Welcome to the August round-up of social media changes! This month, the social media landscape has been buzzing with exciting updates and new features, with Instagram taking centre stage. From LinkedIn’s new verification tools to TikTok’s expanded messaging capabilities, August has been full of innovations designed to enhance user experience and engagement. Let’s dive in!
We’re kicking off this month’s blog with a mention about online safety.
The UK’s new Labour government has inherited legislation from their predecessors, which had been adjusting the bill to balance free speech with online safety concerns. With Public sentiment reflection dissatisfaction with the current state of regulation, updates are likely to be made soon…
With 70% of respondents believing that social media companies are insufficiently regulated, and 71% feeling these platforms don’t adequately combat misinformation, especially during crises like riots, we’re not surprised!
This is an important update, and as always we’ll keep you updated on any changes once we know more.
Our first platform specific social media changes, comes from LinkedIn. They’re stepping up their game with a new verification tool aimed at helping businesses stand out. The “Verification for Company Pages” feature will allow businesses to showcase their authenticity with a verified tick badge next to their logo. This new addition could make it easier for users to identify genuine company pages, adding an extra layer of trust and credibility to business profiles.
Next, LinkedIn has been quietly testing in-feed video carousels, and now they’re officially rolling them out to all users! This new feature highlights LinkedIn’s growing focus on video content and the carousels display video clips tailored to each user’s app activity and profile details. By tapping on a clip, it expands into a full-screen, vertical video feed, similar to TikTok, offering a more immersive video experience on the platform.
And lastly, LinkedIn is broadening its sponsored newsletter feature to include user-generated newsletters. Brands can sponsor newsletters created by individual users, not just those published by company pages. This expansion gives brands the opportunity to promote their own newsletters or sponsor others, allowing them to pay for a boost in visibility and reach a wider audience on the platform.
We only have a couple of updates from YouTube this month.
First, YouTube is rolling out QR codes to all channels! After testing the feature with selected channels over the past few months, this new tool offers an easy and convenient way for users to promote their channels and content. Viewers will simply need to scan the QR code to follow or access content instantly!
YouTube has shared more insights into its test of AI-generated live chat summaries. This feature is designed to enhance the live stream experience by providing quick overviews of ongoing conversations. Additionally, YouTube is broadening the availability of its illuminated subscription button and Super Chat engagement tools to boost interactivity during live streams.
It’s just the one update from this underrated platform this month!
Pinterest has released its latest trend update, offering a glimpse into the top fashion, beauty, and food trends as we move into the autumn season. With Pinterest’s strong influence on product discovery, these insights can be invaluable for guiding your marketing strategies.
Over to TikTok now, and let’s start with a new feature… its own in-stream text-to-video creation tool. Parent company ByteDance has launched a new app in China named “Jimeng AI.” This app allows users to generate short videos using AI, based on written prompts, potentially paving the way for similar features on TikTok. There’s not much else to share on this update, so we’ll definitely keep you posted!
Another of TikTok’s latest updates is a major boost to group interactions. Users can now create group chats with up to 32 people, enabling real-time video sharing, comments, and reactions. This feature, available to users aged 16 and up, aims to enhance the social experience by making it easier to connect and engage with friends.
What’s great about this update is that TikTok has also implemented additional safety measures for younger users to ensure a secure environment.
TikTok is also adding stickers to direct messages. Users can now create and upload custom stickers using the new Stickers platform. This update also aims to enhance the chat experience by offering fun and creative visual options, allowing users to personalise their messages and engage more dynamically with their community.
Lastly for TikTok, we’re talking Christmas!
TikTok has released a new guide for holiday marketing tailored to the EU market. This guide offers a range of tips, usage insights, and data to help you refine your strategy and optimise your outreach during the holiday season. It’s designed to assist you in aligning your marketing efforts with seasonal trends and effectively reaching your target audience at the optimal time. It’s never too early to start planning!
It’s been another quiet month for X, but we have a few updates worth mentioning!
X introduced an update to its analytics features for Verified Organisations, allowing users to track keyword and topic trends more effectively. The new tools include keyword analytics, offering insights into conversation volume over time and providing a list of related posts. Additionally, the update includes conversation velocity tracking, letting you see when your target terms are gaining or losing interest. For once, we’re pretty impressed with this update from X, despite being behind a paywall!
On that note! X is expanding its support for managers of Verified Organisations by developing a new dashboard. This new dashboard will streamline the management of X ads, job listings, affiliate accounts, and analytics, making it easier for organisations to track and enhance their in-app performance.
Finally, Elon Musk is setting its sights on expanding its platform’s capabilities by entering the video conferencing space. With ambitions to rival Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, X aims to position itself as a versatile competitor, already challenging LinkedIn in job listings.
Based on these social media changes, X is going further and further down the pay to play route… is this putting you off from using X? Let us know!
We’re starting with a pretty big update from Meta… especially if you’re regularly running paid advertising.
Meta has announced that they will be removing detailed targeting exclusions from new ad campaigns over the coming months. So, here’s what you need to know:
The next update from Meta is a new partnership! Streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify already let users share their favourite tracks on Instagram via posts and Stories. Now, Meta is partnering with Spotify to enhance music integration within the app even further!
You can now cross-post from Instagram and Facebook to Threads, enabling you to amplify your updates across all three platforms simultaneously. While this feature may streamline your social media strategy, it’s worth considering whether this broad sharing approach suits your brand’s engagement goals. If you’re not sure, get in touch for a chat!
Next, Threads is testing ephemeral posts that disappear within 24 hours, catering to users who prefer temporary content. Initially an internal prototype, this feature is now being trialled with a select group of users, providing a new way to share short-lived updates without permanent impact. If this feature is rolled out, we’ll let you know!
Lastly, Threads is introducing a new “Media” tab in user profiles, allowing users to filter posts to display only those containing images and videos. This feature simplifies browsing through a profile’s media content, making it easier to locate specific posts and assess the overall content. This new update sounds a lot like Twitter Lists and aligns Threads more closely with X!
It’s been another huge month of updates for Instagram this month!
First, Instagram is doubling the number of photos and videos you can add to a single grid post. Now, each carousel post can include up to 20 pieces of content, up from the previous limit of 10. This update enhances the popular “photo dump” feature and will be great for recapping the month or even a year in your business!
Next, Instagram is updating its analytics to prioritise views as the main metric across all content formats. “Reel Plays” will now be labelled as “Views,” which will also become the key metric for photos, carousels, and Stories. Views will count each time a Reel starts to play or replay, as well as when any non-Reel content appears on a user’s screen.
Instagram is introducing a new feature that allows comments on Stories to be visible to all viewers of that Story. These comments appear at the bottom of the frame, above the controls and viewer details, ensuring they’re not intrusive. This update aims to foster more interaction by highlighting comments on the main screen, encouraging more conversation around Stories content.
Similarly to YouTube’s QR codes, Instagram is experimenting with new profile cards for selected creators. These cards offer a fresh way to highlight your profile by showcasing your image, bio, profile category, and business links.
And lastly, Instagram is reportedly testing a new automated “Collages” feature. This tool uses images from your device’s Camera Roll to create collages that you can share directly within the app. It’s not available to everyone yet, but some users have noticed notifications prompting them to create custom collages for sharing in Instagram chats.
As the summer winds down, it’s clear that social media platforms are not taking a break. With so many new tools and features being rolled out, staying ahead of these social media changes can give your brand the edge it needs.
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Until next time… Stay Social!
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