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LinkedIn Ramps Up Their Creator Mode Features

Back in March, LinkedIn joined in on the trend and launched their own Creator Mode for profiles which allowed users to highlight their on-platform activity and engagement. LinkedIn explained, “at the heart of our ecosystem is our creator community. People love to see creators give their take on what’s happening in the news or share insights into a specific industry.” When the “Creator Mode” option is switched on users can add topic hashtags and their “Connect” button will switch to “Follow” instead—this will aid in helping users build an audience in the app.

The professional networking app is now taking their Creator Mode features to another level by making LinkedIn Live accessible for anyone with Creator Mode turned on and created a newsletter option for LinkedIn creators to maintain a connection with their audience. LinkedIn Live originally was exclusively for members who met the certain criteria but now they are expanding this access to further maximize audience engagement by allowing those with Creator Mode on now to live broadcast to their followers. The platform stated that Live videos, on average, recieve 7x more reactions and 24x more comments than the traditional static videos.

As well the platform is providing creators with access to newsletters so they can keep in touch with their audiences. Essentially creators publish new articles in their newsletters and their subscribers get immediate notications to stay in the loop with their content. Linedkin is shifting its focus to increase engagement on their platform and continues these efforts through their $25 million Creator Accelerator Program while their Creator Mode tools continue to evolve. Despite creators being more drawn to platfroms such as Instagram and TikTok to monetize on content, LinkedIn is getting into the mix and is highlighting the value that comes with booting your industry profile.

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Instagram’s Plan to Make Video the Main Feed Display

To keep up with the evolving usage trends and stop users from switching more to short-form video apps such as TikTok, Instagram is updating their video options on the app. Although Instagram hasn’t confirmed anything officially they are hinting at their feed turning into a combined display of “relevant image posts, Stories, Reels and Video content, all displaced in a full-screen, swipeable“ format. 

In order for Meta’s services to stay relevant in younger users‘ eyes they are trying to mimic TikToks simplic format. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri flagged these changes breifly in January when he noted that Instagram is gambling with the idea of merging its current video tools — essentially simplifying actions on the app. Mosseri explained how they are “looking about how [they] can - not just with IGTV, but across all of Instagram - simplify and consolidate ideas because last year we placed a lot of new bets. I think this year we have to go back to our focus on simplicity and craft.” 

These initiatives can already be seen — the other week Instagram already started to experiment with longer videos in Stories so that all content (i.e. feed posts, Stories and Reels) will have the same video post length. This way content can be repurposed throughout various locations in the app and not restricted to simply being a story, post, or reel — similar to this example. Overall Instagram is largely focusing on their video options with the hopes to make it easier to post video content into a single stream and stay relevant to the younger generation of users. 

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TikTok Takes Action Following Harmful Trends and Challenges

TikTok performed a study where they asked more than 10,000 teens, parents and teachers from across the globe about what they thought about the impact of taking part in online TikTok challenges. Social Media Today explained how enforcing restrictions with these trends can be difficult because TikTok struggles to identify harmful trends simply based on hashtags -- “Benadryl Challenge” would likely be flagged but “Milk Crate Challenge” probably wouldn't. TikTok has updated their approach to going about online challenges and is planning to focus mainly on harmful challenges and hoaxes while providing additional warnings and information resources to help guide users and parents on how to avoid these risks.

A big challenge they are facing revolves around “Self-harm hoaxes,” where users direct others to carry out a series of harmful activities which can lead to self harm or even death. TikTok explained that their research showed how even presenting warnings about these hoaxes, “even if shared with the best of intentions - can impact the wellbeing of teens.” Essentially saying how simply mentioning the hoax causes it to circulate and be talked about at heightened levels.

TikTok previously has tried to deny or downplay that their app has any involvement in these viral challenges. TechCrunch explained how after a child died from the blackout challenge, TikTok released a statement saying that “the company found no evidence of any challenge involving asphyxiation on its platform.” When taken to a Senate hearing, Sen. Blackburn bashed this claim and showed how their staff found “pass out videos” along with other disturbing content on their platform. TikTok is now taking action to better moderate content -- a regulation that many users already trusted the company was doing.

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The Launch of Pinterest TV

With the holidays coming up, more and more social media companies are searching for ways that their platforms can spark impulsive buying behavior from their users. 

TikTok shared new insights from last year showing that 80% of its users who bought something on Black Friday indicated that TikTok had played a role in that decision and 40% said they’d made an actual purchase based on simply seeing the item on TikTok. Keeping this in mind, Pinterest began looking into the rising live-stream commerce trend which could help boost sales directly via their platform. The feature is a “series of live, original and shoppable episodes featuring creators right on Pinterest.” The new series begins on November 8th and will also allow users to take up exclusive deals in the app by engaging with these videos. To maximize its eCommerce push even more, they are launching a series of celebrity-led live streams as part of its “Creators Connect” event. 

