Welcome to Live Lunch!

This week, the GU team got together to talk about the latest updates to Linkedin, Instagram changes, stats on video and using TikTok, plus what’s been on our radar over the past week in the world of marketing (whilst avoiding the Elon Musk shaped elephant in the room!).

Here are the snippets:

Instagram have launched a live test of pinned posts, allowing users to select a post to appear at the top of their feed. We’d love to see an option that allows the top 3 to be pinned, but for now, we’ll settle for just the one. Although Instagram did some testing a while back on shuffling grid images around, we’ve not heard anything else on that so far. (02:26 – 04:12)

We found an article this week about video consumption stats. Engagement on Instagram Reels accounts for 20% of engagement across the platform, whilst 50% of engagement on Facebook occurs on video content. It’s like we always say, if you’re looking to increase engagement on your social media posts, video content really is the way to go! (04:15 – 06:01)

Nicole noticed that when tagging people in an Instagram post this week, it sent the post via DM to everyone who had been tagged, rather than just sending a notification. As it wasn’t something the rest of us had come across, we did a live test during the show, and the verdict is… Inconclusive! Some of the people tagged received the DM, but poor Jane only got a notification. It could be that this is a feature being tested amongst some users at the moment, but we’ll bring you any updates if we hear them. (06:07 – 08:38)

Facebook have released their figures for Q1 2022, which have shown an increase in user numbers. This comes after they reported a drop in Q4 of 2021. This seems to be the way things go as Facebook try to strike a balance between generating revenue through paid advertising, whilst also considering the user experience. It appears that you really can’t please all of the people, all of the time! (09:56 – 15:19)

LinkedIn have released lots of updates this week. Firstly, users have the option to showcase a link at the top of their profile to direct visitors to any webpage they’d like. Additionally, Newsletters can now appear in the Featured section, alongside a button for users to subscribe. Analytics are now available on group posts, which may be useful for some, and they’ve also started allowing users to engage on posts as their company profile, rather than just personal. And finally, they’ve introduced the ability to trim videos in the mobile app. It’s been a busy week for LinkedIn updates! (18:59 – 21:17)

Sticking with LinkedIn, as people have become more aware of the importance of personal branding on the platform, LinkedIn have reported record levels of engagement and announced that they’ve seen a 34% increase in revenue. If you’re considering using paid ads on the platform, our biggest piece of advice would be to make sure your landing page is spot on; your call to action needs to be prominent and optimised for mobile devices. (21:56 – 28:57)

We had a question regarding posting on TikTok, and whether we had any concerns regarding whether branded posts appearing in the same feed as some more risqué content on the platform. Our opinion is that, as long as you are researching and using relevant keywords and hashtags, this shouldn’t be a huge issue. We always recommend TikTok to be used to showcase the individual behind the brand – it’s such a personal platform. As a user, it’s important to ‘train’ the algorithm to ensure recommendations are relevant to your own interests. In terms of advertising on TikTok, we find that it can be great for low-value products, and it can be great for lead generation or giveaways if your business is focused on offering a service. (29:04 – 38:11)

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