SOCIAL IN SIX [105]

Speaker A: Foreign.

Speaker B: It's June 22nd and it's time for Socialin 6. Today I've got our strategy lead, Chelsea Nerona back with me in the studio to unpack the latest news from the world of social.

Speaker A: As always, we'll be breaking down the most important updates from the last month. This time that includes customizable interest from Instagram, Reddit's video replies and LinkedIn. Going all in on creators and if

Speaker B: you enjoyed this episode, please let us know. We'll with a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Now, without further ado, let's get started.

Speaker A: First up, Meta says Discovery Now Happens

Speaker B: Through Social Search Meta says social search is now a major part of how people discover products, brands and information online. In a new three part blog series, the platform looks at how discovery is changing. And the big takeaway is that people aren't just heading to traditional search engines anymore. They're using short form video creators, UGC and AI driven recommendations to answer questions and make purchase decisions. And Meta's numbers back that up too, with 92% of consumers surveyed saying they use social platforms for product information, 63% saying they buy faster when social plays a role, and 65% saying it makes them feel more confident in the purchase. So for marketers, this is another reminder that social content isn't just there for awareness anymore, it's playing a much bigger role in the whole discovery and decision making journey.

Speaker A: Traditional search was built around utility. Someone knows what they want, they type it in and they find it. It's intent led, it's rational, it's done in minutes, if not seconds. Social search runs on a different logic, and it's led more by curiosity rather than certainty. Trust is built by creators, communities, and even the sentiment of a comment section, so the format itself is doing the persuading. The shift we're seeing is that social search collapses what us marketers understand as the funnel. Discovery and consideration often happen in the same moment. So rather than a linear progression of researching and then deciding to trust a brand, people are trusting as they discover and that's a different job. And content has to do more to create momentum. In the language of the feed. Visual, human, Useful, fast. For brands, that means you're not just answering FAQs through keywords, but also a deeper understanding of the mindsets behind them.

Speaker B: Over to Instagram now, which is testing a feature that lets you add your interest to your profile. The idea for this update is pretty simple. When someone lands on your profile, they can quickly get a feel for the topics you care about with a new feature that Instagram is tinkering with. The feature was spotted by Threads user Raduoncescu, and from what's been shared so far, it's essentially a fun little addition to your profile bio that lets you tag your interests, films, m, music, TV shows, sports, that kind of thing. People can tap on someone else's listed interest to see related content in the app. Something to note here is that these interests may also influence your algorithm, a bit like Instagram's existing your algorithm feature, which notably Instagram brought to the main feed in an update last week. This lets you quickly access and modify the kind of content you want your algorithm to show you by navigating through two lines with the heart icon from Reels or Explore. So back to this interests update. It's not just a simple profile customization tool, it could also become another signal that shapes what content users see, which is worth keeping an eye on from a creator and brand perspective.

Speaker A: So it looks like Instagram is trying to put some of the social back into social media and I'm here for it. The platform has become so entertainment led, that connection has started to feel secondary. Interests on profiles could be a small way of making identity more visible again for brands, the opportunity is in the texture. We're used to seeing broad buckets like music, film, um, sport, TV show up across almost every audience we look at, and these labels are often too blunt to be strategically useful. I would be interested to see if Instagram can surface the subcultures underneath. So not just music, but what kind of music? Not just sport, but which sport, which team, which lucky pre game ritual. That level of detail would improve how we approach audience segmentation and creator alignment. The other thing worth watching declared interest could eventually influence how Instagram surfaces branded content, not just organic. If the ad targeting layer starts to incorporate user stated interests other than just demographic or behavioral data, that's a more precise and arguably more privacy compliant signal. Worth monitoring how this develops, but directionally it points towards audiences having more control over what they tell platforms about themselves and brands needing to meet them there. Back to Meta now, which has launched a standalone app to rival Reddit for online forums.

