This year is really flying by, and our penultimate social media round-up of 2021 is here! It’s been a busy month for social media updates, so let’s get started…
Let’s start with LinkedIn who are looking to strengthen the freelance community! With the expansion of its Marketplace service, LinkedIn is aiming to give more opportunities to freelance workers.
That isn’t the only update from LinkedIn, they’re adding new tools for Company Pages. In response to the post-lockdown rise in people searching for jobs, and businesses trying to recruit, LinkedIn wants to help as much as possible. This update includes a Primary Workplace option, which will allow a business to say whether their employees work ‘On-site,’ ‘Remote from home,’ or ‘hybrid’ – a combination of the two.
Now we’re putting the Spotlight on to Facebook with an update on how users can communicate on their posts. Essentially this means that the creator of a post can choose specific comments that they’d like to move into a private tab. The post creator and person/people commenting can they continue to engage without interruption.
Following on from the Communities Summit, Facebook has further announced new tools for Facebook Groups. These tools will include an automatic greeting message to new members and the ability to split a group into sub-groups.
Speaking of Groups and in their latest eCommerce push, Facebook is giving them shops! You’ll know when this feature is available in your group as a tab labelled ‘Shop’ will appear. Not only that but ‘Product Recommendations’ is also being introduced for that extra advertisable flair!
Lastly, and in an attempt to slow the momentum of TikTok, Facebook has launched its own ‘Creative Apps Platform’. With the aim of boosting the appeal of stories to their users, Facebook is working with multiple video-creation apps to increase the creative potential and accessibility of stories.
This does bring up a question though, how far will platforms go to keep competing with TikTok?
Twitter is also rolling out an update to make it easier for users to search for other users and specific tweets. By tapping on the new magnifying glass icon on a profile page, users will be able to search through a specific user’s tweets.
If you’re more concerned with how well your tweets are doing, then Twitter’s update on Tweet Analysis could be great for you! The new analysis card will provide even more specific insights on tweets.
While the old format only focussed on impressions and engagements it had an option to view all engagements separately. The new format breaks down the engagements into separate categories and will even show how much each stat has grown!
Live-stream shopping has become a popular trend amongst the big social media platforms recently. Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok have jumped at the opportunity and have made it work to their platforms.
So, with the eCommerce scene being a huge one to be involved with, especially when everyone has Christmas on their minds, Twitter is looking to jump on to the Live-Stream shopping trend!
If you’re a fan of short-form videos like those found on TikTok, YouTube’s update might be for you! Testing is currently taking place on the possibility of automatically launching ‘YouTube Shorts’ feed when users come onto the app. However, this would only happen for users who previously viewed ‘shorts’ before exiting the app. Everyone else would be taken to the YouTube homepage like normal.
We mentioned in our Twitter updates about the live-stream shopping storm that’s grasped every social media platform’s attention.
It turns out that even YouTube has become invested in the live-stream shopping dynamic! While this is only confined to a small number of creators so far, YouTube does have a long-term plan to allow any user with a phone and a product, to be able to host their own live stream.
YouTube are also providing an update to their traditional videos, by removing the dislike button! Well, not literally…
The dislike count will still be there, but the number of dislikes will get privatised from viewers, in order to try and protect creators from what YouTube calls ‘dislike attacks’.
We’re kicking off our Instagram updates with something we’re all excited about, here at Naturally Social HQ! All Instagram users are now able to share links on their stories!|
Following the removal of the swipe-up function, users can now use link stickers to direct followers to places like their YouTube channel or blog homepage.
This update is going to be pretty great for businesses, as it provides quick and easy pathways for customers to go straight to the website where they can buy a product or service.
If you like to share multiple images on a single post this next update might pique your interest! Instagram will now let you delete specific posts from your carousel!
Simply put, if you’ve shared one too many images or it doesn’t look quite right, you can now delete an image from your carousel without deleting the whole post!
Finally, for Instagram, the ‘Take a break’ feature has been launched. This wellbeing option will help users control just how much time they spend on the app. Instead of spending hours scrolling through, users can now choose how long the app waits before reminding you to take a break. This is a fantastic update and could help limit the number of times you’re sucked into a rabbit hole of content!
Calling all Pinterest fans! This update is huge!
The visual platform has launched Pinterest TV – an all-new way to shop online! Pinterest TV will feature live episodes where users can be inspired by various products and services. Pinterest will even work with producers to help creators make their best content – how cool is that?!
It’s only available to a select few creators now, but we’re sure it’ll be rolled out to the wider audience sooner rather than later.
This isn’t the only update coming from Pinterest as they have created their own specific team to boost their eCommerce awareness. The team, TwoTwenty, will research various areas of eCommerce to see how best they can improve their services for the creators.
It sounds to us like Pinterest are, again, raising their game to be up there with the top social media platforms…and we love to see it!
As we conclude this month’s social media round-up, we’re making a quick visit to Clubhouse and TikTok before we go!
Clubhouse has provided a long overdue update in the form of closed captioning! This update will improve the accessibility of their live rooms and make it easier for viewers to follow the host’s conversations. They are only in English for now, but Clubhouse has confirmed that a further twelve languages are in beta testing.
It’s great to see platforms increasing their accessibility so it’s a thumbs up from us for Clubhouse this month!
Finally, TikTok has launched its ‘Creative Exchange’ Platform. The goal of this platform is to try and increase the number of partnerships between brands and creators.
This will be another great way for businesses to drive awareness especially as creators will help them to have more personalised content. This in turn means that they will be able to reach a wider audience more easily.
Whether you’re reading our blog on your commute or you found us via social media, thanks for reading! We’re here every month, bringing you the latest updates from the world of social media – all in one place!
If you’re using one of the updates we’ve mentioned, we’d love to hear from you! Head over and let us know via Instagram, and we’ll see you next month for our next social media round-up!
Put your feet up, we’ve got this. We’ve been living and breathing social-first communications since the phrase “social media strategy” was first heard on business-leader lips. Get the newsletter to stay in the loop. We respect your privacy and would never sell your details on to a third party. You can unsubscribe at any time – see our Privacy Policy for more details.
01225 809990