SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATES ARE NOW MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER
Social media has become more than a source of creativity, enjoyment, and news announcements. With users spending greater amounts of time on social platforms, businesses have realized that social media needs to be a major part of their digital strategy. In 2020 alone, social media ad spending was 132 billion U.S. dollars, which is expected to grow up to 200 billion dollars by 2024. Moreover, Social Media platforms regularly update their features in order to keep users engaged. Keep reading to learn how your business can benefit from these Social Media Updates in order to retain competitiveness and grow engagement.
Now, let’s evaluate the latest features on the top 4 platforms, listed below. Let’s what these changes and updates mean for your business.
INSTAGRAM SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATES TOWARDS SOCIAL SHOPPING
Instagram has begun testing a feature for content creators to earn money through paid subscribers. With this feature, creators will be able to:
- Offer unique content to subscribers
- Have an additional stream of income
- Strengthen relationships with their most engaged followers
Additionally, the platform is testing a feature that will show a clearer view of the Instagram feed. This means, the “Home” view will remain, plus new tabs such as “Favorites” and “Following” will showcase content in chronological order.
Source: Clover, 2022.
Meanwhile, another social media update is the feature Reminders. This update aims to help brands and creators promote their events and launches. Instagram posts, can thus include the “Add Reminder” feature. Where followers can tap on a bell icon for additional information and sign up for reminders about the event.
Source: Thomas, 2022
What this means for you: Put the focus back on content
You now have great tools to increase your visibility to your followers on Instagram. Through subscriptions and reminders, you can ensure that users keep coming back for more. But remember, in order to keep users engaged you will need to produce relevant and valuable content. Therefore, the introduction of such social media updates puts the focus back on content. When it comes to your social strategy for 2022- bear in mind that content is king.
WHAT’S NEW ON FACEBOOK?
Facebook launched Reels in the USA as part of its flagship mobile application on iOS and Android. Similar to Instagram, Reels on Facebook are short and “fun” videos with music/audio and much more. Users are able to find and watch Reels scrolling down their News Feed or via navigation from Facebook’s menu.
Source: Kapwing, 2021.
Moreover, Facebook is bringing monetization to its existing feature- Facebook Groups. The new social media update allows group admins to integrate new shopping features, such as:
- Community shops: which allow group admins to sell themed merch
- Fundraisers: that crowdfund specific projects
- Paid subgroups: where users pay a fee to participate “subscription-based product”
What this means for you: Leverage Reels and consider relevant collaborations with Facebook Groups
Reels allow you to reach followers and new audience groups. They permit the growth of your community by making your content discoverable. As Reels will appear not only in the News Feed for your followers but also in the dedicated Reels section in the News Feed.
Moreover, the new monetization features create room for brand partnerships with groups of interest. Sponsored posts can be used by connecting with relevant Facebook groups with a high engagement rate and good reputation. For example, a beauty brand could potentially collaborate with a health and beauty-focused group to provide tips and tricks. Such content can also feature products that are available for group members to purchase.
SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATES ON YOUTUBE
YouTube is constantly evolving, just like the other platforms. To make YouTube more international, YouTube now offers translation options. As a result, YouTube comments can now be translated into over 100 languages, and live streams can now be subtitled. Recently, YouTube also added a feature that automatically translates video titles and descriptions into multiple languages. This allows users to find international content in their native language. Thus, this permits users to discover a variety of content they might not otherwise have access to.
Source: Staff, 2021
Besides that, YouTube has also introduced Automatic Chapters. Chapters, allow users to segment their YouTube video into parts, each with its own preview. In addition to providing more information, video chapters can serve as a way to rewatch different parts of the video. Video chapters are automatically generated based on your video description timestamps, these will appear underneath your video in the video progress bar.
Source: Funk, 2020.
What this means for you: Take advantage of the video era and reach a wider audience
Take some time to determine if the latest social media updates are beneficial to you. Since YouTube has a large reach, going international is a good way for your business to grow. This feature when perfected by YouTube may allow you to save production costs associated with translating your content for each of your countries. You could then efficiently communicate with your audience without any language barrier.
In contrast, you may benefit from testing chapters and your audiences’ reception of them. It is possible that certain video types do not benefit from chapter structure can experience reduced watch times and audience retention. Thereby, this can lower your video’s search engine ranking. Nonetheless, always take into account what’s best for you and your followers.
SOCIAL MEDIA FEATURE UPDATE ON TIKTOK
TikTok is currently testing the “invite people to watch” feature. This will allow creators to sway their mobile phone contacts to the social platform. Not only will it increase views on the video, but individuals will automatically get a follow request of the creator’s TikTok account.
Source: Navarra, 2021
What this means for you: Share your videos to gain followers!
This new feature permits creators to leverage existing relationships by drawing a new audience to the platform. The benefit for TikTok is that it enables to invite others off-platform. These will need to sign up for an account to view the shared clip. Brands, using TikTok, can use this new feature to attract users and increase their follower numbers and views.
WHAT TO DO NEXT
Want to find out, how the new Social Media Updates can be integrated into your Social Media strategy for 2022? Talk to us: moin@watersky.digital