Speaker B: Meta has launched a standalone app called Forum, which is very clearly leaning into Reddit style online discussion. The app is built around Facebook groups, so users sign in with their Facebook credentials and then they see the groups they're already a part of, alongside recommendations for other groups based on their interests. But the big focus here seems to be deeper. Uh, question led discussion. There's an Ask feature that pulls together responses from across groups, which positions Forum as more of a community answer engine rather than just another social feed. For Meta, this looks like another attempt to make groups and interest based communities feel more useful, searchable and relevant in a world where people are increasingly looking for recommendations and answers to from real communities.

Speaker A: My instinct on this one is a bit more skeptical. The surface read is that Meta is recreating Reddit's discussion led format, but Reddit is actually a more interesting comparison than it might first appear. Reddit's most significant commercial move in recent years was licensing its data to AI companies for training. Its value was in its millions of threaded human conversations and recommendations, questions and answers. Facebook groups have always held a similar sort of depth, but they're mostly private and difficult to monetize. Beyond ads and forum changes, that a dedicated app that aggregates responses is, depending on how you read it, either a better product experience or a very clean mechanism for making that content more structured, more accessible and more valuable as training data. I want to be transparent that this is my inference rather than confirmed intent. Meta hasn't said that this is a data play, but the timing, combined with the industry wide pressure on AI companies to secure proprietary data at scale makes it a reasonable read. So for users we might want to verify Meta's updated terms before taking it at face value. And for brands it's one to watch rather than to act on immediately.

Speaker B: And speaking of Reddit, the platform has introduced video replies from Facebook, copying Reddit to Reddit, leaning into video, an interesting move given that the platform has predominantly been text focused. The platform is rolling out video replies in comments, which means users can now respond with video alongside text, images and gifs. The feature is rolling out to moderators now, um, and is available in public safe for work communities where it will be switched on by default. Importantly, mods still have control over how it works in their communities. They can keep video comments limited to moderators, open them up to approved users, make them available to everyone, or turn them off completely.

Speaker A: Reddit's value is in the quality of its threads. People trust it for recommendations because text based discussion almost self selects for effort and specificity. So in principle video replies could add to that. There is a case for the format in product recommendations, demos or communities where seeing something in context is more useful than just describing it in situ answers that show rather than tell. But also video lowers the bar for contribution in potentially dangerous ways. Moderator controls are the right safeguard, and whether this has value en masse probably depends entirely on how these controls get used. The monetization angle is worth a watch too. Reddit has been expanding its ad formats and video is a more valuable ad surface than text, which is likely part of the longer term logic. Although again, that is my inference rather than anything Confirmed Another update from Meta, which is testing episodic reels Our third

Speaker B: and final update from Meta, and this time it's the news that the platform is testing a new series feature for reels on Instagram and Facebook. Much like TikTok's playlists feature, series is designed to make serialized short form content easier to organize and follow. TechCrunch reports that select creators can group new and existing reels into a series, with each reel acting like an episode within a dedicated hub on their profile. Viewers can then tap through to watch the episodes in order, save a series for later or access the full series from the feed or the Reels tab.

Speaker A: This one I think is more straightforward. Serialized content creates a reason to return, uh, and a reason to stay once you're in, which is different from reels where each video is self contained and the algorithm decides what comes next. Whether it actually drives meaningfully longer sessions is harder to confirm without data, and Meta hasn't released anything on this yet. It depends on whether creators produce content worth serializing and whether audiences follow series with the same commitment they bring to say, a YouTube channel or a podcast. What I think is more certain is the benefit to creators having a dedicated hub HM on the profile reduces friction for audiences trying to find something specific and that could improve retention at the creator level. For brands, it's worth considering whether serialized content fits certain strategies better than others. A uh, product benefit told across episodes or an ongoing behind the scenes uh, format suits some brands better than it does others. Worth watching how creators use it before committing to a content strategy around it.

