Quick Hits: Social Media Updates That You Need to Know
You might have heard us say (repeatedly) that you need to be ready for anything when it comes to your social media strategy, because platforms like Facebook and Instagram make changes suddenly and not always with warning.
Here are some of the latest updates you should know about!
New Content Recs on Instagram
If you’ve been feeling like you see less and less content from your friends on Instagram these days, you’re not alone. Instagram is testing out showing you more suggested content from accounts you don’t follow, which might grind some gears.
This is another way for Instagram to try and pull users back from TikTok, which has become the go-to place for people to have new Internet content recommended to them; people really think TikTok’s algorithm is magic. In fact, there’s a fascinating Atlantic piece that came out this week about how people actually use TikTok, and how it feels when the algorithm recommends content that doesn’t reflect how you think of yourself:
Recommendation algorithms can be very effective, but they actually know nothing about you, McAuley explained. They’re discovering patterns in your history and the combined histories of other users. “It seems creepy,” he said, “because they’re leveraging such huge volumes of data.” But it’s not really creepy. That feeling is just a result of the fact that any given user will be very similar to another set of users. “It’s not that you feel your algorithm is wrong,” McAuley said. “You feel that your historical actions aren’t representative of who you are.”
These algorithms can only be SO accurate, and remember that what they recommend to you is based on the input you’re giving them. If you want to make sure you just see content from your friends, use Instagram’s Close Friends feature and don’t click on posts from random accounts… if you can resist! (Those rescue puppy videos get us every dang time.)
Facebook Testing New Animations
This is… weird. Facebook is testing out new animated reactions that will appear on top of your posts when users scroll by, and we kinda hate it. The idea here is to draw more attention to a post with movement, which, sure, makes sense. But this will get very old and very irritating very quickly!
Twitter Testing Direct Sharing to Instagram Stories
This one might work out a bit better: Twitter is adding the option for you to share a Tweet directly to your Instagram Stories, which is an interesting little way to cross-pollinate content across these two channels. (We assume Twitter’s rationale here is, “If you can’t beat ‘em… join ‘em!”) However, there’s one caveat:
…As pointed out by reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong, the tweets that you do share in Instagram Stories are not tappable, so you can't actually drive traffic back to your tweet via these shares. Which seems like a missed opportunity - but still, it's a more integrated, direct way to re-share tweet content, which will save people time, and provide more means to engage with tweets.
Why does this one matter? Instagram is already chock-full of a LOT of Twitter content that users have just screenshotted and posted there, mostly for memes. Twitter is smart to embrace this rather than try to fight it, and it sets up potential for more collaboration in the future that benefits both platforms. Twitstagram, anyone?
More Ways to Use Instagram from Your Desktop
Shout-out to all our social media managers out there… 🚨 Instagram is getting closer to letting you post from your desktop! 🚨 Saving you time and hassle! Making things more efficient! We’ve wanted this for years!!
Ahem. If you’re not a social media manager, this might not be that exciting. That’s okay and let’s move along…
Which Platforms Consumers Are Actually Using
Sproutsocial has some new data on consumers and the social platforms they prefer. Where are they actually spending time interacting with brands? If you know that, you can focus your efforts on those key channels.
Surprisingly (or maybe not), Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are the Top 3. LinkedIn comes in at #8, and Clubhouse is last (after Yelp and TripAdvisor).
(We’re surprised to see LinkedIn a bit lower on the list than Pinterest or TikTok, but, for this research, consumers probably aren’t using LinkedIn to make purchasing decisions.)
What you can take away from this is a lesson on how your particular audience wants to use social media platforms to interact with your particular brand. Is your audience looking to buy something from you, learn something from you, be entertained by you, or support your work through donations and activism?
After you’ve decided which action is the most important for your audience, think about where your audience likes to do that thing. If they’re looking to donate, are they comfortable doing that on Facebook or prefer the security of your website? If they want entertainment, will they follow your content more on TikTok or subscribe to it on YouTube? Figure this out, and you’ll know exactly what you should be doing, and which channels are a waste of your time.
Facebook is Entering the World of Podcasts
They’re coming for you, Apple Podcasts. Via Facebook:
We’re rolling out Live Audio Rooms and podcasts, as part of our plans to bring social audio experiences to Facebook. Public figures and select Facebook Groups in the US can create Live Audio Rooms on iOS, and select podcasts will be available to listeners in the US. In the coming weeks, we’ll expand the ability for more public figures and Groups to host a Live Audio Room and introduce new features for both experiences in the coming months.
If you have a podcast or you want to have one, keep an eye on this. Not every new audio channel makes it (we’re still skeptical of Clubhouse) but Facebook is a power player.