State of Social 08: Your August recap

August slipped away into a moment in time – it was demure, very mindful, very cutesy.

It was also the start of the Paralympics, the Olympic Games, a wash-out of a summer holiday break, and definitely maybe an Oasis reunion announcement.   

As we enter ‘back to school mode’ – we’ve got you covered with all the latest news and updates from the land of social. So, say the dog ate your homework, tear up the rule-book, and read on to get clued up on what happened in Social Media in the month of August. 

Double or nothing!

Instagram kicked off the month with one of many updates, (20 – in fact!) and surprised us all with doubling the carousel frame limit.

You know your friend, the one who uploads every single sunset picture and cup of coffee? Well they’re about to become a whole load happier! But what does this mean for brands? It’s time to get creative with artsy swipe-able images, and the chance to play around with more visually-appealing ways to get your point across. Will this lead to an algorithmic push for carousels? Or will we still start to see drop off after frame 7… we’ll keep our ear to the ground and report back!

Be there or be…

Mosseri also confirmed that the Instagram are experimenting with testing a new profile display format – with the famous square grid being swapped out for 4:5 portrait rectangles!

User accounts that make use of the square grid pattern, and use text over image for Reel covers and feed posts will need to update templates and creative, as the current 4:5 crop does not look aesthetic with letters cropped and post aspects out of whack… as after all – isn’t that was IG is all about?!

It’s not yet been revealed if this ‘edgy’ change is one that will be sticking around, or if it’s just here to switch up creators’ visuals – but, as we mentioned last time, so much content is consumed via the feed, navigation page, through Meta’s AI recommendations, and DMs… the grid isn’t such a big thing anymore. It’s just not that deep.

Views > everything

Whilst we’re on the subject of Instagram… quite possibly the biggest and most impactful update of the month for brands and creators is the news that VIEWS ARE EVERYTHING. What do we mean? Well, historically, key social media metrics were based around reach and impressions – how many times your content was seen by how many sets of eyeballs (reach). After some deliberation between the two, and which metric to favour in those monthly reporting meetings… Instagram has decided to try and simplify, whilst making way for new creators and the prospect of ‘going viral’ in the process.

Views will shortly become the ‘primary metric across all organic and boosted media’ on the platform. This includes Reels, photos, carousels, Lives, and Stories. The spread of content format relates directly to creators and brands ‘better understanding how their content is performing’ and wanting ‘every creator to feel empowered to succeed on Instagram’.

For Reels, the current ‘Plays’ metric will be relabelled as ‘Views’ – and for all other content formats, the ‘Impressions’ metric will be scrapped and also replaced with ‘Views’. Instagram has hinted for a while that follower number just isn’t that important any more on the platform (due to how posts are mainly AI-recommended, and how we see less of the people we follow on our feeds. This shift is monumental – and really solidifies Instagram’s new mantra of focussing on content, quality of content, and how ‘Grammers interact with it.

LinkedIn FINALLY does it…

The day is finally here – native video carousels come to LinkedIn, finally!

We never thought LinkedIn would take UGC video content seriously. After years of clunky PDF carousels and a lack of engaging video, this new feature has arrived. With side-scrolling displays and an algorithm based on your activity, LinkedIn's video carousels are here.

Tapping any clip takes you to a TikTok-style full-screen video player, allowing creators to embrace short-form trends. We’re more-than happy to see our ‘sensible sister’ of a social platform, LinkedIn, move with the times – as lord only knows we’ve waited long enough for it.

Will UGC thrive, or will it flop like LinkedIn Stories? It's a clear move to appeal to Gen Z as they enter the corporate platform. A tactic to bring on board a younger audience, in search of a fresher, more instant, content-serve-appeal. After all, who wants to read long updates when you can watch a video while avoiding that overdue email? 👀

We’re doubtful this is going to ‘break ground’ for LinkedIn although our research sources tell us that in August, LinkedIn reported that 1.5 million pieces of content were uploaded every minute, with video being the fastest-growing content type – growing by 34% year-on-year, who’d have thought!

What about live-streams I hear you say? Will they have a place in this new shiny video-led LinkedIn world? We’ll keep an eye out, so you don’t have to!  

Think we’ve missed anything?

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Until next time! <3