5 social media updates you may have missed
Social media platforms are constantly updating and changing their functionality. Sometimes this is a little irritating, when we can’t find something we used to use, or we press what used to be the correct button for the 100th time only to see too late that it’s been moved and we have opened something we didn’t mean to. But some of the changes are also good and make it possible to do new things.
In this article we’re going to share 5 updates that have recently happened which you might not yet be aware of. We’ll do our best to explain how to use each one and where to find it, but do bear in mind a few things. First that interfaces change between different devices, particularly iPhone compared to any android, so your screen may look a bit different to ours. The second thing is that updates are often trialled and then rolled out gradually, so if you really don’t have something yet don’t worry, it’s most likely coming soon. And finally, since these are all new, bear in mind that we are still figuring out exactly how best to use them ourselves!
With those caveats in mind, here’s what we’ve noticed changing on our social media accounts lately:
You can schedule posts directly on Instagram
This is great news for Instagram users! You always could schedule your Instagram posts through Meta Business Suite, but now you can do it in app. Why would you want to? Well, you probably won’t on a regular basis, but let’s say your professional dashboard analytics tell you that the time your particular audience is most active is Saturday morning at 9am. If that’s your only chance for a lie in, then you might decide to create the post on Friday and then schedule it to go out at the most active time. It’s also useful if you’ll be away for week and want to still have some posts going out but not work on your holiday.
So how is it done? Start by just creating your post as normal, including the caption. Right at the bottom of the page where you right the caption is the option to go to ‘Advanced Settings’. The very top option is to schedule the post. Easy! (If you haven’t ever tapped on advanced settings before it’s worth sticking around for a moment to have a look at some of the other options too.)
You can add an event to LinkedIn
I predicted increased functionality on LinkedIn for this year and we are already getting it. You can now create a dedicated event post on LinkedIn, either in person or online. And if you select the online option, you can even choose to live stream it on LinkedIn, or have an audio-only conversation on the platform, with participants. For many of us though, we’ll likely mostly be putting in details of external events being help elsewhere, whether that’s Zoom or a local cafe.
To find this feature, start creating a post and then tap the three dots for more options, probably next to the icon for adding a photo. You may also notice other items on this list that you didn’t know were there, like the template option, of which more below…
You can add backgrounds to LinkedIn posts
You know how, when you’re posting to LinkedIn, it can look a bit dull if you don’t have an eye-catching image to go with it? No more! Tap the templates icon mentioned in the previous paragraph and you’ll have a whole host of colourful backgrounds to choose from.
When and how might you use this feature? Well, unlike when making a post on Facebook with a background, on LinkedIn you can still have your main caption, and since longer content often works best on LinkedIn, you’ll likely want to use both together. LinkedIn posts often start with a thought-provoking question or seemingly arguable/unusual statement, so you might want to try using them in the graphic instead, and adding more details in the caption. You could also use these types of posts to make an announcement, such as ‘new product launch!’ and again, expand on it in the caption.
You can add topic tags to Threads posts
When Threads first launched there was no way of targeting a particular audience or topic, but that recently changed. Now when you start typing your thread look for the # symbol amongst the others under the text box. Be aware though that these hashtags do not work the same way as Instagram ones! You can’t just put in a hashtag from your keyboard and type something, you must tap the hashtag icon for it to work. You’ll know when it has because the word or phrase (which can have spaces) will be in blue and it will NOT have the hashtag symbol in front of it.
Since these are ’topic’ tags, they also would appear to work differently to Instagram in that we are not trying to find relatively niche versions. Our chosen topic can be fairly broad, but should also have in mind what audience we are trying to reach. They also quite often include the word ’Threads’. So if you might choose ‘Food Threads’, or ‘Art Threads’ or ‘Fitness Threads’ depending on what you’re posting about and what your business does. Since there’s usually several variations for each topic, and you can only use one per thread, try searching for some of these topics and see which is the most used, as well as trying a few different ones out yourself to see if there’s one that works better for you.
You can join Communities on X
X Communities have been around on the edges of the app for quite some time now, but since my latest version of the X app now has a communities button right in the middle of the bottom navigation bar (cannot for the life of me remember what was there before!) it’s a good sign that they’re a major part of the platform’s plan for this year.
Communities bring a smaller group of users together under one subject or common interest. That can be especially useful for anyone whose core audience is using X, but who feels a little anxious about posting on what can be quite a critical platform. It can also just be good for making sure you’re reaching your target customer. You can join other relevant communities and also start your own.
Hopefully you’ve learnt something new about social media in this article! Why not send us a question you have about digital marketing and we’ll do our best to answer it for you?