ICYMI: Hello Instagram Close Friends, Goodbye Guides 👋🏼

I'm early to your mailbox this week!

Nov 20, 2023

While tackling today’s epic (and overwhelming) list of platform updates, I was reminded of a concept Mallory Rowan talks about often: The One Thing. It’s based on a book by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan that suggests focusing on one goal at a time as the best and quickest way to success.

Mallory interprets it as a way to get unstuck. To paraphrase one of her recent Reels: write down everything that’s taking up space in your head. Split the list between today, later this week or next week. Ask yourself, “What’s the one thing that would make everything else easier or unnecessary?” And then zero in on your biggest priority.

For me, that means breaking my to-do list into game changers and busy work. There’s a dream project I’m working on for a VIP client that needs attention but I also feel compelled to answer every email I get today. Am I well served by spending my time clearing my inbox? Not really. When I look back at 2023, the incremental tasks I checked off aren’t going to mean as much to me as knowing I worked on something really special.

There are always new features and trends to try but this month feels like a LOT. So I’d encourage you to stick to your North Star. There’s only so much you can do by the end of year. Be selective and pick the thing that gets you closer to your goals. You have my permission to ignore the rest.

⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY

You can now share Instagram Feed posts and Reels exclusively with people on your Close Friends list
Instagram Guides, which allowed app users to curate mini magazines, will disappear on December 15
You can now control where your Threads show up (eg. on Facebook or Instagram)
YouTube’s Dream Track allows creators to legally clone artists voices for their Shorts tunes
Survey: Brands are most confident in the positive ROI of LinkedIn, Instagram, and WhatsApp
Everyone, including MrBeast, has been watching to see what happens with ChatGPT’s parent company, OpenAI, after its CEO was removed, almost reinstated and then hired by Microsoft.
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💻 ROADMAP

📲 Meta Updates

Instagram officially launched the ability to share Feed posts and Reels exclusively with people on your Close Friends list, just like you can now on Stories and Notes. This update seems like a game changer for a variety of users:

✅ People who previously used Finstas as a pressure-free space to connect

✅ Parents who might appreciate the added privacy when posting family pics

✅ Creators or brands who want to create a sense of exclusivity within a select community

On the flipside, Instagram is getting rid of Guides. RIP. The feature, which allowed retailers, creators and curators to collate mini magazines, will disappear on December 15. Any existing Guides will be converted to collections. People shared some reactions to the news here which leads me to hope Instagram eventually finds a worthy replacement everyone can get behind.
Instagram is testing a private “Your Space” profile only select people can see, which compliments the idea of Close Friends posts as a solution for people using Finstas. The private “space” allows you to have a bio and a profile photo that’s different from that of your public profile and publish photos, plus content that’s visible only to the people you decide to add within this space.

Instagram is also testing a section called “Wonder Wall,” that seems to be a collection of text notes.

Instagram launched “Achievements” in the Professional Dashboard. Professional Dashboard → Your Tools: Achievements. Creators earn Achievements by hitting content or account milestones. However, there’s no tangible reward for hitting the milestones. Earlier this month, Meta said eligible creators who finish all Progression levels can become eligible to get increased visibility. So… basically exposure 😐

Instagram is rolling out new editing tools for Reels including new text-on-screen fonts; the ability to zoom/crop/rotate on clips; undo and redo edits; 10 new text-to-speech voices; plus the ability to add clips with audio from movies, TV shows or your own created audio to your Reels.

Instagram introduced 25 new filters and now allows users to turn part of any photo into a custom sticker.

Adam Mosseri announced Threads users would be able to control where their Threads show up (eg on Facebook or Instagram). Visit Threads Settings → Privacy.

Threads released a way for people to delete their Threads profile separately from their Instagram account. To delete your Threads profile, visit Settings → Account → Delete or Deactivate Profile, then select delete.

Threads users can now pin one of their posts to their profile and can pin a reply to their post. Tap on the three-dot menu above a post on Threads to try it out.

Threads is starting a limited test in Australia that lets you tag topics on Threads to categorize your posts by interest or theme.

