LinkedIn is introducing new profile features like video cover stories and gender pronouns. It is also testing audio rooms and a skills path feature for hiring. Twitter is fighting COVID misinformation, testing Spaces, e-commerce, and reactions. It also faces a Russian ban. Pinterest launched new marketing tools. TikTok added Q&As, automated replies for businesses, and is looking at group chats. Instagram is testing hiding like counts, story labels, auto-captioning, and story drafts. It also added a remix feature to Reels. Snapchat acquired FitAnalytics and released an iOS 14 resource hub.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATES:
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
March 2021

2. LINKEDIN NEW PROFILE
FEATURES
LinkedIn is looking to capitalise on content
creators on their platform.
You can now share more of your personal story on
LinkedIn with the following features:
Video Cover Story - an introductory video that
users can watch on your profile.
Optional gender pronoun fields.
Creator Mode - a new feature for creators which
allows users to add hashtags, moves ‘Featured’ &
‘Activity’ to the top of your profile and changes
the ‘Connect’ button to ‘Follow.’

3. LINKEDIN LOOKING INTO AUDIO
ROOMS
The professional social platform is currently
developing audio rooms, a new feature
popularised by Clubhouse.
Users can host a room or join in with a
conversation, with others listening in.
This new feature will be a great new addition,
allowing users to have meaningful and interesting
conversations in specific niches or interests.
This is an early test but likely to roll out soon in
order to capitalise on Clubhouse’s recent drop in
downloads.

4. LINKEDIN ADDS SKILLS PATH
FOR HIRING PROCESS
LinkedIn is trying to get the right people in the
right jobs with their new Skills Path process.
They’re looking to bring people with relevant or
transferrable skills to roles they might not have
considered, or roles that hiring managers may not
have considered them for.
This allows job seekers to apply for more roles
without worrying about having experience in a
specific industry.
This is a great push from LinkedIn. With the right
skills, you don’t have to have experience or
knowledge of a field to excel!

5. TWITTER DOING MORE FOR
COVID-19 MISINFORMATION
Twitter has been dedicated to fighting
misinformation throughout the pandemic.
The latest move is labelling tweets with misleading
information about vaccinations.
And there’s a brand new strike feature which will
see repeat offenders suspended, then banned.
This is a big move, as information spreads quickly
on Twitter.

6. TWITTER “SPACES” AUDIO
FEATURE
Fresh off the back of the Clubhouse hype, Twitter
is trialling Spaces - their own take on an audio
platform - launching the beta on Android.
And Twitter is also testing private Spaces which is
invite-only.
This big push on new products is a result of
pressure from the board on Twitter’s CEO Jack
Dorsey for innovation, with a fair few Twitter tests
and updates happening last month.

7. TWITTER GETTING INTO E-
COMMERCE
Another new move from Twitter due to the board’s
pressure on Dorsey: testing new e-commerce
features.
This includes an e-commerce Twitter card with a
product, price and ‘shop’ button.
This information is taken from the relevant product
page on the seller’s site.
Although it’s in the early stages of testing, it’s a
sign of the new direction Twitter is heading.

8. TWITTER PROMOTED TWEET
REPLY CONTROLS
Advertisers can now control who replies to
promoted tweets. Options include:
Everyone
People you follow
Only people you mention
This feature is available for normal tweets, allowing
users to prevent trolls or to limit to the
conversation to a select few.
One way to use it would be to limit replies to
followers, and offer discounts to anyone who
follows and replies to your promoted tweet.

9. TWITTER FACES RUSSIAN BAN
The Russian government has threatened blocking
Twitter if the platform doesn’t comply with their
orders on content restriction.
This comes off the back of Twitter not deleting
posts which allegedly “urged children to take part
in anti-Kremlin protests.”
Limiting free speech isn’t what Twitter is about
(which is what Russia is asking them do to), but
losing out on a whole territory won’t be good
either.

10. TWITTER TESTS YOUTUBE
VIEWING IN THE TIMELINE
This test allows you to watch YouTube videos in
your Twitter timeline without having to open up
the video player.
This in-stream video playing is a much-needed
addition as it can get quite tedious when opening
videos. And some of the time you have to open
the URL and watch on YouTube rather than on
Twitter!
Although not an innovation, this feels like yet
another change brought about by the pressure
from the Twitter board.

11. TWITTER LOOKING INTO
REACTIONS TO TWEETS
Twitter has been surveying users to see what they
think of adding emoji reactions to tweets to open
up new types of engagement.
This new feature isn’t innovation, rather playing
catchup with other platforms, like FB, that already
have this.
This feature is likely to be hotly debated by Twitter
users, especially with the addition of up and down
voting tweets.

12. PINTEREST INTRODUCES NEW
MARKETING TOOLS
At its first ever ‘Pinterest Presents’ marketing
event, Pinterest announced new tools.
This includes a brand new video ad type “Pinterest
Premieres.” This allows advertisers to buy a video
placement in the home feed, aligning it with
demographic and interests.
Pinterest also updated the interactive trend tool
which shows better insights into engagement and
behaviour on the platform (e.g. Gen Z & male
usage is up 40% YoY.)

13. WATCH TIKTOK ON TV (IN THE
US)
Only available on Samsung Smart TVs in the US,
users can now watch TikTok videos on their TVs.
The app is available for Samsung smart TVs made
after 2018.
This may open up a new type of audience for
marketers, much like with YouTube (who have also
seen a massive increase in viewers watching on
smart TVs.)

