Welcome back to our social media news of the week review. These are the three main stories we’ll be talking about this time:
Instagram Launches New Test Features Inspired By BeReal
LinkedIn’s New Discover Feed And Group Elements
And
TikTok Poses A Threat To Google Search
Instagram Launches New Test Features Inspired By BeReal
First of all, you have to know the situation with BeReal – it’s an app that sends random prompts at different times of day to its users, which asks people to share what they are doing within a two-minute window. This gives a nice ‘in your face’ to the carefully-sculpted social media personas since the two minutes allowed for an update is truly not enough time for any edits or customization of users’ looks or the things they are doing that moment.
And it seems that people are taking a liking to this concept since BeReal surpassed the 10 million downloads count as of 2022.
Now, we all know how much Instagram likes to flatter its competitors by replicating them, and the new test features seem to emphasize the point. So, the first test feature is the ‘Dual’ camera mode which allows creators to capture both the content and their reactions simultaneously by using both of their smartphone’s cameras. And that, of course, bears an eerie similarity to BeReal’s UI.
Compare it for yourself – the image on the left comes from IG and the one on the right from the BeReal app.
Another thing that Instagram is testing is an option to add a QR code to your posts. Other users could scan it to see on a map your exact location at the moment of posting content. This and the Dual camera mode replicates BeReal to its fullest as the app was the first to add such a map functionality. This way, you can share your location with your friends, but random app users will only see a ‘rough’ location and not the exact spot. Now, it isn’t clear how this functionality would actually work with IG since it’s still in a testing mode, but it might pose a threat if the sharing option isn’t restricted to only your chosen contacts.
LinkedIn’s New Discover Feed And Group Elements
Hoping for higher engagement rates and a better chance of discovering the platform’s content, LinkedIn, like many other social media platforms, is also launching its Discover feed. Yup, it’s the algorithmically recommended content that you might be interested in based on your in-app activities.
Why are we skeptical about it? Well, for starters, LinkedIn is a platform for professionals and businesses, and we aren’t sure that the users are going to want to see some random business’ updates that they don’t already follow. Regardless, time will tell, and we’ll see in the upcoming months whether this new update takes on with LinkedIn’s users.
If you want to see how this Discovery feed looks like still in its testing phase, there’s an official video on Twitter.
Besides the Discover feed, LinkedIn has also added new functionality that might give a broader context to those seeking a job. It’s called ‘Meet The Team,’ and it will be added to all job listings. It will give you a list of team members and even links to their profiles if you’d like to dig deeper into how the business you’re applying to works, looks, and feels.
And that’s not all! LinkedIn also added a ‘Celebrations’ display to the notifications. Now, you can congratulate your contacts on their job milestones, job changes, and various anniversaries – from the ones related to their work to their time spent on LinkedIn. These ‘Celebrations’ might be a good idea to remind you to keep in touch with important contacts, but it might also very well become just another spam.
And lastly, it’s LinkedIn’s Groups. Not so long ago, these groups were an invaluable platform for professionals to come together and share new and expertise among like-minded people, but nowadays, it’s mostly spam, and the Groups are definitely suffering from that. LinkedIn didn’t add any new functionalities to the Groups but rather made the joining process a bit more complicated to ward off any spammers. This might make the job of Group admins a bit easier while allowing them to maintain their former glory among LinkedIn’s users.
TikTok Poses A Threat To Google Search
There’s a prominent trend of young people using social media for their searches and recommendations. However, odd it might seem, search giant Google does feel a bit intimidated by it. Check, for instance, what Google’s Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan had to say about this situation:
“In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram.”
Now, that isn’t really surprising, but the sheer quantities of said searches by young people can absolutely have implications not only for Google but also for brands looking to connect with younger audiences.
TikTok’s push for eCommerce, encompassing both the user experience and amenities for brands, makes it easy for the audiences to look for the latest trends, products, and places to be in the app. Unsurprisingly, TikTok is also becoming the go-to page for users aged 14-24 for recent world news. And however odd the thought might seem for you to create a TikTok SEO plan, the numbers don’t lie, and you truly should not dismiss TikTok’s growing power when thinking about social media marketing.
That’s it for this week’s review – see you next time with more juicy news on the social media industry.
