We may be heading into a long holiday weekend, but social media apps are still hard at work. Meta in particular seems to be working overtime to stay a step ahead of Bluesky as its momentum builds, threatening to upend Threads’ hold on the title of Twitter successor. But it’s far from the only update this week. 

Here’s what you need to know.  

Threads 

Threads’ behavior seems to be a direct reaction to the meteoric rise of Bluesky, an app that seeks to occupy the Twitter replacement niche in the social media spread. 

Among the features that seem to be drawing inspiration from the upstart are: 

• Changing the algorithm to show more content from users you actually follow rather than suggestions the app thinks you’ll like.  

• Testing new feeds that are arranged around topics. 

• Allowing users to set any feed, including Following or a custom feed, as default rather than the algorithmically driven For You.  

Threads has a head start and numbers on its side, but will it gain ground by simply replicating the features people love about Bluesky? The tactic has proven successful in the past, including holding Snapchat at bay. Right now at least, Bluesky has the buzz. We’ll see if it lasts. 

Among other changes to Threads this week are the announcement that users will no longer be encouraged to simply follow everyone they already follow on Instagram. “It looks like people actually prefer their experience if they build a different graph on Thread than the graph that they had on Instagram,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri said.  

Threads has also introduced updates to search, including allowing search within a date range or from a specific user’s account. Trending Topics will also now offer up AI-generated summaries of why that topic is in the news. And in a small tweak, you can now turn your phone to watch video in landscape.  

Instagram 

Instagram is working on allowing users to completely wipe their algorithmic recommendations clean and start with a fresh slate. The move, they said, is aimed primarily at teens as they roll out new tools to protect these younger users, but will be available to all. As we saw with Bluesky and Threads, we’re seeing a move toward great algorithmic control over content and away from the strict black box content drip that became popular in the early 2020s.  

Also still in the testing phase are more tools to allow creators with crowded inboxes to better filter messages. Mosseri shared a screenshot of a number of potential filters, including by people you follow, businesses, verified accounts, creators and subscribers.  

Instagram is also testing moving the DM button to the center of the Instagram nav bar rather than create. “Messaging is used a lot more than the create button,” Mosseri said.  

X 

X has introduced the option to hide all interaction buttons on iOS and interact with the app purely through swipes. Elon Musk teased this UX change earlier this year, but it appears the app is being a bit more measured in its rollout, offering it as an opt-in rather than a large-scale change.  

YouTube 

YouTube is experimenting with a new popularity signal: Hype. Users can hype a video for free up to three times a week. Most-hyped videos will make their way onto a new leaderboard designed to improve discoverability for up-and-coming YouTube creators. The platform is also experimenting with methods for allowing users to pay to hype additional videos. Currently, this is being tested with a small pool of Brazilian creators.  

Messenger 

Messenger, Meta’s texting and calling app, has rolled out a number of improvements to calling and video and audio messaging. These include: 

• Use AI to create backgrounds for video calls. 

• Quality improvements for video calls including HD video, background noise suppression and voice isolation. 

• Leave audio and video messages when the caller doesn’t pick up. 

• Siri can now make Messenger calls. 

It’s definitely a robust refresh for Messenger.  

WhatsApp 

WhatsApp is now offering autotranscription of voice messages.  

LinkedIn 

LinkedIn Audio Events will sunset. The feature, which was created in the brief Clubhouse boom days, allowed users to livestream audio to audiences. Now, audio-only streams will have to be handled via a third-party platform. Video events can still be hosted through LinkedIn Live. 

Audio Events will no longer be able to be scheduled after Dec. 2 and the last day to hold Events is Dec. 31. 

LinkedIn has also announced Lead IQ, which will help provide salespeople with insights into the specific leads they’re pursuing. AI will help summarize “a lead’s experience, achievements, interests, commonalities, and activities,” LinkedIn said.  

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Bluesky or LinkedIn.

The post Social media updates and new features to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

Since Elon Musk purchased the app formerly known as Twitter two years ago and implemented radical changes, various social media upstarts have sought to take its place as the premiere microblogging website.

Niche apps like Mastodon and Spill made names for themselves while Threads grew fast thanks to its integration into the Meta family of apps, including frictionless sign-on using Instagram credentials. Threads quickly amassed more than 275 million monthly active users.

But all of these apps struggled to gain the kind of cultural cache Twitter, now X,enjoyed. Mastodon is complicated and clunky to use; Spill remains small and relatively unknown. Threads had size on its side, but actively discouraged the news and political discussions that made Twitter such a juggernaut.

Before the U.S. elections, Bluesky was another also-ran. On Oct. 24, less than two weeks before the election, it announced it had reached 13 million followers. Respectable, but tiny in the grand sweep of social media.

On Tuesday, less than two weeks after the election, Bluesky hit 20 million, an explosive growth in such a brief period of time. It’s the No. 1 free app on the Apple App Store. Threads comes in at No. 3. X is nowhere to be found in the top 15 listings.

X’s absence from that list belies a small but not insignificant trend of deactivations on the platform after the election, with about 115,000 accounts going dark the day after the election. Given Musk’s tight ties to the Trump administration, with the tech billionaire spending considerable time at Mar-a-Lago and heading up the planned Department of Government Efficiency, some liberal users saw remaining on the platform to be a tacit endorsement of the new administration.

The deactivations are a drop in the bucket compared to X’s 586 million total users. And Bluesky’s 20 million total users is still less than one-tenth of Threads’. But the activity on Bluesky is quickly taking on even the Meta Goliath. Similarweb reports that Bluesky’s daily active use has nearly reached that of Threads, indicating that while Bluesky might be smaller, at least for now, its users are much more engaged. That’s the double-edged sword of Threads’ tactic of getting Instagram users to sign up: it’s very easy to do … and very easy to forget.

Bluesky’s rapid growth has many PR professionals taking notice. Here’s what you should know right now.

Brands on Bluesky

So far, few major consumer brands have set up shop on Bluesky, though you will find a number of parodies knocking about, or people squatting on desirable account names.  To that end, even if you aren’t ready to post on Bluesky now – or ever – this is the time to claim any and all relevant usernames to protect your brand and prevent imitators. Likewise, setting up a few general searches for brand listening purposes is always a good idea, even if you aren’t active on the platform.

The lack of brands on Bluesky contributes to its current, cocktail party-like feel that many have likened to the early days of Twitter, before brands put themselves into the middle of every conversation. People are talking to one another in a way that feels both retro and refreshing.

Amy Brown, a social media strategist and writer made famous by her work on Wendy’s early Twitter account, said that before brands get involved on Bluesky, they should consider what they can add to the conversation beyond just pushing their product.

“The biggest question brands should be asking is: Would we bring some sort of value to the communities currently occupying the platform?” Brown told PR Daily. “Brands I’ve seen find success so far offer some sort of utility, like news publications or the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. But I do not think it’s gonna go well for a sassy brand to jump in with a, ‘rt if you love the breakfast crunchwrap’ or whatever.”

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission is, indeed, on Bluesky, offering up a surrealist, memey take on government communications, replete with bad graphic design (though they challenge users to “please submit a better version of the graphic for review” if they think they can do better). But even amid the absurdity, they’re sharing good information: an image of a roasted turkey on a horse accompanies information about not burning down your house deep frying a bird. News you can use!

The media on Bluesky

Media sources have also migrated to Bluesky. Some, most notably NPR and The Guardian, had abandoned X altogether and Bluesky provides an alternative without Musk’s hostility to the mainstream media. Here, the activity largely mirrors the precedent set on X, with journalists sharing links to content as well as threads with additional information. Images and videos up to 60 seconds long can also be shared.

But perhaps more valuable for PR professionals are not the branded media accounts but the individual journalists who are using the site. X used to allow an incredible opportunity for PR practitioners to forge relationships with journalists, but some began to drift away from the more hostile environment. Many seem re-energized to be on Bluesky, actively posting and accessible once again. Prominent journalists now active on Bluesky include Kara Swisher, Oliver Darcy and Joy-Ann Reid, to name only a few.

PR pros on Bluesky

“I don’t think brands should jump in and establish a presence on Bluesky right away, especially if the intent is to replicate a Twitter or Threads strategy on the platform,” Brown advised. “I do think your social media manager should probably be there in a personal capacity, learning about the platform and evaluating if it’s a fit.” That advice also serves many PR pros well, who need to keep their pulse on the finger of what’s new and what’s next.

If you’re feeling exhausted by the proposition of starting a new social account and building from the ground up, you’re not alone. Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Starter Packs are a solid way to find new people to follow so you don’t find yourself staring into an empty feed. Bluesky allows you to have multiple homefeeds, including people you follow, suggested content or content focused around specific topics. Starter Packs can offer you both custom feeds or recommended people to follow, allowing you to customize your timelines exactly how you please. These are user curated lists that can make adjusting to life in Bluesky much easier. Here’s a Starter Pack of journalists and another of comms professionals.
• There’s no foolproof way to port follows from X to Bluesky. If you want to replicate some of the experience, however, the Sky Follower Bridge can help. It scans your X followers and does its best to identify which users also have Bluesky accounts. From my experience, it’s a bit hit or miss. It works best if people have the same usernames on both platforms, but can get confused if someone has a common name, for instance confusing my follow of a journalist named “Robert King” with a TV producer of the same name. Still, it helped me feel like I at least knew some kids in my new school. You will have to give it your Bluesky password, so take that safety into account.
• It’s OK to lurk. It remains to be seen if Bluesky will become a major social media force or a niche, liberal-leaning silo while X occupies the same space to the right. Regardless, it’s important to understand this movement and what it may mean for the future of social media.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Bluesky or LinkedIn.

The post By the Numbers: What you need to know about Bluesky appeared first on PR Daily.

Last week it was a bit quiet on the social media update front, but the apps are making up for it now.

Not only are there plenty of updates to the platforms, there is also a realignment happening. X challenger Bluesky is seeing explosive growth in the wake of the U.S. election, adding 1 million users a day and breaking the 19 million user mark. While that’s still dwarfed by the more mainstream social platforms, it’s growth worth watching (and parking your handle).

Here’s what’s happening elsewhere across the social media landscape.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is introducing a feel-good feature where users can indicate if they are Open to Volunteer. Users can select causes they’re passionate about, the skills they bring to the table and other information about their volunteering preferences. From there, organizations can reach out and find new people to help make a difference. LinkedIn will also surface more relevant volunteer opportunities for those who have opted in.

TikTok

Another week and more AI tools are being added to social media platforms. This week, our first is TikTok. Their new Symphony Creative Suite will allow advertisers to create videos using product information or a URL. The videos are clearly labeled and use only copyright cleared assets, TikTok said. Custom avatars can also be created by uploading videos of spokespeople (with their consent). For an additional layer of protection against images being used without permission, spokespeople must approve every video before it goes live.

Symphony Creative Suite can also be used to translate and dub content into other languages.

TikTok is also making it easier to add affiliate links by automatically placing a link in the comments of a video. This is a setting that must be toggled on before the post is made public.

Finally, TikTok hopes to drum up more interest in its photo app Lemon8 by creating a single logon system. The two will remain separate apps, TikTok said, but users won’t need to create a separate account for Lemon8. This is surely an attempt to reduce friction and encourage more users to give the photo app a try.

Instagram

Instagram has a few app tweaks this week, including:

• You will no longer be able to follow hashtags in your feed after Dec. 13. Existing tags you follow will no longer be visible. It’s unclear whether or not you’ll still be able to search with hashtags or if this change only impacts following from directly in-feed.
• Story highlights will be moved to a dedicated tab on the profile grid.
• Instagram is making it easier to see which accounts follow you that have been deactivated. This is handy for purging follower lists of dead accounts to get accurate numbers for reporting or influencer deals.
• Finally, you may soon be able to turn an image into an AI-generated profile photo from within Instagram, if that’s a thing you want to do for some reason.

Facebook

Facebook is following in Instagram’s footsteps by making views its primary metric for distribution. According to the app itself, views measure “the number of times a reel or video was played or the number of times photo or text posts were on screen.” Views will replace plays on reels and videos and impressions for stories, text and video posts. On the one hand, this might make reporting easier when you have apples-to-apples comparisons across platforms and you aren’t juggling terminology across post types. On the other, it could reduce nuance in measurement and attempt a one-size-fits-all approach that may not always work.

YouTube

YouTube is continuing to build its Shorts brand. Notable for communicators, YouTube says that 40% of Shorts users don’t use similar services like Reels or TikTok, making them a valuable and unique audience. New ad formats and ad controls will give more options for advertisers, while Stickers will enable retailers to show off product automatically based on their catalog.

YouTube’s new Jewels are a way of paying creators during live vertical streams. Users can gift their favorite creators with these Jewels and give them real cash. One “Ruby” is the equivalent of 1 U.S. cent.

Users will also be able to set reminders about Live streams or Premieres 24 hours in advance.

Threads

More than a year after launch, Threads continues to roll out new features in a bid to become the best X knockoff there is. This week, they’ve announced testing of interests feeds. Alongside For You and Following, these new feeds will allow users to track topics, like Soccer or Men’s Fashion.

In a boon for social media managers, you can now save up to 100 drafts on mobile.

Snapchat

Snapchat has introduced a number of new family friendly features for their younger users. Among these are the ability for parents to track their child’s location using Snap Map – or parents to share it as well. Parents will also be able to set three chosen locations – think school, home or work – and see when their child departs those locations. Finally, parents will be able to see who else teens have shared their locations with.

Pinterest

Pinterest is going heavy on holiday gift guides this year. Featuring more than 1,000 celebrity-curated guides, users can easily tap to add items to a wish list, save with a tap and more.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post New social media features and updates to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

As we lumber out of the election and into the end-of-year holiday rush, we’ve got a light week of updates – but still some significant changes. From X block updates going into effect to YouTube rebranding “comments,” let’s see what we’ve got.

X

X has at last instituted an Elon Musk-driven change to how the block feature functions. The previously announced change means that users can still see posts from users who have blocked them, though they won’t be able to interact with them. Musk says the change was made in the name of transparency and to protect blocked users from potentially harmful information; opponents of the change expressed concerns over potential stalking and privacy concerns.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is changing chat filters into more formal Lists. Now, users can group chats into self-defined categories to make it easier to find the most important conversations. Both one-on-one and group chats can be added to Lists.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is getting rid of some of the celebratory animations users can post around various life events. Say goodbye to the Appreciation, Welcome and Skill Assessment templates. But you’ll still have access to more popular animations, including New Position, Work Anniversary and Project Launch.

The app is also reportedly testing a new mobile UX, that switches the nav bar from the bottom to the top.

