Get Social: October Edition
Social media trends, updates and content ideas to fuel your inspiration
Hey friends 👋 Welcome back to Get Social!, your monthly newsletter designed to simplify the world of social media marketing. Giving you;
The most important new social media trends, data and updates you need to know
Content ideas and inspiration to help fuel your creativity
Tips to help you create content faster
Ready? Let’s do it.
View on web for the best experience.
📣 The social media stats, trends and data you need to know
October has been a very busy month in terms of new updates. To keep things simple, these updates all centre around five core themes.
Let’s dig into them…
1️⃣ Platform metrics
Snapchat’s user base passes that of Pinterest and X as users and usage continues to grow
The Meta family of apps closes in on 4 billion users 😳
LinkedIn grows to 985 million members
Threads is closing in on 100 Million Monthly Active Users as usage appears to be growing again.
This seems to be at the expense of X. Since Musk bought Twitter in October 2022, its lost approximately 13% of its daily active users. And the rebrand from Twitter to X accelerated the decline.
2️⃣ Social media platform monetisation
Ever since Twitter launched their subscription offering, called Blue, the social media platforms have been watching carefully. Snapchat has seen the greatest success with their approach, and with increasing restrictions on ads, influencers and EU regulation, a future without ads on social media looks like an increasing possibility.
Facebook unveil their ad free Subscription offering
Meta are testing a ‘Verified Feed’ of which will show content from only those who pay
TikTok start testing an Ad free subscription
3️⃣ The rise of direct messaging
More people than ever are using social networks to share privately as opposed to broadcast in the feed. This is an interesting trend for us to consider as marketers and talks to the power of small, niche communities. People are typically more inclined to share and engage when they feel safe and the social platforms are shifting to facilitate this.
Facebook now shows the number of times a post has been shared privately.
‘Broadcast channels’ have been very successful on Instagram and are now available on Facebook and Messenger.
Users can now reply to comments on Instagram broadcast channels.
Channel stickers can now be added to Instagram Reels to promote broadcast channels.
Users can now share video in Instagram Notes. A feature very popular with younger users.
Instagram launches a host of new private sharing tools.
Instagram Stories can now be shared with specific lists of people.
4️⃣ Collaborations are crucial for growth
I say this regularly, but we often overvalue what we put in our feeds and undervalue the opportunity of appearing in others’ feeds. Collaborating with others and commenting on others posts is essential if we want to get our brands in front of new audiences. The social platforms continue to ship features that help facilitate these collaborations and co-creation opportunities.
You can now mention other videos on TikTok
LinkedIn improves collaborative articles. (I’m a big fan of this feature)
Instagram is testing the ability to collaborate with others on a carousel post. (This represents different way of thinking about engagement and seeing it more as co-creation)
Polls are coming to comments on Instagram feed posts and Reels.
5️⃣ Threads is getting a lot of focus
After the initial launch buzz and subsequent struggles, Threads now looks to be regaining lost ground. Usage is growing, new features are launching and a number of growth hacks are being implemented to draw in Facebook and Instagram users.
Threads adds voice notes, GIF support and starts testing trending topics and post editing.
Links to Threads are now appearing on Facebook.
Instagram users can now be tagged in Threads even if they are not yet on the platform.
You can now Auto-pin your Instagram Story to Threads.
🚨 Stat of the month
It seems like X’s recently reported numbers could be flawed. According to analysis by Apptopia, X currently has around 121 million daily active users, which is significantly lower than the 253 million reported by X itself.
As reported by Big Technology:
“Since Musk bought the company in October 2022, it’s lost approximately 13% of its daily active users. And its rebrand from Twitter to X accelerated the decline.”
📈 New, useful insight tools
The social networks have rolled out a number of user analytics and insights tools this month.
TikTok now allows you to view performance across a ‘series’. (A series is like a YouTube playlist, so it’s great to see data across multiple posts around a single topic)
You can now view your Instagram insights on desktop
Total Reels watch time metric has been added to Instagram. (This is a very useful metric to track)
YouTube rolls out Subscriber analytics to help you track where your audience is coming from.
👉 Tip of the month
What should you be paying attention to when it comes to your brand’s social media metrics? In this on-demand session, I go deep into social media analytics to help you make decisions for your brand and business with confidence.
In this session, you’ll discover:
Social media trends that you need to know right now
Six steps to increase your social media impact with data
The single most important social media metric that you need to measure
GetSocial! goes in-person!
In August we hosted a small meet-up for being interested in social media marketing at the Adobe office in London. It was so much fun, we’re doing it again.
Hosted again at the Adobe HQ in London (with its wonderful rooftop views), this is a chilled meet-up for anyone with an interest in social media marketing, regardless of experience.
We will have two 20-minute talks, focussed on practical, actionable social media advice from people with great growth stories, followed by a chance to meet others with a shared interest in social media.
You'll go home inspired by new ideas and energised through making new connections.
If you fancy coming along, register here.
That’s it for this week, we so hope you found this useful 🙌
Don’t forget to share this newsletter with your friends 😊
We always love chatting about and helping on all things social media. Feel free to connect and message us at @jordandeneellis and @andyrlambert
Made with ❤️ by Jordan and Andy
So insightful as always!