Round-Up: Social Media (February 2023)

As industries go, social media and paid social are pretty fast-paced. From updates and new features to seismic algorithm changes, there is always something going on, which can be pretty overwhelming, especially for businesses that rely on Meta, TikTok, et al to grow their brand and business.

But, fear not, Embryo is here to help. In this blog, we’ve rounded up all the important social media stories from the past few weeks in bullet point bite-sized chunks so that you can get to know everything in just a few minutes! There are also links to all the stories if you want to read them in more detail.

If keeping up with the world of social media is taking up too much of your time, and you rather an award-winning team take care of your campaigns for you, then why not get in touch with us? From paid ads to brand building our team can do it all. Speak to our team by phone on 0161 327 2635 or email us at [email protected].

16 of the Most Important Social Media Stories from the Last Few Weeks

1. Pinterest has launched an e-learning academy to help marketers better understand how to target audiences with their content on the platforms.
2. Businesses across the world see social media as one of the most important things they can do, according to a new report, with TikTok rapidly becoming the fastest-growing platform for brands. 52% of correspondents said that social media had become a far greater priority due to economic uncertainty.
3. Donald Trump, you’ve heard of him, the former President, yeah that guy, has been allowed back on Facebook and Instagram. He was originally banned from the platforms after the Capitol Riots that took place on Jan 6th in 2021.
4. Meta, the owners of Facebook and Instagram, have decided to sunset the latter’s live-stream shopping feature, a sign that social commerce and live shopping hasn’t taken off in the way that many marketers had hoped for.
5. Reddit, the home of the forum pretty much, has plans to go public later this year and float itself on the stock market. The company was recently valued at around $6.6 billion dollars – not bad!
6. Angry with the fact that Joe Biden’s Superbowl Tweets gained more impressions and traction than his, owner Elon Musk declared an ’emergency’ at Twitter to address this apparent injustice. Now, Tweets from the self-proclaimed ‘Chief Twit’ appear far, far more regularly in people’s For You Twitter feed (something that has not been welcomed by people)
7. Instagram this week has launched a new feature called ‘Instagram Channels’ that allows users to stay up to date on topics that interest them via a group messaging function.
8. Snapchat continues its steady level of growth announcing at its investor day that it has topped 750 million active users, a quite remarkable 150 million increase from April last year.
9. The CEO of Youtube, Susan Wojcicki, who rented out her garage to Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were starting the company, has decided to step down after nine years as head of the video platform. In a statement, she said: ‘I’ve decided to step back from my role as the head of YouTube and start a new chapter focused on my family, health and personal projects’.
10. Being ‘good’ at social media has been listed as the most desirable skill for employers looking to hire marketers, according to data from LinkedIn.
11. A new trend is brewing on TikTok. ‘Deinfluencing’ is a term used to describe content that actively encourages people not to buy products that have had a lot of hype generated around them (see Apple’s Airpod Max or the latest pair of Ugg Slippers for examples). At the time of writing the trend has over 170 million views on TikTok.
12. YouTube has updated its platform to enable creators to further analyse data and engage with their audiences. Youtube Shorts has been updated to allow viewers to watch the original video that someone commented on. Its analytics platform has been changed to help creators better understand channel performance with easy-to-understand terminology.
13. Twitter, specifically Elon Musk, has apologised for the irrelevant and ‘annoying’ ads that have been cropping up on the new For You feed. He’s promised to fix it.
14. A whopping 91% of people that apply via LinkedIn job applicants want to see the salary range in the job description. It’s worth noting that these were US correspondents but it’s hard to see how this high a number wouldn’t be reflected over here.
15. TikTok has released an update that introduces more ways for users to boost organic content. Called Promote, it allows users to target audiences and boost posts to increase impressions, views, and likes.
16. Earlier this month, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) blocked a whopping 10,000 adverts from various social media platforms because the ads were deemed to be misleading financial scams and promotions from so-called ‘finfluencers’.

These are just some of the most important stories in the social media world but the truth there is always breaking news coming out of this turbulent, tumultuous industry. Check back in a few weeks when we’ll be doing another social media round-up. In the meantime, why not check out our PPC round-up that covers all the important stories in the world of pay-per-click advertising?

If you’re interested in putting your brand out there on social media and want to work with an expert that ensures your investment is used on the right platforms, targeting the right people, then speak to our sales team today!