YouTube

YouTube announced a number of tweaks, including:

• Updates to the mobile YouTube Studio interface, including easier filtering and adding analytics directly to the content tab.
• The comments tab is being renamed “Community.”
• New audience metrics will make it easier to keep track of comments. Community Spotlight will also enable creators to interface directly with their top commenters.
• Updated, improved AI suggestions for comment responses. These responses can be edited.
• Expanded rollout of AI-generated summaries for videos. YouTube stressed that these will not replace creator-penned descriptions.

Instagram

Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced new filters to make it easier for creators to parse through DMs sent to them. Creators can filter to only see messages from other creators, businesses, people they follow, people who follow them and so on. Users can also see just responses to Stories in the inbox. Mosseri noted there was more to be done to improve the inbox, so you can expect more changes in the future.

Netflix

Netflix doesn’t usually make an appearance in our social media roundup, given that it’s not a social media platform. But this week it’s done something interesting enough to warrant inclusion. The streaming service has rolled out My Moments, which will allow users to clip and save their favorite portions of Netflix content. Those clips can then be shared with a tap to Facebook, Instagram and other platforms. Netflix notes that this new ability coincides with its new “It’s So Good” campaign. Their move to make users their primary marketers by sharing social media excitement is clever: it will not only generate buzz on social media, but it will also enable the streamer to get a whole new type of analytics to show what content is most interesting to its audiences.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post Social media updates and features to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

Nowadays, it seems like just about every social media user has taken an influencer’s opinion on something, whether it’s about trying a product or visiting a new restaurant.

Even if they don’t know each other in person, the time they spend watching videos creates a kind of relationship that lets them build a rapport, even a sense of trust.

“Influencer and creator platforms are built on trust,” said Blair Huddy, founder and CEO of Hudson Davis Communications. “Their audiences trust them for information, product recommendations and more. Part of what helps them build an audience is being authentic, which helps others relate to them.”

Recent data from Podcastle, a content creation platform powered by AI, supports Huddy’s comments. The survey reveals that users want authenticity more than ever from their influencers. In fact, 61% of Americans prioritize authenticity over everything else in the content they watch.

“Trust and authenticity go hand in hand, and that’s exactly why it’s rated so highly as a quality users want to see,” said Arto Yeritsyan, Podcastle’s CEO.

“Influencers create content, but what an audience buys into is the person, driven by their unique personality and worldview,” he continued. “Being relatable and credible is important for an influencer, whether they share knowledge-based content or try to be funny – users want to know that person has lived what they’re saying and can empathize with them.”

Building a genuine connection

Huddy believes that it comes down to people looking for genuine recommendations from someone they trust. “A lot of people feel like they know their favorite creators intimately, and when they push products in a way that feels inauthentic, those posts don’t do very well,” she said.

She gave an example of working with creators who typically get millions of views on posts, but when they post an ad, it only gets hundreds or thousands of views, so the audience can definitely tell when the content isn’t organic.

Huddy recently worked with lifestyle brand influencer @shondarogers on an air purifier post. While the creator’s posts tend to do really well, Huddy said her paid ads tend to see a noticeable difference, with far fewer views than her normal content.

What tends to work best for her, Huddy said, is finding ways to help an influencer’s authenticity come across. It doesn’t work when it comes off as an ad and you can tell they don’t care about your product or company.

To that end, you’re really looking for creators who are personally and professionally aligned with your brand, where the “endorsement” of your product or company makes sense. In short: Don’t just search for folks with the highest follower count.

“On the other hand, when you see people talking about and recommending a product they genuinely love, those posts tend to do really well,” Huddy said.

Huddy gave the example of an experience working with a user-generated content creator for a fashion brand called Rewash. The user was a frequent customer who happened to be chronically ill, and she shared her experiences in buying new clothes to look and feel better while combating her illness.

These posts had a much greater impact than other creators for Rewash, Huddy said, with a purchase-through rate of more than 50%, which is “insanely high for creator campaigns.”

Huddy attributed that success to the creator being genuinely supportive of the brand and her audience responding well to her feelings and recommendations about products.

Don’t create a digital pitchman

Huddy believes that if an influencer’s social channel starts to feel like a glorified entry point for a TikTok shop or some other platform, it can turn people off.

Podcastle’s numbers back that up. Yeritsyan noted that American social media users find it excessive when an influencer posts more than nine times a week, stating three new pieces of content per week are ideal for most creators.

If a product or angle is inconsistent with the brand they followed and if they oversaturate the market, seeming more like a pitchman than an influencer, users will lose interest, Yeritsyan said.

Podcastle found that people don’t want to watch content that feels inauthentic or staged (69%), features excessive brand partnerships (63%) and includes repetitive or unoriginal content (58%). The research showed that 81% of Americans will unfollow influencers who share videos that lack substance or value, emphasizing the need for authenticity.

Nearly 70% of users felt that when influencers post too frequently, it’s usually because they are trying to push a product or service.

Building a new influencer relationship

Ultimately, no one understands influencer audience data better than the creators themselves, Huddy said. She’s a firm believer in letting them have a controlling stake in the promotion.

“It should be a partnership,” she said.

Huddy recommended providing a general brief of what you’re hoping to do with the campaign. Then ask them to provide you with ideas for how they might get the campaign ethos across to their audience in a way that feels genuine to the rest of their work.

“That lends itself to a situation where you’re developing a genuine connection with the creator and helping them deeply understand your product and company and how it fits into the ecosystem they’ve created,” Huddy said.

While working with the brands Karma Wallet and Integrate, Huddy’s team found that the process was more beneficial when they allowed the creators to have creative input. One Karma Wallet creator, Tyler Chanel, even recommended a blog post over picture content because she thought it would perform better for her audience.

“Don’t be overly prescriptive; it can often come off as too scripted and unauthentic, making the entire strategy ineffective,” Huddy said. “If you want a shot-by-shot narrative, it would be better to create an ad than to work with a creator.”

Casey Weldon is a reporter for PR Daily. Follow him on LinkedIn.

The post How to capitalize on an influencer’s trust with users appeared first on PR Daily.

This week, we’ve got a sprinkling of new features from YouTube and Snap, some major price increases for X’s API and, of course, some Halloween fun across platforms.

Let’s see what’s new.

YouTube

YouTube has a flurry of small new features this week:

• Stickers for Shorts that allow viewers to complete a poll.
• A real-time channel filter in analytics to allow creators to better understand viewership across log-form content, Shorts and other content types.
• The ability to set goals in Super Chat, which will allow the community to come together to accomplish something, like a donation amount. Goals will come with a timer, a progress bar and rewards.
• Block certain kinds of advertisements from playing on your content at the channel level. Access this via YouTube Studio.

Ahead of next week’s U.S. elections, YouTube also reiterated its commitment to election integrity. There’s nothing really new here, save some information about sharing voter and candidate information, but the post re-states how YouTube combats AI misinformation, threats from foreign adversaries and more.

X

X has significantly increased the price of some of its API tiers. The monthly price for its Basic tier doubled, increasing from $100 to $200 in a move that is certain to price some users out of the market. The free tier includes the ability to post 500 times each month, and there is no fee for accounts that post weather, traffic or emergency services information.

The platform has also unveiled a redesigned Ads platform for SMBs. This new format incorporates AI targeting, automatic pixel tracking and bid optimization.

Meta

Meta is experimenting with the use of facial recognition in a variety of ways. First and most simply, they’re testing it to help people gain access to their accounts if they’ve forgotten a password or were hacked. The company said they’re seeing if video selfies, matched to profile pictures on the account in question, can help verify identifies and allow users to regain access to their accounts. Meta says they’ll immediately delete any facial data gathered in this process, regardless of whether or not there’s a match.

Facial recognition may also be used to combat a wave of celebrity impersonations, either for fake endorsements of products or for use in romance scams. Similarly, they’ll compare the celebrity’s public photos to the profile photo or video ads and block if they determine a  match..

Instagram

Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a video update that videos that receive fewer views over time will have their visual quality downgraded. Keep that in mind the next time your video starts to look a tad grainy.

Instagram is also offering up a cauldron full of Halloween effects, including key words that trigger spooky animations in DMs and Notes, new themes for DMs and Broadcasts, and more.

Snap

Snapchat rolled out its October product updates, which include:

• Launch Snapchat directly from the lock screen on iPhone 16.
• New lenses and Bitmoji costumes for Halloween.
• New stickers focusing on Gen-Z vernacular, including “slay” and “the infamous Gen-Z heart,” which we are too old to understand.
• Footsteps on the Snapmap will show where you’ve been in the past.

Loops

A new video-focused Fediverse app is in the offing: Loops As Mastodon is to X, so Loops will be to TikTok. The app will be open-source and integrate with other apps that are part of the federated group. At the moment, it’s accepting signups – so this might be a great time to snag that username, just in case it becomes the next big thing.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post New social media features and updates to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

The rise of short-form social video can leave B2B marketers feeling left out. There just aren’t that many cute, quirky trends that lend themselves to SaaS or enterprise accounting services. And the need to foster trust and credibility in these high-stakes, high-cost deals can result in content that feels stale and lawyered to death.

It’s a struggle.

But there are still B2B brands that are making a splash even on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

A new report from social analytics company Dash Hudson dives into social media benchmarks for 13 business focuses, ranging from CPG and media and beauty to B2B. They examined thousands of companies across those social video platforms for a period of six months to better understand their posting and performance. All accounts examined had at least 1,000 followers.

Here’s what they found.

TikTok

It’s likely no surprise that B2B organizations have among the lowest average followers on the clock app. With an average follower count of 193,000, the industry outranked only wellness, home and travel among the categories Dash Hudson followed.

But the industry ranked solidly in the middle of the industries for video views, with a respectable 125,000. Where things fell apart was in the engagement category, which was calculated by adding likes, comments and shares and dividing by video views.

B2B videos received the lowest engagement of any category, and by a sizable margin: B2B videos averaged 2.4% engagement rate, while the next-lowest category, fashion, notched 3.2%.

So, in other words, people are watching B2B content, but generally not taking action based on it. This might play into the longer sales cycle for many B2B purchases. Or it might just be that people are less excited to like their software vendor than their favorite sports team.

One other notable statistic: B2B brands posted more TikTok content than any other category, with an average of 8 posts per week. So, the lack of engagement isn’t due to lack of effort.

The top-performing brands included Intel, which despite good numbers has not posted a new video since June; Procreate, which shares tips for using its software as well as a candid video where its CEO confessed he “really f*cking hate(s) generative AI”; and Cisco, which leans into memes for cybersecurity professionals.

Instagram

Instagram is a struggle for B2B organizations. It placed dead last in the number of followers averaging just 418,000. That may be more than TikTok, but it’s relatively worse – and the engagement rate is a paltry 0.2%, which isn’t the worst of the surveyed categories (that would be retail, with a brutal 0.1%).

B2B marketers are, on average, posting two Reels each week and two carousels or images.

So why are these numbers so low?

Simply put, people aren’t looking for B2B information on Instagram.

Instagram has retained many of its roots as a way of sharing content with family and friends – 70% of Instagram users say they use the platform to post content, compared to just 42% on TikTok. It lacks TikTok’s utility as a search engine.

As a result, many people simply aren’t in the work mindset when they’re scrolling Instagram. And so, companies don’t post as much on the platform about B2B and the cycle continues.

Social media marketing is all about knowing your audience and where they hang out – and for B2B marketers, Instagram’s just not it.

YouTube

YouTube sees slightly better luck for business-focused oriented marketers. These brands average 192,000 followers – middle of the road among categories. Views, however, are at the bottom of the barrel, averaging just under 34,000 views and behind every other category save travel. In general, brands are posting a couple videos each week.

Takeaways

The posting cadence on Instagram and YouTube versus TikTok shows that marketers might be missing opportunities to cross-post shortform content on Reels and YouTube Shorts. If B2B marketers are already averaging 8 videos on TikTok, that’s content that could be recycled, perhaps with a few tweaks, across platforms.

But above all, this research shows the importance of picking your battles in B2B marketing. Not every platform is right for every audience, no matter how flashy or buzzy they might be.

Dash Hudson offers these additional tips:

• Foster a supportive community.
• Highlight versatility and real-life use cases.
• Provide educational content.

What have you found that works in B2B social?

See the full Dash Hudson report here.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post By the Numbers: B2B social video benchmarks appeared first on PR Daily.

Two social media platforms are making big moves this week. Some of X’s decisions have users running for competitors, while YouTube is going all-in on Shorts and offering a number of quality-of-life improvements. Let’s get into it.

X

After a relatively quiet period without major, platform-changing updates, Elon Musk is now busily shaping the platform to meet his exact desires.

But will those be appealing to the average user — or to brand users?

Two major updates seem to be causing a new exodus of users to competitors like Bluesky. First, Musk has taken aim at one of his most-hated features: block. X has announced that users you’ve blocked will still be able to see your posts — they simply won’t be able to interact with them. Of course, this doesn’t stop them from screenshotting the post.

Now, evading a block under the old system wasn’t onerous. It wasn’t difficult to create a second account which would allow you to view a user’s content. But there was at least a slight friction. Now, blocked accounts will be able to see content with no additional effort whatsoever.

The impetus behind the change, X said, is to combat accounts that “share and hide harmful or private information about those they’ve blocked.”

The other major update comes to X’s terms of service. Starting Nov. 15, users must agree that X has the right to “analyze text and other information you provide and to otherwise provide, promote, and improve the Services, including, for example, for use with and training of our machine learning and artificial intelligence models, whether generative or another type,” PC Mag reports. It’s unclear if the current opt-out will persist beyond Nov. 15. But it may cause concerns for some security-minded brands.

These changes seem to have caused a new surge of interest in competitive platforms, such as Bluesky, which gained half a million new users in one day after the block change announcement.

As we’ve seen over the last two years since Musk bought the platform, X won’t disappear overnight. It remains a major player in the social place. But each unpopular change chips away at its user base just a bit more, which could impact your social strategy.

Finally, in a more benign (even beneficial) update, Social Media Today reports that X is expanding access to its Radar social listening tool. Premium+ subscribers who pay $16 per month will gain access to the tool, which gives access to a suite of keyword monitoring tools.

YouTube

Tons of new updates, big and small, are coming from YouTube this week, many of them around its updated Shorts feature, which now supports videos up to 3 minutes in length. Let’s go through them bullet style:

• YouTube clarified that only videos of 1-3 minutes in length uploaded after Oct. 15 will be automatically converted into Shorts; this won’t be done retroactively.
• Users creating Shorts in the United States can experiment with adding AI-generated instrumental backing tracks.
• You can now save Shorts to drafts for later posting.

YouTube also unveiled a number of small but impactful quality-of-life improvements, including:

• An improved mini player allowing users to more easily watch videos while searching for more videos to watch in the YouTube app.
• Finetune how fast (or slow) a video plays. Change the playback speed in 0.05 increments.
• Share playlists via QR code. You’ll also be able to create custom thumbnails for playlists, and later this year, users will be able to vote on which videos appear on playlists, which YouTube touts as an engagement play for creators.
• A sleep timer, for those of us who doze off to YouTube.

