ICYMI: Reels A/B Testing Comes to Facebook
Issue 151!
🎉 This marks the 151st issue of the ICYMI newsletter in your inbox (150 slipped my notice last week). Thank YOU for reading, replying, supporting, and all the amazing opportunities you’ve sent my way since day one.
[via Facebook]
⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
Facebook announced A/B testing for Reels thumbnails and captions
TikTok released a playbook for fashion brands
LinkedIn added an AI-powered job coach for its premium subscribers
Gen Z can recognize brands based solely on ‘sonic memes’
Everyone should be paying attention to Keith Lee’s Atlanta food tour
Join me and Sprout Social for this FREE influencer marketing webinar!*
💻 ROADMAP
📲 Meta Updates
Facebook announced new tools and features to help creators test their content, understand their performance, and grow on the platform:
▶️ Facebook is rolling out a Reels A/B testing tool that allows creators to test up to four different captions or thumbnails on their mobile device to see which one performs best. Meta also plans to test incorporating generative AI to create the captions and the text.
▶️ Facebook is testing rewards for creators who reach different milestones. For example, posting Reels on a weekly basis earns creators a Reels streak achievement. Eligible creators who check off Achievement milestones may get increased visibility in Feed or have a Rising Creator label featured on their page or profile.
▶️ Creators will be able to see even more Reels insights, with data spanning the past 90 days, to better understand how their content is performing.
This isn’t available for Instagram yet but it should be interesting to watch if these updates make an impact for creators on Facebook. Just as a reminder, creators were recently quoted as saying Facebook was a “cash cow” for short video so if you’re not cross posting from Instagram to Facebook, now’s a good time to start!
Facebook and Instagram officially launched their ad-free subscription model in Europe. The company says the move is less about making subscription revenue and more about complying with local regulations.
While it’s hard to predict how many people actually opt in to pay up to $17 a month, this does put even more of an emphasis on organic content strategies and thinking about how and where you show up beyond social media.
Instagram reminded creators they could invite up to 10 collaborators to their Broadcast Channel. (This actually rolled out in June). I’m not a huge fan of the broadcast format, but Instagram is currently showing Broadcast Channel updates in people’s Primary DM tab so people may be more likely to pay attention if you post now.
In the spirit of collabs, Instagram started testing a new way to invite friends to join in on your carousel posts, announced Mosseri. Before posting a carousel, you can turn on the ability for your followers to submit photos and/or videos, which you can approve to add to the post.
An edit button for Instagram DMs has been spotted in the wild.
Instagram creators can now add song lyrics to Reels, in the same way they could in Stories
Meta Verified for Business expands to brands in Canada.
Threads announced several desktop updates, including the ability to adjust alt text for videos and photos when you post from the web; copy and paste – or drag and drop – media attachments to posts; and adding multiple posts to a thread before publishing.
📲 TikTok Updates
TikTok released a playbook for fashion brands.
TikTok Shop is exploring possible partnerships with retailers to deliver perishable items such as groceries.
📲 LinkedIn Updates
LinkedIn added an AI-powered job coach for its premium subscribers that can assess if a job is a good fit for you to identify the best way to position yourself for the role.
🔨 RESOURCE
The Art of Influencer Marketing: A Series on Brand-fluence and Impact
I’m teaming up with Sprout Social to help uplevel your social media and influencer marketing expertise!
You’re invited to this free, 3-day webinar series which dives into the complicated and evolving influencer marketing landscape. You’ll learn about the history of influencer marketing, hear directly from influencers on how to best partner with them, and join a masterclass in how to build an influencer strategy from A to Z.
Don’t miss my virtual session, Making Dollars & Sense Out of the Creator Economy on November 14 at 1 p.m. CT (11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET). Discover what drives the most impact as your brand begins or scales its influencer marketing strategy.
Join me for this deep dive!
The Art of Influencer Marketing: A Series on Brand-fluence and Impact virtual summit: Nov. 14 to 16 .
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👆🏻 CLICK THRU
A Deep Look at the Creator Economy
Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs valued the creator economy at $250 billion and predicted that it would double to nearly half a trillion dollars in the next five years. But there’s little recognition or regulation around the industry.
In an attempt to understand how this booming creator class is changing American society, the Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz and Drew Harwell dug in with a special Creator Economy series that examines:
A timeline that includes the key players who kicked off this trend 20+ years ago;
How “Influencer” is now ranked one of the most popular career aspirations for American youth, even though influencer and creator aren’t listed in Census Bureau’s industry index;
And how a desire for “more accessible, informal, and entertaining news formats” have shifted attention from legacy media sites to updates on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
Takeaway: Creator culture has increasingly become mainstream culture and everyone (advertisers, educators, regulators, and parents) should acknowledge the shift.
“There are no reasonable grounds for expecting that those born in the 2000s will suddenly come to prefer old-fashioned websites, let alone broadcast and print, simply because they grow older,” said Reuters Institute Director Rasmus Kleis Nielsen in a recent Digital News Report.
❤️🔥 HIT FOLLOW
🍽️ Keith Lee: This is a Keith Lee stan account (I told you to hire him months ago). Lee, who has one of the most popular food review accounts on TikTok (14.5M followers), was in Atlanta this week. And the city’s chaotic restaurant scene was in for a reckoning. The drama was fascinating to watch — NBC, Rolling Stone, and CNN all covered it — but it’s this comment for me that demonstrates the power shift from mainstream restaurant critics to creators: “I care more about Keith Lee’s Atlanta reviews than I do the Michelin stars.”
🇫🇷 French Women: TikTok’s niche communities mean your FYP might be filled with creators no one else has heard of. I don’t know how I ended up on the French family “fit check” Tok but I’m not mad about it. To see what I mean, check out Mother&Daughter, MademoiselleSoph, NinonRambaud and the (sometimes spoofed) hashtag #TenueMereFille which has racked up close to 80M views.
🍗 Amelia Dimoldenberg and Sean Evans: You’ve probably heard of Amelia Dimoldenberg and Sean Evans or at least seen clips of their popular YouTube shows: Chicken Shop Date and Hot Ones. This week the pair announced a collab, dubbed as the “biggest crossover in the history of chicken-based interview shows.” Grab a drumstick and smash those “like” and “subscribe” buttons.
📖 WORTH READING
Gen Z can recognize brands based solely on ‘sonic memes,’ aka custom branded sounds -Marketing Brew
TikTok is asking managers across the world to give more employees lower ratings in performance reviews, staffers worry the move could lead to layoffs -The Wall Street Journal (free article)
TikTok offers intense hands-on support for creators who stream live, more than other media companies, according to one talent agency executive who works with creators. But there are risks -The Information (free article)
“When a Meta security expert told Mark Zuckerberg that Instagram’s approach to protecting teens wasn’t working, the CEO didn’t reply. Now the former insider is set to tell Congress about the predatory behavior.” -The Wall Street Journal (free article)
Elon Musk wants X to be a financial services app, handling anything in your life that deals with money -The Verge
17 current and former staffers of creators like MrBeast and Kai Cenat described days filled with unimaginable stunts, inconsistent work hours, and varying salaries -Business Insider (paywall)
Patreon is hosting its first ever Creator Fest in DTLA on November 4th. Along with creator-led sessions, CEO, Jack Conte, and CPO, Julian Gutman, will deliver a keynote on the future of the creator economy.
Thanks to the CreatorIQ team for having me on their Earned podcast: Advice for Working With Creators in Today’s Digital Landscape.
Thank you — as always — for reading!
Love the stories about Keith Lee. I missed them first time, ICYMI right?