Another month comes to an end, which means it is time for another industry wrap-up! May has brought us changes in temperature and major updates to our favorite social media platforms. From GIFs in Instagram comments to AI-generated ads, here is everything you need to know that is new from this past month.
Social Media Updates
New Report Highlights the Best Times to Post to Social Platforms in 2023
Sprout Social released its annual report of Best Times to Post on Social Media for 2023. The report is based on the engagement trends among Sprout Social’s 34k+ users over the past year. For the first time, this report includes TikTok. However, it is important to note that this report is a guideline as posting times are niche to your target audience. This report is a great starting point when experimenting with the posting times that work best for your brand.
LinkedIn Adds AI-Generated Job Candidate Responses in Recruiter
LinkedIn has started to roll out AI-created messages, featured in the recruiter platform, to a handful of customers in the US and Europe before an expanded launch next month. These messages are customized and personalized based on InMail best practices. The new AI element will enable users to quickly and easily craft a message that they can send to a potential candidate by tapping the ‘Draft personalized message’ prompt. Once the tool creates a message, users can further personalize by ticking the topic elements that they do or don’t want to include, as well as editing the message itself. This tool will help recruiters save time and reach out to more candidates, while still maintaining, somewhat, personal outreach.
YouTube Stories to Be Discontinued
YouTube’s Stories feature will be phased out on June 26, 2023. Stories launched in 2018 and have been made available to creators with over 10,000 subscribers. The feature is like that of Snapchat and Instagram but with posts remaining live for seven days before disappearing. YouTube says that the feature saw limited adoption compared to other engagement tools. As Stories disappear forever, YouTube is shifting its focus toward Community Posts and YouTube Shorts.
Snapchat Launches Enhanced AR Try-On Tools as it Continues to Build Its AR Capabilities
Snapchat is partnering with OPI with a new nail polish test experience via the app’s Try-On Lens. Users will be able to test the latest shades of OPI nail polish through Snapchat’s camera lens. Snapchat has offered the nail polish try-on experience before, however, this variation is more responsive, more realistic, and offers new ways to showcase nail products in the app using their AR technology. Snapchat is working to remain a leader in the AR space with a key element being its AR Enterprise Services (ARES) platform. This platform enables other companies to integrate Snapchat’s AR technology into their own apps, websites, and physical locations.
Instagram Comments Can Now Be Overrun by GIFs
Instagram comments can now be filled with all kinds of fun GIFs. The feature has been available to some users in a limited availability phase, but now Meta has unlocked the feature for global use. The GIFs are sourced through GIPHY’s library and can be accessed by tapping on the GIF icon that is located on the side of the comment box. GIFs can be dropped on both posts and Reels.
Industry News
Google to Remove Inactive Accounts
Google has updated its inactivity policy for personal Google accounts. Accounts that haven’t been used or signed in for two years will be deemed an “Inactive Account” in which case Google can delete the account and any/all its contents. The change is due to the continued issue of online security threats. Accounts that haven’t been active for extended periods are more vulnerable to being compromised or hijacked. The new Policy takes effect immediately, but Google will not start removing accounts until December 2023. This change pertains to personal Google accounts only, business and organization accounts will not be affected.
Google, Meta, and Amazon’s Next Frontier: AI-generated Ads
Google is planning to use artificial intelligence to help companies create ads. Reports suggest that Google wants to use its new PaLM 2 AI language model to help advertisers generate assets that can be used in their ad campaigns by putting together images, videos, and text supplied by advertisers. Google is also looking to utilize AI in different ways such as providing YouTubers with video ideas. Other companies are also working on capitalizing on the wave of AI tools. Earlier this month Meta launched the AI Sandbox which acts as the company’s “testing playground” for the early versions of AI-powered advertising tools. Amazon is working on a way to generate photos and videos for companies to create ads on the platform.
Wondering how to get the most out of these latest tools and updates in your latest marketing strategy? Contact our team and let’s talk about a customized strategy that achieves your marketing goals.