As a brand or business using social media, keeping up with the latest news and trends is what will give your account the edge.
Luckily, there’s no shortage of new features or platform upgrades to learn about. From new collaborative collections on Instagram to expanded advertising placements on Pinterest, there’s plenty of exciting news you need to be across.
To keep you in the loop, we’ve rounded up the latest updates and social media news from Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest so you never miss a beat.
Instagram releases new collaborative collections feature
Saving posts and creating collections is nothing new on Instagram. But in an exciting update from Instagram HQ, you can now bookmark posts and share these collections with private groups of friends on the platform.
Instagram’s collaborative collections feature is designed to give users the ability to share saved post collections with their friends in a group chat or one-to-one DM. This allows users to build collaborative spaces to save posts around shared interests.
As Adam Mosseri (Head of Instagram) explains, “you can give the collection a custom name and share the collection with your friends. Once they receive it, your friends can start adding content from Reels, Explore, Feed and DMs to the collection as well.”
From here, any member of the chat can add or remove saved posts from this collaborative collection. The move comes after Instagram recently launched new Broadcast Channels, giving brands and creators a new one-to-many messaging tool to connect with their followers.
While this collaborative collections feature is most relevant for personal accounts, it does give brands and businesses a new call-to-action opportunity.
Rather than simply prompting users to ‘save this post for later’, why not experiment with prompting them to ‘share this post with a friend in a collaborative collection?’.
Instagram releases new ‘Reminder Ads’ format
Are you planning a new product launch or want to boost event attendance? In exciting news, the team at Instagram are rolling out a new ad format geared towards time-sensitive events or launches.
Reminder Ads allow businesses and brands to announce, remind and notify users about upcoming events or launches they are hosting. The main goal is simple: to help advertisers to drive anticipation and awareness of upcoming brand moments.
Here’s how it works: users can opt-in to reminders and receive three notifications from Instagram ahead of the event. Typically, this will take place one day before the event, 15 minutes before and right at the time of launch, too.
At the same time, Instagram is reported to be testing out new ad placements, too. The platform is said to be now serving ads in search results, meaning users will start to see ads related to their search terms.
It comes as Meta reports its first-ever quarterly decline in ad revenue, with the platform looking for new ways to attract advertisers to the platform and experiment with new placements.
TikTok’s parent company launches new Instagram rival platform, Lemon8
You don’t have to look far to notice that TikTok is hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons right now. In the US, lawmakers are making serious headway towards banning the platform, with other countries likely to follow suit if a ban does go ahead.
So, it’s not surprising that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is taking steps to futureproof its business. In fact, they’ve just launched a new platform called Lemon8, pitching itself as a “lifestyle community” that could rival Instagram.
Already, Lemon8 has gained meaningful traction, ranking in the US App Stores Top Charts and taking out the No. 10 Overall App spot.
So, what is the app all about? It’s a video and photo-sharing platform that has been described as the result of “Instagram and Pinterest having a baby”. While Lemon8 doesn’t support vertical content or a scrolling video feed, it does allow creators to share content around specific topics, which is served to users as recommendations and suggestions.
Expect aesthetically pleasing content such as wellness guides, get-ready-with-me style videos, and outfit-of-the-day videos complete with tagged products and items.
Interesting, Lemon8 isn’t a new app. In fact, its already gained popularity in Japan and Thailand and has only just been released to US audiences.
While there are no firm plans to ban TikTok use in the US, the rise of platforms like Lemon8 does signal just how seriously the parent company ByteDance is taking the situation. Only time will tell whether this new platform is going to be a viable replacement for the beloved TikTok app.
Pinterest doubles down on shoppable ad opportunities
Pinterest is continuing to solidify its place as a must-try destination for product discovery. In the platform’s recent ShopTalk 2023 conference, Pinterest shared a stack of exciting updates to help advertisers and retailers get the most out of their advertising opportunities.
First up, Pinterest is making it easier for retailers to use catalogs and list their products in the Pinterest app. When uploading products into the platform, Pinterest allows merchants to enable their products to be discoverable across a range of placements from Pins to ads to videos.
Not only do merchants receive a Shop tab on their Pinterest profile but they can tap into Pinterest’s visual tech build for shopping, such as their Virtual Try On and Pinterest Lens features.
Next, Pinterest is making its Premiere Spotlight ads available to more businesses on the platform. By taking up the top position on Pinterest’s search engine, brands can capitalize on this valuable real estate and make sure users discover their brand and products first.
Lastly, Pinterest’s recently launched collage app Shuffles is now becoming shoppable. This means these collages will now display new Pin details, listing out the items featured along with brand and price comparisons to help shoppers get the best deal.
If you’re an eCommerce or product-based business, now is the time to be experimenting with Pinterest and leverage its new advertising features to get your brand in front of new, high-intent audiences.
Ready to supercharge your success on social media?
Looking for an all-in-one content creation suite that allows you to manage your social media channels effortlessly? From mapping out your strategy and designing your graphics to saving plug-and-play hashtag sets, you’ll find everything you need inside Plann.
Go on, and redeem your 7-day free trial of Plann Plus. If you don’t like it, keep using Plann for free!