Due to the pandemic there has been a rising interest in online shopping and this shift for Pinterest has always been a part of their trajectory. CEO Ben Silberman in 2016 explained how their platform isn’t a social app rather its a “catalog of ideas.” Since then, the company has worked to facilitate its eCommerce vision with “streamlined catalog ingestion tools, shopping platform integrations, AR product display options, improved discovery, etc.”

Overall there are hints that this form of live-commerce may be the next big shift — something that is already huge in China and on track to becoming a $423 billion market by end of next year. It’s a smart tactic in my opinion as well since it is engaging and users really value immediacy and efficiency. 

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Instagram’s All Accessible Story Link

Following user feedback that they all want to be able to link content in Stories, Instagram has now allowed for all users to use the Link feature — making it no longer limited to verified accounts or those with 10k+ followers. Facebook implemented this change because they found that this will expand the potential value of Stories for driving audience action. 

Zuckerberg explained how “we also expect to make significant changes to Instagram and Facebook in the next year to further lean into video and make Reels a more central part of the experience.” 

Most social platforms are shifting to a more video focused feed due to the rise in engagement toward TikTok over the course of the year and Facebook Inc. plans to follow this trend as well. Instagram will likely be realigned around Stories and Reels specifically and switch for the traditional feed to be in another tab on the app — this shift will make Stores even more valuable for exposure. Instagram also notes that they will be developing new ways to customize this link sticker and maybe include a link preview element. Overall making the link accessible to all users will now lead to a potential influx of users posting more Stories and help with this push of Instagram’s goal to shift towards a more video-focused format. 

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Pinterest Announces New Features: ‘Takes’ and ‘Watch’ Feed

Following the ongoing rise of TikTok, other platforms in the market are expanding their features to replicate the enticing short-video scrolling format of TikTok. This can be seen in Pinterest’s new Watchfeed — a scrolling, verticals feed of content to both align with the lasted trends while providing a new way to discover more of Pin content. Users have the option to be in ‘Browse’ mode which displays a regular Pinterest feed or ‘Watch’ mode which will replicate a TikTok-style format.

Their other interactive element is ‘Takes,’ which is an idea pin (story) that is created in response to a previous Idea Pin and can be seen in home feeds.

Pinterest saw in increase in its user base and revenues during the pandemic but that engagement has since decreased. To remain a viable player in the social media industry, Pinterest is altering it’s platform to match how consumers want to interact with content — i.e. Short-form, scrolling videos. Not only that, but the platform has expanded to creating its own affiliate program through using their Idea Pins feature.

The company explained how “with most platforms, the reason you’re there is because you’re invested in people…giving more visibility to the people behind Pinterest’s community is probably a very wise thing in the long term.”

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Twitter Adds One Click Revue Newsletter Sign Up Buttons in Tweets

By acquiring Revue, Twitter has made it possible for users to now sign up for newsletters directly from tweets in-stream. The initial integration, following Twitter’s acquisition of Revue, was launched back in June — it enabled newsletter creators to add a large “Suscribe” button on their profile. Now Twitter has expanded on this and users can simply subscribe via tweets.

Twitter posted how these writers/creators are a valuable part of their platform, so to jumpstart their efforts to help these groups, they acquired Revue, a service that makes things seamless when starting and/or publishing editorial newsletters.

Revue will remain as a standalone service, but their integration into Twitter‘s platform will make it easier for audiences and authors to connect — overall enhancing writer’s experience on Twitter.

Revue futher explained how this expansion is a good way to gain subscribers from viral tweets while users can simultaneously add sign-up cards at the end of tweet threads. The integration will not only entice creators considering newletter options but could also pave way for more similar direct connection options to other products and services within tweets.

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The Future is in The Metaverse

Facebook adds new goals to the agenda as they plan to create over 10,000 jobs in the European Union to build a metaverse. Zuckerberg said on Sunday that they would embark on a recruiting drive for highly skilled workers to help build this virtual realm due to how he sees it as a key component of Facebooks future and a major driver of new technology investment. 

The company unveiled plans to invest $50 million to build the virtual space but explained the lengthy timeline of the tech advancement--10 to 15 years. Their EU hiring announcement as well “has an important role to play in shaping the new rules of the internet,” by embedding European values which Facebook argues they share as well. 

The company has already begun their transition to a metaverse through launching a VR working remote app where company’s can hold meetings as an avatar version of themselves, according to CNBC. Facebook views this launch as an early step towards building the futuristic metaverse. Facebooks Vice President of its Reality Lab Group explained how the Workrooms VR app gives “a good sense” of how the company envisions elements of the metaverse.“This is kind of one of those foundational steps in that direction.”

