Hello friends, 

It’s a new month, and it’s what I would call a quiet week in the industry. Lots of moving parts, some updates that might excite some of ya, and other updates that make you think “what’s even the point” but it’s not such a bad thing. 

We’ve got everything from TikTok partnering with Cameo, and Instagram now allowing trial Reels to be scheduled to data showing that users are posting less on social media, and what content on LinkedIn generates the highest levels of engagement. 

 💌 COMING SOON: In collaboration with one of my favourite brands, I have written a free resource + workbook all about social media SEO. It’s everything you need to know, with no jargon, just my lived experience and what we actually know. The goal? To get your brand the most visibility and rank in internal + external SERPs. It hasn’t been released yet, but if you reply to this email with “WORKBOOK” I’ll make sure to drop you a link when it’s live. And yes, it’ll be me replying, not Manychat! 

🎙️EXCLUSIVE: You won’t often find me talking at events, or in webinars – it’s a very rare occasion. However, I will be doing a quarterly talk for one of my favourite communities ever. So, I hate to be all “watch this space” but, uh, watch this space for the announcement. It’ll be the only online space you’ll hear me actually discuss this topic. 

🖤 NEW: Have you ever wanted to submit your hot take, or your question for The Social Tea Hotline but didn’t want your name attached to it? Well, I’ve created an anonymous submission box which you can find here. Hopefully this removes a barrier that’s stopping some of ya’ll from sharing your thoughts + feelings.

Anyway, enough of the exciting things I can’t talk about yet! You know what time it is. So grab your drink of choice, get comfy, and let’s dive into this week’s social media updates.

→ According to Ofcom, users in the UK are posting less on social media with only 49% of adults now publicly posting on social media platforms, down from 61% in 2024. 

People aren't just lurking anymore, they're spending less time on these apps because the public feed has stopped feeling like a community and started feeling like a broadcast. When users stop posting their own updates, they lose the main reason to check the app ten times a day, which means brands are fighting for a smaller slice of a shrinking attention span.

To actually stand out now, you need to understand that a "like" is a much bigger ask than it was three or five years ago. You aren’t competing with other brands; you’re competing with the fact that people are literally choosing to do something else with their time. If your content doesn't offer immediate, high-value social currency that they can't get elsewhere, you’re just noise in a feed they’re already pulling away from. Think about what will make your brand memorable, because it isn’t participating in every trend that pops up. You might get a like, but how many people remember every single brand that took part in the whole Kit Kat had 12 tonnes of their product stolen?

Exactly.

Submitted by the fabulous Isabelle-Hasslund.

→ TikTok partners with Cameo.

→ Instagram now allows creators to schedule trial Reels.

→ Documents (AKA carousels) on LinkedIn generate the highest levels of engagement out of all content types, according to a new report by Socialinsider. 

→ Instagram is looking into the ability to schedule Stories, and actively debating internally after lots of requests from users. 

→ Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, confirms that “hack tactics” might work sometimes, but they usually don’t. And when spotted by Instagram, they shut it down. This was in response to a user asking if reposting their content to their Stories was a “reach hack.”

→ Instagram has added a native teleprompter for Reels — I LOVE this update.

→ YouTube to launch “Coachella TV” in an attempt to compete with traditional TV. According to The Verge: “Stations are essentially YouTube’s take on FAST channels: free linear streaming TV channels that have gained popularity on services like Pluto and The Roku Channel, and are now baked into the EPGs of most smart TV operating systems. One of the reasons FAST channels have become so popular is that they bring back passive leanback viewing, doing away with the need to find something to watch when you just want to hit play. As YouTube viewing has grown in the living room, the service has seen its viewers interested in the same thing.” 

→ Snapchat has announced that Creator Subscriptions are now available to all eligible Snapchat creators. The programme allows creators to monetise their content through subscriber-only stories, priority replies, and more. 

→ YouTube creators can now “like” comments in bulk. 

→ Instagram now allows users to use affiliate links to tag products in Reels, and earn commission.

→ Netflix could be adding a voice chat feature to its gaming catalogue.

→ CapCut is rolling out AI Clipping feature to more users, making creating social-first video content even easier.

→ TikTok has announced an expanded partnership with HubSpot, which will give HubSpot customers tools to manage TikTok ads within the platform. 

🎙️ Welcome to the Social Tea Hotline, where the people behind the feed answer your burning questions about the state of social media. This week, our expert is Ella Denson-Smith, who is a copywriting whizz that delivers copy that’s driven by strategy, psychology and values. 

Ella answers this week’s anonymous burning question: “How can I actually make people click “see more” when it comes to my social media captions?”

(Transcript for this week’s episode can be found here.)

And that’s another week completed! I’m having so much fun writing these now we’ve switched email providers (thank you Beehiiv) and can include all the fun additions like our hot takes and The Social Tea Hotline.

How have you been enjoying the newsletter so far? Anything you’d love to see more or less? I’d love to hear from you!

It’s important to note that I don’t cover every social media update, I just include the ones I think you genuinely need to know but if there are any platforms you’d like to see more updates about, or updates in the AI space, let me know and I’ll keep an eye out!

💬 Now it’s time for my favourite new feature, which fake update should be included in my Wednesday roundup?

See you next week.

TTYL,

AM @ Girl Power Marketing xx