July Social Spot: Three social updates you NEED to know this month

It’s our favourite time of the month: new updates in social media!

In our latest blog, Account Manager Rachel Carroll outlines three recent social innovations brands can utilise in their own marketing strategy.

Update #1: Twitter expands long-form content with the launch of ‘Notes’ feature

 It’s been in testing for a while, but Twitter has finally launched its new ‘Notes’ option on selected user profiles, providing a simple and integrated way to publish long-form content on the social media platform.

 The blogging-type feature has been created to cater for those users who tweet long threads or add screenshots of texts to their posts.

What does this mean for brands?

Note titles are limited to 100 characters but the body of a Note can be up to 2,500 words, giving brands more flexibility with content and better discoverability.  In the past, while threads have proven to be effective for delivering longer messages, they are not always the easiest to follow, making this new update a great solution for keeping followers engaged.

Like tweets, Notes also have their own link and can be tweeted, retweeted, shared in DMs, liked and bookmarked. However, Notes will have unique URLs which people can navigate to even if they don’t have a Twitter account or are not logged in to the platform. This means brands can reach a wider audience beyond the social media platform.

Update #2: LinkedIn rolls out new ‘Repost’ update

LinkedIn is providing more engagement options by adding a new ‘Repost’ option, enabling brands to share a post instantly to their feed without having to add a comment.

How will this impact engagement?

Much like Twitter’s retweet function, this update means followers can reshare content instantaneously without having to add their own caption. For those that aren’t as LinkedIn-savvy, having to add their own comments or thoughts may have put them off sharing content before. But this update offers them a quick, easy way to do just that, hopefully increasing overall impressions and engagements of brand content.

It will also be interesting to see if this new update impacts the frequency of posts shared on the platform — and perhaps whether LinkedIn might become more of a live platform, like Twitter.

Update #3:  Twitter has launched video closed captions

After testing the feature on iOS since April, Twitter’s rolled out video closed captions to all mobile users. This means if you come across a video with available captions on your feed, clicking on it would automatically present you with a “CC” button on the top right corner. Tapping this will then display the subtitles/captions at the bottom.

Why is this important?

There are several reasons why captions are essential for videos. Firstly, having subtitles makes it accessible for deaf or hard-of-hearing users and means those watching from a quiet setting can understand what’s being said.

Plus, 85% of Facebook users and 80% of LinkedIn users scroll through their social media feeds with the sound off. This means videos with captions are more likely to be viewed by users mid-scroll and generate higher completion rates.

Stay tuned for our monthly Social Spot updates and if you are looking to enhance your social media strategy, get in touch.