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Author: Scott Guthrie | #092 | 08 February 2023

Welcome to the Fourth Floor newsletter, your weekly feed of the biggest news, developments, insights, and analysis from the ever-evolving world of influencer marketing.

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Why we believe what we see on TikTok

Vice explores the dichotomy between TikTok as the educational platform - with niches including #booktok and #LearnonTikTok - and TikTok with a FYP designed as a conduit for virality.

According to the article, TikTok’s algorithm promotes credibility in its users. Capturing video via front-facing cameras increases intimacy. Another reason could be the erosion of traditional media (and with it the role of gatekeeper) parsing out misinformation and disinformation.

De-influencing

De-influencing - where influencers critique items on camera and recommend viewers don't buy them - is blowing up on TikTok, and being picked up all across mainstream and trade media. I first saw it on Glossy, but have since seen write-ups in Time, the Wall Street Journal, Mashable, the Metro and AdAge. We return to this topic in this week’s column.

A taxing time for creators

Tax authorities around the world are starting to close-in on creator incomes. As tax season approaches in the US, influencers are talking about their tax and write-offs. According to Lorilyn Wilson, a CPA at Duenorth PDX, as well as a TikTok influencer who uploads videos that debunk bad tax advice, many creators are unaware that the “free” clothes or makeup companies send their way are considered taxable income. And Wilson says it's up to the creator to keep track of what price these items would add up to. (dot.LA)

A couple of weeks ago (newsletter #90) we noted that the Australian Tax Office was clamping down on influencer payments - including gifts and experiences.

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore was the first to target influencers, back in 2018. Creators who fail to file their personal tax returns for the income earned from social media activities face imprisonment of up to three years.

The Gen Z Shake

The Gen Z Shake is the little video judder young creators include at the start of a TikTok or Reel. It’s the inclusion of the phone’s movement as it’s set down on a table. The shake may be accidental or performative. It denotes the immediacy and imperfect nature of Gen Z content compared with Millennials’ Instagram aesthetic. There’s more on this phenomenon from the excellent Kate Lindsay, writing in the Embedded Substack.

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Aussie government plays TikTok hokey cokey

The Australian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action danced its own version of the hokey cokey this week. First it banned TikTok from all work devices. Then within hours, it reversed its decision. The department did not explain the reason for its policy reversal to The Age. But an earlier email sent to DEECA employees explaining the ban read: “The reason for this decision is that TikTok contains code which could be used for monitoring and intelligence gathering on devices”.

Music gets the silent treatment on TikTok

Many Australian TikTok creators have had music tracks and audio removed from their videos after a month-long test by the platform went wrong. [Guardian Australia]

Hey big spender: Big Tech spends most on US lobbying

Big tech firms forked out almost $70m on lobbying in 2022. The figure tops other industry heavy-hitters such as pharmaceuticals and energy industries. Amazon was the biggest funder, spending $20m. Apple raised its lobbying firepower from $6.5m to $9m. Big tech is increasingly in the firing line with politicians around the world. In the US, both the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department are suing and investigating big tech firms.

Masto-doomed?

It’s not just those magnificent men in their flying machines that go up-up-up and down-down-down. Mastodon too has hit a bump. Monthly active users of the fediverse’s Twitter alternative jumped from 380,000 to more than 2.5 million in around eight weeks. By the end of last month, however, the active monthly user count had slipped by more than a million, to 1.4 million. [Wired]

TikTok’s transparency centre

Casey Newton walks his Platformer readers through a visit to TikTok’s transparency centre. His visit to the LA campus leaves the tech writer with a series of questions. “Can showing off parts of the system that traditionally remain hidden build trust in an age of scepticism? Or will it be seen as a distraction from other, more pressing issues, which remain stubbornly unmentioned whenever an executive goes on the record?”

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→ PewDiePie (real name Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg) and his wife Marzia Kjellberg are having a baby

→ A YouTuber has been accused of setting up a livestream to cover for a murder

→ Twitter UK Ltd has failed to file its annual accounts at Companies House in time

WhatsApp rolls out new features for Status, including Private Audience Selector, Voice Status, Status Reactions, Status Profile Rings for New Updates, and Link Previews on Status

→ TikTok introduces strike system for repeat offending creators

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TikTok’s de-influencing trend: a reminder of the bigger influence picture

A new trend is blowing up on TikTok: De-influencing. where influencers critique items on camera and recommend viewers don't buy them. It’s the antithesis of #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, and as Time reminds us, is similar to the “anti-haul” niche on YouTube that calls out the products that creators refuse to buy.

But is de-influencing the natural conclusion to a years-long bombardment of consumption-promotion by influencers insisting we buy the product they’re selling?

Is de-influencing a coping mechanism for creators attempting to navigate or remove themselves from TikTok’s ever-increasing micro-trends?

Perhaps it’s a way for creators to underscore the importance of authenticity in the parasocial relationship they hold with their followers? “Trust me, you don’t need this product”.

Is de-influencing just another micro-trend for creators to jump on? A vehicle to parcel up and post new content with?

Or is it a sophisticated sales hack from influencers attempting to appeal to savvy purchasers? “Don’t buy that product… buy this product instead, it’s half the price and twice as good. You can trust me, I called out the other one.”

Or is it just good old-fashioned, objective critique being repackaged as a hashtaggable TikTok trend, a rebranded version of a really simple concept given a fresh label to sound more ‘current’?

Like most answers to complicated questions, it depends. It depends on the creator and the credibility they hold with their audience. The de-influencing movement offers a few reminders to brands, however:

Neutral term: The word ‘Influence’ is often used interchangeably with ‘advocacy’. But influence is not always positive. Influencers are change-agents. They help form or change the opinions of a distinct community. They alter behaviours. As such, influencers may hurt a communicator’s cause just as much as they may help. Advocates, on the other hand, are resolutely supporters. Be careful with your terminology when you’re defining what you really want.

Honest de-influencing reviews can also be positive for brands who are willing to listen, as has always been the case. Instead of being defensive, brands can use being on the wrong end of review content as an opportunity to put things right, or provide context or correct misunderstandings.

Dishonest de-influencing reviews, on the other hand, are a matter for the regulators. Both the ASA and the FTC carry guidance on fake reviews.

What is clear is that de-influencing is not the opposite of influencing. That would be to show powerlessness or weakness, and promote the assumption that successful influencers must be positive about anything they’re asked to discuss, something these TikTok creators can’t be accused of. At the time of writing, #deinfluencing had 103.5m views on TikTok.

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