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Facebook Claims AI will Clean Up Its Platform

Facebook and Instagram struggle with certain regulation issues such as underage users on the apps and the circulating of posts that deem hate speech and excessive violence. Executes of Facebook are convinced that AI will help fix these chronic problems but as seen in Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files, AI wont be able to consistently distinguish content in posts--i.e. the difference between cockfighting and car crashes.

Engineers at Facebook agreed with this statement, saying how when Facebook’s algorithms aren’t certain enough that the content is violating community rules it simply will try to show the material less often to users but in general the accounts posting this material will go unpunished. Facebooks senior engineer explained that “the problem is that we do not and possibly never will have a model that captures even a majority of integrity harms, particularly in sensitive areas.” 

One article posted on BuzzFeed News further highlighted that even with AI, Facebook was deleting less than 5% of all the hate speech content posted. Despite their efforts, trying to remove this type of harmful content entirely doesn't seem attainable at this moment. Facebook’s data scientist stated “we might just be the very best in the world at it, but the best in the world isn't good enough to find a fraction of it.” 

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Facebook Causes Global Chaos With Crash

Yesterday, billions noticed how their favorite social platforms: Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger all crashed. The apps began displaying error messages around 11:40am and within minutes Facebook disappeared from the internet--every application crashed for over 5 hours. Although it’s known how Facebook has integrated itself into how everyday life functions, the impact fo the crash became far more severe. 

The New York Times explained how in some countries like Myanmar and India, Facebook is synonymous with the internet. “More than 3.5 billion people around the world use Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApps to communicate, distribute political messaging, and expand their businesses through advertising reach.” 

Due to the extremity and timeline of the crash, Facebook hopped on to Twitter to release a statement. They expressed “To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we’re sorry. We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us.”

The fact that the outage affected an immense amount of users globally, shows how intertwined the company’s services are with people’s lives across the globe. The Wall Street Journal reported specific accounts from people affected first hand--for example 35-year-old Lisa Hamilton in Australia. She explained how all three of Facebook’s services are key elements to her business and after the issue was resolved she realized she was blind to %100 of her customers. 

“We are heavily reliant on Facebook analytics to tell us whether our ads are viewed or was it even placed,” she said. “So at times like this, there's an element of lack of control.” Despite the crash now being resolved, this was a historic moment for Facebook--the crash was the largest in all of company history. 

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Facebook to Halt Instagram Kids Project

The concerns around social media’s toll on user’s mental health always remains in question, but how about an Instagram designed specifically for kids? This week, The Wall Street Journal, explained how Facebook has decided to suspend plans for their newest version of the app, which is an Instagram app tailored to children. This new version will be ad-free and allow parents to monitor their children’s activity—which still seems like an excellent idea to Instagram head, Adam Mosseri.

“I still firmly believe that it’s a good thing to build a version of Instagram that’s safe for tweens, but we want to take the time to talk to parents and researchers and safety experts and get to more of a consensus about how to move forward,” he said on NBC’s Today show.

This commentary follows The Wall Street Journal’s new investigative series called the Facebook Files which shows the company’s internal research—finding that Instagram is harmful for a sizable percentage of young users. This article prompted a senate hearing and extreme criticism from federal lawmakers and state officials over the impact that a kid’s Instagram would have on mental health over time. They feel that “children aren’t equipped for social media use and that there are better ways for them to connect with friends and family.”

Currently Instagram bans children ages 13 and under from using the platform, but they are aware that young users continue to find ways on the app. Despite rising concerns from state officials, Facebook executives are firm on the belief that since children already find ways on the app, it would be better for them to use a platform that is instilled with stronger safety controls—similar to YouTube and TikTok's latest under 13 app versions.

Facebook stresses how parents with kids of all ages are constantly searching for ways to help monitor and regulate their kid’s experience online and through this updated Instgram version, parents will finally be able to approve who their kids can message and follow. Despite concerns around mental health and body image as a result of social media consumption, Facebook still argues that many of its teen users are actually utilize Instagram when they are struggling in order to feel better.

My stance: I’d need further research and understanding of how the kids version would function, but from my initial hearing of this I’d say: no, this isn’t a good idea.

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Blog Post - Demo

Testing out blog! My names Julia Wiggs and I’m a senior majoring in MCC and Broadcast Journalism! I’m definitely not a business major but i’m excited to take away some new knowledge from this course! The sector I’d like to focus on is Social Media Content and I will be following along with news articles such as: Wall Street Journal, Social Media Today, Ad Age.

A little pic of me!