October Social Shake
It’s spooky season, but are these new social channel updates great or ghoulish?
What’s scarier than Poltergeist and Dracula combined? A stagnant social platform, of course.
This Halloween, Facebook is dressing up as TikTok and Instagram is masquerading as MySpace – but the updates will stay year-round. As these platforms chase the perfect features, we’re looking forward to the changes coming up in the latter half of 2022.
Twitter talks the talk
Nearly every texter has become used to opening their messaging apps and finding a slew of audio clips instead of written notes. After the recent addition of Communities to the Twitterverse, adding voice messages seems like a logical step. Taking a nod from Reddit’s audio chat options, Twitter launched the initial test of its newest update. Community admins will now be able to create dedicated audio spaces within their groups.
Audio chats will only be visible within groups and a space for the recordings will be highlighted at the top of user’s timelines. That way, members of each community can choose to listen or skip out on audio content.
In another effort to change the way users chat, Twitter is testing an option to restrict which accounts can mention your handle. Currently, users can toggle the ‘allow others to mention you’ button to decide whether any account or only followers can tag them. The new update will take this feature a step further, launching an ‘unmention’ option that allows users to leave unwanted threads.
What does this mean for you?
Twitter’s on track to make its platform a better place for engagement. Updating audio settings allows for a deeper connection – hearing the real voices of the people you connect with online. The new ‘unmention’ feature helps to protect those on the app who want to leave harmful conversations. All in all, we’re seeing an empathy in Twitter’s choices that we, as marketers, and other social platforms should value.
Instagram mimics MySpace
The moment we’ve all (debatably) been waiting for is here. Instagram is testing a new feature that would allow users to add a song to their profile. Because who isn’t desperate to know that your auntie still listens to pop hits from 2004?
This update is still in testing, so we don’t know if the songs will autoplay or be manually started upon a profile visit. What do we know? MySpace’s O.G. legacy lives on.
What does this mean for you?
What is Tesco’s ultimate pump-up tune or Apple’s go-to oldies jam? We may be about to find out. Whether this update will hit the nostalgic warmth of Millennials or give Gen Z users the ick, time will tell. But brands have high potential to hop on this feature – adding a jingle or a jokey tune to enhance their identity.
YouTube Studio ups analytics
YouTube Studio is well known and loved by content creators everywhere. The mobile app has been refreshed, updating its format for better insight on channel performance. Creators can check out their analytics faster and see special notes on how their recent videos are doing. Additionally, each user insight section can be expanded to provide extra data on different elements of engagement.
What does this mean for you?
It’s no secret that when someone shouts data, social media marketers come running. This update will not only benefit marketers for branded social channels, but it will also ease relationships with content creators. When making deals with influencers, engagement is an excellent proof of ROI – and this update just made access to those numbers far easier.
Facebook rallies for co-authored Reels
In Meta’s latest attempt to increase the popularity of Reels, Facebook is trialling a new co-author feature. Following the update on Instagram, this option will allow users to collab on posts and Reels. Indicating the option to ‘invite a collaborator’ on a post, content will show up on double the timelines when two users make it.
What does this mean for you?
This feature hasn’t been public on Instagram for long enough to collect conclusive data, but there’s potential for this update to change the way creators operate. Co-authorship could become the new normal in disclosing branded content. And creators who partner with others for more views may gain even more than they bargained for. In any case, it’s a change to look out for in the short form video space.