Keep It Real on LinkedInLast week, we told you about LinkedIn’s impressive record-level engagement stats. Now, LinkedIn is rolling out a few updates to its algorithm to improve the user experience, and social media managers should take note.
Based on user feedback, the platform’s updated algorithm for its main feed will crack down on engagement-baiting posts, polls, and political content. Posts begging for interaction (e.g. Like this post if you support a hybrid work week! Celebrate if you want to go back to the office full time!) will be devalued in the algorithm to keep them out of your feed. The new algorithm will also cut down on polls, another post type marketers have used as a cheat-code for easy engagement. In addition, LinkedIn added a feature that will allow users to filter out political content.
The new algorithm will instead emphasize targeted news and updates from your network. Rather than seeing every single post from one connection, LinkedIn will curate the posts users are most likely to find interesting and engage with. Feeds will also feature more from people who may be outside a user’s network but add value to their experience on the platform, like thought leaders, industry experts, and creators who are talking about topics relevant to a user’s field and everyday work.
With these updates, LinkedIn says it hopes to create a better user experience across the platform and make sure unique, quality content gets seen. The move comes on the heels of similar pivots from other social media platforms — like Instagram’s algorithm shift to prioritize original content. The takeaway: Stay focused on how your social strategy provides fresh, authentic content that engages users in a more organic way.
TL;DR: LinkedIn is updating its feed algorithm to devalue engagement-baiting posts and other content members don’t want to see. Prioritize innovative, quality content to stay at the top of the feed.
From Tumblr to Twitter and Back AgainAmid all the hoopla and speculation about the future of Twitter in light of Elon Musk’s impending purchase, another microblogging social media platform is back in the spotlight — Tumblr. Originally launched in 2007, it reached peak popularity in the mid-2000s and has struggled under a number of acquisitions since 2013. Now, the site is seeing a resurgence, with a 19% increase in new user signups relative to daily user signups on the same day Twitter announced Musk’s acquisition.
For brands, Tumblr can be a place to reach niche audiences and the highly sought-after Gen Z demographic. According to Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Tumblr’s parent company Automattic, 60% of the platform’s users are 13 to 24 years old. Last month, it launched Tumblr Blaze, a paid content promotion feature to help further users’ reach. If you’re interested in learning how to effectively use the platform, check out Hellsite High, a blog by Tumblr employees with tips on how to make the most of the platform. (It also happens to be a playful reference to users’ nickname for Tumblr.)
While it remains to be seen where Tumblr will go next, it’s worth keeping an eye on this throwback platform amid a rapidly changing social media landscape.
Ready Player One
Gamers, brace yourselves, TikTok has taken the popularity and influence of gaming culture and applied it to digital marketing, releasing a guide to marketing mobile games on the platform. While some of the tips are specific to gaming, it also includes some helpful digital content guidance that can benefit any TikTok campaign:
These pointers could be applied to other social video platforms beyond TikTok (think Reels and YouTube Shorts) and incorporate some of the larger marketing and social trends we’ve been talking about recently in The Spark — including the rise of audio and the importance of authenticity.
TL;DR: New TikTok insights on gaming trends contain useful tips for marketers in any industry. Keep them top of mind to maximize your strategy on TikTok and beyond.
What Lit Us Up
Strike a PoseStill oohing and ahhing over the looks served at the Met Gala last week? The night was filled with fashion-forward interpretations of the Gilded Glamour theme — from Kim Kardashian’s controversial appearance in Marilyn Monroe’s famous frock to gala co-chair Blake Lively’s archictecutre-inspired gown. But this year, we noticed something else that doesn’t usually get as much attention at the star-studded event — the art.
Vogue’s creative video series used celebrities posing in their inventive styles and transformed them into digital works of art that look like they’d be right at home at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We see pregnant Rihanna as a marble statue, Billie Eilish twisting a parasol in a scene reminiscent of Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” and model Quannah Chasinghorse-Potts seamlessly superimposed onto Van Gogh’s “Wheat Field with Cypresses.” The videos were posted on Vogue’s site and shared across social media, with the compilation video bringing in more than a million views on Instagram.
While the gala is a fundraiser in honor of the museum’s Costume Institute, that tends to be overshadowed by its dual function as the unofficial Super Bowl of fashion. Everyone knew they would see celebrities showing off iconic looks at the Met Gala, but no one could have anticipated seeing them reimagined as classic works of art. The video series beautifully merged the two, creating an unexpected and delightful twist of brand-building content. But you don’t have to have a Van Gogh on hand to look for ways to expand outside of the ordinary. Think for unexpected directions for your next campaign to keep customers engaged and turn some heads of your own.
TL;DR: Vogue’s Met Gala video series showcased celebrity looks on fashion’s big night by combining them with works of art, making for a brilliant mash-up. Think about how to infuse your content with the unexpected, surprising your audience and showing them the familiar in an unfamiliar way.
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