👋 July's social media updates you need to know.
Social media data, trends, updates and content ideas to fuel your inspiration and help you drive growth.
Hello 👋
You know the drill by now… here’s your monthly digest of the social media updates that you need to know. No fluff, just practical updates.
For new readers, this is a monthly newsletter focused on simplifying social media marketing. Each issue covers:
Key new social media trends, data, and platform updates
Practical tips to help grow your brand's online presence
No fluff, just the important details you can actually use. Let's dive in.
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📣 The social media data, trends and new features you need to know
Here’s the slide deck, giving you a network-by-network run through all of the most important updates you need to know for July, or you can catch the replay below.
TL;DR Here’s the three key themes that dominated this month.
1️⃣ Repurposing content has never been easier, or more important. For example, TikTok is removing watermarks to enable us to use this content on other platforms and Meta is actively encouraging content to be shared across Instagram, Facebook and Threads.
2️⃣ AI will continue to provide us with both opportunities and challenges. Meta’s Gen AI personalities might provide us with a completely new approach to influencers, but it’s not without its risks. TikTok’s upcoming ‘Genie’ AI bot could change how new products are discovered on social and could decrease the importance of the feed.
3️⃣ The social platforms continue to push 'collab' features. This will be an important element to consider in our strategies as this is one of the highest leverage approaches to growing on social.
🚨 Stat of the month
Threads is now one year old. It celebrated the milestone by notching up 175m users. This would usually mean it’s time for popping bottles and toasting yet another Meta success…
Not so fast. The average user spends less than 6 minutes using the app each day. It’s no wonder that creators are telling me that it’s very hard to grow. Low attention = slow growth.
On the other hand, TikTok continues to dominate the ‘time spent’ using social media. Even though Instagram have been clawing back lost ground, it seems there’s no beating TikTok’s engagement levels. What surprised me about this statistic is that you need to go up to the 55+ age demographic before Facebook takes over. That really demonstrates how powerful TikTok is.
📣 New feature of the month
Instagram are allowing creators to turn on the ‘open to collaboration’ notification, making it much easier for businesses to find people to work with.
Working with creators was my secret weapon when it came to growing my business, so anything that makes the process of finding suitable people to work with gets my vote!
👉 Tip of the month
It’s true I have a personal issue with Hashtags. Mostly due to the number of social media ‘gurus’ that have dreamt up all manner of ways to make hashtags overcomplicated and confusing over the years. So let’s focus on some truths.
There are only some platforms that hashtags make any sense on. X, Instagram and TikTok are some of them. LinkedIn and Facebook, it’s best not to bother.
Adding hashtags in comments on Instagram is a waste of time (according to IG themselves). So, keep it simple and add them in the caption.
Having more than 5 hashtags (3 on X) will be a detriment to reach. Instagram are even taking steps to block this. Again, keep it simple. There’s really no need for 25 hashtags anymore.
Well-chosen, relevant hashtags are the only things you need to concerned with. Even then, hashtags impact on reach will be negligible. (Just think how many times you only explore a platform based on a hashtag search… I’m guessing it’s not often.).
One of the most valuable uses of hashtags is when you want to have a # that connects a campaign or initiative (like a competition or influencer campaign). That approach works well.
That’s it. Nothing more to it.
📊 How to evaluate the business impact of social media
This might be the most important issue social media marketers face. In the latest podcast, I sat down with Duarte Garrido to discuss how we can evaluate this and help marketing garner the respect it deserves.
The REAL role of Marketing in B2B
In this episode, I sit down with Duarte Garrido (or ‘DG’ for short) an experienced marketing leader and advisor, to discuss the role of marketing in driving growth for B2B companies. DG shares his thoughts on the intricate relationship between marketing and revenue generation, drawing from his diverse career spanning social media, content creation, and…
📬 See you next soon!
That’s it for this month, I hope you found this useful 🙌
Made with ❤️ by Andy
In July's deck, you mention that TikTok has put out a how-to guide of sorts but it's not mentioned or linked in this month's newsletter. Can you please point me to it? :)