The biggest updates in social media | March 2023

Summary/Overview

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It’s time for your monthly installment of social media news, where we keep you up to date on all the most important data, trends, and new platform features so you can stay firmly on the path to social media success.

Prefer to watch?

Every month, Andy and Jordan talk us through the key updates that you need to know to stay ahead of the social media curve. Watch their March roundup here:

Data

Substack passes 2 million subscribers

Substacks has surpassed 2 million paid subscriptions, demonstrating an increase in appetite to pay for the content you enjoy.

Brands are seeing less organic engagement

Data from RivalIQ shows that engagement rates are declining for Instagram for the third year in a row. However, Twitter and Facebook are holding steady, with TikTok engagement flourishing in comparison, especially for those in the higher education industries.

Posting frequency is declining

This report from RivalIQ also shows that posting frequency for Instagram is flattening out while Facebook and Twitter have seen a 20% decline.

Every brand should be posting Reels

RivalIQ reveals that Reels are officially the most engaging post type, finally overtaking the well-loved carousel format.

The content that makes up a Facebook feed

Data from Meta shows that the typical Facebook feed of a person in the US is made up of 32% content from friends, 18.7% content reshared by friends, 16.8% from people to whom you are not connected, 15.6% from groups, 8.7% from other sources, and 8.2% from Facebook Pages you follow (which is bad news for marketers).

This same report from Meta also shockingly reveals the difference in views for Facebook posts with and without links, when posted by friends, within groups, from Pages, from unconnected accounts, and from other sources. All in all, this data shows that Facebook posts without links perform better across the board.

New features

Instagram

Multiple collaborators for posts

Live soon

Collaborative posts allow your post to appear on the page of everyone marked as a collaborator. This saves you from posting the same post multiple times on more than one social channel, as well as allowing a single post to get exposure to double the audience.

Collabs coming to Stories

Live soon

Much like the previous feature update, Instagram is looking into adding Collabs to Stories. This will allow for one Story to appear on multiple accounts and appear in front of multiple audiences.

React to Stories using a green screen

Live now

This new feature allows you to use a green screen to add yourself into your friends’ Stories to create fun reaction videos.

Reels “Watch time” stats coming to Instagram Insights

Live soon

Soon an update will be made to Instagram Insights allowing you to view the “Watch time” and “Average watch time” for your Reels.

“Top 3” Sticker for Stories

Live soon

Instagram’s “Top 3” Sticker is designed to allow creators to list their top three favorites on whatever topic they please. For example, this Sticker could be used to list their top three meals, their top three creators to follow, their top three films, etc. Serving as a content prompt, use of this Sticker could be a good way to encourage conversation with one’s audience.

“Add yours” prompts coming to feed posts

Live soon

“Add yours” prompts exist on Stories and Reels already but are now coming to feed posts to encourage further interaction. “Add yours” prompts allow you to share something (such as a picture of your dog) and then use the “Add yours” prompt to encourage your audience to do the same.

Phone instagram A hand holds a phone showing an Instagram picture of a woman in a field of yellow flowers. The background to this image is also yellow.

Facebook

Facebook introduces “Quiet mode”

Live now

Facebook’s “Quiet mode” allows you to mute most push notifications. This helps those running business pages to set boundaries and have a better work/life balance.

Insights for Facebook Stories

Live soon

Data pulled from the performance of your Facebook Stories is soon to be available within Facebook Insights.

“Broadcast channels” coming to Facebook Messenger

Live soon

Facebook Broadcast channels will allow you to create a channel for people to join and send one-way updates and messages to the channel via DMs.

Facebook allows for 90-second Reels

Live now

Aligning with Instagram, Facebook has expanded the length of its Reels to a maximum of a 90-second time limit.

Ready-made Reels from Story memories

Live now

Facebook now allows you to share ready-made Reels using clips taken from your Story memories — all ready to share with a single tap.

Facebook Reels “Groove” feature

Live now

Facebook’s new Groove feature will automatically synch the motion of your video with the beat of your chosen song.

