#1 It begins.
Things I Used To Tweet: Week 4 April 2022
So here we are. #1 instalment of Things I Used To Tweet. Every journey starts with a step, here’s step one.
I’m not going to repeat *why* I’m writing this, you probably saw my original post. If not and this has been forwarded to you, here’s what you can expect and why.
No pressure then.
Let’s get into the #content.
1. Elon gonna Elon: Twitter stake planned since 2018?
You’ve probably seen the news, Elon Musk, love him - and boy do people love him - or loathe him - and boy do people loathe him - has taken a 9.2% stake in Twitter and a place on the board too. All fine and normal, if anything is normal anymore. But this theory caught my eye and you have to go back to 2018 where it all perhaps all bega. Planning that Thanos would be proud of, though I’m unsure it’s that deep. 👇🏼
Tldr: It’s about the SEC and banter, because it’s 2022.
What will it mean for Twitter? I’m not sure, I’ve always thought Twitter should almost be run like a non-profit because it has cultural value/importance, yes I know it’s got awfulness too. They’ve been shipping a lot of products recently, (communities, audio/spaces/newsletters) so maybe they’ll be more but that takes time so I doubt Elon moves that needle other than buzz. But generally, I think it will be calm in the background and Elon will cause havoc he wants in the foreground. I mean the CEO of Twitter is loving it, so there is that. 👇🏼
2. The Internet killed mainstream culture.
Hard to disagree. The internet is messy which makes everything around it, kinda messy too and disrupted. This piece talks about the long journey to this point, it uses the Oscars but goes far deeper into where digital culture may go.
Tldr: There’s no such thing as a mainstream culture—instead we’ll have billions of individual universes of culture.
I agree, there is a messiness to culture right now which makes it feel like the internet has spewed into IRL. I do chuckle when thinking about the agencies trying to explain that in an audience strategy. But anyway, long read. 👇🏼
Three Game things
Soft launching is a big thing in mobile games, it’s something I love about mobile vs other platforms. This is a nice run through of how Wooga Switchcraft soft launched on Google Play.
UK Consumer spending on gaming 2021 report. Up 1.9% to $7.16 billion. Great for your decks, agency/non gaming ppl.
Everyone wants a piece of TikTok - more of that in future Substacks. For now, here is how Among Us do it, with some good tips. TikTok is going to test a lot of brands, that’s for sure. I may or may not be doing something in this space soon…
Two quick Web 3 things.
I’m going to dabble in Web3 updates, my current viewpoint is broadly interested but there is going to be a lot of rubbish and scams til we get to the good stuff. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be working on it to get to the good stuff though, which is probably some time away. I doubt what the future of say NFTs is, will be even called NFTs for example.
But here are two things I thought were interesting.
Transition to web3: a guide for non-technical roles - lot of Community here, lot of NFT community seems to be spam right now, so lot to bewary and lot to learn.
We’ll see.
Odds and ends, basic links. Little commentary, just pure linkage, in wine terms, low intervention links.
Patreon’s Founder on the future of his company. I’m a big fan of Patreon, one of the OGs of the Creator Space 2.0.
2022 predictions from Deloitte. Probably a bit easier to do at the end of Q1 to be fair.
It’s not a Great Resignation–it’s a Great Rethink. Interesting piece on what’s next. Bonus piece from the dude who coined the ‘Great Resignation’ on it getting worse/better depending on your perspective (FT $).
Found this fascinating Coda’s budget $10m vs Dune $165m - all Oscar nominations workflow compared.
Quite dense and perhaps worrying conclusions for Netflix if you believe how they’re accounting for content. Tldr: it’s why they’re cancelling shows early.
VR roleplay therapy helps people with agoraphobia, finds study. Which is positive.
For the UK people born in the 80s and 90s, Smash Hits is back as a special for Derry Girls. 90s nostalgia is everywhere…👇
Adieu
Thanks for reading, I’m going to refine this as we go - my favourite newsletters - I’ll post that one day - ask readers what they want more and less of, so please do reply with thoughts, what you think and what you liked/didn’t like, it’s too long isn’t it? Until next week, stay plastic.
Bonus.
I watch a lot of TV, right now I’m watching Severence, Apple TV. It’s very good, if not slow. Beautifully shot.