13 | What's ?NEW? in the Social Media World? ??

Instagram is really going through it lately with some weighty updates, that of which we’ll dig into in this edition. Every two weeks, I share the big changes on the major social media platforms that you should know about as a casual reader, lurker, or poster. Things are ever-changing on the platforms, and since I make it a point to keep up (I mean I kind of have to, it’s part and parcel of my job description), I might as well update you. So, let’s get into it!

???Instagram Amplifies Original Content, De-prioritizing Reposts

Personally, I love this change AND it’s been a long-time coming.

On April 30th, the platform announced four major changes to the algorithm with the goal of recommending and showing original content to users across the platform.

What this looks like:

• Accounts that primarily repost content will be de-prioritized in Recommendations. When the algorithm finds that a piece of content is doing well but is deemed to be a repost of the original content, the original work will replace the reposted content in Recommendations.
• Labels will be added to reposted content, linking back and giving credit to the original creator ??
• “Aggregator” accounts (accounts that repost or reshare content) will be removed from the Recommendations.

Ideally, this means that original content becomes king ???Instagram will push your original content first to a small, niche audience-- and if that content does well in that group, it will be shown to a wider group. Sounds pretty similar to what the TikTok algorithm does already, actually ??

Huge props to Instagram for pushing small, original creators ? The full rollout will take place over a couple of months, and I’ll definitely be keeping tabs on how my own content is doing to share my learnings!

???Threads Puts You In Control Of How Your Quotes Are Shared

It can be scary when anything you say can be reposted without any context, or with the complete opposite context you intended. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announced that Threads is giving you back some power to define the conversation you’ve opened up by adding controls to how users can reply to you and quote your threads.

When you start a new thread, set limits or not to how your post is reposted, or “quoted”, when you click on the bottom left.

You can make it so that anyone can quote (the first option) and comment on your thread. Or the second option “Profiles you follow” allows only accounts that you follow to quote you— a little bit more limited. Finally, the most restrictive is to choose the third option “Mentioned only” where only accounts you’ve tagged in your thread can quote you.

If you talk about topics that get edgy real quick or where interactions can be explosive, this is a great feature to utilize. Threads has said that want make the platform a more positive place— let’s hope this helps folks be thoughtful about how they comment on each other’s words ??

???LinkedIn News Introduces A Way For You To Relax & Play With Games

This is a very unexpected, but fun addition to LinkedIn . Unexpected because when I think of the platform, I think more professional and work-focused, but the games they’ve released make a lot of sense even on a professional platform. But, the fun aspect here is that these games are meant for you to connect with your connections on the platform as well! According to an official LinkedIn article, three games have been released:

????Pinpoint: Guess the category to which each clue belongs

????Crossclimb: A trivia game

????Queens: A “Connect 5”-type of game

The idea is to give you a way to let off steam, take your mind off of work, but still exercise and give you almost a conversation-starter while playing or after playing with your connections on the platform. I imagine some highly competitive players will be watching the leaderboard closely to see which of their connections they need to beat or at least get on the same level ??

Gamifying the platform, from a business perspective, means that more people will spend more time on it interacting with each other. I wonder if that will help lead people “Open To Work” to new jobs as well— creating a good reason to open the lines of communication? ??

Three updates down, zero to go! Which one is the most impactful to your social media surfing experience? Share with the room!

See you here again in two weeks for what’s new in the world of social media marketing ??

Happy Content Creating!

Leah

Hey, my name is Leah! I own and run Jar of Stars Creative, my social media marketing business. I've crafted this newsletter guide to equip:

?? Small business owners

?? Social media content creators

???? ?? Digital content marketers

...to develop dazzling yet authentic digital content strategies to attain their business goals and beyond?

??CapCut allows me to edit clips directly on my phone to create social-first videos ready to upload onto various platforms. They make creating a thumbnail a breeze, and have an excellent library of text templates and transitions-- no more tinkering with keyframes (unless you want to ??)

??? Notion is my go-to planning and organizational tool for my life and social media. I create marketing strategies, organizing and thoroughly enjoying all the ways I can visually present the data I feed in. It doubles as a workspace where I can collaborate exclusively with clients.

?? My favorite all-around social media content scheduler is Loomly to customize posts per platform and ensure photo and video posts go out on time

?? Midjourney speeds up the time it takes for me to create visuals that get my ideas across