👋 September's social media updates you need to know.
Social media trends, updates and content ideas to fuel your inspiration.
Hey 👋
Here’s your monthly digest of the social media updates and best practices you need to know.
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 September, or you can catch the replay below.
TL;DR Here’s the four key themes that dominated this month.
1️⃣ Everywhere you look, social video is dominating. The trend towards 1-2 minute videos plays into the hands of brands, as does the increasing consumption of video on LinkedIn and YouTube.
2️⃣ Social media is becoming more fragmented and private. Instagram is building towards fostering more private interactions through messaging, Stories and Notes. We need to consider how we might take advantage of this trend if we are targeting younger audiences.
3️⃣ Threads is growing, Bluesky is growing, so is Mastodon. Might the 'fediverse' be becoming a 'thing'? With a growing distrust of social platforms from younger audiences, niche communities will continue to thrive. With Threads passing 200M users and now shipping crucial features like improved topic tags, analytics and the ability to add 20 images to a carousel, it’s maturing into a very useful platform.
4️⃣ LinkedIn is looking like a great opportunity right now. Particularly with the upcoming video feed and the ability to sponsor newsletters - we now have more opportunities to make the humans behind our businesses the hero’s of our brands online presence.
🚨 Stat of the month
LinkedIn’s push towards video continues and it is currently the fastest-growing content type on the platform. I’m seeing others report strong results from posting video on LinkedIn, so there seems to be a distribution advantage for those posting video right now, particularly video shot in portrait format.
📣 New feature of the month
Instagram continues to lean into collaborations. You can now retroactively tag collaborators in posts and now have more flexibility to tag collaborators in feed posts as well as Reels.
As a reminder, collaborations are powerful as it means that your post will be shared with both yours and your collaborators followers - maximising your reach. Your fellow collaborators (you can have up to 3) will need to accept your invitation and it’s always advisable to have the person with the highest following publish the post in the first instance.
👉 Tip of the month
Instagram are shifting their metrics to focus on views over reach. This move hits on two areas we need to consider:
As Reels continue to dominate the feed, view counts become increasingly important and underlines Instagram’s prioritisation of this format.
Follower numbers are no longer as important as they used to be. That does not mean that they no longer matter at all, but our success is defined by the topical relevancy and entertainment/educational value of your content. That’s why tracking non-follower views will be a interesting metric to track.
👉 3 other interesting things.
1️⃣ If you work in B2B and are based in the UK, this event is for you. It would be great to meet in person!
2️⃣ The latest podcast episode has just dropped. I’m joined by marketing consultants Emma and Ruta to discuss the state of B2B marketing right now and how business are navigating the challenging economic backdrop.
3️⃣ I’ve relaunched my book! Social moves fast, so I thought it was time for an update. If you’ve bought a copy already and want the updated version, feel free to reply to this and I’ll send you a digital copy for free.
📬 See you next time!
That’s it for this month, I hope you found this useful 🙌
Made with ❤️ by Andy