New Tools and Updates You May Not Have Noticed Yet

Buckle up. We’ve got TONS of new stuff to tell you about on all your favorite digital channels! Take a gander and give yourself or your team some time to strategize for the rest of 2022.

LinkedIn’s Got More Than a Few Shiny New Things

In fact, the platform has a long list of changes that are coming, based on user feedback.

One that stands out for us is the new Podcast Network, which signals LinkedIn’s leap into the audio game. If you’re podcasting or interested in starting a professionally-focused podcast, pay attention, because after launching this network with industry leaders we’re betting that there will be more audio-focused tools coming for the general user base. It’s a competitive move.

Another new thing that our fellow social media marketers should note? New metrics for personal profiles are coming! 🎉

And, you may see that a new laughing face will soon be offered as part of the reactions you can see on your LinkedIn posts… careful with this one, since that laughing reaction is already on Facebook and it’s often used mockingly or sarcastically. If you’re getting a lot of laughing reactions on your posts, you might need to stop and reevaluate what you’re posting.

Twitter Does Something Right

The spaghetti-on-the-wall approach continues at Twitter, but this is a change we actually like. Twitter is rolling out Safety Mode to more users, which will automatically block accounts for 7 days if they use harmful language or harass anyone with repetitive, uninvited replies/mentions.

Basically, if using Twitter is traumatic for you (and it is for a lot of people!), turn on Safety Mode as soon as you have access. Twitter has every incentive to make the platform less of a toxic place to be, so we hope they’ll do more things like this.

More Meta Changes

To compete with TikTok, Facebook is launching Reels within Facebook itself, meaning those videos of random groups of people dancing or saying “Uncuh jaaams” will now appear… everywhere you look. But with more ads! …Yay?

Oh, and, guys, it’s no longer the Newsfeed… it’s just the Feed. One more random name change we aren’t sure we’ll bother to remember. 🤷

Expect more updates and changes just like these on a monthly or even weekly basis, because the REAL story here is that Meta is reeling a bit. (Pun intended.) Why? This news came out earlier this month:

“Meta’s shares fell 22.9% to $249.05 in after-hours trading. If the drop holds until the market opens Thursday, the company’s overall value, known as its market capitalization, is on track to drop by a figure greater than the size of the entire Greek economy, based on data from the World Bank.”

Yikes.

Instagram Sets a Limit… Kinda

If you hadn’t noticed this feature before, Instagram allows you to set limits for how much time you spend on the app each day, and will remind you to log off once you hit that limit. Techcrunch noticed a small change to this that could be a bit of a red flag:

“In a move that appears to coincide with Facebook/Meta reporting slowing growth, photo-sharing app Instagram appears to have quietly removed the ability for mobile users to set a lower daily time limit reminder than 30 minutes…

Previously the company supported a user-defined limit for Instagram that could be as low as 15 minutes — or even 10 minutes — per day, when it was making a big PR push to suggest that more ‘mindful’ usage of its services was possible, as concern over social media addiction surged.”

Don’t forget that platforms like Instagram want us to spend as much time as possible scrolling and clicking away, ideally on ads. While we, as marketers, are constantly working to create and publish content that our social media audiences will love, we also must remember that we AND our audiences should be logging off regularly, for our health and our sanity.

Mailchimp Takes Us on a Journey

We’ve talked before about email automation, but if you haven’t tried it yet you should check out Mailchimp’s newest cool trick: customer journeys. This feature (for Standard plans and up) helps you map out exactly when you will send a sequence of automated emails to specific members of your audience, based on their behavior, and gives you a ton of ideas for what kinds of emails to send and when.

Automated emails aren’t new or fancy, but we really like how Mailchimp has designed this feature visually, making it super easy for the average user to set these up and start doing smarter email marketing. If this whole concept is new to you, read all about email automation here.

Are You on TikTok Yet?

Use their Rising Trends report to see what content hit the hardest in 2021 and get inspired for your TikTok strategy this year. If you’re selling something, be it an idea or a product, you no longer can ignore TikTok… it’s time to try!