Social media platforms are continually updating their algorithms, adding new features and changing their interfaces. It may be difficult to keep up with these changes and so the GRMC Social Media team has compiled a few notable items for the Humber community.
Instagram rolls out new updates and features
Changes to metrics
On August 7, Instagram announced that views will be the primary metric on reels, photos, carousels, stories and all other content types (Source: Instagram’s Creators account). On Reels, the Plays metric will be relabeled as Views. Views will also replace impressions for photos, carousels and other non-reel formats.
This change highlights Instagram’s shift away from focusing on “follower count.” When Facebook and Instagram first launched, feeds were focused on who you followed. Today Meta uses AI to show content that is aligned with user interests. This means more than half of the content people see on their feeds is from accounts they do not follow.
As a best practice, continue to create content that provides value rather than being too promotional. This will help increase the shareability of the content and increase views.
Expanded carousels
Accounts can post up to 20 photos and videos in a carousel, up from the previous limit of 10 (Source: Tech Radar).
Portrait format grids to replace square grids
Some Instagram users are reporting that Instagram replaced their traditional square grids with rectangular grids (Source: Arlespinzon on Threads and Kit Media List on TikTok). Use a 4:5 aspect ratio in photos to ensure content continues to look polished as the updated grid format rolls out.
X loses ground as a news source while TikTok increases
According to a report by Oxford University's Reuters Institute, TikTok is on the rise as a news source and has now overtaken X (formerly known as Twitter) for the first time (Source: BBC). 13 per cent of people use TikTok for news compared with 10 per cent who use X, and the figure is even higher for 18- to 24-year-olds with 23 per cent of people using TikTok as their news source.
LinkedIn changes third-party link previews
To encourage more original content and discussion within the platform, LinkedIn is making organic posts that contain links smaller in the feed (Source: Search Engine Land). Adapt to this change and test using photos or PDFs in content rather than relying on link previews.
If you have questions or want to discuss social media best practices and trends further, please contact Natalie Leung, Social Media Manager, at natalie.leung@humber.ca.
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