What are the New Social Media Features & Updates for 2024?

What’s happening on the platforms and how will it effect your businesses strategic Social Media plan? 

LinkedIn Developments

  • Ad Price Hike: It looks like LinkedIn’s cost of advertising is going up. Why? More people are leaving Twitter / X and heading to LinkedIn.  
  • Innovations:
    • Timestamp Positioning: Moved to the bottom for a subtler presence.
    • Newsletter Cover AI Tool: You can now generate creative covers easily using this AI tool.
    • Short-Form Video Testing: They are exploring new short form video features but as LinkedIn Stories didn’t work so it will be interesting to see if these do here is an example of what they will look like if and when rolled out to us all. 

Facebook Updates

Legal Challenge: Meta faces a GDPR breach lawsuit in the EU, which is challenging their tracking practices. Opt-out procedures are under scrutiny as the company bringing the challenge feels that by charging for the ability to opt out Meta is breaching the laws. Here’s more on the challenge.

Spam Solution: Have you noticed a distinct increase in the number of messages you are receiving from “Faceboook” claiming they are about to close your account? Well, you’re not the only one and the chances are they are spam and so fake. Here’s a work around.

  • New Features:
    • It is now possible to mention and link FB pages to a profile which helps spread the love of your your business. 
    • Caption Testing is also available for Reels: Test up to 4 captions to find the best fit. This is great for those with many followers but won’t reflect an accurate result if you have only a few. Find out more here.

Instagram Insights

  • Feature Rollouts:
    • Like View Options: yes that old chestnut is bubbling away again. This time they are testing four like view settings ie who can see how many likes your posts have had – Default, Followers Only, Close Friends, and Private. If you get the option I would recommend the first or last, I can’t really see the point of the other two.
    • Share Counts: Public share counts are now visible and so no doubt part of their strategy moving forwards, emphasising the importance of creating content that your followers will want to share with others.
    • Creative Tools: New customisable story templates, cutout stickers, and photo filters (Graphite, Rosey, Hyper, Emerald).
    • Public Collections: These will now replace the Guides feature that was phased out last year. Guides never took off but were great for grouping posts and topics. The new collections feature will be great for those of you selling products and will also be great for curating content from others that compliments your services or business. 

Platform X or Twitter as was! 

  • Video-First Approach: With 80% of sessions involving video, X is prioritising video content, especially long-form, which according to X has promoted significant Gen Z engagement. An interesting move but recently a number of people have called in to question the legitimacy of X’s data. This is an interesting read
  • Subscription Changes: Launch of a lower-priced subscription option at $200/month. This is lower than the current subscription option but when compared to LinkedIn’s sales navigator at $99 it still seems very expensive. 
  • Updates: Return of title text in link previews, new peer-to-peer payments, and AI tools for advertisers.

TikTok Trends

  • E-commerce Push: Videos with TikTok Shop links are being boosted by the platform. This could cause accounts to add very strenuous shopping links so beware. 
  • Ad Spend Incentive: Advertisers encouraged to increase spend by 50-150% for access to special features. It is generally believed that the platform has done everything it can for the time being to grow followers and reach so now it is focusing on generating income. 
  • Search Engine Usage: The platform continues to grow in popularity as a search tool among Gen-Z. So ensure you are using those all important key words when creating your content. But don’t take my word for it, read more here
  • Horizontal video. Yes as strange as it seems they are rewarding users when they post horizontal video. They say that this is because they want more people to view content on a TV or computer screen. (The sceptical part of me wonders if it more to do with taking on YouTube in an attempt to lure their creators over.)
  • New Features: Story additions by others, enhanced location sticker editing, and accessibility improvements.

2023 was a huge year for some of the platforms and the changes they made. 2024 has started slowly with relatively few feature updates but if you want to stay ahead in the dynamic world of social media you should adapt your sports industry-related strategies to leverage these updates and trends for optimal engagement and growth.

Any questions, send me an email to caroline@socialhoneycomb.co.uk!

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