Do you get whiplash from social media updates? Yeah, me too.
October’s been booming across all the platforms. What’s new and noteworthy this month that might help with your social media strategy (or is just good to know)? Let’s get to it.
Instagram is adding a polls option in comments
Image: Social Media Today
I’m not going to lie — I’m a bit excited about this update. Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, announced the update on his own Instagram account (as well as Mark Zuckerburg). The interactive polls will be available for both feed posts and Reels.
Interactive poll options have been doing pretty well lately on other platforms. Take LinkedIn for example — you can barely scroll your feed without spotting at least one. Plus, we know the anonymity that comes with polls can encourage further engagement.
Threads adds Instagram profile tags
Now when you tag a friend who isn’t on Threads but is on Instagram, they’ll get notified and their username will appear with the Instagram icon in front of it. You might be thinking – what’s the point? To be totally honest, it’s another way for Meta to push people to the Threads platform.
Does it hold a whole lot of value for the person posting? Debatable. I will say, for some of my clients, they’re tagging products, services, or people that they collaborate with on a consistent basis, but those accounts aren’t yet on Threads. This will enable them to tag appropriately.
X tests a $1 subscription for new members
If you’re still on X, you might’ve noticed an uptick in bots (not surprising). At an attempt to counteract this, the platform announced last week a new program where new, unverified users will be charged $1 per year.
Pro: Possible cut down on the bots.
Con: Anyone who is not interested in paying for a verified account on X will now be forced to pay regardless.
Granted, it’s $1… but I think it’s the principle more than anything, amirite?
TikTok announces an update on captions
A win for accessibility! TikTok has been crushing the game lately – from their AI-generated content transparency, to now introducing a new caption process.
Before now, TikTok creators were used to seeing the option to “allow auto-generated captions” when they were posting content. Moving forward, captions will automatically be generated in the appropriate language. According to TikTok, creators will still be able to edit or remove the captions, however.
Why is this important? TikTok is taking steps to ensure that those who are hard of hearing, or those who watch TikTok with their sound off, can still enjoy the platform, which is primarily video. It’s one more step toward making sure content is consumable by everyone.
Meta introduced Broadcast channels to Facebook and Messenger
In a not-as-widely known change this week, Meta began rolling out Broadcast channels to Facebook and Messenger users. According to Meta, “Broadcast channels are a public, one-to-many messaging tool for Pages on Facebook.”
What will it look like? Let’s take a look at Netflix’s Broadcast channel:
Pro: It’s a deeper way to engage with your audience – especially one that is very tuned in.
When a Broadcast channel is created for your page, a notification will be sent to followers asking if they’d like to join the channel.
Con: Two-way communication is not a thing with Broadcast channels.
The page is the only user with the ability to post; however, followers of the channel can react to messages and vote in polls.
What are your thoughts? Do any of these updates resonate with your social media strategy? Let me know in the comments!
Until next time…
Kati Hartwig Media 