We are back again with another dose of social media news. The nights may be getting darker and colder, but Giraffe is here to wrap you up in a warm blanket of social media updates. So read on for the latest!
LinkedIn Rolls Out Option To Pin Comments In Reply Chains
Starting off our social media news update we have LinkedIn, coming in with an update that allows users to pin a comment within the LinkedIn post reply section. This could be a great way for brands and businesses to highlight the best responses or positive feedback on services they provide. There is also great potential here to foster more engagement with updates.
In the example above you can see that a comment can be pinned from the three dots/ellipsis menu, this will then keep that specific response right at the top of the reply chain, pretty cool huh?
This as noted before could be a great way to drive engagement and conversations surrounding your chosen post as well as give recognition to users that have added real value to a conversation thread.
Business users have been able to pin updates to LinkedIn Company Pages for a good while now and users can ‘feature’ their own posts on the top of their profile, so this is a feature familiar to users, which hopefully will see it gain a lot of traction quite quickly.
This feature is rolling out to all users now and may already be available for you at the time of writing.
Instagram Testing Repost Feature For The Main Feed
In other social media news, your Instagram feed is about to get even more cluttered by profiles you don’t follow. Matt Navarra has dug up information that Instagram is testing a new ‘Repost’ option, which, you guessed it enables users to amplify a post’s reach by resharing it to their own followers in-app.
Instagram has also confirmed this test to TechCrunch and provided the following statement:
“We’re exploring the ability to reshare posts in Feed – similar to how you can reshare in Stories – so people can share what resonates with them, and so original creators are credited for their work. We plan to test this soon with a small number of people.”
Effectively bringing retweets reworked for Instagram.
It remains to be seen how popular this will be, users have been vocal about their upset towards Instagram overcrowding their home feeds with algorithmically recommended posts. Instagram users want to see the content from people they have chosen to follow, this new reposting feature could hinder users even further. Reposting will no doubt push content you want to see further down your feed and at the very least be a constant disruption to your own personally curated content.
This is one that we will have to watch with interest to gauge users’ reception to the new feature, but we can’t help but wonder where Instagram will stop under the guidance of Meta, seemingly adopting every feature and gimmick from across every other social media platform, is it necessary for growth? Probably not.
TikTok Rolls Out Comment Downvotes
TikTok has announced it is rolling out comment downvotes, something it has been testing for the last 6 months. This gives users a way to flag inappropriate responses to video clips.
A new ‘Thumbs Down’ option will be displayed on the right side of each comment, making it quick and easy for users to tag negative or spam comments, helping TikTok identify negative behaviours in-app. TikTok isn’t taking the same approach as Reddit with its downvoting feature, the focus here is to help TikTok crack down on negative activity.
TikTok explained this:
“We’ve started testing a way to let individuals identify comments they believe to be irrelevant or inappropriate. This community feedback will add to the range of factors we already use to help keep the comment section consistently relevant and a place for genuine engagement. To avoid creating ill-feeling between community members or demoralising creators, only the person who registered a dislike on a comment will be able to see that they have done so.”
Dislikes won’t be public as they are on Reddit, they will be a way for TikTok’s moderation team to target negative trends quickly and effectively, building a healthier and safer community on the app. It’s nice to see that this system will be monitored, as allowing automatic user driven downvoting, could see valid and constructive comments disappearing from feeds if abused by users with differing opinions on a subject.
TikTok has already rolled out this feature globally and should be available at the time of writing.
Well, that wraps up our social media news update for September, remember you can check out the rest of our blog section for expert advice on social media content and marketing. Stay tuned to all things Giraffe and we will see you next month for another update.