14. TIKTOK Q&A ROLLED OUT
The new Q&A function has been rolled out to all
Creator profiles on the app.
Users can ask questions to creators, which can
then be used in a later video or on a live stream.
This allows better engagement between fans and
creators.
Videos with Q&A stickers have their own section
on the profile page.
You only have access to this feature if your profile
is set up as a Creator.

15. TIKTOK AUTOMATED REPLIES
FOR BUSINESS ACCOUNTS
Found within Business Suite tools on business
accounts, you can turn now create welcome
messages or auto-responses based on users
messaging specific keywords.
This means you can take a step back from daily
admin if your TikTok posts get a lot of comments.
If people always ask a certain question (e.g.
opening times) you can use keywords (“hours”,
“opening”, “closing” etc.) for an automated
response that answers their message.

16. TIKTOK LOOKING INTO GROUP
CHATS
Reported by Reuters, an insider claimed that
TikTok is looking to introduce group chats.
This move from ByteDance will turn their video
platform into a place where people come for social
interaction, hoping that users migrate their
Instagram/FB group chats onto TikTok.
Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, already has
this feature. So it’s only a matter of time until it’s
available!

17. TIKTOK ADDS COMMENT
REVIEW OPTION
There’s a new feature which gives creators more
control over the comments on their videos.
Users can already filter out comments if they’re
spam/offensive, or use keyword filtering options.
But the new feature allows creators to filter out
ALL comments, then manually approve/
disapprove them.

18. FACEBOOK LETS YOU TURN
OFF POLITICAL ADS
Facebook lets users in certain areas (available in
90 countries) completely turn off political ads.
This follows on from Facebook looking to reduce
the amount of political content appearing in users’
feeds.
So if you’re sick of seeing “social issue, electoral
and political” ads on Facebook, you can turn them
off!

19. FACEBOOK SUPPORTING THE
VACCINATION EFFORT
Facebook is dedicating themselves to stopping
the spread of misinformation around COVID-19
whilst promoting the uptake of vaccines around
the world.
Part of their push includes a new feature in the US
which shows users exactly where they can get
vaccinated, highlighting local providers on a map.
This is available through their COVID-19
information centre.
The COVID-19 information centre is also rolling out
to Instagram, sitting at the top of users’ feeds for
maximum visibility.

20. INSTAGRAM TESTING OPTION
FOR HIDING LIKE COUNT
After testing hidden likes for quite a while,
Instagram is now looking into turning it into an
option for every post.
Hiding likes seems to be a marmite update - users
either want it or hate it.
This is Instagram’s attempt at giving the feature to
those who want it without annoying everyone.

21. INSTAGRAM TESTING STORY
LABELS WHEN SHARING POSTS
Instagram is looking into new ways of showing
Story post origins.
This new label displays under your username in a
Story post, showing its origin including “Reshared
post” and “Created with Reels.”
Instagram is testing new ways to prevent people
from posting feed posts to their Story, as they
found that users find this annoying.
It’s interesting as this test tells us that Instagram
doesn’t necessarily want users to share posts to
their Stories. Something to consider when using
Stories!

22. INSTAGRAM TESTING AUTO-
CAPTIONING STORIES
This sticker automatically transcribes audio for you
in a couple of cool formats.
The text displays in time with your speech, adding
an extra element to your Stories. This feature
would take all the work out of transcribing!
The advanced version of the test that Instagram
showed us suggests that it won’t be long until we
see this release on the app, especially as
automated IGTV captions are already a thing.

23. INSTAGRAM ADDING STORIES
DRAFTS SOON
The new Stories draft feature was announced on
Twitter. You can create a story, save it, close the
app and finish it later.
This feature will be welcomed with open arms -
drafting is something that Stories definitely lacks.
Stories will lose a bit of their spontaneous charm,
but it will facilitate the creation of better quality
content.
There hasn’t been an official date on this yet, but
it’s supposedly “coming soon.”

24. INSTAGRAM REELS ADDS
‘REMIX’ FEATURE
Is it a surprise that the TikTok clone is looking to
steal a widely-loved TikTok feature?
Instagram released the Remix format, which is the
same as TikTok’s Duet feature.
This feature is massively important as it gives
users a way of responding and reacting to videos,
trends or memes.
Adding this gives users new ways of getting
creative on the Reels app, with Instagram hoping
to get users off of TikTok.

25. INSTAGRAM IGTV ADS
EXPANDED TO UK AND AUS
IGTV ads are now live in UK and Australia, after
being available in the US since May 2020.
55% of the ad revenue from IGTV ads is given to
the video creator in an attempt to get more
people making more long form video content on
IGTV.
This is the same amount that YouTube gives
creators, which makes it a completely viable
platform to make money.

26. SNAPCHAT RELEASES IOS 14
RESOURCE HUB
Snapchat has launched a brand new resource hub
to help marketers prepare for the iOS 14 update on
Snapchat.
It explains how marketers can move forward in
light of these changes, with the social platform
confirming that they fully support the privacy
update.
Another platform helping marketers to navigate
the tricky waters of iOS 14.

27. SNAPCHAT ACQUIRED
FITANALYTICS
In another step into e-commerce, Snapchat
bought FitAnalytics to boost virtual try-on
features.
FitAnalytics are a digital sizing company who help
you choose the right clothing size online.
Although no solid features have been announced,
TechCrunch reported that FitAnalytics is creating
new technology to match clothing with images
upload by users.
Not to mention Snapchat’s Bitmoji fashion items
already using body-mapping technology too.

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