Meta

Meta is offering a number of new features designed to protect teens from sextortion scams. These damaging schemes often play off the shame and fear of young people for profit. Some accounts sending spam signals will now have follow requests automatically sent to the spam folder. Teens will also receive a warning when they’re chatting with someone in another country, regardless of what their profile indicates. Accounts suspected of spam will also be blocked from viewing a user’s followers and following account — often these lists are used in extortion bids. Screenshots will also be blocked from content sent using “view once” options.

Instagram

Instagram is currently testing a “Social Library,” that would keep the content you’ve shared or been sent via chat, collection and likes. It further underscores the importance of social sharing as a signal on Instagram and all social apps.

Threads

In an instant messaging twist, Threads has instituted a new indicator that shows when a user is online. Only followers will be able to see this indicator for private accounts. A green light will appear when a user is currently active on the site.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post New social media updates and features to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

This week, Meta draws its apps together into a new kind of Metaverse (see what we did there?) while X somewhat confusingly revamps its Creator Revenue Sharing model.

Here’s what you need to know this week.

Meta

Meta has unveiled a number of new tweaks to draw its family of apps more closely together.

Instagram, for instance, has introduced a new sticker to allow businesses to direct users from an Instagram story to WhatsApp for easy messaging. Threads is testing the ability to share a Reel or Instagram post directly from the compose box.

On the one hand, these are convenient options for community managers trying to juggle multiple platforms. On the other, Meta is risking a homogenization of content, where the same items appear on up to four social media platforms.

Granted, each app in Meta’s portfolio has a different target audience, from the older-skewing Facebook to the Millennial and Gen Z-friendly Instagram, the nerdier Threads and the more direct-communication focused WhatsApp. Most people don’t spend time on all four apps, after all. But the more content is cross-posted, the more each app will lose its unique value proposition.

In other Meta news, the company is testing the ability to turn off comments on Facebook and Instagram ads, a capability it says can be important for brands running ads related to sensitive content. They’re also building a new brand safety tool into the ability to run ads directly on Facebook profiles, allowing advertisers to create a blacklist of profiles where their ads will not appear. A new dashboard will also allow easier updating of brand safety and suitability preferences.

Meta has also released a number of new AI tools for advertisers, including a number of video tools. This isn’t as sweeping as wholesale creating video, but rather a number of subtle, helpful tweaks, including Video Expansion, which automatically adjusts aspect ratios and Image Animation, which turns static images into short videos.

Creator content can now also be incorporated into advertising collections, with both the brand and creator handles appearing together.

Threads

Social Media Today reports that Threads is experimenting with new communities, which it has dubbed Loops. It appears that individual threads will be fed into Loops, which will function as topic-based communities, similar to the feature of the same name on X.

Mastodon

Mastodon, one of a number of X knockoffs, has released a new update that … makes it even more like X in some key ways.

TechCrunch reports that new features include:

• Notification summaries rather than a list of every like and interaction.
• Ability to opt out of various notifications.
• More transparency about the effect of moderator decisions.
• Improved follow recommendations.
• Link previews.

It’s still a small network, but one work watching.

YouTube

YouTube is testing the addition of a “save” button prominently under videos – and bumping the “dislike” button to make room for it. The thumbs down will still exist, though it will be hidden under a three-dot menu. This is just an experiment, but one has to wonder how that will impact the algorithmic signals sent by the thumbs down.

YouTube is also giving users the ability to temporarily hide Shorts from their recommendation feed. Since most people who use this feature likely already don’t watch Shorts, they don’t anticipate viewership impacts. Other app tweaks include a new landscape mode for YouTube Studio.

X

X has significantly overhauled its Creator Revenue Sharing model, which is available to Premium subscribers. Rather than being based on advertisements placed in the comments, payouts will now be based on how many Premium subscribers respond to your thread.

This may be simple to game but seems a move by X to encourage more engagement from their paying customers. X also claims payments will increase.

Snap

Two new forms of advertising are in testing mode on Snapchat. Sponsored Snaps appear in the inbox. After opening the vertical video, customers can reply directly to the advertisement. The second new option, Promoted Places, highlights the advertiser’s location on the Snap Map.

LinkedIn

Finally, LinkedIn has released a new game, for when you need to kill time but want to look like you’re working. Tango appears to be a Sudoku-esque game that involves putting suns and moons next to each other, following particular rules.

The post New social media features and updates to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

Nicole Tidei is a vice president at Pinkston, a Washington, D.C.-based strategic communications firm.

Hurricane Milton struck the Gulf Coast of Florida Wednesday night, bringing 100 mph winds and multiple tornadoes that left millions without power. This is only two weeks after Hurricane Helene struck from the Florida Gulf up through Western North Carolina, killing more than 220 people and causing an estimated $47.5 billion in property damage.

News media is central to preparation and response efforts, spreading vital information to and about affected areas. However, as Americans increasingly get their news through social media, local governments and emergency response organizations must adapt to a more effective means of spreading life-saving information. Partnering with social media influencers who have built trust with millions of followers allows response teams to amplify their impact and quickly share their message.

Social media reaches more than 90% of Americans and, in the case of TikTok, provides the news for nearly 40% of young adults in the U.S. Organizations such as FEMA often have only a few hundred thousand followers, making it difficult for them to reach the broader population. Influencers with a million or more followers, however, can disseminate information and spread awareness for FEMA and other groups, allowing them to provide vital information to countless people.

Quick access to accurate information can save lives in a crisis. Influencers can reach millions in real time while sharing crucial information on key evacuation routes, safety guidelines and local resources. For example, Dr. Meghan Martin, known on TikTok as beachgem10 for her content as a pediatric ER doctor, has millions of views on videos discussing how to prepare for and clean up after a storm. With hundreds of thousands of shares, her videos provide followers much-needed information without any wasted time. Dr. Martin – and dozens like her – can impact millions.

Many influencers can also leverage their platform to drive disaster relief donations. Well over half of Americans who make more than $100,000 a year are on Facebook and Instagram, making social media campaigns particularly impactful. Whether it’s posting a link to a story or hosting a fundraising event or donation matching, social media influencers are powerful partners in encouraging unaffected followers to take action in the face of natural disasters.

We also live in an era where misinformation can run rampant. The aftermath of Helene made this all too clear, with inaccurate information about federal disaster relief assistance quickly spreading across social media, sometimes preventing crucial information from reaching the people in these areas. Working with influencers to provide fact-checked and verified updates is an effective way to counteract false narratives by quickly spreading the truth across social media. Particularly in a time where America’s trust in the more traditional media has hit record lows, teaming up with influencers, who build their brand around being recognizable and relatable, can go a long way toward ensuring timely, accurate information reaches Americans and is delivered in a way that they feel they can trust.

Social media influencers can also combat feelings of loneliness or helplessness after a natural disaster. Catastrophes such as hurricanes take a heavy emotional toll on those whose homes or lives were impacted. By sharing stories of resilience and recovery, influencers can provide emotional support to their followers. With more than a third of Americans going to social media as a way to cope with stress, ensuring that there are positive messages on these platforms is key to promoting a quick recovery.

Partnering with influencers allows disaster response teams to promptly get important messages across through the most effective channels. These social media personalities have incredible influence over the average American – and it comes with responsibility. Let’s encourage them to use their voice wisely to make a real difference when it’s needed most.

The post The role of influencers in natural disasters appeared first on PR Daily.

A number of apps announced major updates this week, most notably Facebook, which is undergoing one of its periodic redesigns, and YouTube Shorts, which is chasing hard at TikTok’s heels for the microvideo market.

Here’s what you need to know.

TikTok

TikTok is not only a social media app — it’s increasingly a tool for search, especially among Gen Z and Gen Alpha. According to TikTok itself, 23% of users search for something within 30 seconds of opening the app.

Naturally, TikTok is continuing to monetize this lucrative space.

Search Ads Campaigns will be an extension of the existing Search Ads Toggle, appearing the same to users but offering new options for advertisers. The campaigns “(enable) sophisticated keyword-based ads which specifically target TikTok’s search results page,” TikTok says, while also allowing advertisers to exclude negative keywords from their ad placements. Campaigns can be oriented around either traffic or web performance goals.

Reddit

Last year, protests roiled Reddit over changes to the site’s API policies. Many popular subreddits marked themselves private as a way of reducing traffic and attempting to punish Reddit for the unpopular changes.

The protests eventually died down. Reddit won. And they want to make sure that scenario can never happen again.

The Verge reports that communities that want to go from public to private will now have to get permission from an admin — that is, a Reddit employee. Requests from communities of less than 5,000 employees or that are less than 30 days old will be approved automatically. Communities can also temporarily go private.

It’s a clear signal that Reddit is growing up and moving from a truly user-run site to a more sophisticated organization — with rules and enforcement to match.

YouTube

TikTok competitor YouTube Shorts has unveiled some big changes.

First, Shorts are getting bigger. Starting Oct. 15, Shorts can be up to 3 minutes long — something YouTube says is a top requested feature from creators. Along with that, YouTube says upcoming algorithmic tweaks will improve discoverability for these longer shorts.

Templates will also make it faster to recreate trends — hit “Remix” and “Use this template” to start.

YouTube also promises that making Shorts will get easier as “the vast universe of YouTube content” becomes available from within the Shorts camera, which should make it easier to comment on clips from across YouTube.

A new Shorts trends page is also available on mobile devices. And finally, Shorts will offer a preview of the comments before you enter the dedicated feed — a clear way of trying to draw more people into the comments.

Whatever happens with the future of TikTok, it’s clear that Shorts is becoming an evolved, robust platform in its own right rather than just a bonus for the general YouTube platform.

Facebook

The granddaddy of social media introduced a number of big updates at its Facebook IRL event in Austin last week.

These include:

• A new Local tab will compile content from across Groups, Events and Marketplace to tell you what’s happening in your geographic area. Two new event digests — one weekly and one for the weekend — will help surface recommendations for what to do via notification. A swipeable Feed section will also help find “the best content across Facebook” related to your neighborhood, including events, groups, people, businesses, Marketplace items and more. This is currently in testing for a handful of large American cities.
• The new Explore tab is an algorithmically driven discoverability feed.
• Reels will now be incorporated into the Video tab rather than segregated. The announcement notes that young adults spend 60% of their time on the app watching videos, further cementing the importance of video content even on Facebook.
• You can now send Event invites via Instagram or SMS, making Facebook Events viable whether or not someone is a Facebook user — and important step as young audiences migrate away from the platform.
• Additional AI deployed within Groups will help surface answers to frequently asked questions.
• Matchmaking on Facebook Dating (yes, Facebook has a dating app built in) will allow your friends to swipe on matches for you.
• Messenger is getting a number of seemingly WhatsApp-inspired updates, including the ability to see memories of past content shared or to create Groups directly from within Messenger.

These are big updates, which is sure to rile some users. But it’s charting a path for Facebook’s near future that seems driven by real-life connection, person-to-person communication and, of course, video.

X

Bold and italics text briefly took over X timelines. But Elon Musk personally took care of the annoying styling. Now, to see text styles, you have to open the post. They won’t appear directly while scrolling your timeline.

Snap

Footsteps, which was previously available only to Snapchat+ subscribers, is now usable by all iOS users. The feature uses location data to tell you how much of the planet you’ve explored. Cynically, this opt-out feature is likely also to be used to encourage users to turn data services on so that information can, in turn, be sold to advertisers.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post New social media features and updates to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

The apps giveth, the apps taketh away. This week Reddit is going deep on AI translation while TikTok released a ton of new features for subscribers. At the same time, LinkedIn is nixing a popular badge and X is looking at overhauling the block button.

Let’s get into all the new twists and turns.

Threads

TechCrunch reports that Meta has at last acquired the coveted Threads.com URL. Since launch, the social network has lived at the far less desirable Threads.net. The URL had most recently been owned by Shopify, but domain records indicate that Meta recently gained control of the site. It’s unclear when or if the site will transition to Threads.com, though one would assume it will.

X

Elon Musk it as it again. The billionaire owner of X is set to fundamentally change the way blocking works on the platform. Musk responded to a report about block changes by confirming: “The block function will block that account from engaging with, but not block seeing, public post (sic).”

This announcement raises a number of concerns over privacy and safety and whether it will make it easier for harassment to continue. It’s also unclear whether the change will even come to pass — Musk claimed as far back as 2023 that he would eradicate the block feature altogether, though no such drastic step has been taken. Yet.

Reddit

Reddit is using machine learning to translate entire feeds, including comments, into another language. France, Spain and Brazil now all have the option to change comments into their native tongue, with the feature expected to roll out to Germany, Italy, the Philippines and Latin America in the near future. YouTube recently began to release AI-powered dubbing services. It’s clear that AI will make the English-speaking internet more accessible to those who might not have native fluency.

YouTube

YouTube is expanding access to its conversational AI tool. All YouTube Premium members will now be able to access the tool, which will appear just below a video and will not interrupt playback. YouTube gave the example of asking the AI to tell the user about a song playing in the video.

The platform is currently blocking music by a number of popular artists, including Bob Dylan and Green Day, over a royalties dispute with SESAC, Variety reports.

TikTok

TikTok is building out its subscriber perks, nibbling away at the features offered by sites like Patreon. The new features will allow creators to make tiers of perks for those willing to pay to support them, including private communications channels (think Discord), content exclusive to subscribers, stickers and badges, and other customized perks.

The app is also unveiling three third-party brand safety measurements to help advertisers determine their potential risk for appearing next to questionable content.

Pinterest

Pinterest is beefing up its collages tool with several new features. Remixing allows other users to build on collages someone else has created. This option can be toggled on or off. Collages can also now be turned into videos that can be shared off-platform.

LinkedIn

Lindsey Gamble reports that LinkedIn is killing off its Community Top Voice badge. According to an email sent to those who hold the badge, “we’ve learned that it’s challenging to maintain the highest quality standards for our Community Top Voices Badge, as they are currently awarded automatically to top contributors, and not manually awarded by our teams.”

In other words, someone could post a bunch of AI-generated nonsense and get a badge that looks like LinkedIn endorsed the activity.

The Top Voices badge, which is awarded by staff, will remain.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post New social media features and updates to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

Marketers and comms pros have long tried to crack the code to make a campaign or post trend. Achieving that status sometimes comes down to pinpointing the right target audience or teaming up with the right. In other cases, it’s just catching a major cultural wave at the perfect time.

Here, we’ve put together three recent social media posts or campaigns that really struck a chord with their audiences.

