Social Media & Digital Marketing July 2023 Roundup

Threads is connected to your Instagram account, and uses the same handle as you have on that account. You can import all of your data over, including your following/followers – which is an extremely helpful tool. You won’t need to manually search for your followers or those you follow, as they’ll automatically follow you when they sign up and vice versa. 

 

It’s now the fastest growing app of all time – in its first 24 hours, it amassed 30 million sign ups, reaching 70 million in two days. It’s now already at the 100 million mark, and as the app develops, we can expect to see that number increase further, especially as people search for the closest alternative to Twitter. There is however the issue of EU citizens not being able to create accounts due to EU regulations, which Meta are currently working on resolving. 

 

Great news for marketers – branded content tools are said to be coming soon, allowing in-stream marketing tools to be used. Those waiting for paid promotion to be available on the app will have to hold fire a little longer, as Meta waits for more people to adopt the app as a social media platform they regularly use. However, there is no word yet on how advertising will work on the platform, so those looking to use the app for this purpose will have to keep an eye out for any announcements around this feature. 

 

 

After improving the TweetDeck feature, Twitter will be launching the new version – for Twitter Blue subscribers only. In the past, this feature was free, giving businesses of all sizes the opportunity to schedule their content and manage their twitter engagement easily. As we enter August, this feature will be put behind a paywall, in another attempt to boost Twitter Blue subscriptions. 

 

The improved TweetDeck includes: 

 

• Updated tweet composer, allowing GIFs, polls, etc, to be scheduled 

• Improved advanced search filters 

• Options to sort columns into ‘Top Tweets’ or ‘Latest Tweets’ 

• Video Docking 

 

TweetDeck Teams have been removed, and smaller changes have been made that may take users some time to understand when using this application again. 

 

 

It’s been a turbulent month for Twitter, beginning with users finding their entire Twitter Accounts restricted by ‘rate limit’ (which according to founder Elon Musk was to control spam tweets and accounts), to the controversial rebrand to X. Twitter has now added more restrictions to users who aren’t using Twitter Blue, by limiting the amount of DM’s they can send - again to control ‘spam’. In a recent update all users’ settings were changed to allow DM requests from verified users only, but this can be changed back. Twitter hasn’t specified how many DMs general Twitter users will be allowed to send, and this uncertainty could cause problems – especially for businesses without a Twitter Blue subscription who use DM’s to interact with customers and solve any issues they have day-to-day. 

 

 

Facebook has had some good news this month – it crossed the 3 billion users mark in Q2, expanding their users by 27 million. 

 

When it comes to Facebook Ads, Meta has revealed ad impressions have increased by 34% year-over-year in Q2, and the average price per ad decreased by 16%. This makes Facebook marketing still a useful tool for businesses looking to increase their advertising through social media. 

 

 

In the wake of Twitters constant implementation of changes, with users beginning to seek out other apps, TikTok has announced that they’ll be introducing text-based posts. You can choose any background you want, add music or sound effects and write up to 1,000 characters of text. Text based posts are already popular on the platform, with many taking screenshots of text from other sources and uploading it – this new feature will now give creators an alternative way to share similar content, by typing out and designing their own posts. 

 

TikTok has said of the new feature: “Creators have been able to make content on TikTok across a variety of formats, from LIVE videos to photos, Duets to Stitch. Text is the latest addition to options for content creation, allowing creators to share their stories, poems, lyrics, and other written content on TikTok, giving creators another way to express themselves and making it even easier to create.” 

 

 

Looking for popular templates for your Instagram Reels? Now, you can find what’s trending quickly using Reel’s new template browser. 

 

Now, templates will be out into categories such as recommended, trending and your saved templates. 

 

You can find the template browser by selecting the camera icon in the reels tab. Instagram is also looking to improve Reel creation even more, saying: “When you create from a template today, the audio, number of clips, duration of the clips, and AR effects will automatically be added to your reel. In the coming weeks, we’ll also start automatically adding text and transitions that were used in the original reel.” 

 

 

If you need help creating titles for your YouTube content, then help is now available thanks to YouTubes new AI tool. 

 

The feature is currently being rolled out, and will suggest a video title based on your description and video transcript. Titles will be available a couple of hours after your content is uploaded so the AI has time to look over your video content. 

 

 

The latest news from July is that Twitter will be rebranding to X. The iconic blue bird logo is set to be retired after 17 years by Elon Musk, with Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino saying that X will become an app that can ‘do everything’, with name falling in line with other brands Musk owns. 

 

‘X’ is already implemented on the former desktop version of Twitter, with the blue brand colour being changed for black. Rebranding the site and app completely will take some time though, and with users already jumping ship to join other newer apps like Threads, Hive and Mastadoon or returning to their former favourite apps such as Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr, the X rebrand may take more time than anticipated for Musk. With Twitter being such an ingrained brand in the world of social media, the sudden rebrand is the biggest change during Musk’s turbulent tenure as the owner, and all eyes will be on the site in the coming months to see whether the rebrand is as successful as those at ‘X’ hope for. 

 

That’s all the updates for this month. With July having exciting new developments in the social media world, we can look forward to seeing what comes forward in August that can help expand digital marketing efforts for businesses looking to take their online presence to the next level. 

 

Finally, your social media tip is: As a business owner, your first instinct is probably to post a link that leads to your products, services or website - after all, your goal is to run a business successfully and in order to do that, you have to be able to direct potential customers to where you need them to go. 

The only problem with this is that many businesses post links and go on with their day. Meanwhile, they are providing little to no engagement with potential customers. It's important for businesses to actually take the time to respond to those individuals who are engaging with them and inquiring about their business. This lets your audience know that you care about their opinions and want to keep an open line of communication with them. 

 

Get in touch to discuss your specific requirements and see how we can help you grow your social media presence 

 

Tel: 07963216248 

Email: chris@chrislondononline.co.uk 

 

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