📲 LinkedIn Updates

LinkedIn sent out an email confirming it would remove all carousel posts, profile videos and clickable links on images or video as of December 14. Note: you’ll still be able to create carousel-style posts by uploading PDFs.

📲 YouTube Updates

YouTube is testing Dream Track, an AI tool that allows creators to generate Shorts tracks using just text prompts and humming. The AI tool is in beta with select creators and 9 famous artists who are allowing their voices to be incorporated into AI-generated tracks, including Alec Benjamin, Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, Demi Lovato, John Legend, Papoose, Sia, T-Pain, and Troye Sivan.

YouTube will require creators to disclose when they've used AI tools to create “altered or synthetic content” that is realistic. Creators who consistently don’t disclose AI-generated videos could see their videos removed, be suspended from the YouTube Partner Program, or face other penalties.

YouTube is giving premium subscribers early access to two new AI experimental features including its recommendation chatbot and comment topic summaries.

📲 TikTok Updates

TikTok announced “Add to Music App,” a new feature which gives music fans the ability to save the songs they discover on TikTok on the music streaming services of their choice.

TikTok launched a new mobile effect editor — which means AR effects creators now have the option of developing effects on their phone vs desktop tools.

👆🏻 CLICK THRU

Shopping Updates

Just in time for Black Friday, big tech wants to make it as easy as possible for consumers to shop when and where the mood strikes:

🛍️ Amazon partnered with Meta to launch a new feature allowing users to connect their Facebook and Instagram accounts to their Amazon accounts so they can more easily buy goods promoted on their feeds.

🛍️ Amazon also reached a deal with Snap that will let people buy Amazon products directly from ads on Snapchat.

🛍️ Amazon may have proposed a similar idea to TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, last year, according to The Information. Instead, we know that company launched its own competitive product, TikTok Shop.

🛍️ Link in bio service Linktree just announced they're launching Store Link that allows creators to display products or anything else they want to promote in a more visual way.

🛍️ Buy now, pay later service Klarna just introduced Creator Shops in the US, providing a dedicated area for creators to showcase their looks and share product recommendations with their followers.

Contract Considerations

A new Influencer Pay Equity Guide was released by the ANA, 4As and PR Council as an actionable resource for marketers “committed to equitable compensation and greater transparency in the $34 billion influencer industry.”

In addition to addressing the industry’s pay gap between white and BIPOC influencers, the guide is a valuable resource for anyone looking to understand the considerations behind influencer compensation. Trust me, you want to download this one.

❤️‍🔥 HIT FOLLOW

I discovered Tony P this week thanks to
Rachel Karten
’s Instagram Stories. If you need a dose of wholesome in your feed, this 25-year-old bachelor in DC is the guy.
PepsiCo’s head of influencer marketing, Christina Westley, gifted us all a curated list of 100+ Black Influencers. Bookmark this resource!
Not only have multiple people recommend TikToker Katie Fang to me, Glossy recently declared the 17-year-old as Gen Alpha’s favorite beauty influencer.

📖 WORTH READING

Brands are most confident in the positive ROI of LinkedIn, Instagram, and WhatsApp -Hootsuite 2024 Social Trends
TikTok creators are complaining about TikTok Shop ads making the app "dystopian" -Business Insider
Advertisers are investing more in TikTok Shop two months after the products launched widely in the U.S., despite mostly lackluster results -Adweek
Instagram's third-quarter app downloads, daily usage, and monthly usage grew globally, while TikTok faced an ongoing plateau on all three metrics -Business Insider
Influencers will never influence us to buy less stuff, it goes against the job description -Vox
Apple, Disney, other media companies pause advertising on X after Elon Musk boosted antisemitic tweet -CNBC
Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT’s parent company OpenAI, was fired, almost reinstated and then hired by Microsoft all within a weekend. As MrBeast said “This is a better cliffhanger then any show I’ve ever watched” -The Wall Street Journal (free article)
A woman who went viral on TikTok after saying the ice in her insulated Stanley cup survived a car fire (!) is being offered a new car by the bottle brand — and now we all want Stanleys -Business Insider