Chipotle leans into social trends

Chipotle Mexican Grill teamed up with Spirit Halloween to create a series of skintight costumes based on memes of fictional Chipotle-inspired costumes from previous years. In early September, the fast-casual restaurant chain introduced five bodysuits based on some of its products – a fork, a napkin, a water cup, a burrito and a to-go bag.

The announcement of the release attracted nearly 900,000 likes on Instagram and more than 3,000 comments. In terms of engagement, it blows the company’s average posts out of the water. Most recent posts have an average of between 15,000 to 30,000 engagements.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Chipotle (@chipotle)

The excitement surrounding the post clearly has little to do with costume design. Most of them are little more than a bodysuit with a series of Chipotle logos spread across the chest. The “Chipotle Fork” is just a black bodysuit and only slightly resembles the utensil if the person wearing it extends five of their fingers in the air.

Chris Brandt, Chipotle’s chief brand officer, noted in a media statement that the costume sales will provide a nearly two-month build up to the company’s annual “Boorito” promotion every Halloween.

What the promotion does well, though, is tap into an established Halloween tradition that customers have come to know and appreciate. The promotion has slumped in recent years, but this extended, more involved campaign may help improve that trend.

“DOES NOT INCLUDE: Lemonade ,” wrote IG user bree_999, alluding to messaging on the costume package.

The phrasing an homage to Chipotle’s longstanding acknowledgement that some of its customers “accidentally” fill their complimentary water cups with lemonade at the restaurant’s beverage stations. The company has had fun with the situation on social media over the years and even created a lemonade-scented candle in the shape of a water cup back in 2022.

Admittedly, the costumes have been met with a mixture of reviews – ranging from positive to lukewarm to a bunch of playful “who asked for this” responses. But again, the point is to build a buzz about the upcoming promotion.

“Lmao the chipotle fork is legendary,” user demaireski and nearly 4,900 agree based on the number of likes the comment earned.

Mets ride Grimace wave

New York Mets fans are close to riding their newest good luck charm, Grimace, all the way to the playoffs.

After a rough start to the season, the baseball club had McDonald’s towering purple mascot throw out the first pitch at a game on June 12. The Mets won that game and the next six, too. Since Grimace’s appearance, the team has gone 53-30 and is now in a position to make the postseason.

On Monday, the Mets brought Grimace back and gave him his own purple seat in the outfield. Not surprisingly, they won the game.

It’s here and it’s perfect!

We’ve installed a commemorative purple seat to recognize Grimace in section 302, row 6, seat 12. pic.twitter.com/CquOml8UMC

— New York Mets (@Mets) September 16, 2024

A social media post announcing the seat dedication – and various other Grimace-related posts throughout the summer – have generated thousands of engagements and interactions. The impact has been particularly notable on X, in which the Mets often post dozens of times on game days. While X has lost popularity overall, it remains immensely popular among sports fans, with more than 1.4 trillion impressions last year alone.

Since June, fans have started to show up at games in “fuzzy purple get-ups” — even when the Mets were playing in different cities, according to the New York Times.

Grimace shaking rotating dancing having seizure freaking out celebrating Mets home run in extra innings baseball game fan purple McDonald’s mascot suit costume crowd pic.twitter.com/M1Wm5bmO9u

— Brian’s Reaction Videos (@celestesangels) July 2, 2024

This overwhelming response also gave the Mets’ social media team a chance to turn the situation into a bigger storytelling moment. The club’s senior vice president of partnerships, Brenden Mallette, said it’s “been great to see how our fan base created the Grimace phenomenon,” and the organization has worked to continue that momentum in the months since.

“As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way,” he said.

Nutter Butter craziness taking over TikTok

Nutter Butter’s frenzied, arthouse-style videos have each racked up more than 100,000 views since late July. Over the past two months, however, viewership numbers have skyrocketed as news of the “The Most Unhinged Thing on TikTok” has started to make the rounds on various blogs and other social media channels.

The brand’s most popular recent video is the “Cookie Do the Nutty Dance” song. The roughly 12-second clip features dancing Nutter Butter cookies, vibrantly colored strobe lights, a random cat and a poem that begins: “In a land where peanut prance/In a land where peanut prance/Cookie do a nutty dance/Cookie do a nutty dance.”

It’s then followed by a demonic voice screaming, “I want it back!” It concludes with a 2-second clip of dance music and the words “Yes, Yes!”

@officialnutterbutterlet; me out♬ original sound – nutter butter

In the first six days since posting, the video had attracted more than 8.2 million. So far, it had nearly 166,500 likes, 6,000 favorites and 10,200 saves as of Friday afternoon.

Among the likes and comments are a collection of other brands, including Sour Patch Kids, owned by the parent company of Nutter Butter. Other brands looking to capitalize on the popularity of the viral posts range from Rare Beauty and 5-Hour Energy to Crocs.

“almost as chaotic as parenthood,” Huggies wrote on one of the posts.

Over the years, many brands have taken quirky approaches to social media – think Wendy’s roast-style responses. However, it’s important to remember that social media isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Nutter Butter posts similar content across all its platforms. The videos seem to resonate with TikTok’s youthful audience. But they don’t generate anywhere near the same level of engagement on Instagram or Facebook. A recent video that gained over 104,000 likes on TikTok earned a solid, but much smaller, 4,000 likes on Instagram. Nutter Butter gets virtually no engagement on Facebook.

Nothing is more important than understanding your target audience and how to reach them.

Casey Weldon is a reporter for PR Daily. Follow him on LinkedIn.

The post 3 examples of how brands got creative and went viral appeared first on PR Daily.

It’s a busy week for social media updates – especially where 16- and 17-year-olds are concerned. Both Instagram and Snap  rolled out significant changes for this small but powerful demographic, designed to balance freedom with safety. Snap and YouTube also both recently held major summits, resulting in tons of new updates.

Let’s get into it.

Instagram

Instagram made waves when it announced a new slate of safety measures aimed at protecting teens on the platform. The move comes after widespread criticism and congressional hearings into the app’s failure to create safe spaces for minors.

The new restrictions include:

• Accounts for kids under 16 are set to private automatically for both existing and new accounts, though parents can opt out. New accounts for teens 16-17 will be set to private by default, though existing accounts will not. A private account means teens must accept friend requests before their content is visible to those people.
• Teens can only message with people they are connected to. They can also only be tagged in posts by people they’re connected to.
• Teens will be opted into the tightest sensitive content restrictions.
• Teens will have the most stringent filters in place, including an anti-bullying feature.
• Reminders of how much time they’ve used on the app.
• Automatic opt-in to sleep mode, which mutes notifications overnight.

Parents can adjust the settings for kids under 16. Those over 16 will generally have the ability to opt in or out of these features themselves, but parents can implement parental restrictions if desired. Parents using the supervision feature can also see who their teens are chatting with, set time limits, block them from using Instagram during certain time periods and view what topics they’ve chosen to view.

On a much lighter note, Instagram has also added a number of new stickers and a game called “Emoji Pong.”

Meta

Meta has introduced a number of new ad formats across both Instagram and Facebook ahead of the upcoming holiday season. These include options for highlighting promo codes, new options for notification ads, the ability to add multiple links to a single image or video ad on a Facebook page, hyping nearby in-store shopping opportunities, travel retargeting options and more.

YouTube

There’s tons of news from YouTube as the platform recently held its Made on YouTube event, rolling out plenty of new creator features.

YouTube is building on group spaces with its new Community feature. While these groups are linked to a creator’s page, they are described as “fan initiated,” though creators can dictate who can post. The Community tool seems to be an attempt to keep creators from building Discords off-platform to support their fans, by allowing deeper two-way engagement directly on YouTube.

In a move that seems to echo TikTok’s Duets feature, creators can now add prompts to Shorts, which viewers can respond to with their own videos.

YouTube will also expand its auto-dubbing feature. This AI-driven ability will now allow more creators to automatically dub their content from English into Spanish, Portuguese or the new additions, French and Italian.

A new feature that’s sure to cause controversy is ads placed on pause screens. YouTube says this will be a “less interruptive” experience, though customers will be the judge. Hulu and AT&T already have pause ads.

Bluesky

X challenger Bluesky has implemented a number of new trust and safety features to cut down on spam and harassment. They’ve put in place new protocols to see when a single user creates new accounts, which are often used for nefarious purposes. Now, users who block a list’s creator will be removed from any lists they’ve made. It’s a small but important step for the growing platform.

Snap

Similarly to Instagram, Snap is tinkering with its offerings for older teens. Teens, 16-17,  will be able to share some content publicly. While people who follow the teen can reply to their story, these replies will be subject to strict filters. Direct messaging from these replies will not be possible. Their posts will be shown only to Snapchatters who already have mutual friends with the teen to keep distribution low. Teens will not be able to see metrics to avoid peer pressure.

Snap also just held its Partner Summit, which means new updates, including new AR lenses and updates on Spectacles.

TikTok

In a move that’s sure to make social media managers everywhere happy, TikTok has introduced a feature that allows you to delete a video and re-edit it with one push of a button. Finally, an easy way to fix that typo.

X

In a quality-of-life improvement, X is testing a feature that allows you to block people from your DMs without blocking them from your whole account.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post New social media features and updates to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

Ongoing legal challenges in the United States threaten TikTok’s viability as a social media platform. A ban would suspend a valuable marketing tool for companies and influencers alike.

“The truth is, short video content is incredibly valuable to brands looking to keep the attention of target users,” said Shannon Tucker, vice president of tech focused Next PR. “This type of marketing won’t be lost because audiences will continue to seek platforms that engage them.”

A big change for influencer marketing

From a PR perspective, the biggest immediate risk of a TikTok ban would be to the influencer and content creator ecosystem.

TikTok is the most popular social media channel for branded marketing content, according to The State of Influencer Marketing 2024: Benchmark Report. It found that around 66% of brands use TikTok for their influencer marketing efforts, compared to 47% on Instagram and 33% on YouTube.

In May, eight TikTok content creators sued the U.S. government to challenge the recently passed federal law that would force the sale – or enact a ban – of Chinese-owned TikTok. The creators argue it would violate their First Amendment rights and undermine their ability to earn a living. 

Bill Hildebolt, executive chairperson of gen.video, said content creators and PR firms would be wise to diversify their content channels. But he noted that finding success on a new platform isn’t always as simple as uploading an influencer’s content to a new service.

In his experience, most creators who experience breakout success – he described that as compiling 1 million-plus followers – tend to do so predominantly on one platform, not multiple. He listed several reasons for that, including the fact that reaching that popularity on any social network is difficult to do. Each platform has its own idiosyncrasies. While both Instagram and TikTok have historically focused on shorter-from video, Instagram has also emphasized photos and direct messaging. Meanwhile, TikTok has steadily tested out adding longer videos to take on YouTube.

Social networks also tend to have unique audiences so preferred content doesn’t always translate from one platform to the next. Technology, for example, remains strongest on long-form YouTube and it hasn’t translated as well to Instagram or TikTok, Hildebolt said.

PR firms looking to capitalize on influencer marketing really need to understand those nuances if they end up needing to pivot off TikTok.

“It’s definitely not as simple as taking your marbles and moving from TikTok to Instagram,” he added.  

Remain platform nimble

While court cases and new laws can hurt or even shutter platforms, those factors are only part of the equation. Changes in user preferences and trends also play a significant role.

Not that long ago Facebook was the dominant platform, but as of today, both Instagram and TikTok have surpassed it in terms of younger users.

If TikTok were to shut down, users would move on quickly, Tucker said. Her advice: Don’t rely on a single platform for brand success. Instead, explore a multichannel approach and experiment with different types of content to see what resonates most with your audience.

There’s no shortage of social media options, and tech companies are always ready to invest in the “next big thing,” Tucker said. She noted that recent years have expressed the rise and fall of various once-prominent video platforms – Vine was popular before TikTok and YouTube’s popularity fluctuates.

That shows the importance of continuing education and staying ahead of all industry trends. Brands need to stay adaptable, test new strategies and avoid panic in the face of industry change, no matter how big it might be.

It’s all about being nimble.

“By building a presence on emerging platforms before they become mainstream, you increase the chances of smoothly transitioning your audience if a current platform declines,” Tucker said.

Flipping the script from challenge to opportunity

Hildebolt doesn’t believe the current TikTok challenges are affecting client behavior just yet. And if they’re changing approaches right now, companies are leaning in to try and “get things done while the getting is good.”

“There’s possibly even an assumption that maybe other people are pulling away and so they can get good value in the meantime,” he said.

There are a lot of industry changes – AI disruption, shrinking newsrooms, perennially tightening budgets – that have created a tightrope for PR professionals. But addressing these kinds of legal and macro environmental issues is all about perspective, Hildebolt said. 

Instead of looking at them as burdens, consider them “opportunities to show your clients how good you are.” 

“(Allow them) to see that you are not only aware of the issue, but you’ve also talked it out with other professionals, you have a unique perspective on it and multiple strategies for them to navigate the situation better than their competitors,” Hildebolt said. “That makes you an indispensable advisor.”   

Casey Weldon is a reporter for PR Daily. Follow him on LinkedIn. 

The post PR strategies to address potential TikTok ban appeared first on PR Daily.

With TikTok facing a rocky future, Instagram, already one of the dominant social platforms in the world, could become even more important. Its combination of short-form video, photo posts and integration into the Meta family of tools makes it a force to be reckoned with. It also maintains strong popularity with young people: 78% of Americans 18-29 use Instagram, far more than any other social media app except for YouTube.

A new report from social media tool Metricool sheds light on what kinds of posts get the most views and engagement from Instagram to maximize effectiveness. The study examined millions of feed posts, reels and stories from more than 391,000 business, brand and creator accounts.

The study, now in its fourth year, found that reach across the board is down. So if you’ve been wondering why your posts aren’t going as far on Instagram, know you’re not alone. The changes in many cases are drastic: the reach of carousel and image feeds both fell by more than half, though every kind of post saw a decline of at least 40%.

“Overall, users should really use as many formats as they can and be versatile with their content,” said Anniston Ward, Metricool marketing manager. “Because at the end of the day, Instagram wants you to use all of its forms and wants you to be versatile on the platform and engage in all of these different aspects … People shouldn’t get discouraged just because reach overall is down.”

And it’s important to keep in mind that while reach declined, engagement has not. The study found that engagement increased for all account sizes save small and huge, which saw declines of less than 1%.

The most popular formats

The study found that brands post more stories than any other content type by far, representing nearly 72% of all brand posts. That might seem surprising, given their ephemeral nature, but Ward explains that the structure of stories makes them attractive.

“The way that Instagram has really added new elements, like linking, stickers and all these things that allow creators and brands to quickly upload something and say, ‘hey, I have this course, sign up here, or ‘here’s this product’ and link it, they’re starting to use it more as a promotional aspect,” Ward said.