Speaker B: And for our final update we're talking about LinkedIn, which is reportedly planning to lean further into creator led events. The platform is reportedly developing a new initiative that would allow 50 creators to host gated events directly on LinkedIn later this year. These could include webinars, workshops, networking sessions and professional learning experiences with creators able to charge for access. LinkedIn is already testing paid events with select creators with a focus very much on educational insights for professionals is Another sign that LinkedIn wants to become more than just a place for posting your job updates.

Speaker A: Honestly, this is one of the most interesting platform moves in a while because it's LinkedIn acknowledging something they've probably known for years. Creators can't build a business on it because the content it actually needs more of keeps migrating elsewhere. The feed has drifted into hustle stories, AI hot takes and everyone's favorite. What my Wedding Taught Me About. Sales posts, gated events with experts would counterbalance that. And it fits LinkedIn's identity in a way it doesn't fit other creative platforms like TikTok or YouTube. LinkedIn's brand has always been built around professional learning and development. So creator events aren't as much an extension of entertainment as they are an extension of that core promise. And that gives LinkedIn a more ownable lane. For brands with a genuine point of view or relative differentiation within their category, there is an opportunity to find alignment between their brand expertise and what audiences are showing up to learn.

Speaker B: I actually just want to pick up on um, the last update that we talked about, the one about LinkedIn, um, because you said it yourself, it's quite an interesting move from, from this platform. Um, it's, it's, it's leaning more into creators obviously. We've also, you know, we've seen a few days ago that LinkedIn has launched a new creator marketplace. So it's going to help brands connect with creators, help them reach their target audiences. It's definitely interesting to see LinkedIn move, move more in the direction of sort of being more of a creator platform in the way that like for example Instagram and TikTok are. Um, I guess I just want to ask you what's, what do you think, where's the strongest opportunity in terms of, you know, for brands? In terms of like specific industries or specific um, categories?

Speaker A: Yeah, the creator marketplace is a smart move. Um, and I think the first thing to talk about is the creators that will build sort of traction there. Um, it might not be like on Instagram or TikTok, where having a large audience is synonymous with having that sort of um, wide scale reach. I think LinkedIn will reward credibility over that scale. So the people that, or the influencers that people trust will be the ones that have consistently sort of owned a specific lane, um, whether that's sort of supply chain or you know, finance or marketing, whatever that might be, um, and basically built an audience around that, that trusts them for their opinion in that space. And so like I think cross platform influencers with that broad reach on, let's say like a TikTok and Instagram will probably see a bit less success here off the bat. Um, and then. Yeah, but on categories B2B is the obvious fit. I think that's the most natural one and a bit overdue. As well, I think because, you know, historically they've had m, maybe a harder time cutting through on your more typical creative platforms, um, and like trying to find that home. So LinkedIn I think will finally give them that space that they're very much like sought out. But even beyond B2B, I think, uh, personal finance, legal sustainability is a big one that sort of even younger audiences are tuning into and getting more interested in all of these areas where trust um, matters more than entertainment value, um, would be um, I think the ones to watch, I think the opportunity as well on categories which might seem a bit easy to overlook is brands like FMCG. Um, because LinkedIn is still perceived as this like stuffy, buttoned up corporate space, um, that actually creates this white space for, for, for brands that have a bit more of that personality and maybe a bit of a lighter touch, a uh, sense of humor and that contrast almost starts to work in their favor because they stand out more. So if it's a food brand, a retail brand, a fashion brand, anything with that sort of cultural relevance that they can bring to the platform with more sort of genuine relatability, um, could cut through because LinkedIn is not saturated with exactly that kind of content just yet. Um, so yeah, these are the ones to back from my perspective. I think smart consumer brands as well as finance coaches, uh, B2B brands. I think there's space for everyone. I think it's just about how we show up and creating a purpose to be on LinkedIn, uh, would be the main thing.

