ICYMI: Instagram's "Edit Grid" Test
Here's what happened on social media this week, January 14
💻 ROADMAP
📱Instagram is working on an “Edit Grid” feature that would allow users to customize the order in which photos appear on their profile pages. There’s no guarantee this will be publicly released but if they do launch this feature then you’ll have the option to spotlight your best work at the top of the grid — much like TikTok’s Pinned video or Twitter’s Pinned tweet feature.
🔵 Twitter announced Spaces can now be recorded by all hosts, which lets people listen and share for 30 days after the initial audio stream.
🎙 LinkedIn is testing its own, Clubhouse-like audio tool. They’re also looking at the format as a way to expand other live meeting features, such as single user or group video streams. If you (or your team) missed out on Clubhouse’s early buzz, get ready for a thought leadership do-over. LinkedIn’s audio rooms could be your chance.
👻 Snapchat just added four new features to messaging to make chatting with more expressive. (Reminder: teens still claim Snapchat as their favorite platform.)
👆🏻 CLICK THRU
🎬 “A year or a year-and-a-half ago, we were a must-try platform... Now we’re really a must-have." TikTok is going after Hollywood marketing campaigns, among other industries, based on their popularity among TV and movie watchers.
“Except for streaming, TikTok was cited as the No. 1 activity for U.S. entertainment viewers 18 and older when they have an hour to spare, according to the GoodQues TikTok Entertainment Study in 2021.”
🗂 A federal judge says the US Federal Trade Commission can proceed with an antitrust lawsuit against Meta that may force them to sell off WhatsApp and Instagram. We’re likely years away from this scenario but it’s worth keeping on your radar.
🍸 The good stuff always goes down in the comments: After Reese Witherspoon shared an Instagram update with the healthy habits she was working towards, Ina Garten commented with some of her own ideas. And now the Internet is taking sides. You’re either team wakes-up-with-water or team stays-up-late-with-large-Cosmos. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.
🟩 I was late to Wordle, a daily word game that refreshes every 24 hours. Even if you haven’t tried it yet, you might have seen the jokes and memes spawned by the game’s tiles and at least one competitor app that flamed out faster than it takes to put together this newsletter. Get on board before it becomes the next milkshake duck.
🍿 Hollywood’s social media managers came under scrutiny this week, including:
The Golden Globes social media manager’s efforts around this year’s private ceremony, which sparked the headline “How not to tweet out Golden Globe Awards.” Ouch.
The social media managers who keep old TV show Twitter accounts alive. Seemingly ignoring syndication and streaming deals, Gawker put out this clickbait title “Why Do These Television Shows Still Tweet?” Because they’re still generating revenue, that’s why.
😡 A TikToker with theatrical aspirations was rejected from Juilliard, which led to thousands of fans flooding Juilliard’s Instagram account to express their anger. There’s really nothing Juilliard can do in this situation — imagine if every educational institution started defending the admissions process based on a student’s fan base? But it is a good reminder to have a solid social media crisis comms plan in place just in case. (Here are a couple of templates if you don’t have a plan in place: one and two).
📺 Popular Twitch streamers are getting temporarily banned for streaming themselves watching TV and reacting to it. Watching TV shows while streaming has been a successful strategy for some creators. But the trend, TV meta, is especially vulnerable to copyright claims so Twitch has been handing out bans to some of its most popular stars. Cue the next live streaming trend.
📲 Sassy brands on Twitter have been replaced by “unhinged” brands on TikTok. The key, according to companies like Duolingo and Microsoft, is to sound less like a corporation and more like a creator, which ties in to the platform’s brand mantra: Don’t make ads, make TikToks.
🗓 New year, new grid. Last week’s flex was unfollowing everyone. This week, it seems to be wiping your Instagram clean as Demi Lovato did to their account. Or maybe the biggest flex of them all is going silent and still being the first woman to reach 300M Instagram followers, like Kylie Jenner.
📖 ALSO ON MY LIST…
“Disney is hiring TikTok creators — you need to love theme parks, food and social media” -CNBC
“YouTube’s Testing A Feature That Auto-Downloads 20 Recommended Videos Per Week” - TubeFilter
“Instagram Testing Stories Redesign With Vertical Scrolling In Its App” -9to5Mac
“Henry Winkler Is Going Viral on TikTok for His Smooth Moves” -Distractify
“The Trouble With Roblox, the Video Game Empire Built On Child Labour” -The Guardian