Emoji lovers rejoice. The draft list for the next emoji release is now out, Reader.

This past week I struggled. Oh, didn’t I struggle. I spent most of the week sick, I spent quite a few nights in tears because of the pain and sleep deprivation. It was wildly humbling. I am better now (and no, it was not COVID, we checked), but it meant I had to make some tough choices whilst I take time to get back to my usual self.

One of them was to pause our plans for Alt Marketing School and stop the crowdfunding campaign - it was yet another humbling decision, that came from a place of vulnerability by knowing that if I want this project to be as awesome as it can be, I need to be 100% there, body and mind.

Right now, I am simply not there. Recently, I have been too hard on myself. A friend of mine once said that instead of declaring that she is “too hard on herself”, she will now start saying that she is “quite easy on herself”. It was such an important step when it came to the way I’d accept my mistakes, flaws, and failures.

I constantly remind myself of how far I have come, and that despite having had a few ‘divine storms’ in my time, and have found myself having to leave everything and start over again, I opened myself to others and asked for help, I took hard decisions to be able to (quite literally heal).

There is something very true in what Brene Brown once said:

Maybe, being vulnerable is a form of self-care after all. Thank you for your support, as always.

Fab

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​NEWS IN BRIEF

• 💬 You heard it here first: Instagram is looking to make its auto caption tools available for regular feed posts in the recent future. This is a very exciting development, which could show more tools to improve accessibility within the app after releasing captions stories.
• 🤝 Instagram has also launched a new test of a feature that would enable users to post collaborative updates, both in the main feed and in Reels clips. With Instagram's new 'Collab' option, posts would appear with two profile bubbles, indicating that two people have partnered on the content.
• 📛 Facebook has announced some new additions for groups, including recognized community experts, new ways to attract members based on their expertise, and auto-invites for engaged followers of associated Pages. The app has been experimenting with similar group member badges for some time, as a means to help build community, including ‘Visual Storyteller’, ‘Rising Star’.
• 📱 You may have already noticed, but Stories drafts are available for everyone. Instagram announced that the feature was coming back in March, and now, all users have the option to save their Instagram Stories as drafts within the app.
• ⏰ This week, TikTok has added some new elements to live-streaming, including scheduled events for you to promote, live Q & A, and a co-streaming option to enhance the experience. Is this all gearing up in preparation for live-stream shopping? TikTok has been testing in recent months with big-name brand partners.
• ✨ TikTok has launched a new ad option that enables brands to sponsor already trending organic content that aligns with their offerings. Spark Ads enables brands to amplify existing organic videos that fit their campaign objectives such as video view and conversion with great flexibility and efficiency. Brands will be able to out to these creators and re-purpose their clips for paid campaigns.
• 👋 As it launched a brand new website and branding, Clubhouse has announced that it’s moving out of closed beta, with the app now open to everyone who wants to join a Club and tune into the latest audio chats. According to the app, they have added 10M people to the community since they launched Android in mid-May, and have seen 90M DMs sent since they launched Backchannel last week. Will this be enough for the app to resurge?

PODCAST EPISODE SPOTLIGHT 🎙

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S Business consultant and strategist Chelsea Cox will run you through how to build a 90-day plan as a marketer, setting powerful goals. Learn how to be confident networking, as well as understanding how to nurture skills that marketers often overlook.

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