However, despite their popularity, stories  have the lowest overall reach of all the IG formats at about 3%. Meanwhile, just 11% of brand content is reels, yet that content type far outperforms all others, accounting for 37% of total content reach.

“This goes back to why we go on socials in the first place and the nature of socials right now is so many short videos and sound bites that we can use to gather data and engagement and entertainment and all these things,” said Ward. “That’s the main reason reels are kind of the main format, and why brands want to use them.”

Reels are driven in large part by Instagram’s algorithmic preference. The last two years, they’ve been boosting their short-form video content in a bid to compete with TikTok.

But while reels might be seen by the most people, they don’t drive the most overall engagement. That honor belongs to carousels, which see an average engagement rate of 10.15%, the study found.

Ward attributes this to the interactivity and storytelling possibility of swiping through carousel images.

“The brand can tell a little bit more of their story or showcase more of their products,” she noted. Instagram also recently increased the number of images that can be displayed in a carousel to 20, offering even more possibilities.

The time of day conundrum

One of the questions clients ask about most frequently is the best time of day to post content on Instagram, Ward said.

The Metricool survey offers answers: To reach the biggest potential audience, post on Wednesdays and Fridays between 7 and 9 p.m.

But Ward stressed that each brand is different and benefits from testing to see whether these general rules of thumb work better or if their audience responds to different timing.

“It doesn’t make or break a strategy, but I think that it’s an important piece to know to really maximize your content and make sure you’re reaching as many people as possible.”

Read the full report here.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post By the Numbers: The most popular formats, times to post on Instagram appeared first on PR Daily.

Safety, election integrity and new commenting systems are high on social media apps’ priorities these last few weeks. Let’s see what’s new and what it means for your social media practice.

X

In a small but handy tweak, X now allows users to edit their DMs. While editing posts is available only to Premium subscribers, the DM editing ability is available to all.

YouTube

YouTube has introduced some new safety features for teens. Parents will be able to link their accounts to their teens’, creating a dashboard that allows them to see insights such as the number of subscriptions, uploads and comments. Parents can also be notified via email when their child uploads new content.. It seems to be an attempt to strike a balance of keeping parents involved with a teen’s account without giving them direct.

Going even deeper into security ,  designed to protect copyright holders against unauthorized AI use. One tool will help copyright holders identify if their voice was used to create a new song via AI while the other will help identify if a person’s face is used in an image.

Both of these represent steps to keep copyright holders happy, similar to how YouTube detects music or video footage that infringes on protected content. How well it will work is another story.

Instagram

Over on Instagram, , in what the app calls a way to “spark conversations via comments.” These comments will be visible to anyone who can see your Stories, but by default, only mutual follows will be able to leave comments, though this setting can be toggled off. Comments are also now allowed on Broadcast Channels.

Instagram is also offering new aesthetic options for Reels and Stories, including:

• New fonts, animations and effects
• Text and stickers can now be added to carousels and photos
• Carousels can now include up to 20 images and videos.

Finally, Instagram is adding a number of new options for DMs, such as stickers, cutouts, birthday reminders and new fall chat themes, Social Media Today reported.

Threads

For those of us still in mourning over old-school TweetDeck, Threads’ new update is something to smile about. You can now rearrange Threads columns on desktop, customizing your screen to fit your needs.

TikTok

TikTok has its eye on election integrity this week.

The elections updates are fairly standard stuff, the kind of PR moves social media companies frequently make to improve trust, with much discussion of community partners and transparency. TikTok is beefing up its Elections Center, including detailed information on how to vote. Real-time results will be available through the app come November, provided by the Associated Press.

Two-step security verification will also be required for accounts tied to the U.S. government, candidates and parties to reduce hacking.

TikTok is also allowing users to more carefully curate the topics  fed to them on their For You page. A slider enables users to say how much (or how little) of a given topic they want the algorithm to show them – a nice control measure for when you end up  on some random side of TikTok where you’d  rather not be.

Finally, for once, TikTok is emulating Instagram instead of the other way around. In a pretty clear copycat of Instagram’s Notes feature, you can now share bits of text on other people’s posts.

Snap

In a note sent to Snap employees celebrating 13 years of the app, CEO Evan Spiegel gave a preview of several new initiatives. Among these:

• Beefed up insights for advertisers, including “privacy-safe insights around store visitation powered by the Snap Map,” use of Lenses and public content posts.
• New Sponsored Snaps ad format, which will appear in the chat section.
• New Promoted Places ad, using data harvested from the Snap Map.
• Use of AI to improve the ad purchasing process and AI Lenses.

While many of these features are long-term plans, Snap also released several  new features August. Snapchat+ subscribers can assign  ringtones to different friends or group chats to know at a listen who’s messaging them. Premium subscribers can also replay their videos for five minutes after sending. Lyric stickers help add the words to songs, and new Bitmoji comics are now available.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post New social media features and updates to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

This story was originally published in 2022. 

The 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks will take place on Wednesday. Many people and brands will take to social media that day to post memories or commemorations of that terrible day.

Should your brand?

Even as 9/11 recedes from the recent past into history, the event still evokes incredibly strong feelings, not just from those who lost loved ones or escaped one of the towers, but also from those of us who watched the events unfold on live television. The United States still carries deep psychic scars from the attacks, including the fallout which saw the U.S. become involved in a long-running war whose repercussions echo to this day.

Deciding whether or not to post about that day is a delicate calculus. Saying the wrong thing will bring anger, scorn and ridicule. Let’s learn from the mistakes of the past and help you evaluate whether your brand should remember 9/11 publicly — or just hold your own moment of silence.

1. Don’t promote a commercial product or sale.

The single biggest way brands run afoul of 9/11 or any solemn commemoration is that they feel the need to make their brand part of the story. While some brands are an inextricable part of that story (we’ll get to those later), this is not an opportunity to sell anything or gain brand share.

Huge companies have made this mistake. AT&T infamously inserted their phone into an image of the Tribute in Light art installation, which recreates the Twin Towers with beams of light. A yoga studio in Virginia tweeted they were offering 20% off Bikram classes because 9+11=20%. Both brands had to delete the messages and apologize.

Even brands using more subtle branding approaches have been excoriated on Twitter. Even simply putting a logo or using brand colors in a tribute message can be seen as being in bad taste, as both CVS and clothing brand Pretty Little Thing found out the hard way.

2. Some brands must speak.

Some organizations have profound connections to 9/11. Financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald had its offices in the North Tower and lost the majority of its New York workforce, some 658 souls. The company now spends the day making major donations to disaster relief charities. American Airlines and United Airlines both saw their planes turned into bombs, leaving their employees and customers dead. In 2021, United Airlines unveiled a memorial garden for their crew who were killed.

These are solemn and appropriate responses from companies that can never fully escape the shadow of 9/11.

3. … but many don’t.

It’s OK to stay quiet about 9/11. For instance, let’s say you represent a clothing brand that appeals mostly to Gen Z — a generation who may not even have been born when 9/11 happened. You had no employees affected by the attacks.

You have nothing to gain by making a statement and much more to lose. It isn’t an event with personal meaning to your audience and it doesn’t affect how you conduct business.

Very few will notice if you remain silent — but many will notice if you get it wrong. Consider just taking the day off social media out of respect.

4. If you need to make a statement.

If you’ve weighed the benefits and the risks and decided you do need to make a public commemoration of 9/11 because it impacts your audience (American Millennials and older, especially those in New York, Washington, D.C., or Pennsylvania) or your business (think uninvolved airlines, security companies, those with headquarters in one of the attack sites), keep these things in mind:

• No branding
• No tie to sales in any way
• Keep it simple with just a few words of text
• Any imagery should avoid depicting the actual attacks. Don’t retraumatize viewers with photos of the fiery towers. Instead, use imagery of memorials, American flags and so on
• One post is sufficient

The bottom line: 9/11 is a commemoration of a day when nearly 3,000 ordinary Americans were killed while millions more watched in shock and sorrow. It isn’t a day to make a buck or build your brand. Be kind, be empathetic and consider being quiet.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post Before your brand posts on social about 9/11, read this appeared first on PR Daily.

There aren’t a ton of updates this week, but there are still some significant items on the list. Threads continues to beef up its offerings, YouTube and LinkedIn want to be TikTok, and X is adding some surprisingly good  analytics for premium subscribers.

Let’s get into it.

YouTube

TikTok Shop has become a popular way for consumers to buy the viral products they see touted in videos. YouTube wants a slice of that revenue pie. That’s why they’re investing more heavily into an affiliate shopping program in partnership with Shopify, including a Chrome extension to help creators make more money from the sales of products associated with videos, TechCrunch reports.

Threads

Threads is continuing to roll out plenty of new features to round out the app. This week, that includes a new media tab to keep a user’s video and photo content all in one place, similar to what you find on X.

Meta has also formally released the ability to cross-post content from both Instagram and Facebook to Threads. TechCrunch reports that Meta has, in the past, automatically suggested cross posts from one network to the next, but this move formalizes easy posting across the Meta family. Now, whether that’s a good community management practice or not is another story, but it’s something  you could do.

Finally, you can now tag Broadcast channels in Threads posts.

X

X  continues to revamp its analytics for subscribers, this time with some genuinely nifty tools that can help PR professionals, including keyword analytics over time and conversation velocity, so you can see whether the noise is picking up or slowing down.

TikTok

Tired of using the same two AI voices for your TikTok videos? You can now record your own robo voices  to create your own narrations. It’s an interesting opportunity to add some unique personality to  videos, while not having to custom narrate each video.

Instagram

In a throwback to the early days of social media, Instagram is giving you the opportunity to share the music they’re currently listening to their  profile. This may be an attempt to knock back against Nospace, an upstart competitor similar to Myspace.

LinkedIn

It’s time for a pivot to video. This time,  LinkedIn is leading the way, introducin a carousel of algorithmically chosen videos to populate user feeds. . Everyone  is trying to grab the eyeballs of short video watchers and this is LinkedIn’s latest attempt. If you aren’t using video on LinkedIn, this is the perfect time to give it a shot.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post New social media features and updates to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

This week, Instagram is shattering your aesthetic dreams and rivals Threads and X are both offering new analytics tools.  

It’s a busy week of updates – let’s get into it.

Instagram

Your carefully curated, aesthetically pleasing Instagram grid may be in danger. A new vertical grid that gets rid of the iconic square format is in testing.

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said that the squares are a vestige of an earlier age for the app and that “the vast majority” of content uploaded to Instagram today is vertical. It’s also likely a nod to the increasing importance of video, which is all vertical, for the app.

Mosseri noted that the change may be “annoying” for those who prefer to curate a perfect grid, and that he hopes to find a way to manage the change for everyone.

TikTok

TikTok is piloting a program to include Amber Alerts, which inform the public of missing and endangered children, on the For You page to maximize visibility. For now, the test is only in Texas. It’s a clever partnership that could help save children.

TikTok is also adding a number of new features to its DMs, further emphasizing the importance of person-to-person messaging on mass communication apps. The new additions include custom stickers and group chats of up to 32 people. These changes will enable groups to watch videos together and comment in real time. Group chats are not available for those age 13-15 and teens 16-17 will have additional restrictions.

YouTube

Shorts, YouTube’s answer to TikTok, have exploded in popularity the last few years. Now, YouTube is looking to mesh Shorts and its more traditional longer form content into one feed. While it’s only in the experimentation phase, the move underscores the importance the Short has taken on YouTube in a fairly, er, short period of time.

YouTube is also testing AI-generated summaries of Live chats. These are similar to summaries you may have seen on Facebook, drawing together the dominant themes of a chat. Given how quickly Live chats can move, this could help creators keep their finger on the pulse of conversations.

X

X is expanding the analytics available to Premium subscribers. Those willing to pay for a blue check mark can now view data on age, gender, country of origin and active times for their audience.

The app formerly known as Twitter has also released API capability for long form posts, which are also available only for Premium subscribers.

Threads

Threads is also expanding analytics options, though these are available to all users. Insights include views, replies, reposts and quotes, plus follower demographics.

As part of a new rollout of tools aimed directly at creators and businesses, users will also be able to save up to 100 drafts of posts and schedule content directly from Threads. Forward this news to a social media manager to make their day.

Meta

A number of ad campaign optimization updates are coming to Meta properties. These include:

• Additional testing of Conversion Value Rules, which allow advertisers to tell Meta the audiences that are more or less valuable to them.
• An opt-in setting that allows for the reporting of incremental conversions, or those that were nudged to completion by the ad.
• The ability to connect website analytics directly to Meta analytics using an API. Supported programs include Google Analytics and Northbeam.

All of these are still in the testing and experimentation phase.

And in a welcome move for agencies, you can now switch between 10 profiles in Meta Business Suite.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is beefing up its search capabilities, leaning heavily on AI in the process. The platform offers an unusually detailed description of how this works, but the bottom line is that it will reward content that answers the query, is well-written and how long people spend reading the post once they’ve found it.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post New social media features and updates to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

Usually, Rachel Parrish’s TikTok channel is stocked with videos about “What a publicist thinks” or behind-the-scenes at various events she attends as a sports marketer.

But early on the morning of July 15,  the PR professional and owner of Rae Christine Agency posted a video that was a little different. She was in Las Vegas for the NBA summer league and went out clubbing with a friend.  After eating a post-party breakfast, she began filming a video sharing her thoughts on fashion at the club.

@raechristine___ Don’t get me wrong I believe in being comfortable but I don’t think the club is the place for that #lasvegas #fyp #nightlife #clubbing ♬ original sound – Rae Christine

“(The video) was so outside of my niche,” Parrish told PR Daily. She admits that she broke her number one rule for merging personal and professional presences online: don’t act like you’re in the group chat. She assumed the video might be seen by a few hundred people and garner a few comments, max.

But the video she posted that Vegas morning has garnered 20 million views and 70,000 comments.

“I don’t know what’s happening to club culture, but the girlies are not wearing heels in the clubs anymore,” the now-infamous video starts. “And as a 34-year-old – I know I don’t look my age – but as a 34-year-old, do we need to come out of retirement and teach the girls how to wear heels?”

Later in the video, to prove her point, she reveals a full-body shot of her outfit. She looks like a woman who’s been out clubbing all night – makeup a bit worn away, eyelashes a bit off. She wears a bright green minidress from Fashion Nova and a pair of chunky white Michael Kors sandal heels.

While they do indeed have a tall heel, they maybe aren’t what you’d expect when you hear club shoes. They’re giving brunch. They’re giving church picnic. Maybe not flashy Vegas nightclub.

The internet immediately tore into Parrish, many of them attacking Parrish for her fashion sense, her quip about not looking her age and more.

Parrish is well-versed in social media crises and general nastiness. She helped launch the online brand of Jake from State Farm and was with the Chicago Red Stars after systematic abuse was revealed on the women’s soccer team.