Meta begins work on text-based social media to rival Twitter

Meta is looking to Twitter for inspiration as it begins to put plans into motion for a text-based social media platform.

Meta “Verified” subscription platform launches

Live now

Meta Verified has now rolled out in the US, allowing those who subscribe to get a badge, proactive impersonation protection, and direct access to customer support.

Twitter

Bookmarks become trackable

Live soon

Bookmarks on Twitter are to be treated as a measurable form of engagement with a bookmark counter visible on each Tweet.

Twitter Blue subscribers to get prioritized ranking in comments

Live soon

Elon Musk has announced that Twitter will begin prioritizing replies by people you follow, verified accounts, and then unverified accounts, giving Blue subscribers the chance to rank higher in comments than other Twitter users.

Text formatting to come to Twitter

Live soon

Twitter will soon allow users to add formatting to their text by including the options to italicize, bold, or underline their copy.

scrolling on phone A person with pink painted nail is holding a mobile phone showing a social media page.

LinkedIn

“Star” important LinkedIn DMs

Live now

LinkedIn now allows you to “star” messages, enabling you to easily save and segregate your most important DMs.

Interest-based ad targeting

Live now

LinkedIn now allows you to be more precise with the targeting of your ads by providing you with the option of targeting your audience based on specific interests.

AI-powered collaborative articles

Live now

This new LinkedIn feature (not available for all just yet) uses AI to generate article prompts for experts in your field with which they can collaborate and contribute.

AI-powered assistant for creating your headline, about section, and job ads

Live now

You can also make use of AI on LinkedIn to help you automatically generate a headline and about section, and write job ads based on insights gathered from millions of other profiles.

The Podcast Academy

Live now

LinkedIn has launched the Podcast Academy to give guidance to those running and producing podcasts, especially targeted to those running B2B podcasts with advising on how to grow.

scrolling on phone A person with pink painted nail is holding a mobile phone showing a social media page.

Follow other companies from a company page

Live now

You can now follow company pages on LinkedIn from your own company page. In the past, it was only possible to follow company pages from personal profiles.

Live Audio rooms come to company pages

Live now

LinkedIn Audio rooms are interactive audio-only events on LinkedIn; they are now available to join and host via a company page.

TikTok

TikTok now displays a re-post tab

Live now

A re-post tab has now been added to TikTok profiles where you can view all of your re-posted content.

Multiple posts can be added to TikTok Now

Live now

Multiple photos can now be added to the TikTok Now area of the app.

App links can be added to bio

Live now

If you’re the owner of an app, you now have the option to add a link to your app within the app store in your bio.

TikTok introduces TikTok Series

Live now

Creators can now use Series to share a collection of TikToks with their audience as premium/paid content.

TikTok keyword research tool

Live now

It is now possible to carry out keyword research on TikTok using their new keyword tool to determine which keywords are ranking and which ones to use in your captions.

Refresh TikTok feed

Live now

TikTok is now giving the opportunity to start from scratch with a fresh feed of content. Selecting this option will remove any assumptions the algorithm has made about your content preferences based on your previous engagement and will treat you as if you are a brand-new user.

Could TikTok be banned?

The noise around the potential banning of TikTok in the US is only getting louder with concerns around the sharing of sensitive user data. There has yet to be a final decision on the matter.

YouTube

Upload and manage podcasts on YouTube Music

Live now

Podcasting will now receive dedicated support on its subscription music app, which is great news for anyone looking to grow their podcast further.

woman with phone A woman smiles as she looks at her phone. She is wearing a grey shirt and pink headphones.

More detail added to YouTube Shorts analytics

Live now

Shorts continue to grow on YouTube. As a result, more analytics and features are coming to help users make and better understand their YouTube Shorts.

Pinterest

Pinterest Idea Pins extended to five minutes

Live now

Idea Pins can now be up to five minutes long, allowing creators to go into much more detail in their Pinterest content.

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