Skip to main content

Digital Services

  • 17 Jun 2022
  • 5 min read
  • by Talor Gilchrist

3 Social Updates You Need to Know About This June

Our Senior Social Media Manager, Talor shares her monthly roundup of the 3 social media updates you need to know about this month.

June, a month of celebrating the Queen, me, because it’s my birthday 😉.

Credit: GIPHY

Not only that, but an important month for social media, with the never ending updates and new app launches. The team here at Leith love to share social news that they have found interesting or inspiring within our slack channel (who doesn’t love the reaction of the dancing parrot??), so here are a select few that we thought would be important (or fun) to share:

Shadier than an umbrella on a sunny day

Credit: Andrew Wolff

Recently, TikTok got its claws out 😼.

This Gen-Z native platform produced a deck called ‘How TikTok creators redefined influence’ - sounds pretty innocent…right?

Wrong.

In this deck, they’ve slid in a cheeky little quote:

“Influencers on competitor platforms, are more likely to be seen as ‘show-offs’ or disingenuous, compared to Creators on TikTok.”

But wait, there’s more:

“Their connection with viewers goes beyond likes and shares. They’re more likely to inspire people..”

Credit: GIPHY

TikTok not-so-slyly going for the jugular of Instagram, I guess that’s what you get when you copy ~ literally everything ~ from a platform (vertical feeds, remixes/duets, auto sync for music, multiple effects, video replies in comments and the list could go on.)

Although this does feel like a not so sly dig at Instagram, TikTok is not wrong. It is very much a more authentic platform when it comes to creators, they appear to have a lot more trust and loyalty within their audience as well as communication and contribution. TikTok is a two way street when it comes to influencers and their audience with both learning from each other. Instagram is very much the opposite, and in some ways, has accidentally swayed into the Pinterest area of simply liking and saving aesthetic images of your topic of choice with no real relationship to the content or poster.

TikTok has created a community of communication, learning and entertainment, whereas Instagram has created a community of aspiring.

With TikTok growing profusely and Instagram undergoing some drastic changes, 2022 is going to be a very interesting year for both platforms - and an exhausting one for us Social Media Managers.

Avatar, the way of Meta

Credit: Szabo Viktor

Meta (aka. Facebook) are beginning to combine aspects of the Metaverse with their other social platforms.

If you have an ‘avatar’ in the Metaverse they are now encouraging you to bring it to other social platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram. This way, they are attempting to make these avatars the way we communicate across the internet, not just the Metaverse. ‘Normalising’ the metaverse way of life, a subtle nudge for those who are yet to join.

How so? The first introduction appears to be the emoji reactions we use to interact with a person's Facebook or Instagram stories - instead of these classic yellow characters we know and love, we will soon have the option to react as ourselves (or who you want your avatar to be).

Credit: Bitmoji on Twitter

Is this Meta’s subtle push towards the Metaverse for those who are not so sure? Probably. Will I make my avatar blue? Probably. What I do know is that this has been done before, through your IPhone you can use an avatar to voice note your friends (amongst other things), and Snapchat have had Bitmoji’s for well, a really long time.

People will use them, but whether it normalises the Metaverse is anyone's guess.

Oops, upside down your head

Credit: GIPHY

Stranger Things, I can’t stop talking about it (mainly how terrifying it is) and neither can the internet. Within three days, Stranger Things on Twitter racked up over 131k mentions, 981k engagements and 856k likes. A combination of people spotting and sharing the out of home promotions, and of course who can forget the endless amount of memes:

Credit: @starcourtsmall on Twitter

So, why is Stranger Things so successful? And what can we learn as social media managers?

  • Produce out of home advertisements that are shareable across digital platforms, yes people may see it when they are on the bus, but much more will see it if that person on the bus posts it on their social channels.
  • Meme-able content, make the story so fun, emotive and enticing that your audience can’t help but use humour to to discuss it.
    • Even better, when that happens - join in.
  • What else? Well there is also the:

    • Storytelling

    • Nostalgia

    • Cinematography

    • Music choice

    • Relatable characters

    • Action, romance, humour, horror and of course, friendship.

It literally ticks every single box, not only an important list for an award winning TV programme, but one we can also apply to social media strategies - and this is the point where I plug my fantastic team 😉.

Want to know how you can apply the above to your social media strategy? Drop us a note at [email protected].

See you on the flipside.

Credit: GIPHY
Talor Gilchrist

Talor Gilchrist

Content Strategist