But for the first time, she became the center of the controversy rather than the fixer.

This is how she navigated it.

Handling the comments

Parrish stopped reading the comments almost right away.

“I think I was uniquely prepared for an experience like this just because I have a very healthy boundary when it comes to social media and I recognized right away that people weren’t talking to a person. I quickly became ‘Green Dress Girl,’” she said. “And so, with that I didn’t take anything personally, but I did have to navigate that there was a narrative out there attached to me.”

But even as she protected herself from the vitriol, she still had to chart her next move.

To do that, she went through a checklist to determine whether or not this was a true crisis. The first item was asking what is the question here? Were they questioning her integrity or who she was as a person or was she part of a greater social commentary? The answer to that was no: they were stunting on her fashion sense. The second question was, are the people close to you offended by it? For Parrish, that meant her parents, her nieces and nephews on TikTok, her close friends. Again, the answer was no.

“So, then I knew my appropriate action just had to fall within knowing the science of social media and how to kind of navigate when the right time to respond was, understanding the nuance of people in responding and community management,” Parrish said.

Many commenters urged Parrish to delete her video, which can be a strong instinct in the midst of a social media crisis. But Parrish rejected that idea.

“I knew if I got rid of the video, even though it was out there, people would still be coming to my page and they would flood all the other good content that I have,” she said. “And then that would just be lost.”

So, Parrish kept the video up and bided her time.

The right moment

Parrish waited a full week to create a follow-up video. And there was a very specific reason for that.

She wanted to get paid.

In order to monetize a video on TikTok, you must have 10,000 followers. Parrish watched as her follower count grew from 3,100 to the required number.

“I would just like to at least get paid to get made fun of,” she joked. She now has nearly 45,000 followers.

When she did finally post her follow-up video, she went back to her core brand: “What a publicist thinks,” recentering who she truly is and what her channel stands for. She speaks without a script in the almost 6-minute-long video, the infamous green dress hanging from the wall behind her – an intentional choice to lean into the branding.

@raechristine___ I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it all, but I do want to thank people who have sent supportive messages! #girlinthegreendress #greendress #greendressgirl #girlinthegreendress ♬ original sound – Rae Christine

“When I come on screen and I say, ‘I’m Green Dress Girl,’ and you automatically see the green dress and the heels behind me, you have that that brand association,” she said. “Then it was just a little bit of playfulness. I’m not hiding it. I’m not afraid of it.”

In the video, Parrish restated who she was, what she did and worked to humanize herself beyond her meme status. She noted the support she’s had and that she’s weathered the criticism just fine. That many of the memes and videos were hilarious, even if some were hurtful.  But the comments on that video, which has 2 million views, were extremely positive.

“She’s an icon. She’s a legend. And she IS the moment!” the top comment crows.

“You’re a queen for coming back, I’d be hiding under a rock for 60 business days,” another reads.

The outcome

The intense attention has attracted media hits from around the world, including articles in USA Today and Newsweek. She was a guest on the TMZ podcast and has had interest in appearing on a talk show. Someone even wants to write a song about Green Dress Girl.

“Every day I open up my email and it’s something new and I say to my family, ‘I can’t believe this is real life,’” she said.

But the noise has begun to die down. Parrish’s channel has returned to her “What a publicist thinks” roots, with plenty of reactions to women’s sports at the Olympics.

“While this is a moment and obviously a defining moment within my brand, it’s not my full brand and I don’t want to be defined as Green Dress Girl,” she said. “I would love for people to define me as Rae Christine, who had a viral moment.”

For others who might have a viral moment, Parrish has some advice.

“If you find yourself as the main character of the day, take a breath first, and ask yourself what is at question here and after you have that answer, act accordingly. Also, try not to be the main character of the day,” she said with a laugh.

The post What a publicist thinks about weathering a viral controversy as ‘Green Dress Girl’ appeared first on PR Daily.

It’s  quieter  on the social media updates front this week, but there are still several beefy changes that are notable for social media managers and advertising pros.

Instagram in particular has several features either debuting or in testing which could have big impacts. And X is making a move that could make the comments section usable again.

Let’s get into it.

Instagram

Among Instagram’s most exciting new features is the  expansionsion  of its carousel image limit from 10 to 20. While some are gloomily saying this new age of the uncurated “photo dump” could lead to the demise of the carousel altogether, it offers tons of new options for brand social media managers. Just choose your images wisely.

IG is also in the testing phase for several other features, including one that will look very familiar to Snapchat users. Instagram is experimenting with a map posting scheme similar to Snap Map, which allows users to post images and text on, well, a map that shows where those photos were taken. Unlike the Snapchat version, the Instagram feature requires users to select a smaller group of people to share their maps with, such as close friends or mutual followers.

In a privacy-oriented move, Instagram is tinkering with a feature that would allow users to bar people  from taking screenshots of stories and other single-view media on the app.

Snap

Meanwhile, Snap has introduced what it calls “significant changes” to ad objectives. The newly streamlined objectives include:

• Awareness & Engagement
• Traffic
• Leads
• App Promotion
• Sales

Old objectives will be available during a slow phase-out period, eventually disappearing altogether in mid-September.

YouTube

This social media roundup  wouldn’t be complete without an AI mention, so here’s your obligatory update: YouTube is deepening its integration with Google’s Gemini AI model via YouTube Studio, allowing creators to use Gemini from within the platform to help outline, name and even generate thumbnails for content. While this could help boost watch rates, be on the lookout for AI creating an overly homogenous look across creators. Stand out and don’t forget what makes your brand shine, even as you learn from the wisdom of machines.

X

X is now offering three different options for sorting responses to posts: most relevant replies (the default, whatever the algorithm deems “relevant”), most liked replies or most recent replies.

This is a helpful change, as some have noted reading comments on high-traffic X posts has become less useful as Premium subscribers who’ve  paid for the privilege of appearing first get the most play, rather than those who are most interesting, witty or notable. This could revitalize the comment community on X.

Facebook

Facebook is allowing some leniency for rulebreakers. Now, for those violating a rule for the first time (or the first time within a year), they’ll be eligible to take an online education course about the infraction they’ve committed. After completion, the warning will be removed from their accounts.

If they keep their records clean for a full year after the first incident, their slate will be wiped clean, and they can complete the course again on any subsequent violations. However, if they break the same rule again within 365 days, they’ll receive an unremovable warning.

TikTok

TikTok is making it easier than ever before to make purchases from within the app by partnering with Amazon. Now, users can link their accounts together so that when they see recommended products from Amazon, they can purchase them without leaving TikTok, all while using their existing Amazon credentials. It’s another way to reduce purchase friction and beef up the shopping experience that’s becoming an increasingly important part of the TikTok portfolio.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is expanding newsletter sponsorships beyond company newsletters and into user-generated editions. The sponsorships will be part of LinkedIn’s Thought Leader Ad program, and users will have to approve the ad before it runs. This is an intriguing addition for executive communicators. While it can be advantageous to have a newsletter from your company, the personal touch of having a newsletter from your CEO or an influencer can be powerful, too.

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post New social media features and updates to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

This week, social media platforms prepared for the election in the United States, recalibrated their AI efforts and leaned into new verification options. There are also some overarching trends to keep your eye on, ranging from opting out of political content and the blurring of social media and AI.

Read on to see what’s new this week.

Instagram

We’ve reported for the last few weeks on expansion of Instagram’s Notes function – the ability for friends or mutual followers to add a brief blurb to a Reel.

Instagram is now testing a separate Notes tab, which would allow users  to scroll through all Reels which have a Note attached. It’s a sign that Instagram is bullish on the feature and willing to give valuable real estate to help people seek them out.

Reddit

Reddit announced a series of initiatives and platform tweaks to help combat mis- and disinformation related to the upcoming U.S. election. Many of these are standard: reiterating moderation standards, mentioning the use of AI tools for removing disinformation at scale and detecting the use of deepfakes, and adding voter registration links.

But the most notable announcement is the ability to opt out of “political and activism-related” ads. This is a far cry from Instagram and Threads automatically opting users out of seeing any kind of suggested political content, but it’s still a notable step for a site that can have plenty of spicy political activity.

Threads

Speaking of Threads, the Meta-owned app celebrated a significant milestone this week, crossing the 200 million total users mark just 13 months after its release. As we’ve covered in the past, Threads still has a long way to go to reach even its nearest rival in terms of regular daily or monthly active users. But 200 million users is a huge accomplishment and certainly nothing to sneeze at.

And Threads continues to roll out interesting new features. This week, that includes a new blue label that will appear above posts related to a trending topic, allowing users to tap on the label to read  related posts. It’s another way to draw users in and create a sense of real-time community – or it can help you figure out what on earth is happening.

TikTok

TikTok is following in the steps of both Instagram and YouTube by finally allowing creators to customize their own thumbnails. Previously, users were limited to using only still shots from their video , but now they’ll be able to create something that might better catch scrolling users’ eyes. This is an  opportunity for brands and creators  to optimize thumbnails and maximize views.

The clock app has also formally killed off its Lite Rewards program to comply with European Union law. The program had previously been paused after concerns that it encouraged addiction and overuse among children by rewarding them for watching content, following creators and more. The move is yet another sign of how the EU is flexing its powerful enforcement muscles, grown even stronger by the passage of the Digital Services Act..

LinkedIn

In a move that’s sure to excite B2B marketers, LinkedIn is now rolling out verification badges for company pages. Currently only a few companies will be able to verify, but a larger rollout is expected in the future.

It’s unclear exactly how the verification process will work, but LinkedIn said:

Multiple factors are taken into consideration when determining if a Page is verified. Factors may include, but are not limited to:

• Accuracy of certain data points on the Page (example: location, website URL)
• Active Page admin presence
• Page is claimed (not a Listing Page)
• Compliance with LinkedIn policies

Meta

Meta is backing away from its “who really asked for this?” AI celebrity chatbots, announcing  the feature will be sunset. It turns out people weren’t really that interested in chatting with digital versions of Tom Brady and Paris Hilton.

But Meta is considering spinning off that concept in two separate directions: celebrities and AI characters. Just not together.

The social media giant is reportedly in talks with celebrities as diverse as Dame Judi Dench, Awkwafina and Keegan-Michael Key to lend their voices to voiced generative AI. It’s important to note that none of these deals are yet inked, but it shows Meta’s focus on helping ease people into new technologies using familiar voices from popular people.

Meta is also allowing regular people and creators to make their own AI characters. As Meta describes it:

You can use a wide variety of prompt templates or start from scratch to make an AI that teaches you how to cook, helps you with your Instagram captions, generates memes to make your friends laugh – the possibilities are endless. Your AI can be just for you, or you can share it with your followers and friends, and even make it available for anyone to discover and chat with on Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and web.

It seems this is  a new spin on creating custom GPTs, just in a way that’s more accessible and user-friendly way.

Overall, however, this continues to demonstrate just how many eggs Meta is putting in its AI basket. It’s moving far beyond being purely a social media company and trying to bring the two worlds together. Will it succeed?

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on X or LinkedIn.

The post New social media features and updates to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.

The 2024 Social Media, Digital & Content Marketing Awards spotlighted the hidden stars and talent behind impressive social and content marketing campaigns to showcase their work and honor professionals in a range of categories, from Best Social Media Campaign to Digital Community Engagement.

PR Daily hosted an awards gala on August 1, where attendees were excited to gather and celebrate fellow social and content marketing luminaries. We applaud the agencies, leaders and campaigns that made the most impact across platforms and industries.

“While the digital and social media landscapes are always in flux, these winning campaigns prove that engagement, education and brand visibility still have the power to help organizations cut through the noise,” says Diane Schwartz, CEO of Ragan Communications and PR Daily.

In their acceptance speeches, honorees were asked to answer one of several prompts, including what motto propelled them to success and what a musical of their efforts would be called.

“Our motto for this effort was survive and advance,” said Blayne Beal senior executive director for the office of the president at Texas Tech University. “When you’re undertaking the largest marketing campaign in the history of an institution, you need to focus on the larger goals at hand. With all the work that went into our efforts, if I had to name our campaign a musical, it would be ‘Thank God It Only Happens Once.'”

Ragan and PR Daily congratulate this trailblazing group of social stars. Read on to see the full list of honorees.

Click these links to jump to each section.

PR Daily Social Media & Digital Awards

Finalists: Grand Prize

Agency of the Year • Campaign of the Year • Team of the Year

Finalists: Campaigns and Categories

Annual Report • Blog • Brand Awareness • Cause Marketing • Collaborative Social Media Communications • Community Engagement • Content Marketing • Crisis Management • CSR/ESG Communications • Digital Community Engagement • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Campaign • Edutainment • Employee Engagement • Employer Branding • Healthcare Marketing Campaign • Influencer Campaign • Instagram • Interactive Content • Intranet • LinkedIn • Livestream • Marketing Campaign • Media Relations Campaign • Metaverse • Micro-Influencer Campaign • Mobile App • Multichannel Campaign • Paid Social Media Campaign • Podcast • Public Relations Campaign • SEO Strategy • Short-Form Video • Social Listening and Real-Time Response • Social Media Campaign • Specialty Campaign • Thought Leadership Campaign • TikTok • Twitter/X • Use of AI • User Generated Content • Video • Visual Storytelling • Website Redesign or Relaunch • Wellness Campaign

Grand Prize

Agency of the Year

CCOMGROUP INC.

