ICYMI: 7 Instagram Updates; Vote for Your Favorite
Adam Mosseri and team are working overtime
Keep an eye out for next week’s predictions from the ICYMI 2024 poll results!
[via Meta]
⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
Instagram is offering holiday bonuses for some creators
TikTok is shifting dollars from its Creator Fund to its Creativity Program
Study: The 4 most important goals brands associate with creator programs 🔽
A growing number of publishers are testing WhatsApp Channels
ICYMI readers get a two-week FREE trial to test Dash Hudson’s AI-powered content predictions*
💻 ROADMAP
📲 Meta Updates
There have been SO many micro Instagram updates lately. While fun, these aren’t necessarily game changers for creators or brands — unless maybe you’re one of the lucky few invited to earn a holiday bonus on Reels. Keep scrolling to vote on your favorite update 🔽
A select group of Instagram creators in the US, South Korea and Japan will be invited to earn a holiday bonus based on the number of reels plays and photo views they receive during "the bonus period."
Instagram confirmed they’re testing the ability to turn OFF read receipts in the DMs. Of all the updates I shared on social, this is the one people seemed to appreciate the most.
Instagram is adding a big “Subscribe” button on posts from eligible creators who have paid subscriptions turned ON.
Instagram expanded creator access to gifts and subscriptions in more countries around the world.
Instagram will prompt creators to edit their Stories when they use features (gif stickers, link stickers or too many tags) that would make them ineligible for Partnership Ads.
Instagram now allows you to share your favorite comments to Stories (it also shares the original post alongside the comment).
Adam Mosseri announced that Instagram’s been testing new ways to react and respond to Notes through GIFs, audio, photos and videos.
That’s on top of last week’s updates, including a Carousel collab test.
📲 TikTok Updates
TikTok is discontinuing its original Creator Fund beginning December 16. Instead, creators will be encouraged to switch to TikTok’s Creativity Program, which rewards videos that are longer than a minute. It could be a potentially lucrative swap for creators since average RPMs can be much higher on long form video.
Another potential outcome of the app’s push to longer videos could be how it impacts audio. Viral videos are often tied to trending audio like jingles or snippet of dialogue. That’s tough to sustain over several minutes. If TikTok can convince creators to start producing long form video, it will definitely have an effect on the types of audio people use in their videos.
📲 YouTube Updates
YouTube is testing two generative AI features as part of the viewer experience:
Comment Topics: Comments will be summarized into “topics” by AI so people can quickly understand and participate in conversations.
Conversational AI Tool: A chatbot will answer questions about the video being watched and even make recommendations for related content without interrupting playback.
YouTube is rolling out a “For you” section on brand and creator pages which gives their audience a tailored experience. Chanel owners can choose what types of content to show and select to show only content recently posted within the last 12 months.
💙 ICYMI EXCLUSIVE
Building a Content Strategy Through AI-Powered Predictions
What if you could predict the performance of your content before posting?
It’s a gamechanger for Girlfriend Collective — the eco-friendly, athleisure brand. The team knows that its audience values authenticity, and prioritizes UGC from its highly engaged community over influencer partnerships.
With an assist from Dash Hudson’s Vision AI tech, the team has been able to predict which UGC would resonate most with its community.
The AI technology uses computer vision to determine which posts audiences are most likely to engage with, based on visual cues from the brand’s past top-performing content — earning Girlfriend Collective 34% higher engagement on UGC than typical posts.
It’s fair to say AI is going to have a huge impact on social next year but all the data in the world won’t matter unless it’s specially designed to help you make better decisions.
*sponsored
👆🏻 CLICK THRU
🚫 PSA: Don’t Use Instagram’s Wrapped App
People are obsessed with the data tied to their digital habits. Happy Spotify Wrapped season to those who celebrate! But you might want to skip Instagram Wrapped, a new app that promises to show you your closest friends, your top Stories and who blocked you. In exchange, you have to download and give this random app (not associated with Meta) access to your account. What in the two-factor are people thinking?! Even if there weren’t rumblings of a scam, this sounds like a bad idea.
😤 AI Gender Gap: Fewer Women than Men Use AI
Over half of men use AI in their professional or personal lives while only 35% of women say the same in a recent survey. This reminded me of a conversation I had recently with creator and graphic designer Anabeth Fuller, who explained how she uses AI to emphasize her expertise and eliminate gender bias:
“I actually use Grammarly. Grammarly does a great job of saying, ‘Do you wanna rephrase it? Do you want to sound more competent? Do you want to sound more assertive?’ I think influencers in general and women can sound too friendly sometimes and not as assertive or informative as they need to. So it's helpful for me to say, “Say that like I would just tell my best friend that I really liked this concealer.” How can I do it to be more assertive and get people to a sale quicker? So that's been really helpful for me to change the tone that I would use. And then I'd say, ‘Well, yeah, that still sounds like me. It just sounds like me with a little more of an exclamation point at the end of it.’”
I’ve been thinking a lot about how marketers and creators use AI and how to ensure it feels accessible to all. But maybe it’s more about affirming and acknowledging that AI tools look different to different people — and it’s got nothing to do with technical proficiency. While some women may be consciously abstaining, we also know women tend to downplay their accomplishments. So, it’s possible they’re already using AI, whether it’s Grammarly, or Canva’s Magic Edit or even TikTok’s AI face filters, but aren’t sure where that falls on the AI spectrum and don’t want to get tech-splained by someone babbling about LLMs and quantum computing. Either way, there’s room to appreciate AI adoption in all forms.
🧮 DATA OF THE WEEK
Brands report that the top four most important goals for their creator programs are:
generating content
driving loyalty
creating awareness
driving sales
-via LTK and Northwestern University's Retail Analytics Council study “The Next Wave of Creator Marketing,” which reveals brands have built multifaceted creator programs, averaging 3.8 different goals for creator programs.
📖 WORTH READING
SAG-AFTRA and the Hollywood studios have reached a deal, which means you’re likely to see a major increase in celebrity and creator content about movies and TV shows this week -NBC News
Is social media over? The obits keep stacking up, this latest one blaming the collective erosion of Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok as millennials start to unplug -Wired
What it’s like to spend a week at summer creator camp where they’re training future YouTubers -The Washington Post (free article)
Instagram released its 2023 Creators of Tomorrow tribute, an initiative spotlighting “diverse creators who are championing inclusivity while establishing culture and community online” -Instagram
Elon Musk launched a new AI bot called "Grok.” The media coverage is fine. The fact-checking replies to Musk’s tweet are even better. And OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s response is chef’s kiss.
A growing number of news publishers are testing WhatsApp Channels, similar to Instagram’s Broadcast Channels. Heads up: creators and brands are also able to take advantage of launching WhatsApp Channels -Niemen Lab
Could episodic content be the secret to Threads success? Meta is reportedly courting reality TV and pop culture creators to join them on the app -The Information (free article)
*I could only include 5 options so if you’re favorite update is missing, let me know in the comments!
Another brilliant overview!
Not a fan of YouTubes new For You feature. I’d rather be in charge of what my viewers are, seeing on my channel page.