As the year passes us by and we become more technologically connected than ever before, buried up to our necks in “zoom” meetings and webinars, our regular social platforms are going through change too.
This week, we are rounding up everything you need to know has happened in the online world.
Facebook:
Finally addressing the bane of every advertiser’s life, Facebook no longer has a rule to ban ads that include more than 20% text in the main image.
According to Matt Navara, social media expert. Facebook will no longer penalize ads with higher amounts of image text in auctions and delivery. Text Overlay Tool, be gone!
Facebook business suite:
You’ve probably used the Pages Manager or Creator Studio, but now Facebook has introduced the business suite. This tool incorporates all of your Facebook Page and Instagram profile options into one space and will be available on desktop or in a new mobile app.
So, you’re now able to manage your profiles’ private messages, notifications, posts, and insights all from one tool. Every Social Media Managers dream.
The biggest strength of the Business suite, and the feature that sets it apart is the Analytics functions. All of your Facebook and Instagram analytics in one place. That’s one less screen to look at, one less tab to open and one less platform to worry about.
A little birdy has also told us that Business Whatsapp and Facebook inbox may merge. Whether this happens or not, we’ll have to wait and see, but for now, you didn’t hear it from us.
Onto the next,
Instagram.
Rights Manager for Instagram
Rights Manager is a tool that finds copyright infringement on platforms. It can monitor text and images, usually reserved for Facebook but the Zuckerlord has graced Instagram with it too. How fortunate.
As explained by Facebook: “We’re introducing Rights Manager for Images, a new version of Rights Manager that uses image-matching technology to help creators and publishers protect and manage their image content at scale. Page admins can submit an application for the content they’ve created and want to protect, and Rights Manager will then find matching content on Facebook and Instagram.”
Instagram is also experimenting with the layout of the app. Last month in India, the company added a Reels button to the navigation panel, so your friends’ children saying their first words will now forever be immortalised in video format too. Slightly similar to TikTok (but we won’t talk about that)
Later in September the app also started adding a Shop button to chosen profiles. Check your Instagram, are you one of the chosen ones? Exactly what we needed, not like we have been begging for a chronological feed again.
Next we have everyone’s favourite bird app, Twitter!
Audio clips in DMs.
Voice messages are a pretty standard feature, with the ability to send them in Messenger, Whatsapp, Instagram DM’s and soon, Twitter!
You may be familiar with the Audio clips on your timeline (especially if you follow LilNasX) well now it’s testing voice messages as well.
The new option is called ‘Audio messaging’ and enables users to record and send audio clips via direct message. Won’t that be fun when customers have complaints.
Secondly, example tweets for trending topics.
You log into Twitter and all of a sudden BTS is trending but you have no clue who they are or why, Well, Twitter is testing a way to fix this. Last month, the platform began adding example tweets alongside trending topics in its lists, which will provide more context as to why that topic or term is trending, saving you an extra click and some confusion.
Now for the new kid on the block,
TikTok:
Speaking about the algorithm, last month we got some insight into how it works. TikTok’s algorithm is its main selling point since it has this magical power of guessing what you like and making up a perfect feed just for you. They revealed a bit about the magic behind the engine during the press tour.
When users open TikTok for the first time, they are shown 8 popular videos featuring different trends, music, and topics. After that, the algorithm will continue to serve the user new iterations of 8 videos based on which videos the user engages with and what the user does.
One of the key strengths of TikTok’s algorithm, as opposed to other social platforms, is that TikTok is less defined by who you follow and more dictated by popular trends.
As TikTok has shared previously, that engagement is based on:
- Direct interaction – Comments, likes, follows, and shares
- Completion rates – If you watch a clip through to the end
- Video information – Whether the clip includes captions, specific sounds and songs, hashtags, etc.
- Device and account settings – This is a lesser factor in determining reach, but TikTok does also consider elements like your language preference, country setting, and your mobile device type.
Based on these elements, TikTok then customizes your feed based on your preferences, with topic-defined posts being the initial starting point.
And that’s it for major social media news last month. Right now, all eyes are on TikTok but removing restrictions for text on Facebook ads and voice messages on Twitter are also welcome additions!
What did you learn this month?