Welcome to our February edition of the Social Media Snapshot! Every month we try to catch you up with a brief overview of what's been happening in the social media world as it pertains to businesses. This month, we're taking a look at new LinkedIn tools for company pages, newly released data on social media trends, enhancements that have been made to protect social media users on different platforms, and why you shouldn't rule Pinterest out of your social media marketing strategy if you are a business-to-consumer (B2C) company.
LinkedIn Adds Tools for Company Pages
LinkedIn recognizes the great changes that have taken place in the last year and how those have affected the ways in which we work and connect. LinkedIn has always done an incredible job at listening to their social media users, and after hearing that many companies were struggling to stay connected with their communities, they came up with some solutions. They've introduced new features on Pages to help you strengthen your professional community and simplify fostering connections with your customers, partners, and even employees. Take a look at what these LinkedIn updates include.
Reading the Data on Current Social Media Trends and Tools
Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, and Tik Tok all published helpful social media insights or released new analytics tools in February.
Twitter Social Media Insights
Twitter published a 33-page trends report on "rising topics" based on data from the last two years. These rising topics that you should take note of as a business and strategize how best to be part of these conversations include:
- Wellbeing: Embracing vulnerability and empowering people on their journey of self-care.
- Everyday Wonder: Leading with positivity to help escape or elevate the everyday.
- Creator Culture: Championing creativity by uplifting the ideas and voices shaping it.
- One Planet: Supporting a more sustainable future with a desire to do better, together.
- Tech Life: Sharing your vision for the future to inspire a more connected way of life.
- My Identity: Empowering people to speak their truth and stand up for their values.
YouTube Analytics Comparison Tools
YouTube released a couple of new comparison tools in their analytics. The following short clip will address how to find these new features, how to interpret the data, and suggestions on how you can act on the data.
Snapchat Insights on Gen Z
Snapchat recently published a 60-page report that incorporates responses from over 27,000 daily Snapchat users from various regions and provides insights into the evolving behaviors and habits of Gen Z. The first thing they draw your attention to is that Gen Z has $4.4 Trillion in spending power- which is why you don't want to rule them out of your strategy.
TikTok Trends Report
TikTok predicts that many of the major shifts they've seen in the last year are here to stay for a very long time. As a company, understanding which topics are rising in importance to TikTok users could be invaluable for your social media strategy.
Currently, according to TikTok data, the most popular content categories are:
- Diaries/Vlogs
- Comedy
- Video Games
- Movies & TV
- Pets
- Romance
- Cartoons & Animation
- Cooking
- Sports
- Outfits
What may surprise you is the content categories with explosive growth over the last year, which include:
- News & Events
- Music
- Photography
- Sports News
- Environment Protection
- Livestock & Poultry
- Education
- Interviews and Experiments
- Home & Garden
- Camping
If your business falls under any of the above categories or you identify a way to break into these, I highly recommend you take the time to develop a strategy to do so! Despite the scares that TikTok was going to be banned last year, it's not going away- so don't rule it out.
Enhancements to Protect Social Media Users
Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram all updated their platforms with enhancements to protect social media users this month.
- Facebook made some updates to further prevent child exploitation on their apps, advanced their AI detection efforts to catch rule violations (which seems to be backfiring already with incorrect detections and will need additional tweaks), and they made some updates to make Messenger more secure and safe for users.
- TikTok also took steps to protect younger users on their platform after an outcry from worried parents and revealed what these actions will include in their newly released Transparency Report.
- Instagram released an update on their work to tackle abuse on their platform, reminding users that they want Instagram to be a place for people to connect with the people and things that they love, free from fear of abuse via hurtful or hateful DMs and comments.
We expect to see many more updates like this in the future as these topics are of growing concern.
Don't Rule Pinterest Out of Your Strategy
Pinterest had kind of fallen off of many radars in recent years, but you may be surprised to find that they've seen significant jumps in active users, revenue, and growth in overall usage in the last year! There are currently 459 million active users on Pinterest, a 17 million user jump from even the last quarter and a 124 million user jump from 2019.
If you are a business that has the potential to sell or direct users to products or services on Pinterest, now is a great time to get on board.
Written by Sarah Wai
Former Content, Email, and Social Media Marketing Specialist of Tribute Media. Bachelor of Science in Digital Communication Arts and Master in Business Administration.
