Social media updates – What happened in November 2019
Read the latest round-up of social media updates from our specialist, Nick.
Instagram updates November 2019
Instagram announce global expansion of hidden like counts test
After Instagram revealed that they had “positive” feedback from early tests in countries like Australia, Brazil, Japan and Ireland, the experiment to hide like counts has been broadened to all regions.
Adam Mosseri’s hope is to “depressurise Instagram for young people” and improve platform health, but there is some debate about how the potential change will impact influencers. HypeAuditor, an influencer marketing platform, have found that total like counts have fallen for influencers operating within the regions where the test is active. [source]
Instagram Stories launch TikTok clone ‘Reels’ in Brazil
As TikTok’s popularity continues to rise, Instagram have created a very similar function within Stories. Social platforms often imitate their rivals and the latest example of that is ‘Reels’, which lets users make 15-second video clips set to music and share them as Stories. These can then be shared through a new ‘Top Reels’ section on the Explore tab. [source]
Instagram reveal how AI fills the Explore tab
Instagram published an explanation into how complex user habits inform the algorithmically-driven Explore tab to pull in new content. It’s quite technical, so TechCrunch have provided five takeaways. [source]
Facebook updates November 2019
Facebook Pay rolled out to the US
Their aim is to provide a “convenient, secure and consistent payment experience across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp,” facilitating on-platform payments, in-stream.
Initially, Facebook Pay will be available as a payment option for fundraisers, in-game purchases, event tickets, person-to-person payments, purchases from select pages using Facebook Checkout and businesses on Facebook Marketplace. [source]
Facebook to limit amount of ads selected advertisers can run in 2020
In mid-2020, Facebook will implement a limit on the number of ads each page can run at the same time. “The ad limits will impact just a small percentage of advertisers, and we plan to share more details about the limits early next year,” they explain.
Facebook also state that running too many ads leads to worse overall performance, which could then mean some advertisers reduce their ad spend and complain about effectiveness. [source]
Twitter updates November 2019
Twitter introduce new Topics feature
Users are now prompted to follow specific topics and have those tweets appear within their feed, as well as the other accounts they already follow. Twitter want to “improve tweet discovery, and boost engagement”. These lists are created by a combination of machine learning and human curation. [source]
Twitter rolls out option to hide tweet replies to all users
To give users more control over their conversations, and to reduce trolling or spam, replies to your tweets can now be hidden. There is an option for other users to then see what replies have been concealed, however.
From early tests, Twitter revealed that people “mostly hide replies they think are irrelevant, off-topic, or annoying,” while this option “is a new way to shut out noise; 85% of the people who hide replies are not using block or mute”. [source]
YouTube update November 2019
Upcoming YouTube changes may impact creator revenue
YouTube will stop serving personalised ads on video content that is made for children, because this is not allowed under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
“If applicable, this may result in a decrease in revenue for some creators. Note that we will continue to serve non-personalized ads (ads that are shown based on context rather than on user data) on content that is made for kids,” they say. [source]
Snapchat update November 2019
Snapchat enable unskippable ads
Following YouTube’s lead, Snapchat now lets brands buy unskippable ads that go beyond their current six-second time limit. On YouTube, unskippable ad formats usually run pre-roll, but Snapchat’s run mid-roll in the premium Discover section. [source]
