In Other News: LinkedIn makes feeds more engaging, YouTube introduces ‘popular parts’ feature & VidMob releases a three-part study to help ad creatives.

June 9, 2022 Lucy Booth In other news, LinkedIn, Snapchat, VidMob, Youtube  

LinkedIn steps up their game to keep your feed as relevant to you as possible

We know LinkedIn as the platform for all things professional, whether you’re sharing achievements, challenges, insights or job opportunities. With this in mind, there can be a very varied stream of content reaching your feed. To combat this, LinkedIn has added some new features to help you tailor your content and get the best reading experience. 

So, what are they actually doing to roll this out? 

  • If you see a post on your feed that you aren’t interested in, you can click “I don’t want to see this”. This way you can streamline your feed to only show content you want to engage with! 
  • If you don’t fancy seeing political content on your feed, you will be able to select a control “I don’t want to see political content” to reduce this 
  • With many LinkedIn users keen to hear from leaders and individuals they don’t necessarily follow, LinkedIn is set to create more ways for said users to easily follow the creators that matter to them, straight from their feed
  • With polls becoming more and more frequent on the feed, LinkedIn is looking to reduce the number of ‘irrelevant’ polls to ensure users are only shown those that are helpful to them 

The word on the street is that LinkedIn is hoping to roll out a number of updates over time based on research analysis and trends. We look forward to seeing them come to fruition! 

 

Youtube introduces a new ‘popular parts’ feature to their app 

After carrying out a trial run with their premium subscribers, YouTube has decided to go ahead with the launch of a new feature that gives users an insight into where the most replayed parts of a video are. 

In most previous cases, video creators would break down the different parts of their video using timestamps, but this new feature should mean they won’t have to. 

Whilst you’re probably wondering why this feature is remotely helpful, I guess it could be good for locating specific parts of a video to avoid watching the whole thing – especially if it’s a long one! You might be looking for the part that’s gone viral online or a specific step in a recipe, for example. 

 

VidMob reveals the creative best practices for advertising on Snapchat 

The team at VidMob have recently released a three-part study, breaking down the key tips for creating successful ads on Snapchat. Check out a run down of the top points below: 

  • Make sure your message is punchy, clear and get it across early in the video 
  • Use high amounts of contrast between background and foreground to capture attention and make your message stand out 
  • Don’t wait until the end of the asset to display your CTA – users don’t tend to wait around! 
  • Keep text to a minimum 
  • Use influencer endorsement where you can, it tends to have a better swipe rate

If you have time, I’d definitely recommend reading the study in greater detail, even if you aren’t creating an ad specifically for Snapchat. There are some great insights and tips for all ad creators. 

 

 

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In Other News: LinkedIn Shares Gen Z Insights, Facebook Launches Podcasts and Twitter Tests Livestream Shopping

December 8, 2021 Lucy Booth Facebook, In other news, Insights, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter  

Welcome back to another week of digital insights from the latest news in the digital marketing world!

 

LinkedIn Conducts Survey on Gen Z ers

This week, LinkedIn have posted their findings from a survey conducted on Gen Zers (people born between 1997-2012). The survey helps to explore engagement trends, popular content Gen Zers are consuming as well as how and why they are the most likely age group to use LinkedIn. 

We have put together some key points below that have been picked up by the data analysts: 

  • Gen Zers believe LinkedIn is trustworthy and they feel safe posting/interacting on the site 
  • The content they see on their feed is mostly relevant to them, no nonsense! 
  • 80% of Gen Zers say they are interested in following more businesses/organisations on LinkedIn and they are more likely than other age groups to follow people like Melinda Gates, Bill Gates and Jeff Weiner 
  • 75% say that businesses/organisations post valuable content 
  • For networking, learning and research purposes, Gen Zers say they prefer LinkedIn over other platforms 
  • Gen Zers are highly focused on their career 

The results show Gen Zers believe LinkedIn to be the safest site. This is likely to be because it is one of the most ‘professional’ platforms we use and people really do get hired via LinkedIn! With the content said to be mostly relevant to the user, this would suggest there are less time wasters applying for jobs outside their field if people are only really seeing content they are interacting with. The study concludes that Gen Zers are quite highly focussed on their career path and are keen to learn tips and tricks for presenting/bettering their digital marketing skills. 

 

Facebook Launches New Podcast Feature 

With podcasts becoming more and more popular recently, Facebook has published a new guide on how to link and promote podcasts on the platform using Facebook’s features. 

Creators can now add and promote their podcast on Facebook. They can build direct connections with fans so their content is seamlessly distributed to their listeners as and when new episodes are released. At the moment, this feature is only available to select content creators in the US – presumably whilst they test it! 

The new update allows listeners to engage in conversation with one another in the comments section whilst still listening to the podcast. This feature should allow podcast creators to branch out through another platform to engage more listeners whilst giving them a space to stimulate conversations with one another. 

 

Livestream Shopping Being Tested on Twitter 

Twitter have recently revealed they are following in the footsteps of Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest & Tik Tok by carrying out a livestream shopping feature.  With the rise of online shopping during the pandemic, Twitter carried out their first live shopping event in collaboration with Walmart in a bid to keep up with the latest trends. This new feature creates a pathway from viewing a product, discussing it on the Twitter timeline to then being able to head straight to the check out. With the Shopping feature enabled, users can browse products via a carousel, read more about them and finally purchase the item – all within the Twitter app! In retrospect, this probably means whilst all social media platforms offer similar features, they still need to fight against one another to stay relevant and remain somewhat unique all whilst pushing the social media trends. 

 

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