08 Jun What’s new in social media?

Social Media Updates June 2022

In June of 2020, we started providing you with comprehensive updates to the major three social media platforms we specialize in: Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. Since our last brief in September 2021 so much has happened, and we knew we had to keep you up to date! In addition to this article, we’ve also updated our FREE 7-page PDF Guide to Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest with all the do’s and don’ts and you can download it instantly when you sign up for our newsletter!

Instagram

Instagram now boasts over 1 billion users. Of these, over 61% are between the ages of 18 and 34. (Source: Hootsuite)  Even if Millennials or Gen Z are not your target audience, they are the crafters of tomorrow, and Instagram is a great place to reach them!

• In January, Instagram announced that its focus for 2022 was on videos, messaging, transparency, and creators. So expect to see new features targeting these categories! 
• In February, Instagram announced it was doing away with IGTV for standalone videos. All your previous IGTV videos now live in your Videos tab, and you can add videos to your main feed.
• As of March 1, it’s now possible to add auto-generated captions to videos in your feed, making your videos more accessible for users who are deaf and hard of hearing.
• March was also the month that Instagram brought back chronological feeds, to the relief of many users. The default is still their algorithmic mix, but users can toggle to “following” to enter the chronological view.
• In April, Instagram bumped the length of reels from 60 to 90 seconds. They also expanded product tagging to everyone in the U.S. (previously it was only available to creators and brands)
• In May, Instagram announced that it is testing a new layout that will start hiding Stories with “excessive posts.” Specifically, they will start showing only 3 Stories per user, unless the user opts to view all. However, earlier in the year they introduced an option to create Reels from your Story feed – perhaps that’s a good option if you tend to use Stories more than Reels!
• Have you ever wished you could delete or archive old Instagram posts in bulk (rather than one at a time)? Now you can!
• Want to filter or hide comments on your posts? Now you can do that as well!

Facebook

Where do we even start with the Metaverse? Facebook now has 2.9 billion monthly active users, which means a staggering 36.8% of the Earth’s population logs in regularly. (Source: Hootsuite) Further, Facebook is the favored social platform of users over 35, many of which are in your prime crafting audience. While Facebook is not everyone’s cup of tea, it does provide many ways to reach your ideal customer.

• Facebook started the year by expanding Facebook Reels globally. According to Meta, Facebook users spend nearly half their time watching videos!
• Facebook continues to improve its Business Suite and consolidate Advertising operations. In March they announced they would give users more control over their ad placements in feeds, and they began consolidating ad products under the umbrella of Meta Advantage.
• Meta is focusing on creators in 2022. To that end, they launched a new fund for metaverse creators in April as well as expanded monetization tools for Reels in May (to compete with TikTok).

Pinterest

After explosive growth in 2020 and 2021, Pinterest has reported some falloff in 2022. However, 38% of Pinterest users fall right into your prime crafting demographic, 50-64 years, and represent the largest demographic on the platform. (Source: Sprout Social) With both referral links and shopping integrations, there’s no reason Pinterest can’t significantly increase your store’s traffic and revenue.

• In January, Pinterest made more changes to its algorithm. This year their focus is on creators who share top quality content (high caliber pins that garner lots of engagement) over quantity. 
• Pinterest also values new pins over re-pins – that means they want you to create fresh, new content, not just share your favorite content from other places.
• In March, Pinterest rolled out Pinterest Presents, a video presentation designed for pinners to get the latest information on products, values-based shopping, and predictions for what’s next with Pinterest Trends.
• Pinterest is continuing to develop and refine its Creator Rewards Program, encouraging creators to build more quality content on Pinterest.
• Other features expected to follow this year include:
  • “Your Shop” – individual shopping options for each pinner based on how they interact with Pinterest 
  • Checkout on Pinterest – once content to let you leave the platform, Pinterest is now trying to keep you on platform for seamless shopping and browsing experiences.
  • Expanded API for Shopping – this ties into the Verified Merchant Program, but we’re not sure of the specifics yet!
• We thought this article on how Pinterest is geared towards 6 types of pinners was quite interesting!

TikTok

While we haven’t traditionally focused on TikTok, we did think a few things bear mentioning about this social media platform. As of December 2021, TikTok ranked as the third largest social media platform, just behind Instagram and Facebook (Source: Techcrunch). TikTok now boasts over 755 million users. If you’d like to get started on TikTok, here are a few things to keep in mind.

• TikTok is home to the short video. While you can upload videos up to 10 minutes in length, short, witty content 1-3 minutes long continues to stop the scroll.
• TikTok videos are more about sharing tips and tricks and introducing people to your brand and who you are. They’re short and fun, make use of trending music and topics, and are more personality than product focused. This is a place where being authentic and real matters; you don’t need to overproduce your videos.
• In February of 2022, TikTok put out a new study that reimagines their customers’ retail journey as an infinite loop, rather than as a traditional funnel. The big takeaway is that in order to build a relationship with your customers that leads to repeated purchases, you need to be entertaining and authentic. While not TikTok specific, we’ve covered some of this in our article on the Marketing Hourglass, and you should apply these concepts to all of your social media platforms!

Don’t forget, you can get all of this information and more in our FREE 7-page PDF Guide to Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest – download it instantly when you sign up for our newsletter!

Do you want help planning and executing your social media strategy to take advantage of these new trends? Contact us today to get started so we can help you craft a better business!