Social Media Industry Round-Up #22: Memory Instagram Stories, Meta Work Accounts, Increased Pin Video Length & Shopify Updates

Our Marketing team is back with a roundup of news & industry updates. This way, we keep our team, clients and interested marketers up to date with what's going on in the social media industry :)

Starting in March, users won’t be able to tag products while live streaming anymore, a feature that has been available in the US since 2020.

This is yet another step back from Instagram in social commerce, which shows the decline that it’s had in Western countries compared to the Asian market.

Instagram is currently testing a way to reshare old Stories.

It’s essentially the stories Archive but with the opportunity to reshare them again as a Memory to encourage users to share more on the platform and increase engagement.

Instagram has shared a quick guide on how to create an effective ad plan:

1. Get SMART: Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

2. Align your ad message with your goal.

3. Establish a consistent look and voice across content, so your brand is easily recognisable.

4. Align Instagram ads with a bigger marketing strategy by promoting:

   1. Organic content

   2. Product launches

   3. Blogs and more

Meta is adding more details to its ‘Why am I seeing this ad’, which already provides information about why a user is being targeted by an ad. Soon it will also include the following:

• A user’s activity on and off Meta platforms, such as liking a friend’s post or visiting a website.

• New examples and illustrations explaining how machine learning models connect various topics to show relevant ads.

• More ways to find ad controls, such as the Ads Preferences page via ‘Why am I seeing this ad’.

Meta will start rolling out Work Accounts to a limited number of businesses. This will be very beneficial as individuals will be able to access Meta’s work tools with one account that provides a separate login from their personal Facebook accounts.

Is short-form content a thing of the past?

Pinterest is increasing the video length limit from 60 seconds to 5 minutes, after TikTok increased it to 10 minutes.

They’ve said this will allow creators to tell a story within their Idea Pins and maximise engagement.

Pinterest has refreshed its academy courses to ensure all new elements are included in the lessons and a bigger focus on video.

• Why Pinterest

• Campaign objectives

• Ad formats

• Targeting

• Ads Manager

The platform has also added achievement badges to show that a course has been completed.

Shopify has announced a number of updates that will help businesses to boost conversions. Some of the updates are:

• Fast page loads

• One-page checkout

• Drag-and-drop checkout editor

• AI-generated storefront content

• Sync and sell on YouTube

Listen to Zoe from a few months ago talk about how ambition, consistency and growth in skillsets are key to progress.