ICYMI: Instagram’s New Poll Feature to Get You Back to the Feed
+ YouTube's Plan to Help You Boost Subscribers
[via Instagram]
Welcome to ICYMI, the newsletter for creators, social media managers, and anyone whose business depends on making sense of platform updates and social trends.
⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
Instagram is testing polls in the Comments section of posts and Reels
YouTube’s “like” and “subscribe” buttons are getting animated
All TikTok videos will default to auto caption starting in November
ByteDance launched CapCut for Business for brands making ads
Threads just launched a paid partnership label for creators
Enter for a chance to win a copy of Ladies Get Paid by Claire Wasserman
Here are four FREE templates to organize your social workflow*
💻 ROADMAP
A list of platform updates curated for social marketers and creators
📲 Meta Updates
Mark Zuckerberg just confirmed Instagram is testing polls in the Comments section: “Rolling out to everyone soon.” I first mentioned this last month (as spotted by Vivian Kaye on Tiffany M. Battle’s post from NYFW) because it could be huge for getting people out of DMs and Stories and back to driving engagement in the Feed. That is, until your followers get sick of answering polls on every post or Reel. So once you get this feature, jump on it quickly!
Threads has rolled out a paid partnership label for creators which pins an un-editable hashtag to the bottom of your post.
📲 YouTube Updates
YouTube is rolling out dozens of new design elements and playback features, including these creator updates to increase engagement:
When creators say “like” or “subscribe,” YouTube will highlight these buttons with a visual cue
Once people “smash that button,” an explosion of playful sparkles will reward them
To help creators engage with viewers, YouTube will rotate top comments
New videos will have animation that updates view count and like count in real time for the first 24 hours
YouTube is launching a Shorts Innovation Program for News to encourage news organizations’ short-form video capabilities through financial grants and strategic support.
📲 ByteDance Updates
In a move to improve accessibility, TikTok announced all videos will have captions by default after November.
TikTok is testing an AI meme generator based on your own photos.
TikTok announced a new ad solution called Out of Phone, which will bring TikTok videos and campaigns outside of the app to billboards, movie screens and screens in bars, restaurants, airports, and other locations.
The AI design space is getting more and more crowded. CapCut just launched for CapCut for Business, a new, business-focused version of its tool for making ads and branded content. Features include:
An AI-powered script generator
Commercial-licensed business templates
A smart tool to convert product URLs into ad videos
AI-generated presenters
An AI model for virtual try-ons
📲 X (Twitter) Updates
X will start charging a dollar for all new users from New Zealand and the Philippines as part of a so-called “Not A Bot” program.
📲 Snapchat Updates
Snapchat is launching web embeds for Lenses, Creator Spotlight videos, Public Stories, and Public Profiles, making it possible to add Snapchat content to articles or websites.
Snapchat is rolling out Creator Collab updates to increase and improve creator brand collaborations, including a Creator Discovery API, midroll ads and paid partnership tag.
📲 Patreon Updates
Patreon announced its first-ever Creator Fest in DTLA on November 4, 2023
Patreon acquired Moment, a livestream ticketed event platform. The purchase now gives creators the option to share content with fans through ticketed digital experiences.
📲 Twitch Updates
Twitch announced they’re rolling out 48-hour Stories. The feature is currently limited to Partners & Affiliates who have streamed in the past 30 days and allows streamers to share photos, video or free-form content.
⚡️ FREE RESOURCES
Deep breath. It’s Q4 which means end of year recaps will be due soon.
But a collection of free tools and resources just launched to help you wrap up in style and even get a head start on your 2024 planning.
Dash Hudson created this toolkit of downloadable templates as a resource for social media managers to organize your workflow. (The templates work for creators, too!)
*sponsored
🧮 DATA OF THE WEEK
97% of creators are already using AI in their creative process
Most creators (57%) are using AI to generate ideas for their content but only 31% are actually using it during their video editing process. This may be due to a lack of education and training on related tools, according to a new report from Creator Now, an online learning community for digital filmmakers and creators.
According to the study, How Creators Really Feel About AI, creators were asked: “What do you need most to use AI more effectively in making content?” The top response (36% ) pointed to the need for more training or education in order to harness AI tools effectively.
❤️🔥 HIT FOLLOW
This is a new-ish section about creators who have popped off, made the news or are just excelling on social
The top livestream influencers don’t always overlap with the most followed creators on social media.
Take, for example, some of the individual creators leading Amazon Live’s top sellers list. Influencer-marketing firm Captiv8 recently analyzed Amazon’s top 10 Live creators, looking at their followings across all platforms, average daily engagement rate and brand affinity as a measure of connection between the creator, Amazon, and their audience.
It’s such a good reminder that influencers are not a one-size-fits-all solution. Live selling is a separate skill from posting clips and photos to social. And it takes a special kind of creator — one who’s comfortable ad-libbing in front of a live audience — to be able to do this.
Total followers: 30.77 million
Average daily engagement rate: 3.33%
Audience's Amazon brand affinity: 95%
Total followers: 12.148 million
Average daily engagement rate: 0.03%
Audience's Amazon brand affinity: 88%
Total followers: 10.94 million
Average daily engagement rate: 1.58%
Audience's Amazon brand affinity: 89%
📚 BOOK GIVEAWAY
Enter for a chance to win a copy of Ladies Get Paid by Claire Wasserman!
If you’re looking to navigate a promotion or break the glass ceiling, Ladies Get Paid is your essential toolkit for achieving success.
Filled with straightforward advice and inspiring stories, this book is a transformative “guide to succeeding in your field, even when you feel completely stuck” by encouraging self-advocacy and activism.
💌 Hit reply to this email with your name and address (it won’t be shared with anyone else) by Monday, October 23, 2023 and I’ll pick one winner at random to receive a copy of Ladies Get Paid!
📖 WORTH READING
A round-up of the most interesting marketing, tech and trend headlines of the week
MrBeast just hit 200M subscribers — that’s more than the population of most countries (it’s actually more than Mexico and Canada combined!) A flag has got to be coming soon -MrBeast on X
TikTokers say they're making tons of money ... on Facebook. Creators say they’re earning through in-stream ads, ads on Reels, bonuses and user payments -Insider (paywall)
Twiggy recreates Vogue’s archival moments using luxury accessories from eBay as part of a nostalgia-fueled collab between the two brands -Vogue
This Spirit Halloween social ad format can’t last, can it? Once the grid gets overrun with old-school coupons it’ll be a cluttered mess. But the nostalgia play and overt bottom of funnel push to redeem a promo code does stand out -Nathan Jun Poekert on LinkedIn
LinkedIn eliminated 668 positions across its engineering, product, talent and finance departments which may be tied to a refocus on hiring more AI talent -TechCrunch
Instagram remains the most influential social media platform for fashion, lifestyle and beauty brands, according to a new report -Launchmetrics + Lyst
People put a premium on experiences that are simple. However, Twitter is the least simple brand in the US, according to this Siegel+Gale’s World’s Simplest Brands survey -Siegel+Gale
48% of Gen Zers will do their holiday shopping on TikTok and Instagram this year -CNBC
American teens spend an average of 4.8 hours on social media per day and rank YouTube, TikTok and Instagram as their favorite social media apps (in that order) -Gallup
we’re we just talking about this the other day or what? 😛 i’m never paying! ok, maybe for special features or content 🙃