The Social Short: Week 40

Instagram Introduces product Launch Reminder Stickers And Tags

Launching a new product? Instagram has now introduced ‘reminders’ as a way to support product drops. The social media giant has launched drop reminders and detail tags to encourage Instagram-centric releases and shopping via Checkout, their in-app e-commerce capability that launched earlier this year. The features are available to the small set of brands testing Instagram checkout and can potentially help brands build buzz around new products, capitalising on audience interest and converting potential customers.

As per Instagram:
”On Instagram, latest trends come together in music, art, fashion and more. People follow their favorite brands and creators – all kinds of tastemakers – to keep up with these interests and discover new products. Brands and creators connect with shoppers eager to have those products the instant they’re available. The convergence of these activities make Instagram the place where collaborations and limited releases happen.”

Instagram continues to improve Checkout. With new features like product launch reminders and tags, brands should expect an increase in engagement and sales.

Facebook Begins Hiding Total Like Counts On Facebook Posts In Australia

Facebook began testing hiding like counts as of last week, starting in Australia on September 27th. As previously discussed, earlier this month, reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong reported finding that Facebook could start looking into following Instagram’s lead in hiding total Like counts.

Instagram began its test of hiding like counts earlier this year in Canada, and expanded the test to more countries after receiving positive feedback from users. “We don’t want Instagram to be such a competition.”

The test will hide the number of likes on a post, only displaying that a post was liked by a friend and others. As seen below, this is the notification that Australian Facebook users are now seeing in their timelines (Andrew Hutchinson).

Now that both social media giants are taking this step towards reducing vanity metrics, it will be interesting to see what the actual impacts are and whether both Facebook and Instagram can quantify the benefits of the change.

Instagram Launches @creators Account To Provide Tips And Advice To Influencers

Instagram has launched a new @creators account as a way to provide tips for Influencers. “Learning how to up [their] game as content creators, not only from us at Instagram, but from the creators [they] admire the most.”

This new account is meant to encourage wannabe influencers and content makers to keep creating for Instagram. The account page says it will address “tips, tricks, updates, IGTV, BTS (behind-the-scenes), access, insights, and tutorials.”

Instagram is focusing on the power of Influencers and is harnessing the impact they have on audiences.

Twitter Launches Its Anti-Abuse Filter For Direct Messages

Twitter is rolling out its spam and abuse filter for Direct Messages, a month and a half after the company announced it had started testing the feature. Twitter also released a Hide Replies feature in the U.S. and Canada after a successful test run in Canada.