Instagram and Substack Want To Be TikTok, Elon Musk Wants To Be God
Mark Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri upped their game on Instagram, while Elon Musk put his influence over Trump to the test. What about Substack?
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Thank you also if you follow us on other platforms, including TikTok — lots has happened there recently — Instagram and Youtube.
Will Instagram ever become TikTok?
How do you like Instagram now that its top executive, Adam Mosseri of Meta, has unveiled a new way of looking at content performance?
“With TikTok in limbo for at least the next few months, Meta is enticing,” commented author and expert
in his Friday newsletter.Let’s unpack what Adam Mosseri has announced
When it comes to content, as Nick Cicero explained on his LinkedIn, Instagram now ranks content in 2 distinct ways:
Connected Reach: This is the audience that already follows you. They are familiar with your content and engaged with your brand. For Connected Reach, Likes are the most critical metric. They indicate resonance and loyalty, helping content remain visible within this core community.
Unconnected Reach: This is the audience that doesn’t follow you yet. To expand your reach here, Sends are key. When viewers share your content, it’s exposed to new audiences, offering the opportunity to attract new followers and grow your presence.
Nick also elaborated a bit more on Instagram’s algorithm hierarchy:
Average Watch Time: The longer your audience stays engaged, the more Instagram rewards your content with better visibility.
Likes/Reach: They signal to the algorithm that your core audience values and engages with your posts.
Sends/Reach: Shareable content drives discovery, introducing your posts to new audiences and potential followers.
Did you see all that Instagram announced this past week?
explains in : “In response to the news of the TikTok ban, it announced a video creation app called Edits, rolled out three-minute Reels, offered TikTok creators cash bonuses for exclusive content, changed the grid, and somehow lots more. I've never received so many PR emails from their team. It's clear Instagram is trying to position itself as a TikTok replacement—but will it work?”Creator economy and digital marketing expert
has now ranked all Instagram’s new features… Here are her top 5:Edits App
Trial Reels
Ranking Explainer
More Prominent Reels
3-Minute Reels
What if Substack becomes TikTok?
Well, Substack does not really want to be the new TikTok, but they’re on a path to growth.
Just last week — after naming creator
as the winner of Substack’s TikTok Liberation Prize hiring him as a Creative Advisor over the next year (and interviewed here by Chris Best) — the platform’s co-founders, , , and launched the Substack Creator Accelerator Fund, $20 million in guarantees to help creators move their paid-subscription audience to Substack.Hamish said: “We’re doing this not only because it will help those creators grow and will be good for Substack’s business (so we can better help everyone), but also because it will bring more people into the ecosystem.”
Substack has recently posted a Creator Partnerships Manager job on LinkedIn, requiring “proven experience working with creators, particularly in video, audio, or other multimedia formats.”
of explains in Notes: “Substack is very smart to lean into the creator world and try to capture TikTokers and creators on other subscription platforms. I think a lot of creators could come over and recognize that this is ultimately a much better platform to build your business on AND it’s one that will never cave to government censorship of speech!” asked in Notes, “Why is everyone mad about the creator fund?” — to which, commented, “‘If I had to get by on my own sweat and tears everyone else should to’ or some such nonsense.” Emily added: “This goes back to what I’ve said about Substack not being a sorority. People are expecting the weirdest, generous acts from a tech company.”But not everybody on Substack is happy about this…
- , for example, posted on Notes: “Dear Substack, Support the creators who have built their audiences here. Not just those with massive followings from TikTok or YouTube or their acting careers or whatever.”
- said it “feels like a classic play by shareholders to create value externally.” He added: I think offering funds to creators is great — closing it off to people who have never used Substack before feels like a slap in the face to those who have been here for a long time.”
- agreed with Jacob: “I agree and it seems like that’s the popular vote among the community.”
- said: “Firstly, why sending this to people who already are using Substack, since not a cent of this Substack Creator Accelerator Fund will go to any of us.”
- pointed out: “It’s a little disheartening for those of us on Substack putting in the work already.”
- said: “‘Creator accelerator’ sounds like a VC idea to please VCs and a bad strategy.”
- explained: “Creators are waking up to the fact they’ve been building on rented land. It’s scary. We want something more secure. Our own space. Our own audience.”
Has Elon Musk crossed the line?
Well, hard to say… Trump says “No.”
However, this time Musk is not only clashing with OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, he’s also publicly attacking the $500 billion Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure project touted by President Trump.
“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk — who was not at the White House announcement last week — commented on X about OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, the three tech companies that joined Trump for the Stargate project. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority,” Musk added.
Altman responded: “Wrong, as you surely know. This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you’ll mostly put America first.”
It is the latest in a feud between the two tech billionaires that started on OpenAI’s board — Musk is suing OpenAI, renewing claims ChatGPT-maker put profits before “the benefit of humanity” — and is now testing Musk’s influence with the new president.
Trump declared Stargate “a resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential” under his new administration.
Musk has not stopped there in his attacks against Altman and the Trump’s Stargate announcement. However, Trump publicly said he’s not bothered.
As reported by Acyn Torabi of the
on X, asked whether it bothers him Elon Musk criticized the deal, Trump responded: “No, it doesn’t. He hates one of the people in the deal.” He added: “No, no, I’ve spoken to Elon. I’ve spoken to all of them actually [since]. People in the deal are very smart people. But Elon, one of the people he happens to hate, but I have certain hatreds of people too.”However, Trump staff and allies are “furious” and told POLITICO, “It’s clear he has abused the proximity to the president,” adding that “the problem is the president doesn’t have any leverage over him and Elon gives zero fucks.”
And just from this weekend, news that Trump's Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has reportedly limited Elon Musk's direct access to the President.
Is Elon Musk God?
It probably depends on you you ask to…
“Some conservatives and MAGA faithful are livid over Elon Musk’s daylong public meltdown over Donald Trump’s AI infrastructure project, saying the president’s staff needs to get control of the tech titan,” writes Dasha Burns in POLITICO.
Steve Bannon, in an interview with Dasha, commented Musk “brought in his own personal vendetta.”
Dasha spoke with Bannon at a POLITICO Playbook event the week before Trump’s inaguration. When asked if tech billionaire Elon Musk was too close to Trump, he threw a jab and said: “There is power and there is influence. What’s shocking to me is he doesn’t have much power.”
“We’re winning this round, and we’re winning this round pretty big,” Bannon said, referring to the H-1B fight. “I think we’ll get Elon there. As soon as I can turn Elon Musk from a techno-feudalist to a populist nationalist, we’ll start making real progress.”
He added: “President Trump is good, particularly about people arguing ideas, and the best idea and the best policy wins. So going forward, it’s gonna be quite intense.”
But even with limited influence, Bannon acknowledged that Musk had backed Trump’s campaign with hundreds of millions of dollars, and he “deserves a place at the table” — including in Europe, where Musk “holds the two tactical weapons of modern politics, which is unlimited cash and a social media platform that’s not just ubiquitous but also he can deem who’s heard and who’s not heard. There are not many governments in Europe that are going to withstand that.”
Appreciate the mention! Such awesome work being done with Content is Not King!
Thanks for the mention! And so happy to have found your substack, great work