ICYMI: Instagram, you gotta help us out?!
Posting longer Reels comes with a BIG disclaimer
Can I hear from ICYMI’s Aussie readers? I’m headed to Perth in August for the State of Social conference. Will you be going? Do you have travel or food tips? Let me know!
⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
Instagram’s tutorial on uploading longer videos came with a BIG disclaimer
Instagram added new Notes features (reminder: the teens love it) and a new “Inspiration” tab
Discord wants to serve gamers, not broader communities on the app
TikTok is consolidating creator tools into TikTok Studio on desktop with a mobile app coming soon
TikTok’s challenge to the US ban will be heard in court this September
Chanel’s losing the TikTok war waged by influencer Bethenny Frankel
Report: Influencer marketing drives more sales than social ads
💻 ROADMAP
📲 Meta Updates
Instagram rolled out new updates to Notes — the AIM-like feature that over-indexes with teens. The new features include:
Notes Prompts: This allows you to start conversations by posting a Notes Prompt that friends and mutuals can respond to.
Notes Likes: You can now react to friends' notes with likes. To like a note, double tap the note or click the heart icon in the reply sheet.
Notes @ Mentions: You can @ mention friends directly in a note.
Instagram added a new “Inspiration” tab in the Professional Dashboard that includes popular Reels, trending songs and audio clips.
The Instagram Creators account shared a tip this week for posting longer Reels. It points out that you can upload videos longer than 90 seconds as a long as you select Post, instead of Reel — but it comes with this disclaimer: “just remember that any video over 90 seconds won’t be eligible to be recommended in Explore or Reels Tab.”
This is just three weeks after a private creator event where people were told videos longer than 90 seconds would “hurt distribution.”
And still Instagram is testing Reels as long as 10 minutes. Make it all make sense.
The “Creator” account responded to me on Threads, saying the tutorial was necessary because “We’ve heard from some creators that they’d like an option to post videos longer than 90 seconds.”
I understand that reaching new audiences isn’t always the goal. It’s about the content. But from a purely anecdotal perspective, creators seem much more interested in reaching more people, not less these days. So, yeah, the post seems a little tone deaf.
In more diminished reach: Instagram rolled out a “Post quietly to profile” option to some users. When toggled on, the post is visible on your profile page but not in the Feed. This is actually ideal for a very specific use case of brands and creators who like to post 9 x 9 grids.
Instagram’s new Made With AI label is rolling out to more people. See it in action. Threads also has an AI post label.
Adam Mosseri announced a new safety control feature on Instagram called Limits. It helps people limit interactions - comments, DMs, tags, mentions - to select followers or Close Friends.
Quick, check your settings. Instagram is testing a new tab titled “Early Access to Features.” Since it’s a test there’s no way to tell who will get this or if it will ever roll out to us all. But if you do get it, please share the details!\
Spotted on Instagram: a new editing feature for Instagram Reels called “Memes.” Curating trending meme elements for creators and social media managers to use seems great but it’s also unlikely that Meta would enable brands to use other company’s IP. It’s still in test mode so we’ll see if this ever makes it to the app and whether business accounts will have access.
📲 TikTok Updates
A US appeals court will hear challenges over the potential TikTok ban in September.
TikTok launched a free creation, management and analytics platform called TikTok Studio — incorporating tools from TikTok Creator and Creator Center. Creators, brands and app users will be able to use their TikTok account to log in, upload, film, edit, and post from TikTok Studio. The experience is also being tested as a standalone Android app with iOS coming soon.
TikTok released a Summer of Sports guide for SMBs to help them take advantage of the Paris Summer Games and European Football Tournament opportunities on the platform.
TikTok is testing a new “Streak” feature for TikTok DMs. And just like Snapchat, the Streak will end if both of you didn’t message each other in the last 24 hours.
📲 YouTube Updates
YouTube announced Playables, a collection of free games you can play directly on the platform.
