Welcome to the latest update on all things social media for March 2023. In today’s fast-paced digital world, staying up to date with the latest social media updates is crucial for businesses and individuals alike. At the recent Lighthouse Social Summit, Luan Wise and Andy Lambert shared their insights on the latest social media updates that are set to shape the online landscape for the near future.

You can watch the recording, here:

From new features to changing algorithms, this blog post will provide a comprehensive overview of the latest social media updates that you need to know about. So, whether you’re a social media marketer or just someone who loves to stay ahead of the curve, read on to discover what’s new in the world of social media for March 2023.

Social Media Platform Updates

Instagram Updates

  • Adding multiple collaborators to posts– The more collaborators you have, the wider your audience reach will be. 
  • Collabs are also coming to Stories
  • New ability to react to Stories with a green screen- This is going to encourage participation in content. It is a great, interactive way to react compared to likes and comments. 
  • Reels ‘Watch time’ statistics are coming to Instagram Insights- Even though Instagram has taken back some of the power that Reels had over the algorithm, they are still important. So, now that we can see Watch Time, we can see such a primary sign of engagement.
  • A new ‘Top 3’ sticker for Stories- This is being created to help encourage content creation and drive engagement on the platform. This ‘top 3’ is a way to express personal views and again, encourage participation.
  • We’ll soon be able to add music to Feed posts- If music is an important aspect of your content and brand, this could be a useful addition for you. 
  • ‘Add yours’ prompts are coming to feed posts- This is probably not a surprise… another feature to encourage engagement and interaction directly in the platform. You can now ask a question/prompt and people can layer on their answers to your content.

Instagram Updates

  • Quiet mode- We can silent notifications and let people know when we are offline 
  • Insights for Facebook Stories- If you put effort into your Facebook Stories, this feature will definitely be helpful for you to track statistics.
  • ‘Broadcast’ Channels are coming to Facebook Messenger- This is rolling out slowly, so not everyone will have access right now. This feature is essentially the ability to send a broadcast message to anyone who subscribes to your channel. This is a whole new feature to engage an audience with. 
  • Facebook Reels now align with IG Reels to allow 90-second videos- A great thing for those of us who love to repurpose content! 
  • Ready-made Reels from Story memories- Easily share your favourite memories on Reels.
  • Facebook Reels ‘Groove feature’ automatically fits the music to your video. Through visual beat technology, automatically align and sync the motion in your video to the beat of a song. 
  • Meta is working on a text-based social network to rival Twitter- There is still demand to have a more ‘text-based’ social network, so Meta is trying to fill the space. 
  • Meta ‘Verified’- It is now rolling out in the US. The current price is $15 a month for Facebook and $15 a month for Instagram. The perks you will receive are a badge, proactive impersonation protection, and direct access to customer support.

Twitter Updates

  • ‘Bookmarks’ is becoming a trackable metric on Twitter
  • Twitter Blue subscribers will get prioritised ranking in comments- The order of prioritisation is:
    1. People you follow 
    2. Verified accounts
    3. Unverified accounts
  • Text formatting is coming to Twitter- Hopefully, this is accessible but you can now underline, bold and italicise your tweets.

LinkedIn Updates 

  • You can now ‘star’ important LinkedIn DMs- Similar to your email inbox, you can ‘star’ DMs that you want to go back and check, and they are all stored together.
  • LinkedIn updates profile appearances- When you look at someone’s LinkedIn profile, you can now see a lot more categories in their activity section.
  • Newsletter scheduling is now live 
  • Interest-based ad targeting- LinkedIn has been adding more criteria to the platform and the addition of interest-based ad targeting means that you can target people based on what they select as their interests. 
  • AI-powered ‘Collaborative articles’- LinkedIn is getting AI tools to generate articles, and some people are able to Beta-test the articles and add comments. 
  • AI-powered assistant- This feature assists you in creating your headline, about section and job ads. 
  • Podcast Academy launched- This is to help podcasts grow on LinkedIn.
  • Schedule posts from a company page
  • Pages can now follow and engage with other pages

TikTok Updates

  • Continuing to promote in-app shopping
  • Now displaying a ‘reposts’ tab- You can see what other creators are reposting. 
  • Multiple posts can now be added to TikTok ‘Now’
  • Add a link to our app in your TikTok bio 
  • TikTok ‘Series’- This is to help creators sell subscriptions and access to a section of their community. 
  • Keyword Research tool to help inform content ideas
  • Refresh TikTok feed
  • Noise increases around a ban on TikTok- just something to keep your eye on. 

YouTube Updates

  • Upload and manage podcasts on YouTube
  • More detail added to YouTube Shorts analytics

Pinterest Updates

  • Idea pins extended to 5 minute videos

Let’s try and summarise that…

  1. We’re seeing the dawn of ‘Premium’ social media 
  2. We are also seeing the start of AI being ‘baked-in’ to social media platforms 
  3. TikTok and short form video continues to be the best way to fight decreasing reach
  4. But… is a total ban on TikTok on the cards?
  5. Podcasting continues to grow and LinkedIn and YouTube could be good places to leverage 
  6. Collaboration and increasing interaction are crucial for growth
  7. Building community around a specific topic has never been so important 

Tinisha Osu is a Marketing Executive with two degrees in Psychology. She is the first-author of a published psychology paper and is beginning her career in marketing through blog-writing, creating social media content and running marketing campaigns.