Social Media Updates Recap of 2022
2022 gave us a ton of updates in the social media space that changed the game for consumers and our customers. With the constant updates, the Optimize team must keep up with those changes to ensure that we are able to keep our clients informed, and their pages up to date.
From Twitters new ownership to Instagram’s video content, there has been a lot of news about the platform changes. This is the 2022 social media news recap where we will discuss all the major news stories regarding platforms such as Instagram, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp, and Twitter.
Instagram Merges All Video to Reels
On July 21st, Instagram announced that all video content on the platform would become Reels, no matter the length. This move came due to TikTok’s immense rise in 2022, in which it became one of the most used social platforms. The platform has done so well that it even has a higher monthly active user count than Snapchat.
With over a billion active users on Instagram, the popularity of video content cannot be ignored. Instagram’s pivot from focusing on still images in posts to pushing new features for Reels video content boils down to consumer behavior that dictates that video, short or long form, has become more popular than still images. Instagram’s bread and butter has always been still images, which enabled creative people to highlight their work on the platform. Now, to increase your following and engagement on Instagram, you must now participate in creating videos using trending audio or concepts.
For example, Instagram added the ‘Reels Templates,’ which allows users to use popular content to create their own versions of it using audio from other Reels. Changes like these come from the need to produce more engagement on the platform. Meta’s Facebook has the highest active user count of all the social platforms out there today, and this move is to bridge the gap on their competitors.
Google Testing New Features in India
India is the testing ground for new features that will assist with translating voice and text, and the ability to search in video. The largest search engine on earth wants to make it easier for native and bilingual speakers to search on Google and some of their other assets, like Google Lens and Google Pay. Here are some of the features that Google piloted:
- Bilingual search results – Will have local language and English language within search results.
- Handwriting to text translation – For Google Lens. Used to translate writing to text.
- Bilingual voice search – For Hinglish (Hindu and English) speakers. Google voice search can understand Hinglish
- Natural language search in Google Pay – Searchers use their natural language on Google Pay to search for payments, total spend, etc.
- The ability to search in video – This feature allows the user to search for topics within a video.
Not much has been said of these features since Google announced it during their eighth Google for India event, but you should expect to hear more about these features this year. Once these features make their way to North America, it will be easier to find information within video, and help customers find your business easier.
Meta Creates Performance 5 to Improve Ad Performance
To improve the ads that run on Facebook, Meta announced the Performance 5. Facebook laid out 5 tips that business owners can use to create well-performing advertising campaigns.
- Meta Pixel and Conversions API can be used to understand the relationship between ads and website activity. By using these tools, there is a potential for a 13% decrease in cost per action, saving you money.?
- Combining your ad sets can increase conversions by 41%. If you must run ad campaigns at the same time, but with different audiences to target, you may see worse results because there are two of the same ads running. Combining the two age ranges and running only one ad will give you faster results.?
- Broad targeting and increasing your audience size can save you 12% cost per action because Meta’s delivery system works best when an ad is set up to reach the most people possible.?
- Using mobile-friendly videos can save you 12% cost-per-action on average because 15 second or less videos perform better than non-mobile-friendly content.?
- Using the A/B test to see which version of your ads will perform best will allow you to see what parts of each ad works best, and that will tell you what details like content, audience, or placement you could change to improve the ad. Studies have shown that “winning A/B tests decreased cost per result by over 30% on average.”
These changes can help improve the performance of your ads. If you are a client here at Optimize, feel free to reach out to your Account Consultant for any questions.
Twitter Makes Many, Many Headlines In 2022
As you may have noticed in our previous social media updates, Twitter went through a lot of changes in 2022. On October 28th, Elon Musk completed the purchase of Twitter. After some tumultuous situations, such as a lawsuit against his purchasing of the social platform, it has been completed.?
Twitter has not only changed ownership, but it has also made some quality-of-life changes to the platform to assist users and businesses.
Twitter recreated the Blue for Business program. Blue for Business is a form of Blue Verified that differentiates business profiles from singular user profiles.
Businesses that participate in Blue for Business will receive a gold checkmark and a square profile picture. Businesses will also have the opportunity to create their own network within their organization by designating affiliates to the organization. Affiliates will receive a blue checkmark next to their name.
Twitter had this to say about their revamped Twitter for Business program: “By creating this connection, we are making it possible for business to create networks within their organizations – on Twitter. Businesses can affiliate their leadership, brands, support handles, employees, or teams.”
2023 will be a telling year for the platform. With many changes coming down the line, it is only a matter of time before this program is live for all businesses and users.
Saving Businesses on Yelp
Review bombing is nothing new on the platform, but it is a phenomenon worth paying attention to. If you are a business owner, the last thing you want is to deal with negative blowback from a situation that could easily have been addressed.
When a business deals with customers who are dissatisfied with their experience, they hope that they can rectify the problem before it escalates.
Sometimes, escalation happens, and that can come in the form of review bombing. Review bombing is when a cascade of low rated reviews piles up in a brief time to lower the rating of a business on Yelp. In response to this, Yelp has measures in place in which they empower their User Operations team to investigate the reasoning for the review bombing. In their 2021 report, the team removed more than 70,200 reviews across around 1,300 Yelp business pages. Yelp can even go as far as alerting Yelp users of unusual activity on business pages that have had an avalanche of negative reviews in response to a particular incident.
Yelp will continue to monitor situations like this, but it is important to always attempt to fix situations before they get out of control.
LinkedIn’s Push for Authenticity
LinkedIn is an incredible resource for businesses searching for qualified candidates that fit their company philosophy, values, and direction. But, just like every other social media platform – authenticity can be an issue.
There are fake profiles on the platform, just like on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. LinkedIn has taken initiative to snuff out fake profiles by introducing “About this profile” in October. The feature will let someone viewing an account know “when a profile was created and last updated, along with whether the member has verified a phone number and /or work email associated with their account.”
LinkedIn is battling against AI-based image generation by using what they call their “deep-learning-based model” to check the authenticity of the profile photo on the account. Their model can detect image artifacts that are associated with AI-based image generation, and once detected, they have the power to take down accounts that they deem to be fake.
Other measures to combat fake accounts are to notify you if messages from senders may impact your account's security. Also, you may be notified if senders are trying to take the conversation off LinkedIn. If you get the notification, you may report it. These measures will only improve your experience on LinkedIn, and it is encouraged that you report any potential frauds on the platform.
2023 Looks Bright
2022 was a wild year for social media trends and growth. 2023 is bound to bring new features, trends, and improvements to platforms. It is expected that a couple of platforms will push their chips to the center of the table to bet on content types with high engagement and a vast amount a creativity.
It is predicted that the use of trending audio within videos will fade in 2023. Original content is gaining steam and taking over the repetitive trends we have seen. If you are looking to step up your online listings this year, Optimize can work with you to create an online presence that highlights all your unique qualities. Cheers to 2023!
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