Another episode of our IGTV series, Sailing Through Socials is here again to take you through all the new social media features you may have missed. These features are some you may not have heard of but have the power to impact your business positively.
In case you missed it, here’s a look at our latest Sailing Through Socials video featuring Kelsey and Eloise.
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Metaverse
It might sound like something out of a Marvel movie, but it’s just Facebook’s plans for the future of social media. The Metaverse will change how we connect and interact with our friends by using virtual reality and other AI and virtual reality methods. To make it a little easier to understand, watch the video below released by Meta.
Reels accessible globally
We’ve spoken previously about Facebook Reels hitting our feeds, but originally, they were only available to a limited number of users. Facebook Reels have gone global and are now available to users with the most recent version of the app in the latest update. The feature sits at the top of the feed, just under the status update, allowing users to create their own Reels direct from Facebook.
Facebook Reels will also include the remix functionality to encourage trend engagement. Like Instagram Reels, Facebook’s version will be video content up to 60 seconds in length and can be shared to Facebook stories.
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The Feed
Facebook have taken matters into their own hands to stamp out any potential confusion – they’ve renamed the News Feed to simply, ‘Feed’. For those who have used the platform for many years, the reason behind the confusion may be even more confusing! Facebook put out a statement saying:
“This is just a name change to better reflect the diverse content people see on their Feeds. This is just a name change and does not impact the app experience more broadly.”
Essentially, some users misinterpreted the ‘news’ in ‘news feed’ to think that everything they saw was news.
We’re glad that got cleared up!
Reel algorithm
Kelsey and Eloise discussed the Reel algorithm on the latest instalment of Sailing Through Socials. They detailed how you can hack the Reel algorithm and reset your preferences so you do not see the same types of Reel over and over again. The Reels you’re shown in your feed are based on your activity across the platform. This includes everything from the accounts you follow, which Reels you watch all the way through, what audio is used in each Reel you listen to, posts you engage with and send to others.
Some ways the girls are trialling to reset their Reel feeds are:
- Clearing your Instagram history
- Engaging with the type of Reels you want to see more of in your feed
- Clicking the ‘not interested’ button for those they didn’t want to see
- Saving Reels they enjoyed
- Unfollow accounts you want to see less of
- Following accounts you want to see more of
Both Kelsey and Eloise are actively trialling this, so we’ll keep you updated with how they go.
Story likes
Despite already having the reaction button for Instagram Stories, there is now a new ‘like’ button. This was added as a new, simple way for users to engage with Stories content without having to start up a DM.
Story likes are private, so they can only be viewed by the user. As there’s no DM, the creator can only tell who liked their story by clicking on their story insights. Any user who has ‘liked’ the story will have a small heart next to their name in the view listing.
New podcast network
As the popularity of podcasts is really starting to take off, LinkedIn is launching their new LinkedIn Podcast Network. This hub will feature a collection of podcasts focusing on key professional trends created by internal staff and external experts.
These podcasts will be available by following each podcast host in the app and subscribing to their newsletter. Users will also be able to listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever they get their podcasts.
Updated analytics and new emoji reaction
Social media features that are constantly evolving on every platform are analytics. LinkedIn has added more metrics to their current post analytics to help businesses better gauge how their content is performing. This new update will allow businesses to see details about the members that are reading their updates, how many reactions each has received and more.
Although it hasn’t been confirmed, there are talks of a new ‘laugh emoji’ to be added to reactions. LinkedIn’s Chief Product Officer, Tomer Cohen, says, “One of the top requests we got was for a laughing emoji reaction. We hear you loud and clear, and we agree. Humour is indeed a serious business.” Watch this space!
Snapchat
Changing username
A major update has come out of Snapchat this month – users are now able to change their username. In this highly requested update, making a change to your username won’t impact your friend’s list, Snap code, Snap score, Memories, etc. If changing your username, you won’t be able to rename it to a username that’s already been taken, and you can only update your username once a year.
For those looking to shed the embarrassing username they created for themselves when they were 13 – this is for you!
TikTok
Saving videos to your favourites
A couple of new social media features have emerged on TikTok. One of these is the ability for users to save videos to their favourites, rather than them all merging into the one big ‘like’ section. Users can click on the ‘share’ arrow and scroll down until they see the ‘save’ option to save a video.
This feature is great for those who find a great video they want to show their non-TikToking friend but don’t want to lose it among their ‘liked’ videos.
10-minute videos
Short-form video is all the rage right now, but TikTok is constantly looking for ways to evolve and anything that might threaten the popularity of short-form content. Although these short clips are extremely popular for those with short attention spans, this is how Twitter’s spin-off company, Vine, went under. Essentially, Twitter could not find a way to generate significant revenue from these short videos, as they couldn’t insert any advertising into such short length videos.
TikTok is aware of this, so they have created a way to – hopefully – keep their platform from going the same way. At the end of February, TikTok announced they were introducing an option for 10-minute long videos. It’s unsure how users will respond to this update, as users loved the short, catchy videos TikTok made famous.
Social media features constantly move and update to keep up with evolving trends. At Oraco, we’re trying to keep you up to date with all the latest updates to keep you from having to! If you’re not sure how to get the most out of social media for your business, send us an email or DM today.
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