📲 Discord Updates
Discord announced it’s narrowing its focus from a community-centric chat app to a gaming haven. This seems like a BFD for non-gamers who’ve built communities on the app. They won’t feel the impact immediately but, moving forward, the Discord roadmap seems dedicated exclusively to gamers, publishers and platform developers.
📲 Pinterest Updates
Pinterest partnered with Shopify’s Build Black & Build Native initiative to open its Pinterest Inclusion Fund. The incubator program supports small businesses, independent publishers and boutique creator agencies from historically marginalized communities. US and Canada applications are open now through June 7. Apply here.
📲 LinkedIn Updates
People are pointing out that organic LinkedIn posts that include links have much smaller preview images than paid posts. It’s a change the platform made two months ago to distinguish between organic and paid posts and presumably to encourage more sponsored posts.
📲 Tumblr Updates
Tumblr opened its Communities feature to everyone on the platform. “Communities” are semi-private spaces that allow people to share and discuss topics they love.
👆🏻 CLICK THRU
💵 Alix Earle and the Rise of the Creator-Investor: A New Kind of Brand Deal
TikToker Alix Earle is officially an investor in the Texas-based soda brand Poppi, according to a video posted over Memorial Day weekend. It’s an extension of her relationship with the brand that created a dedicated activation for her at Coachella, or as it was called: “CoachEarla.” It seems like a natural evolution for the partnership. What we don’t know is how the deal is structured: Is it an equity deal, a stock option or a profit-sharing model? Either way, the tax and legal implications of any such deal could be enormous with extra scrutiny from the FTC and the SEC.
😳 Chanel Under Scrutiny For Bethenny Frankel Viral Social Posts — What Brands Can Learn
Big mistake, huge. Chanel turned away influencer, reality star and entrepreneur Bethenny Frankel from its Chicago store — a fact she blamed on her appearance since she was granted entry the following day while wearing a Chanel suit. Since then, Frankel has continued creating nonstop content inspired by the scene in the 1990 movie “Pretty Woman” in which Julia Roberts’ character is asked to leave a store due to her appearance.
Now, marketing pros are watching to see if Chanel will respond. “The most amazing response would be something funny that pokes fun at what went down, apologizes to her, and shows that they don’t take themselves so seriously,” Danielle Wiley, founder and CEO of influencer marketing agency Sway Group told Ad Age, before clarifying that she doesn’t think this will happen.
Until then, I’m enjoying the level of petty Bethenny is serving.
Related: Customers accused Chipotle of reducing portion sizes. They officially denied it. And then cheekily posted this TikTok video that’s a nod to people who claim filming their orders results in larger portions.
📊 DATA DROP
Influencer marketing drives action: 61% of people surveyed said they bought a product based on an influencer’s recommendation or promotion, compared to only 21% who clicked and followed an ad on social media
-Ernst & Young Future Consumer Index survey, via The Information
👀 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
TikTok and ByteDance's combined reputation score has plummeted from "fair" in 2020 to "poor" in 2024 -Axios
Snapchat, Meta, Pinterest and Google are eyeing up TikTok ad dollars -Digiday
MrBeast is launching a “Pro” version of his analytics platform ViewStats -Tubefilter
The founder of Meme Depot says meme tech is the next big thing -TechCrunch
Some full-time influencers are diving back into the corporate world, citing a lack of structure, loneliness, and financial instability -Business Insider
The Biden for President campaign is hiring a meme manager to engage with the internet’s top content and meme pages -Biden Harris Jobs
Gen Z really likes video podcasts -Net Influencer
A running list of brand collabs the world actually needs in 2024… -Danielle L. Vermeer, LinkedIn
Thank you for reading! For more real-time updates, conference coverage and sandwich reviews:
SUPER informative read. I'm glad someone is compiling how these various apps are working behind the scenes - it's really helps the little guys.
But ultimately this makes me feel a little... sad?
I really want to find an audience. But there's something so cynical about having to game these enormous content aggregators. I also feel like it ultimately creates a homogenised, colourless content gruel.
My hope is that good content will eventually win out. But boy oh boy it feels like I'm fighting a losing battle.