Social media is forever changing which makes it easy to miss an update from time to time. Twice a month, we look into three of the latest key updates from the past few weeks from the various social media giants. Here’s what’s been happening recently…

Instagram To Change All Video Uploads to Reels, Adds New Creative Tools for Reels Content

Meta has recently announced that virtually all video uploads will now become Reels, whether you want them to or not, while it’s also added a range of new creative tools for Reels as it doubles, and triples down on the short video format.

The main change is in bringing all video clips into the Reels feed.

As explained by Meta: “Since reels offer a more immersive and entertaining way to watch and create videos on Instagram, we’re bringing the full-screen experience to your video posts, too. In the coming weeks, new video posts shorter than 15 minutes will be shared as reels. Videos posted prior to this change will remain as videos and won’t become reels.”

I mean 15 minutes isn’t exactly short form, which means that pretty much all uploaded videos in the app will now be fed into the Reels stream.

In some ways, that makes sense. Reels is the fastest growing content format in the app, and the broader popularity of TikTok has led to habitual changes in consumption behaviour, which means that users are now instinctively more aligned to the format.

In that sense, Instagram should feed into it where it can – but still…But it could also make Instagram less differentiated, less unique – and again, it does feel a little desperate from Zuck and Co. So much so, there has recently been a petition created for ‘Instagram to be more like Instagram’. If you strongly oppose the direction in which Instagram is heading, you can check it out here.

In addition to this, Instagram’s also adding a range of new creative tools for Reels clips

First off, Instagram’s adding some new Remix options, to providing more ways to collaborate within Reels clips:

• Remix for photos: Photos are core to the Instagram experience. In the coming weeks, you will be able to remix public photos. This gives you limitless inspiration to create your own unique reel. 
• Expanded Remix layouts: Choose between a green screen, horizontal or vertical split-screen, or picture-in-picture reaction view to add your own video commentary to existing reels.
• Add your clip: Have a hot take? Rather than having your remix appear at the same time as the original reel, you can now add your clip after the original so it plays sequentially.

Instagram’s also expanding access to its Reels templates option, which enables you to use existing, popular Reels formats as templates for your own clips, while it’s also adding a new Dual camera mode, so that you can capture content and your reaction at the same time, using your phone’s front and back cameras simultaneously.

LinkedIn Launches New Business Manager Platform to Streamline Multi-Account Management

LinkedIn’s looking to help businesses that manage multiple accounts streamline their LinkedIn marketing process, with the public launch of its new Business Manager platform, which enables you to feed in multiple accounts and manage them all in one dashboard.

As explained by LinkedIn: “LinkedIn Business Manager is a new platform that makes it easier for organisations to manage the people, ad accounts, Pages, and the businesses they work with from one place. For large advertisers and agencies that market across multiple ad accounts and Pages, Business Manager provides a central view of all your ad accounts and Pages and offers seamless control across them.”

The platform enables users to manage permissions and access, with a centralised listing of all connected profiles and users.

You can also share Matched Audience data across ad accounts, providing a streamlined way to utilise custom audiences and related info across profiles.

It could be a handy option for big brands and agencies, providing more management capacity and oversight in a simple dashboard, though, functionally, it’s not a major change. Most of the features here are available in different form – the new platform is more designed to bring everything together, and make it easier to manage your LinkedIn process.

You can access LinkedIn’s Business Manager platform here, while LinkedIn has also shared this overview of how to get started with the new app.

TikTok Adds New Captioning and Translation Tools to Help Maximise Video Reach

TikTok’s looking to expand its reach even further via improved accessibility, with a range of new translation and captioning tools to help more users engage with the latest trending clips in the app.

First off, TikTok’s adding auto captions, providing another way to add text descriptions to your clips.

As you can see above, TikTok’s auto captions will appear at the lower left hand side of the screen, adding important context to the viewing experience, especially in sound off environments.

TikTok’s also adding new translations for captions and descriptions, which could help users around the world engage with more clips.

you’ll now be able to provide translated caption text within your clips. So if you’re looking to reach new markets, or connect with different audiences, there’ll now be more options to consider to maximise your performance.

Finally, TikTok’s also adding translations for text-based stickers and overlays to provide even more context for non-native speakers. Both of TikTok’s new translation tools will initially support English, Portuguese, German, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish and Turkish, so there’s a range of translation options to consider, which could spark entirely new, global trends.

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