Almost a year ago, our social media managers went through some massive changes within Instagram and fought to beat the algorithm. This time around it looks like all social media platforms are making some major updates.
Let’s start with our favorite: Instagram!
Recently, Instagram has shown us there will be huge changes coming to their platform to help boost engagement and reach to your audience. As artists and social media managers notice, the drop of reach has gone down massively, only possibly reaching about 5-10% of their audience. First of the many changes that come to Instagram is all videos will officially become Reels.
Now, the update has slowly been rolling out and people have noticed a pop-up has been shown to them if they recently tried to post a video. Once the update fully reaches everyone, the videos will become formatted into 9:16 or Reel/Story sizing. So for social media managers what does this really mean? Well if you are hiring videographers or animators, you may need to create assets that are purely in frame with this new format. Whether you will be posting on YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook, now you will need to consider a separate vertical asset for all tour recaps, show announcements, lyric videos, music videos, and so on.
Along with this change, Instagram also made some changes to its Reels features. And it is something that may sound familiar to some: Remixing.
Instagram will soon let anyone on the platform remix your new photos, as long as your account is public. Until now, photographers have been skeptical about how they handle still images, but now with this upcoming feature, other creators can remix their favorite creator’s photos. The change is meant to provide more content for Reels creators to work on as Instagram is now officially becoming a short-form video platform. Although this feature can be disabled for anyone who doesn’t wish to have their content remixed. This has its pros and cons for artists and photographers. It has potential to be a cool way to interact with audiences.
Lastly, with these changes and more attention to Reels, Instagram is adding a new “Boost” promotion to them. Though there is a catch. Reels that are eligible to get this new promotion have to be in 9:16 ratio and under 60 seconds – sound easy enough. In the end, it appears Instagram is fully making the switch over to promoting Reels as their main objective.
Second, some small changes coming to Twitter!
Naturally, there aren’t many changes that come to the Twitter-sphere besides a couple of unique features. Earlier in the summer, Twitter announced a new feature they are testing out: Twitter Circle.
Twitter Circle appears to be this new form of place where you can share exclusive content for only the golden select. For artists, this could just be another way for them to stray away from their main audience and be freer without restrictions. Also, this could become a space where you can share like WIPS, exclusive listens to new music, or sneak peeks of merch.
Along with Twitter Circle, the artists that engage in Twitter Spaces, come a neat feature for everyone. Now we will be able to capture 30 seconds of audio and Tweet it from the clipping icon in a Space. Artists that host memorable or informative Spaces can now share to all that may have missed the session.
A side note for those that use TweetDeck and didn’t know, it will no longer work for the Mac app. Users will have to go to the actual website in order to use it.
Who still is using Facebook and how much this new update will change things!
Lastly, we have a platform that some managers stray away from. Although some of these changes can revive an existing audience that some artists have on Facebook.
The major change everyone will notice is the TikTok-ication of their Home Feed. Like TikTok it will follow an algorithm that will cater to your needs. Now your Home Feed will focus on lots of recommended posts that are mostly videos. All the ASMR/Craft videos you get caught up with when scrolling through will fill your now vertical feed. But luckily you can switch that off and not have that be an option.
If you are posting a video on Facebook, they are now allowing the option of quiet mode. So when the video starts playing, it starts off quiet and the user can raise the volume themselves. No more destroying your audience’s earbuds.
Now, are all the social media managers feelings?
In the end, we are all striving to get higher engagement and get all the incredible content our clients are making seen by people. The constant pivot we all make it something that everyone relates to. With all the social media updates, it is hard to stay on track. Although at least we are all scrambling to get through updates together. As we already know being a social media manager is not for the weak and hopefully the above information prepares you for what’s about to come.
And it appears with the major shifts of changes, TikTok has become a major influence on everyone in the past couple of years. A wave a majority of us have never planned to fully engage in. But as content creators are rising from TikTok, they are ahead of the game right now by creating engaging posts. Social media updates are going to continuously push us to be creative. Hopefully, there isn’t anything more drastic for at least another year.
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