Major Social Media Updates - January 2022

By Mixbrigade

For a decade social media platforms have been evolving by listening to its users and improving user experience. Since the pandemic, this evolution has picked up pace. Just in January, there have been quite a few social media updates. Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin have announced inclusion of major user engagement features and updates which will impact social media marketers.

Here is the list of the recent updates.

#1 Linkedin Audio Events

Linkedin Audio Event Social media update

With COVID disrupting workplace dynamics, people are encouraged to work from home(WFH), companies are advertising remote jobs and fewer exhibitions are organized onsite.

According Jake Poses – Leading Product for Video, Creators & Events,
” We’ve seen this on LinkedIn as the annual creation of virtual Live Events has increased 150% YOY, with a 231% YOY increase in annual virtual event attendees. We’re seeing LinkedIn Live broadcast topics like overcoming communication hurdles, cybersecurity trends, goal setting for 2022, banking industry outlook, working smarter not harder, and more.”

Therefore, Linkedin has launched a new Clubhouse inspired interactive events experience – Linkedin Audio Events– that allows Linkedin members to participate more actively in conversations.

Features of Audio Events

This new service will help professionals

Make new connections
Bolster professional brand
Participate in the live conversation, join the speakers and add to the discussion.
Follow and reach out to other participants during the event

This feature is set to revolutionize the way users interact in digital events. read the original post by Jake Poses for more details.

#2 Facebook Ads Targeting is Scaling back

A minor social media update also came from Facebook. On January 19th 2022, Meta has announced that it will be making changes to audience targeting when running Facebook ads. With much pressure due to the privacy laws, Meta has decided to scale back its ads targeting to few of the sensitive audience segments.

What’s Changing In Facebook Ads Targeting

Facebook will remove targeting options in four main categories

Health causes (e.g. breast cancer awareness).
Sexual orientation (e.g. LGBT).
Religious practices and groups (e.g. Catholic Church ).
Political beliefs, social issues, causes, organizations, or figures (e.g. political party or political candidate).

This is indicative to the broader targeting trend. Therefore, it is expected that Facebook will expand this limitation to a larger audience. In near future, this change indeed will effect the personalization and user experience for the advertisers.

#3 Linkedin – Video Events Announced

With the likes of Zoom meeting and Microsoft teams, Linkedin has also announced testing of its own Video Events feature. This service will be launched by the end of March 2022.

Here is how, with its strong community, Linkedin will help you get the most from the events

Easily discover events for you – based on your interest Linkedin will suggest events for you.
Connect and engage – interact with the largest community of professionals
Learn from industry voices – ability to connect with leaders

Keep following us, we will update our users as this feature rolls out.

#4 Instagram – New Feed Types

Instagram has been testing the bifurcation of feeds into three main types, where users will have the option to see:

Home Feed: The current feed

Favorites: Feed from close friends and family accounts

Following: Feed from the accounts one is following.

Apart from these changes, it is also expected that all the posts will be chronologically displayed in the user’s feed. Instagram’s feed algorithm has been questioned by users since its launch. Previously, users have complained that they were unable to see posts from the accounts they were following. Users would also see older posts at the top of their feeds based on post engagement and other ranking factors.

Check out the original twitter post by Adam Mosseri – Head of Instagram, explaining more about this new feature.

Testing Feed Changes 👀
We’re starting to test the ability to switch between three different views on your home screen (two of which would give you the option to see posts in chronological order):
– Home
– Favorites
– Following
We hope to launch these soon. More to come. ✌🏼 pic.twitter.com/9zvB85aPSp
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) January 5, 2022

#5 Instagram Subscriptions

After receiving positive feedback on subscription features on Facebook, Meta is now extending a similar feature to Instagram – Instagram Subscriptions. This is great news for creators as now they will have the option to monetize their work on Instagram as well. Currently, Instagram is testing this feature with a handful of creators. During this testing phase, creators will be able to set monthly prices and unlock the subscribe button on their profiles.

Benefits of Instagram Subscriptions

Following are the benefits which creators can provide to their subscribers:

Subscriber Lives: Creators can broadcast exclusive live content to their subscribers

Exclusive Subscriber Stories: IG Creators can create stories just for their subscribers and can use interactive story stickers with followers who engage with them the most.

Subscriber Badges: Subscriber badge will be shown next to comments and messages, so creators can easily identify engagement from subscribers and non subscribers.

It is expected that this feature will be made public for creators around the world in coming few months. I would recommend to follow below influencers and creators accounts, who got early access of this feature. Instagram will be getting feedback from these creators and make all the necessary fixes before launching this in public.

@alanchikinchow, @sedona._, @alizakelly, @kelseylynncook, @elliottnorris,

@jordanchiles, @jackjerry, @bunnymichael, @donalleniii and @lonnieiiv.

Banner credits: Design vector created by coolvector – www.freepik.com

End of blog