Hello and welcome, I'm your host Deborah Brownell (or Deb for short!), and today we've got a lot to cover on the social media front. First up, we're seeing some significant changes coming to Facebook, or should I say, Meta.

In an effort to prioritize discovery of new content, Meta is revamping the main feed on the Facebook app. So, instead of seeing posts from accounts you follow, you might notice an influx of content from accounts you don't. Essentially, they're trying to style their apps to reflect a more TikTok-like environment. Which is all good news for small businesses, and yet another reason to amp up the amount of content you are putting out on Facebook and Instagram.

Another update is that Meta has also gone all in on reels, so expect to see a lot more short, engaging videos. A fascinating statistic to note here is that a whopping 92% of all content viewed on Facebook in the first quarter of this year didn’t include a link to a source off Facebook. Moreover, 70% of views in the feed came from content shared by friends from groups or pages they follow. So what that means is that Meta prefers content that does NOT have an external link connected to the post. This means as marketers we will have to find unique ways to capture an action of a follower, whether it be by putting the link in the comments, or by not using a link at all!

Now let’s chat about Instagram.

Mark Zuckerberg just announced the initial version of Threads, an app built by the Instagram team for sharing with text. Whether you’re a creator or a casual poster, Threads offers a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations. To use Threads, you log in using your Instagram account and posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length.

Recent updates from Instagram also provided information on how they rank certain things. Example, how they rank the feed. Here is what they consider…

* Your activity. Posts you’ve liked, shared, saved or commented on help us understand what you might be interested in. * Information about the post. These are signals both about how popular a post is – think how many people have liked it and how quickly people are liking, commenting, sharing and saving a post – and more mundane information about the content itself, like when it was posted, and what location, if any, was attached to it. * Information about the person who posted. This helps us get a sense for how interesting the person might be to you, and includes signals like how many times people have interacted with that person in the past few weeks. * Your history of interacting with someone. This gives us a sense of how interested you are generally in seeing posts from a particular person. An example is whether or not you comment on each other’s posts.

There is additional information that was released on stories, reels, and the explore feed and you can find it using the link provided in the description.

Lastly on Instagram, they just expanded their new Broadcast channel features globally, giving millions of creators a new way to directly engage with their followers at scale in real time. Successful users of this new feature have seen unparalleled engagement from fans whether they’re sharing sneak peeks of upcoming content, asking for feedback via polls and sharing candid moments via voice notes. Be sure to jump on this new feature if you haven’t already!

Now, moving on to YouTube.

Exciting news for those who really care about their thumbnail game. YouTube is soon launching a 'Test & Compare' tool that lets you split test three different thumbnail variations, with the winner picked based on Watch time. Though it’s initially rolling out to a 'few hundred creators,' we're keeping our fingers crossed that it'll be made available to everyone soon. For those of you new to creating video content, a well-crafted thumbnail can attract more views, increase engagement, and grow a creator's channel. Popular creator Mr. Beast was recently recorded saying his team spends anywhere from $5,000-$10,000 on creating and testing the perfect thumbnail, so if that doesn’t tell you how important your thumbnails are, I’m not sure what else will!

Another interesting tidbit I found out was that In YouTube’s 2023 Culture & Trends report, YouTube revealed that 87% of viewers surveyed watch at least four different content formats, and 60% are open to watching content produced with the help of AI. Most importantly, I think it is good news that viewers watch multiple types of content formats. So whether you prefer images, video, stories, or other formats - viewers want to see it!

Let's turn our attention to LinkedIn now.

For those of you who struggle with creating engaging posts, LinkedIn is testing an AI assistant that creates your first draft when you type in a brief post idea. This could potentially help you overcome writer's block and even automate some of your posting.

However, LinkedIn has also decided to remove a few features like carousel posts and the option to add a video as a profile icon. In a further move away from multimedia, they're no longer allowing links in multimedia content such as images or videos.

LinkedIn’s editor-in-chief has made it clear that the platform is now prioritizing two things: posts from your followers, and posts that share 'knowledge and advice.' So building a content plan that incorporates educational, value based, but personal content on LinkedIn will be a massive positive for your business.

And that wraps up our social media updates for this episode. Have questions about hiring your own marketing manager to not only handle the creation of content but distribution and lead generation for your business? Always feel comfortable reaching out to me at info@socialmarketingadvice.com or by visiting socialmarketingadvice.com.

Stay tuned to my podcast for more tips, tricks, and updates to help you navigate the constantly changing landscape of social media and thanks for listening!