IW Group

Campaign of the Year

Hulu: Only Murders in the Building S3 Social Campaign

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan: Blue Cross Virtual Well-Being Bohemian Rhapsody

Factory PR: Repreve’s YOY Growth on Instagram and TikTok

Fight or Flight: Accounts Deceivable

HUGO BOSS: BOSS x NFL

Nemours Children’s Health: Well Beyond Medicine Podcast

SAG-AFTRA

Team of the Year

Torc Robotics: Torc Robotics Social Media Team

Citizens: Citizens Enterprise Social Media and Content Strategy Team

Daversa Partners: Daversa Partners’ Marketing & Communications Team

Hulu – The Walt Disney Company: Hulu Social & Influencer Marketing

SCAD: SCAD Social Media & International Marketing Team

Campaigns and Categories

Annual Report

Link Logistics: 2022 ESG Report

Hampton University: HU Annual Report 2022 – 2023

iQ 360: Hawaiian Electric Industries’ 2022 ESG Report

Blog

The Hoffman Agency: Making Synopsys Discoverable in the Digital Media Era

ACTwireless: ACTwireless Blog

Cisco: WeAreCisco

Maryland Department of Commerce: Showcasing Maryland’s Business Community

Molson Coors Beverage Company: Beer & Beyond

WestEd: WestEd Communications

Brand Awareness

Fight or Flight: Accounts Deceivable

IMA Financial Group: OneIMA: Building the Broker of the Future

JBL Harman Industries: JBL Authentics Launch Campaign

Sela x Newcastle United: We’re Back

Torc Robotics: Torc Robotics Social Media Team

Cause Marketing

Grant Thornton: Purple Paladin Campaign

1Milk2Sugars: TUMS x Second Harvest

Embecta: 2023 World Diabetes Day Campaign | Celebrating 100 Years of Impact

Intention.ly: Campaign for Savvy Ladies: Breaking the Money Silence Through a Gala with a Social Mission

Collaborative Social Media Communications

IMA Financial Group: IMA HoloLens

Cisco: Cisco’s Social Media Campaign for Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo

Citizens: Live from the Citizens Cheer Zone

Dallas Independent School District: Dallas ISD Grad Goals

Penn State University: Penn State Social Media Team

Tenable: Cloud Nine Collaboration: Tenable Cloud Security on Social Media

Vanderbilt University: Welcome Week 2023

Community Engagement

Community X SEEN: COMMUNITY X SEEN – US Launch

Altura Credit Union: Altura Cares

Content Marketing

Daversa Partners: Daversa Partners’ Marketing & Communications Team

Avison Young: Data Bites

BackBay Communications for IMPACT Community Capital: IMPACT Community Capital’s 25th Anniversary Campaign

GKV: Soli Organic 2023 Social Media

VyStar Credit Union: Follow Friday

Crisis Management

The Explorers Club: Titan Search and Rescue

Aqua & Vault Communications: Aqua – Delaware River Chemical Spill Crisis Response Plan

Conway Regional Health System: Insurance Payor Negotiations

CSR/ESG Communications

Adtalem Global Education: Bridging the Gap

TEAM LEWIS Foundation: TEAM LEWIS Foundation: Making a Global Impact, One Local Cause at a Time

Digital Community Engagement

Edelman on behalf of Dove: Dove Community Management Team

PAN Communications: Unlocking Overlooked Markets: Enthought’s Integrated & Agile Approach to Webinar Engagement

Telemundo: Viva Engage Internal Awareness Campaign

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Campaign

HUNTER: Listerine Addresses Diversity in Dentistry with The Whoa Collection

Johnnie Walker: Johnnie Walker “Watch Women’s Sports” Campaign

Visit Philadelphia: Visit Philadelphia | Drag Queen Story Time

Edutainment

CCOMGROUP: Neutrogena Edu-tains During National Healthy Skin Month

Conway Regional Health System: Barbie Breast Cancer Awareness

Fight or Flight: Accounts Deceivable

Employee Engagement

Mastercard: The Mastercard Way Carpool Sessions

Endo: Championing Engagement Excellence: Endo’s Values-Based Data-Driven Journey

IMA Financial Group: Championing Connection: Elevating Workplace Engagement at IMA

MMC & Pfizer Rare Disease: Unifying Pfizer Rare During Times of Change

Telemundo: Viva Engage Internal Awareness Campaign

Tenable: Collaborative Engagement at Tenable: Unleashing Potential by Prioritizing Our People

Employer Branding

Cisco: 2023 #LoveWhereYouWork Contest

Citizens: Employee Advocacy

BorgWarner: BorgWarner: Charging Forward on LinkedIn

National Tank Truck Carriers: See Yourself in a Tank Truck

PCL Construction: I Choose PCL: A Fortune 100 Success Story

Tenable: Team Tenable Wins Together: Workplace and Culture Awards Framework

Healthcare Marketing Campaign

Sanofi and Ruder Finn: Launching The 1 Pledge Movement

Adtalem Global Education: Equity, Delivered

Conway Regional Health System: Barbie Breast Cancer Awareness

MOLLI Surgical: MOLLI Surgical

Mount Carmel Health System: Mount Carmel Health System Bariatrics Marketing

Mount Carmel Health System: Mount Carmel Health System Primary Care Marketing

Northwell Health // Revmade: The Well by Northwell Health, with Revmade

Smarty Social Media: #myOPRAjourney – Limb Loss Awareness Month Social Campaign

Influencer Campaign

HUNTER: TABASCO Brand x TINX Normalize Hot Sauce As Dressing

Sanofi and Ruder Finn: Launching The 1 Pledge Movement

Ad Council: Elena Havas-Taylor

Brandon: An Idahoan Thanksgiving

CCOMGROUP: COACHELLA by Neutrogena

Ifaw: #DisasterReady

KWT Global: Rewriting the Rules with Lovesac

Red Robin: Burgertini

Westchester County Tourism: Westchester: A Story to Tell

Instagram

PepsiCo Beverages North America: What Makes Us POP (@PeopleOfPepsi)

Visit Philadelphia: Come for Philadelphia. Stay for Philly.

Cisco: WeAreCisco

Life Inside Dropbox: People Behind the Products

Merz Aesthetics: Global Social Media at Merz Aesthetics

San Manuel Band of Mission Indians: Yaamava’ Resort & Casino Social Media Team

SCAD: SCAD Instagram

Sun City Hilton Head: Sun City Hilton Head Instagram

Interactive Content

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan: Blue Cross Virtual Well-Being Bohemian Rhapsody

Fight or Flight for Frontify: Real or Not Real

Visit Philadelphia: Visit Philadelphia Date Filtering

Intranet

The New York Times: At The Times Intranet

Endo: Championing Engagement Excellence: Endo’s Values-Based Data-Driven Journey

Link Logistics: The Link

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals: “RON” Intranet Transformation

LinkedIn

BorgWarner: BorgWarner: Charging Forward on LinkedIn

Bristol Myers Squibb: Bristol Myers Squibb LinkedIn Live Event

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan: Daniel J. Loepp LinkedIn Presence

Link Logistics: LinkedIn Brand Presence

PAN Communications: Ware2Go: Shaping the Future of Fulfillment

Trellix: Trellix Advanced Research Center Newsletter

Livestream

Citizens: Live from the Citizens Cheer Zone

Marketing Campaign

Aggreko: Demystifying New Technologies

HUNTER: Kelis Partners With LACTAID to Get You to Drink Real Dairy

Link Logistics: Link+

Manulife Group Retirement Services: Say Goodbye to Paper Campaign

Material: Material-ABM EV Answers Marketing Campaign

Peraton: Invisible War

Media Relations Campaign

Sanofi and Ruder Finn: Launching The 1 Pledge Movement

KWT Global: IRONMAN World Championship

PAN Communications: Taking Jobber From Series D to Media Domination

PAN Communications: Venti Technologies: The Race Towards Self-Driving Success

Red Banyan: Philly Stands With Israel

The Lewis Pugh Foundation: Hudson Swim 2023

The Permanente Federation: Kaiser Permanente Advanced Care at Home Media Campaign

Metaverse

Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey: Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey Art, Beats + Lyrics “The Verse”

Micro-Influencer Campaign

SkipTheDishes: #SkipSquad

IPSY: Glam-O-Ween

Visit Philadelphia: Visit Philadelphia + Philly Mom

Mobile App

Sprout Social: Sprout Social Mobile Application

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: “Talk. They Hear You.” Mobile App

Multichannel Campaign

SAG-AFTRA: SAG-AFTRA

City of Miami Beach Marketing and Communications: “Find Your Wave”

Office of Legacy Management: Twenty Years of Legacy Management

Paid Social Media Campaign

Masonite: Masonite Performance Door System Paid Social Media Campaign

Advocate Health: On Demand Care: Reaching the right audiences with the care they need, when they need it

Aggreko: Demystifying New Technologies

Cisco: Cisco at RSAC 2023

ClickFunnels: Funnel Hacking Live

HOW Agency: HOW x Galanz

Novitas Communications: Vote No on Rent Control Digital Campaign

Smarty Social Media: Igniting Patient Demand for Innovative Bunion Surgery

Podcast

Fight or Flight: Accounts Deceivable

Nemours Children’s Health: Well Beyond Medicine Podcast

Union Station Homeless Services: Changing the Narrative About Homelessness

WestEd: WestEd Communications

Public Relations Campaign

Inizio Evoke Comms: Gr8 Eye Movement Campaign: Bringing Eye Health Into Focus

HUGO BOSS: BOSS x NFL

JBL Harman Industries: JBL Authentics Launch Campaign

Madame Tussauds Las Vegas: Madame Tussauds Las Vegas Reveals First Ever Travis Barker Wax Figure

SEO Strategy

UC Davis Health: Cultivating Health Blog SEO Strategy

The Hoffman Agency: Making Synopsys Discoverable in the Digital Media Era

Short-Form Video

HUNTER: Kelis Partners With LACTAID to Get You to Drink Real Dairy

Material: Material-Chuck E. Cheese Video Submission

Advocate Health: Connecting with our Communities with Impactful Patient Stories

Aggreko: Aggreko Named Official Temporary Power Partner of the Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2023

AHIP: AHIP Mission Video

Citizens: Small Business Community Champions Video Series

Hampton University: School of Religion Launch

Life Inside Dropbox: People Behind the Products

Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery: We Are Neurointervention

Social Listening and Real-Time Response

The North Face: The North Face Turns Viral Customer Video Into Community Management Win

Advocate Health: Using Social Media to Create a Safe Harbor in Health Care

American Dental Association: ADA Surprise and Delight Program

Edelman on behalf of Dove: Dove Community Management Team

US Postal Service: The World’s Largest Focus Group: applying social data enterprise-wide

Social Media Campaign

AZIONE: HOKA Fly Human Fly Campaign

Cisco: Cisco Live

Great Clips: Back-to-School

IW Group: They’re Just Ken: Ryan Gosling Gifts BTS’ Jimin Ken’s Guitar

Life Inside Dropbox: People Behind the Products

The Lewis Pugh Foundation: Hudson Swim 2023

WestEd: WestEd Communications

Specialty Campaign

TEAM LEWIS: TEAM LEWIS x Palo Alto Networks: “PTO with Palo Alto Networks”

IW Group: They’re Just Ken: Ryan Gosling Gifts BTS’ Jimin Ken’s Guitar

Lincoln Financial: Start Asking Campaign

Thought Leadership Campaign

PAN Communications: Qualtrics: The Making of a Category Leader

Daversa Partners: Daversa Partners’ Marketing & Communications Team

Ivanti: Ivanti CSAM

TikTok

HUNTER: TABASCO Brand x TINX Normalize Hot Sauce As Dressing

Cherokee Nation: Cherokee Nation Social Media Team

Factory PR: Repreve’s YOY Growth on Instagram and TikTok

KWT Global: How Illumina Created #GenomicsTok

National Pest Management Association & Vault Communications: National Pest Management Association’s

@PestWorld Channel: Taking Over Bug TikTok by Swarm

Twitter/X

BorgWarner: The Borg-Warner Trophy Speaks to Racing Fans

Use of AI

Northwell Health // Revmade: The Well by Northwell Health, with Revmade

PCL Construction: PCL Construction’s AI-Mazing April Fools Day Prank

User Generated Content

Penn State University: Penn State Social Media Team

Jive PR + Digital: DSW UGC Campaign

Tenable: Unleashing the Power of People: Tenable’s Trailblazing Journey with Employee-Generated Content

Video

City of Miami Beach Marketing and Communications: “Find Your Wave”

Aggreko: Aggreko Named Official Temporary Power Partner of the Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2023

Caption Design: Supermajority’s Advocacy 101 Video Series

Jefferson Health: Jefferson Health Multimedia Team

Roman Catholic Diocese of Austin: 75th Anniversary

TEAM LEWIS: TEAM LEWIS x Palo Alto Networks: Cybersecurity Tools to Fortify Your Digital Life

Tulane University: Parade of Possibilities

Utah Valley University: Wolverine Stories

Visual Storytelling

Hancock Whitney: “NO” is a Beautiful Thing

Lesser, Lesser, Landy & Smith: Nearly a Century of Service

St. Ann’s Community: Celebrating 150 Years of Caring for the Most Important People on Earth

TEAM LEWIS: TEAM LEWIS x Palo Alto Networks: Cybersecurity Tools to Fortify Your Digital Life

The Lewis Pugh Foundation: Hudson Swim 2023

Website Redesign or Relaunch

AHIP: Modern Medicaid Alliance Website Redesign

American Association for Debt Resolution: AADR Rebrand

CARF International: CARF International Website Redesign

Material: Material-The Presidio Website Redesign

Saint Ignatius College Prep: Saint Ignatius College Prep

Wellness Campaign

Be the Change Group: The Proof (BC Cancer Alcohol Awareness Campaign)

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee: BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee WellTuned Blog – Quick “tune-ups” for your health

Thorne: Thorne – Build to Last

PR DAILY CONTENT MARKETING AWARDS

Click these links to jump to each section.

