ago. It’s a durable, long-term, lasting thing. We stand proudly on the shoulders of photographic history."
— Jon McCormack, Apple's VP of camera software engineering
🤖 An AI made a podcast about me after being trained on 277 posts from Social Signals, and it’s actually good
After seeing lots of Threads about Google’s NotebookLM “Audio Overview” capability this week and then reading
Substack post about it, I had to make one myself. And it’s honestly pretty good…Basically, I fed it a chunk of archive from this Substack and it produced this podcast featuring two hosts talking about subjects I’ve written about in a shockingly very human performance in a matter of minutes.
Above is just a short clip (that I ran through Descript to create this video), but I have to say the non-verbals, rhetorical questions, and ease of training this model was 🤯.
There’s just something about two A.I. hosts saying “remember when we were growing up?” so convincingly.
Imagine where this tech will be a few years from now — specifically for things like taking a subject you want to learn, creating a quick podcast about it, and let it teach you, entertain you, or both. For example, here’s an idea from Robert Stephens on making community policy easier to digest for people.
The future = create personalized media about any topic you choose -- on demand and in any channel -- at a quality level that rivals traditionally produced content.
Try it yourself here.
⚡️ Social Signals
Mr. Beast, Logan Paul, and KSI pooled their influencer star power to launch Lunchly, a new Lunchables-style CPG product that includes Feastables and Prime, two products whose growth and success was fueled by Beast and Paul. The Swan kids do enjoy a school lunch Lunchable now and then, so I asked them if I should get some on the next grocery run, and… they are NOT interested at all. Specifically because “all of them are problematic.”
California just signed a bill that makes it illegal knowingly distributing an ad or other election communications that contain materially deceptive content -- including deepfakes. This directly relates to dangerous behavior from Elon and Trump. And potentially challenges the concept of parody (again). I guess we’ll see.
People are using Find My Friends as a primary form of social media now. Btw, I still use Foursquare if you want to know where I am.
Spotify is testing a new way to keep kids songs out of your listening history, which will pretty much save your Spotify Wrapped each year.
On the road to smart glasses becoming mainstream in our lifetime, it’s important to note Snap’s fifth-generation Spectacles launched this week and although ugly, are a huge step toward wearable, AR glasses. They’re $99/month and targeted to developers to make content for them. Watch this video here.
YouTube just launched Discord-like "Communities" feature, creating a space where fans and creators can initiate discussions and share content. This new setup lets creators maintain community interaction without always needing to produce new content. It's fan-powered, creator-controlled, and aimed at fostering a more intimate, vibrant community experience on the platform. Testing is underway, with a broader rollout expected in 2025. See all 9 announcements here.
Check out this video showing an iPhone’s front facing TrueDepth camera doing Face ID with our infrared camera. I had no idea this was flashing my face like this!
Big signal here where The Verge dropped X and added Threads in their share icons:
Thread of the Week: There’s a kid at my school who believes there is a giant worm that lives beneath the school.
Unreal Quote of the Week: Omnipresent AI cameras will ensure good behavior, says Larry Ellison: "Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that's going on. We're going to have supervision. Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times, and if there's a problem, AI will report the problem and report it to the appropriate person."
Uncanny AI of the Week: AI can be an annoying buzzword, but I need this AI-powered Gordon Ramsay cooking show to be made into reality IMMEDIATELY!
Insta Account of the Week: Lewis Rossignol️️️️ draws the most amazing childlike creations.
Insta of the Week: Red Bull did was Red Bull does and made some jaw-dropping content you can’t not watch and share again.
Good Read of the Week: The Rise of 'Grid Zero': Why more Instagram users are hiding their profile.
TikTokker of the Week: realstickaccount features reviews of sticks.
Crazy Sci-Fi Is Real TikTok of the Week: Creating the matrix but for real using brain organoids
Music Data TikTok of the Week: Debunking the “All good music came out before I was 35” thing with data, because every single person says the same thing. Also makes sense why I have a playlist of nu-metal songs from my adolescence I still listen to once a week.
Art of the Week: Man finds needle in haystack as part of art exhibit. This is my kind of art.
See you in the future! 🚀
Greg
How do I download the 2025 Content Planning Info?