Welcome back to Spark Social Report by Spark Growth, your weekly source for social media updates! This week, LinkedIn rolled out a handful of new features for company pages, Instagram continues to incorporate BeReal-like features, and Reddit brings photo commenting to threads. Continue reading for more updates across social media from this week!
LinkedIn Marketing Insights
Do you love using LinkedIn in your digital marketing strategy?
LinkedIn expert Richard van der Bloom wrote a 57-page report on all things LinkedIn strategy! If you’re looking for the highlights, here are some LinkedIn business page best practices from the report:
- The best days to post are Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday
- The best content categories:
- Personal stories
- Employer branding
- Social responsibility
- Thought leadership
- Using a content mix increases reach by 10%
- Lead generation click rate is the best-performing paid advertising format.
Read the full best practices infographic here!
If all of these LinkedIn strategies and practices can be a lot to handle, consider getting assistance from a marketing agency with the expertise and experience to push your company’s social media to its highest potential. Learn more about our services!
Expansion to Content Recommendations
Get ready to see more content from accounts you don’t follow on your Twitter feed! Twitter is expanding its recommendations to users as a way to increase engagement. Users will begin seeing recommendations based on Tweet activity, topics they follow, people they follow, and Tweets they have engaged with. We will see if Twitter algorithms can keep up with accurate recommendations and meet its goals.
View Count Display for Tweets
Twitter will start showing view count for all tweets, just as view count is shown for all videos. The system is far more alive than it would seem.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 1, 2022
In an attempt to prove how many people are actually active on Twitter, Elon Musk is working on a view count for all Tweets. Similar to view counts on videos, Tweet views will be shown to every user. Will this improve engagement? Or just show us how many people read Tweets but don’t like or reply?
Prove You’re Human for Full Access to Twitter
As Twitter deals with an excessive amount of bots and scammers, a new process is in the works to prove a user is human. We don’t know yet how the platform will prove a user is human, but those who pass will see improved Tweet visibility and have full access to DM tools. Are you human enough for Twitter?
In-App Post Scheduling has Launched
Moving on to LinkedIn, in our last Spark Social Report, we mentioned how LinkedIn was rolling out post scheduling. It looks like the company is still in the process of doing so with more users seeing the native in-app scheduling! How does it work? By tapping on the clock icon while creating a post, users can choose a date and time up to 90 days in advance. This will benefit those who don’t use third-party scheduling tools.
Focused Inbox is Officially Here
LinkedIn announced it is officially rolling out its “Focused Inbox” feature for the app. The improved format will organize less valuable messages to an “Other” tab and important messages to “Focused”. This could be a great way to eliminate the spam that clogs LinkedIn messages.
LinkedIn Company Pages New Features
LinkedIn has added a few new tools and features for Company Pages on the platform. First off, when posting a newsletter, companies can now add SEO titles, descriptions, and tags as a way to help users attract more subscribers.
Secondly, product pages have gained some new features. Products are now discoverable by the in-platform search tab and new product highlights showcase content on the company page. These features can give product pages the boost that it needs to succeed.
Lastly, an updated competitor analytics dashboard adds tracking of competitor trends and engagement to easily show what’s happening in your company’s industry.
Instagram is Testing BeReal-Like Features
Will the BeReal craze of posting authentic and timed content become a lasting trend? Instagram certainly thinks so as the app has been trying out more features similar to BeReal. A “Roll Call” feature is in testing that enables group chats to request members to send a photo within five minutes. Additionally, “Glimpse Stories” uses the front and back camera to share a Story post. This could evolve into a bigger element for Instagram — or die out if BeReal loses its momentum. We’ll keep you updated!
New DM Organization Tool for Businesses
Instagram is working towards adding labels for chats in DMs. This is quite helpful for small businesses that don't have the monies to onboard ORM agencies/tools.
What do you think @MattNavarra? pic.twitter.com/vwdPOLbMRK
— Sachin Shah (@ItsSachinShah) December 4, 2022
Next, Instagram is working on adding five new labels for direct messages to organize business interactions. As seen above, the labels include flag, booked, ordered, paid, and shipped. Businesses can add these labels to their messages to improve efficiency and organization.
New Transparency Tools for Recommendations
Instagram is being more transparent about the posts they recommend. New tools in the “Account Status” hub will show professional accounts if their posts are eligible for getting recommended to non-followers. If you are not eligible, Instagram will display which content is against company guidelines. This could be an effective way for businesses to make sure they are getting the most out of the app.
New Features for Stars
Facebook announced some new features for Stars, the program for fans to send virtual gifts to creators. Updates include a Stars expansion to Reels, a way for creators to filter comments to only show the ones sent with Stars, and themed gifts. Click here to learn more about Facebook Stars.
Post Images in Comments
Reddit is adding the ability to post images and gifs within comment threads and subreddits. This can improve engagement and facilitate new conversations. Not all subreddits will receive the feature as of right now. Reddit is approving subreddits based on content and removing images that are inappropriate.
YouTube
Updates to Advertiser Monetization
YouTube made some updates to its advertiser monetization guidelines to ensure friendly content. The changes are made to adult content, violence, language, and drug-related content. Read about the updates here.
New Way to Message Yourself
Last but not least, you now send messages to yourself on WhatsApp! Whether you want to give yourself a pep talk or send yourself reminders or notes, this could be a handy new feature. The feature is available for all users on Android and iOS.
Official Launch of Avatars
WhatsApp has officially launched avatars! Avatars can be personalized and used as profile photos with different poses and emotions. Users can also use their avatars in messages. Avatars are not available across Meta platforms, so if you have a Facebook avatar created already, a new one will need to be created on WhatsApp.
That wraps up the latest social media updates for this week! Be sure to check us out on Twitter for more digital marketing trends and news.
Having a multi-platform marketing approach is an effective way to reach many audiences. If your brand is looking to develop a new social media marketing strategy, we can help! Click the link below to learn more about our services!
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