Social in 6 | 8 November 2024
Australia has had enough. Marketers invent a fifth quarter. Do EU prefer Instagram?
I’ve not got much to say about the past week, except it happened.
Australian under-16s to be banned from social media
The story: Australia's government will table laws to stop people under the age of 16 from accessing social media entirely. [LINK]
What it means: Nothing just yet. Social media safety is high on the agenda for many countries (see previous editions of Social in 6). But this has the potential to go far beyond legislation like the UK’s Online Safety Act. Much like that though we’re still waiting to hear more about specifics. One to watch.
More post-boosting options available on Instagram
The story: Brands can now put advertising budget behind organic IG posts that use GIFs and stickers.
What it means: Fewer headaches for social media managers when trying to future-proof an organic post that they might want to boost! The wording of Instagram's announcement still suggests some limitations though. IG has also revealed that posts using copyrighted music can have the audio swapped out for 'boost-eligible sounds' when brands decide to promote content beyond their organic audience.
TikTok release their 'Q5' marketing playbook
The story: TikTok is helping marketers who struggle to fill that gap between Christmas and mid-January, or what some marketers have taken to calling Q5. [LINK]
What it means: You might think everyone is spent up and tuned out straight after the festive season, but TikTok insists this is not the case. Brands can capitalise on cheap ad inventory to reach engaged audiences who have Christmas cash/gift cards burning a hole in their pockets.
YouTube Shorts creators can request brand partnerships
The story: Shorts creators with over 4,000 subscribers can send video linking requests to brands, rather than waiting for advertisers to reach out to them.
What it means: Allowing creators to reach out means more opportunities to build relationships with brands that could turn into something more lucrative. It also makes life easier for advertisers who won't always have to do the heavy lifting of initiating contact with creators featuring their brand.
Instagram's active user numbers surpass Facebook in EU
The story: Facebook's slower growth means that Instagram has caught up and passed it in terms of monthly active users. At least in the EU anyway. [LINK]
What it means: This is not the death of Facebook. It still boasts over 260m active users. However, these stats do suggest that outside of the developing world Facebook has a growth problem. Meta recently announced changes to make the platform more youth-orientated, but will that be enough? Reputational issues may have a greater impact than functionality when capturing new users in areas like Europe and North America.
Meta launches Flexible Media advertising tool
The story: Facebook appears to want even more control over your adverts. A new option for Flexible Media has appeared, claiming it will utilise the media you chose across unselected placements if it thinks it will improve performance. [LINK]
What it means: There's no documentation around this, so Meta’s description of the tool is up for interpretation. However, if you’ve a limited budget it's probably worth turning it off for now. Last week I mentioned Meta's AI advertising systems and the headaches they are causing marketers. It's entirely possible this could generate amazing results in time, but teething problems for this sort of product are very real.