July 2020 Social Media News & Updates

There’s been a lot of exciting changes in Social Media over the (kinda) hot summer month of July. We’ve compiled everything you need to know from social platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook below.

Instagram reels coming to UK + 50 other countries in early August!

Instagram Reels is finally live in the UK!

The TikTok rival is available on the discover tab of Instagram, offering an endless feed of 15-second videos from anyone, not just people you follow.

The video editing is not as sophisticated at TikTok’s, although there are definitely some capabilities there, and the 15 second limit makes all videos just feel a bit short (especially when compared to TikTok.)

The main concern is the algorithm – TikTok is so widely loved as you don’t need to have any followers to get hundreds of views on a post. Instagram haven’t explicitly outlined their algo yet but it’s going to be hard to rival TikTok’s.

Trends feel a bit strange too as it’s a fresh app. This is another thing which makes TikTok work so well – it’s trend-focused, meaning an old post can suddenly get a surge of engagement due to it being an early video on something that’s now trending.

Only time will tell how this goes, but our initial thoughts are it’s no threat to the king of short-form video content.

Here’s our first ever Reels vid!

View this post on Instagram

Just a typical Friday here at Honchō. Only one way to beat the heat in our opinion…

A post shared by Honchō (@honcho_search) on Aug 7, 2020 at 6:50am PDT

Instagram pin comments update

Pinned comments have officially been rolled out, after being in testing since May.

This is a move to combat bullying and negative comments, letting users surface positive comments at the top in order to “better manage the tone of the conversation.”

You can pin up to there comments on any post.

Marketers can use this to surface comments to use as social proof, mini-testimonials, reviews, spark conversations, highlight interesting questions etc. There’s a lot of potential here for users who get a lot of comments.

Instagram: Personal Fundraisers

Instagram rolled out a test of personal fundraisers in the UK, US and Ireland.

This feature is designed to support time-sensitive causes, running for 30 days at a time with an extension of another 30 days if needed.

This test was only available to a few iOS and Android users at first. Instagram said they have plans to roll this feature out fully in the coming months.

This gives people a way to quickly and easily raise funds for current issues that are time-sensitive.

Tik tok £$200 million Creator fund

TikTok unveiled plans for a $200 million ‘Creator Fund’.

The fund is designed to “help support ambitious creators who are seeking opportunities to foster a livelihood through their innovative content.”

To be eligible, users must:

• Be 18 years old
• Live in the US
• Have a certain number of followers
• Consistently post original content

TikTok haven’t expanded on the follower criteria yet, what’s considered posting consistently or how ‘original’ the content should be.

TikTok For Business

TikTok have recently unveiled their new studio hub for brands and agencies, allowing advertisers to ramp up paid advertising through TikTok.

The platform is designed to provide brands with the tools to ‘become creative storytellers’.

As TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social platforms, the launch of this could provide a shift in where digital marketeers go to reach gen-z users.

With numerous rumours about a ban in the US, and further rumours suggesting a corporate buyout, the next couple of months for TikTok will certainly be interesting!

Linkedin to stop company page invite spam with invite credits

Company pages now only get 100 invites per month to limit inviting spam. When an invite is accepted, a credit is returned.

The credits are shared by all admins and don’t roll over into each month.

This is to stop mass company page invites, instead making admins think about who they’re inviting to like their page.

If you’ve never interacted with someone and you send them an invite, chances are they won’t accept.

But if you’ve struck up a conversation or regularly engage with someone’s posts, they’re more likely to accept a company page invite.

Back when this feature was first introduced, the limit was 1,500 a month!

Linkedin name pronunciations

You can now add a name pronunciation button to your personal LinkedIn profile.

Users upload an audio clip of their name to show other users how to pronounce their name.

This appears as a blue speaker on the right of someone’s name on their profile page.

LinkedIn Conversation Ads

LinkedIn have launched a new ad type called Conversation Ads

The new ad types aims to empower advertisers to ‘start conversations’ with users that meet their targeting criteria.

Ads are similar to the more traditional sponsored InMails but differ as they provide a variety of new CTAs.

CTAs aim to continue the conversation, or provide the recipient the next stage of the conversion funnel.

Facebook 50-person live streams on messenger rooms

Facebook Live and Messenger Rooms are joining forces to host 50-person live group chats.

Previously, you could only have two accounts broadcasting on Facebook Live at the same time. Messenger Rooms are designed with this in mind, with room for up to 50 people to drop in and out.

You don’t even need a Facebook account to join in!

Messenger rooms can broadcast as a live stream, with the Room’s creator having control over:

• Who can see the broadcast
• Where to broadcast to (a profile, a page or a group)
• Who’s involved (adding and removing participants)
• Locking and unlocking a room.

Facebook screen share feature in messenger

Now on iOS and Android, you can now share your screen via Facebook Messenger with one person or in an 8-person video call.

This is also being rolled out into Messenger Rooms (a video chat of up to 16 people.)

You can go through photos, browse shops, watch videos, scroll through TikTok for hours together – the list is endless.

Mass Twitter hack!

A mass Twitter hack saw the accounts of public figures, politicians and companies compromised.

Accounts that were hacked tweeted out a message asking for BitCoin, saying that they’ll send back double what they’re sent.

All tweets were linked with the same BitCoin wallet. Even some of the biggest cyrptocurrency accounts were hacked!

It’s thought around $120,000 worth of BitCoin were sent to the wallet.

Twitter temporarily banned tweets from verified accounts whilst they dealt with the issue, an unprecedented measure.

Internal employee tools were used as part of the attack, which may have been why accounts with two-step verification were compromised too.

Twitter Ad Engagement Dropping

Twitter have reported a YoY decline of 32% in ad revenue in Q2.

Twitter’s decline in ad revenue is the cause of a steep decline in ad engagement and cost per engagement.

Twitter are expecting their ad revenue to bounce back with the return of live sport, as sport is a common reason people use Twitter.

That’s it for July’s major Social updates! For breaking social media (and digital marketing) news, drop our LinkedIn a follow!

Keep your eyes peeled for our August social round up next month, or read the June social updates.