Speaker B: That's m. So true. I always think about actually um, as you were saying that it reminded me of something that John Thornton said who, um, we've had him on the podcast and also we interviewed him at Madup north of Times, so he's senior creative at Zerreal. And yeah, one of the things that stuck with me because obviously Surreal have had like massive success and cut through on LinkedIn just being sort of like you said, like a distinctive. It's an FMCG brand but it's like they have like a silly sense of humor and um, yeah, a lot of their posts have kind of taken off and done the numbers and ah, he just sort of said like LinkedIn, maybe a lot of brands in that space seem to forget about it being like a valuable sort of space. It's like, like you said, like you can get that cut through because you have that kind of. A bit more of a playful sense of humor or a tone of voice that maybe isn't as common on there and he um, was just sort of saying like, you think on LinkedIn you're speaking to like different people maybe than you would if you were speaking on Instagram. But actually it's the same people, it's just a slightly different mindset. So like um, you, you're probably speaking to them when they're at work, like they've got like a spare five minutes of work. They're just like scrolling through their LinkedIn as opposed to being home or commuting on the bus and just like scrolling through reels. So it's like you've got to remember like you don't, you don't have to, you don't have to feel like you have to sound like boring or like serious or corporate on there because you're still speaking to people that want to have a laugh and like be entertained. But they just say slightly different mindset.

Speaker A: It's the same people. That mindset thing is what we always talk about, social change as well. And I mean not to name drop all our past guests, but we've even had Mondo on the panel, haven't we? With um. Richard.

Speaker B: Richard, yes. Yeah.

Speaker A: Um, they're a bank and um, you know, they're kind of a blend of both. Right? They have that, I mean they are a financial institution but they're bringing that silly sense of humor that you would probably expect from um, brands like surreal, um, but they're bringing that energy to LinkedIn. They've got, you know, Greg from Monzo, a separate account who's just, who's like just this made up employee whose job it is to be funny and relatable. So it's not to say that, you know, even B2B or the most stuffier categories and companies can't show up with that humor on LinkedIn. Again, it comes back to what mindset are you getting your audience in and what is your brand's purpose to be on this platform? And a combination if that will probably give you the answer to how you show up and what you say and

Speaker B: how you say it, I think as well. Like another, another thing I was thinking when you were speaking just then was um, the amount of opportunity and space for creators on LinkedIn is maybe, well at this point it's sort of emerging as opposed to like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, which is very much like creators sort of, they very much have a, ah, space on those platforms. But if you think about it, I guess, you know, way back, way back when, in the olden days, when I

Speaker A: was five years ago.

Speaker B: Um, yeah, yeah. Literally, probably like five to ten years ago, Instagram, like it didn't, it wasn't always like that. Like it was a place where you shared photos for catching up with your friends and your family.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And now it's become that space and maybe YouTube was sort of the original kind of creator space. Right. It was that platform where we had those like very old school vloggers, YouTubers, like the brick crew and everything like that. And you know, it's like, it's almost like LinkedIn. It's just, it's just gonna take a bit of time I suppose for like that sort of more creators will flock to the platform and then, and then the base will get built out. And so yeah, I think maybe it's a good one for brands and creators to jump on. Maybe be a bit like of an early adopter or have a play around and just like, see.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: See what works for them to say

Speaker A: the thing that I always say as well, it's a test and learn. Everything's a test and learn. Do a test, learn from it and then, yeah, you know, enact your learnings. Test again.

Speaker B: Chelsea, thank you so much for joining me on social and 6 today. I will leave you with a quick public service announcement. We are the official podcast partner at uh, MadFest which is happening this July across the 7th to the 9th of July. Um, it's going to be in London and it's going to be a joint podcast partnership between. It's like it's a whole brave bison. So it's Brave Bison Engage social chain. We're going to be on the ground across all these three days, capturing the live conversations, insights and big ideas from the UK's biggest and boldest marketing festival and sharing them with you guys across our, um, podcast network. So you can expect a jam packed lineup of superstar speakers covering the latest across media, social influencer, uh, and support and entertainment. So make sure you grab your tickets if you haven't got them already and I will see you next time. See ya.