Finalists: Grand Prize

Campaign of the Year • Strategy of the Year • Team of the Year

Finalists: Content Marketing Campaigns

B2B Campaign • Campaign for Educational Institution • DE&I Communications • Editorial Strategy • Executive Visibility • Healthcare Campaign • Influencer Marketing • Integrated Content Marketing • Media Relations Campaign • Product Launch • Public Health Campaign • Purpose-Driven Campaign • Technology Campaign • Thought Leadership Campaign • Travel, Hospitality and Tourism Campaign

Finalists: Content Marketing for the Purpose of

Brand Awareness • Employee Engagement • Executive Communications • Lead Generation • Talent Recruitment or Retention

Finalists: Content Marketing Strategy & Assets

Annual Report • Article or Series • Brand Journalism/Online Newsroom • Branded Content Series • Branded Content Site • Branded Podcast • Content Distribution Strategy • Corporate Blog • E-Newsletter • Event • Innovative Use of Content • Long-Form Video • Microsite • Multiplatform/Omnichannel Content • Overall Use of Video • Publication • Short-Form Video • Use of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning • Use of Research/Surveys • Use of SEO • Use of Social Media • Use of White Paper/Special Report • Video Series

GRAND PRIZE

Campaign of the Year

National Geographic: JFK: One Day in America

Delta Dental of California: Taking Menopause from a Whisper to a Shout: The Overlooked Oral Health Connection

Hulu: Only Murders in the Building Season 3

Opera Norway: Tabfulness Campaign

SEGA of America: SEGA’s “Sonic Superstars” Brings a Fresh Spin to Classic 2D Sonic the Hedgehog in a Brand-New High-Speed Adventure

Texas Tech University: Eyes on the Horizon: Texas Tech University Centennial Campaign

Zumba Fitness: Zumba Responsibly

Strategy of the Year

Delta Dental of California: Taking Menopause from a Whisper to a Shout: The Overlooked Oral Health Connection

ABB: Infrastructure Campaign

IMA Financial Group: IMA Content stack

Motorcycle Safety Foundation: 50 Years of Riding with the Motorcycle Safety Foundation

Team of the Year

ServiceNow: Brand Thought Leadership

Beacon Digital Marketing: Content & SEO

Daversa Partners: Marketing & Communications Team

IMA Financial Group: IMA Financial Group Marketing Team

National Geographic: National Geographic PR Team

CONTENT MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

B2B Campaign

ABB: Infrastructure Campaign

Aggreko: Demystifying New Technologies

GM Defense: Modernizing Military Mobility

Raistone: 2023 Content Marketing Strategy

Campaign for Educational Institution

Texas Tech University: Eyes on the Horizon: Texas Tech University Centennial Campaign

Lee Andrews Group: Pope Valley Unified Crisis Communications

Milton Hershey School: The Unique Philanthropist: 100th Anniversary Campaign

Purdue Global: Purdue Global Comeback Campaign

DE&I Communications

Hensel Phelps: Building Together

Experience Columbus: Experience Columbus’ Minority Business Program

Editorial Strategy

IMA Financial Group: P&C Insurance Content Stack

ServiceNow: Brand Thought Leadership

Executive Visibility

Delta Dental of California: Taking Menopause from a Whisper to a Shout: The Overlooked Oral Health Connection

Coca-Cola Consolidated: Fostering Connection & Engagement with Executive Leadership

Healthcare Campaign

Sanofi and Ruder Finn: Launching The 1 Pledge Movement

Abiomed: Tiny but Mighty: World’s Smallest Heart Pump Makes Huge Difference in Heart Health Awareness

Delta Dental of California: Taking Menopause from a Whisper to a Shout: The Overlooked Oral Health Connection

Medical University of South Carolina: MUSC Bicentennial Documentary

Influencer Marketing

American Cleaning Institute: Class of Clean: Parents Weekend

9Rooftops: PA Lottery Makes the Holidays Festive with Holiday Scratch-Off Tickets

Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits: Yellow Tail Fresh Twist Influencer Campaign

RTX: How the World’s Most Powerful Fighter Jet Engine is Made

Sanofi and Ruder Finn: Launching The 1 Pledge Movement

Integrated Content Marketing

Texas Tech University: Eyes on the Horizon: Texas Tech University Centennial Campaign

ABB: Infrastructure Campaign

Circana: Circana Complete Beauty

El Pollo Loco: 12 Days of Pollo

Philip Morris International: Philip Morris International – Rethink Disruption

The Permanente Federation: The Permanente Federation, Kaiser Permanente Advanced Care at Home Integrated Content Marketing Campaign

Traackr & Changemaker Communications: Traackr’s Top Beauty Creators 2023

Media Relations Campaign

Delta Dental of California: Taking Menopause from a Whisper to a Shout: The Overlooked Oral Health Connection

Miami University: What are the odds? Same room assignment 33 years apart.

Nikon: Nikon Small Word 2023

SEGA of America: SEGA’s “Sonic Superstars” Brings a Fresh Spin to Classic 2D Sonic the Hedgehog in a Brand-New High-Speed Adventure

WagerWire: Creating Movement: HPL & WagerWire

Product Launch

Aggreko: Demystifying New Technologies

Opera: Opera One Launch

Public Health Campaign

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): “Talk. They Hear You.” Campaign

Delta Dental of California: Taking Menopause from a Whisper to a Shout: The Overlooked Oral Health Connection

Initium Health: Strong as Granite

Purpose-Driven Campaign

Muscular Dystrophy Association: Accessible Air Travel

Call of Duty Endowment: Loot for Good

ESPN: ESPN’s Wish Granting

Milton Hershey School: The Unique Philanthropist: 100th Anniversary Campaign

Nutrien: Conversations Campaign

Technology Campaign

The Hoffman Agency: Supercharging Lightship’s Momentum with Aerodynamic Storytelling

ABB: Infrastructure Campaign

Quantum Xchange: Tales From the Crypto

Thought Leadership Campaign

Manulife: Health Insights Reports

Delta Dental of California: Taking Menopause from a Whisper to a Shout: The Overlooked Oral Health Connection

Exos: Finding Flow campaign

INFUSEmedia: Outlook 2024

PA Consulting: Healthier at Home

Travel, Hospitality and Tourism Campaign

REYA Communications: Neiman Marcus Fantasy Gifts Featuring Pelorus

Outside: Adventure Under the Radar in South Dakota

The Lake House on Canandaigua: Shine Bright: A Solar Eclipse Spectacle for The Lake House on Canandaigua

CONTENT MARKETING FOR THE PURPOSE OF

Content Marketing for the Purpose of Brand Awareness

Journey Further: Putting the Sizzle Back in Sizzler

AARP: Right Again! Trivia

Aggreko: Demystifying New Technologies

Delta Dental of California: Taking Menopause from a Whisper to a Shout: The Overlooked Oral Health Connection

FORTUNE Brand Studio and JBS USA: Creating lasting change in hometown communities

Just Drive Media: RingCentral

Prime Video: Reacher Action Figure Stunt

Milton Hershey School: The Unique Philanthropist: 100th Anniversary Campaign

Purdue Global: Purdue Global Comeback Campaign

SIX: Relaunch SIX Blog

Texas Tech University: Eyes on the Horizon: Texas Tech University Centennial Campaign

Content Marketing for the Purpose of Employee Engagement

BMO Financial Group: Financial Crimes Unit, Cyber Security Awareness Month

Korn Ferry: Be More Than

Lamb Weston: Purpose, Mission & Values

UC Davis Health: Believe in Better Brand Campaign Internal Launch

Content Marketing for the Purpose of Executive Communications

Children’s Health: Children’s Health Engages Team Members with Custom Communications Plan for Industry-Leading Nursing Award

Hulu: Hulu Executive Communications Campaign

Content Marketing for the Purpose of Lead Generation

Lincoln Financial Group: Market Intel Exchange Quarterly Report

Daversa Partners: Marketing & Communications Team

Content Marketing for the Purpose of Talent Recruitment or Retention

IMA Financial Group: Culture Catalysts: Building the Broker of the Future

Perituza Software Solutions: Where Innovation, Team Culture, and Giving Back Meet

CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY & ASSETS

Annual Report

Army & Air Force Exchange Service: Annual report

Aspire Indiana Health: 2023 Annual Report

Novant Health: 2022 Annual Report

Article or Series

Daversa Partners: Marketing & Communications Team

University of Illinois System: Real Impact: University of Illinois System

Vizient: Spotlight on Maternal Health

Brand Journalism/Online Newsroom

Rowan University Content Team: Recruitment Marketing

Porter Novelli for Microsoft Source: Microsoft Source

Branded Content Series (Print or Digital)

Providence: Mental Health Moment

MissionSquare Retirement: MissionSquare Retirement Content  Marketing

Purdue Global: Purdue Global Comeback Campaign

Purdue University: Purdue Motorsports Engineering Partnership

ServiceNow: Brand Thought Leadership

Branded Content Site

Porter Novelli for Microsoft Source: Microsoft Source

White Lady Funerals: White Lady Funerals – Brand Reposition

Branded Podcast

Nemours Children’s Health: Well Beyond Medicine Podcast

Ametros: It’s Settled-The Ametros Podcast

Buildertrend: “The Building Code” Podcast

Circana: Circana Growth Insights

Korn Ferry: Korn Ferry Briefings Podcast

Content Distribution Strategy

Purdue University: Purdue Motorsports Engineering Partnership

Eaton Corporation: Advocacy at scale

Purdue University: Purdue’s Mark on the Indianapolis 500

Corporate Blog

ServiceNow: Brand Thought Leadership

Cisco: WeAreCisco Blog

iQ 360: iQ 360 Blog

SIX: Relaunch SIX Blog

E-Newsletter

Aggreko: Demystifying New Technologies

Broward County Library: Senior Spotlight eNewsletter

Peppercomm: Peppercomm’s Wit + Wisdom Newsletter

Teladoc Health: Teladoc Health Chronic Condition Management Newsletter

Event (Live or Virtual)

Sanofi and Ruder Finn: Launching The 1 Pledge Movement

CeraVe: CeraVe Acne Academy

Children’s Health: Children’s Health 2023 Beyond ABC Report and Symposium Spurs Action for Youth Mental Health Crisis

Circana: Circana Growth Summit

IMA Financial Group: Putting People First: IMA’s Employee Benefits Summit Champions Human-Centric Content

Prime Video: Reacher Action Figure Stunt

PayIt: 2023 Digital Government Excellence Symposium

runDallas: HCK2 Partners

Ubisoft: Skull and Bones ‘Impress The Kingpin’ Activation

Innovative Use of Content

ABB: Infrastructure Campaign

imre: STIHL Weather-Based Social Targeting

Quantum Xchange: Tales From the Crypto

Long-Form Video

William Grant & Sons: Quest for Craft

9Rooftops: Greatness Grown

Feed Media: Industry videos

Medical University of South Carolina: MUSC Bicentennial Documentary

Microsite

ABB: Infrastructure Campaign

IMA Financial Group: IMA Client Microsite

Multiplatform/Omnichannel Content

St. Croix Hospice: Celebrating National Hospice & Palliative Care Month

Atrium Health: MoMo Twins

Lee Andrews Group: Driving Inclusivity: Branding and Empowering the Access for All Initiative

Overall Use of Video

Philip Morris International: Philip Morris International – Future Reimagined

Aspire Indiana Health: CEO retirement video

Opera Norway: Tabfulness Campaign

Purdue Global: Purdue Global/AP Video Hub – Campus Insights

Publication (Print or Digital)

UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center: Synthesis magazine, Summer 2023

The Content(ed) Copywriter: Cicada x Tech23 Insights Report

World Vision U.S.: World Vision magazine

Short-Form Video

FORTUNE Brand Studio and JBS USA: Creating lasting change in hometown communities

ABB: Infrastructure Campaign

Aggreko: Demystifying New Technologies

Aptive Environmental: This or This Commercial

Flagler College: WFCF 30th Anniversary

Opera Norway: Tabfulness Campaign

Purdue University: All Hail Purdue!

Use of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning

imre: STIHL Weather-Based Social Targeting

Jacksonville Jaguars: Duuuval Designs

IMA Financial Group: Capturing Targeted Audiences Through Clear Visual Identity

IMA Financial Group: Leveraging AI: Prompt Prose and the AskIMA Initiative

Noisy Trumpet Communications: San Antonio Museum of Art “Still Brewing Art”

Purdue University: Semiconductor Campus Illustration

Use of Research/Surveys

Revenue Management Solutions: Restaurant Trends (monthly report)

Digital Third Coast: America’s Changing Views on Marriage: Research and Survey-Based Media Relations Campaign

Opera GX: Panic Button

ServiceNow: Brand Thought Leadership

SIX: The Future of Finance Study

The Harbinger Group: Leveraging Survey Insights to Strengthen RevSpring’s Industry Expertise

Use of SEO

SIX: Relaunch SIX Blog

Digital Third Coast: Sober Curious Nation: SEO Link Building Campaign

UC Davis Health: Cultivating Health Blog SEO

Use of Social Media

Cisco: Cisco Live

ABB: Infrastructure Campaign

Aggreko: Demystifying New Technologies

AHIP: Social Content Strategy Refresh

Army & Air Force Exchange Service: Expanded Patronage

BERNINA of America: BERNINA 790 PRO Launch

Hallmark Media: The Way Home Season 2

Philip Morris International: Philip Morris International – Best Use of Social Media (LinkedIn)

Use of White Paper/Special Report

Manulife: Health Insights ADHD

SIX: The Future of Finance Study

Video Series

Room to Read: She Creates Change

9Rooftops: Greatness Grown

Buildertrend: Behind the Business

Destination Cleveland: The Land for Life Storytelling Project

Peoples Gas System: People of Peoples Gas

William Grant & Sons: Quest for Craft

For more information on our winners, check out the Social Media & Digital Awards and Content Marketing Awards pages.

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This week brings some creative new tweaks to social media’s biggest apps. Whether it’s the cute pinch-to-merge feature on Threads or a new (perhaps not-quite-ready-for-primetime) AI account summary feature on X, it’s nice to see these platforms thinking outside the box and innovating.

But we’re also seeing serious movement on the integration of AI tools within social platforms and a tightening of how search engines can crawl social apps, which could have big implications.

Let’s get into it.

X

X is going big on its AI tool, Grok. This week, the platform began offering an opt-out choice for users who don’t want their content used to train the irreverent AI tool.

And it seems like Grok might need some additional training. This week X unveiled a new tool for Premium subscribers that summarizes what kinds of content an account posts – something that could be helpful for social media managers vetting accounts to respond to or those scouting for influencers. But it sounds like the tool isn’t quite there yet.

TechCrunch reported that the tool is either vague to the point of meaninglessness (“a Twitter user known for sharing news and updates on various topics, including business, technology and politics” – a description that could describe most users and incorrectly names the app) or flat-out incorrect, identifying users as experts in Canada or brunch despite a lack of content in those subjects..

In a possibly useful development, X is testing a feature that would allow users to choose to ban links from replies to their posts. This could help cut down on the rampant spam on the platform, and keep conversation contained to X rather than sending it elsewhere.

Threads

Meanwhile, Threads is testing a new feed that would allow easy access to likes and saved posts in dedicated feeds accessible from the homepage. If this gains a wide rollout, it could be a handy way for social media managers to organize all that inspiration.

A quirky, creative new feature on Threads is the ability for users to pinch to combine carousel images into one seamless photo, as seen here.

 

Post by @aylopop

View on Threads

 

It opens up new creative avenues for posting carousels – what ideas do you have?

Reddit

Reddit has been growing in importance to search engines as users hunt for stories and answers from real people. But Reddit’s lucrative deal with Google is getting more serious as the social media site bans rival Bing from crawling its treasure trove of content.

Reddit claimed in a statement that this doesn’t have anything to do with Google, but rather its inability to reach a deal with Bing. But either way, it’s a notable shift from a freely searchable database of human experience to a walled, pay-to-search garden.

Meta

AI continues to invade the social media space as Meta builds out its multiplatform tool.

Meta AI is now available in 22 countries and seven languages, the company announced. It’s also rolled out a variety of new image generation tools, including “Imagine Me,” which places your image into any scenario you can describe, and new editing tools that allow users to refine imagery. Updates to the AI model also improve its ability with math and coding, the announcement said.

Over on the ad side, Meta is introducing an Offers functionality that can add discount codes or price reductions when Meta thinks “they are likely to improve performance.”

YouTube

It’s now possible to save Sounds directly from the Shorts page for use in later videos, YouTube announced, a time-saving step for creators.

TikTok

Finally, TikTok is beginning a slow rollout of a feature it, surprisingly, didn’t already have: Sound Search. Similar to Shazam or YouTube Music, users can sing or hum a song and have the app identify it – along with associated videos, of course.

Which new feature most excites you?

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on X or LinkedIn.

The post New social media features and updates to know this week appeared first on PR Daily.