As part of our work with clients we closely watch those social media trends to identify any shifts, any interesting developments and any opportunities that they might provide for our clients.
Some of the things that we have noticed recently could be of interest to you:
Facebook has officially begun rolling out hiding likes on the platform in Australia.
It’s working similarly to the Instagram change where only the user can see how many likes their post has received and other users will just see the general “liked by Mary and others”.
It will be interesting to see how much of a difference this will make on Facebook compared to Instagram, where likes were the main unit of currency. I haven’t noticed a huge jump or drop in engagement once this change came through on Instagram and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down the influencer economy.
Companies that want to work with influencers are just engaging with the influencer and asking them for their stats directly. This can only be a change for the positive if it stops people judging themselves purely on the number of likes they get online.
Creator Studio
Who needs third-party scheduling tools when you can use Facebook’s Creator Studio?
The Creator Studio has all the tools you need to post, schedule and analyse your results for Facebook & Instagram. Creator Studio works well for Instagram because the main pain with Instagram was that you could only post from mobile unless you were using a third-party tool like Hootsuite or Buffer.
Now you can post & schedule posts directly from your desktop! This is currently only set up for posts to the feed and IGTV but hopefully, they’ll include an option for Stories soon enough.
Instagram “Positivity”
For more Instagram positive news, they’re launching a new policy that will restrict posts related to weight loss products and cosmetic surgery to users under the age of 18.
The updated policy is part of Instagram’s work to make the platform “a positive place for everyone” and to “reduce the pressure that people can sometimes feel as a result of social media.”
Users such as the Kardashians have previously been condemned for promoting weight loss products to their young audiences, this will ensure that their posts are monitored more closely and will be removed if reported for going against these guidelines.
Pinterest is still plugging away and getting more relevant by the day.
Pinterest is now up to 300 million monthly active users, a 30% increase on a year ago. Due to the fact that Pinterest links back to websites easily, it’s a very relevant platform for any e-commerce, retail, household, interiors, food or tourism businesses. You may not consider Pinterest to be a key platform for your promotions, but research from Pinterest shows that its audience diversity and usage is expanding. The other great argument for using it is that there is a good chance that your competitors will not be very active on it.
That’s all from us folks for the moment, I hope you found this useful,
Alma
Alma Brosnan is part of the Digital Marketing team providing Social Media Consultancy and Training services at Fuzion Communications from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland
