Welcome to Part II of Edition No. 27 of my weekly newsletter, providing practical analysis in the world of digital content strategy.
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Contents
I. YouTube Remains Most Popular Among Teens
II. Free LinkedIn Courses for 20 More Days
III. What Snap’s Planned Layoffs May Mean
IV. Instagram Copies Another Competitor’s Popular Feature
V. In-App Scheduling on Instagram
VI. Stickers on YouTube Shorts
VII. TikTok is Enhancing its Search Feature
VIII. Pay To Edit Your Tweets?
IX. Don’t Expect Google Lens Data in Search Console Soon
X. End-To-End Encryption Coming to Messenger
XI. ‘About This Ad’ Arrives on TikTok
XII. Snap Launches ‘Family Center’
XIII. LinkedIn Adding Sticker Links, Carousel Posts
I. YouTube Remains Most Popular Among Teens
Percentage of U.S. teens ages 13–17 who “ever” use the following social networks:
YouTube: 95% (“Almost constantly”: 19%)
TikTok: 67%* (16%)
Instagram: 62% (10%)
Snapchat 59% (15%)
Facebook: 32% (2%)
Twitter: 23%
Twitch: 20%
WhatsApp: 17%
Reddit: 14%
Tumblr: 5%
Source: Pew Research
Methodology: “For this analysis, we surveyed 1,316 U.S. teens. The survey was conducted online by Ipsos from April 14 to May 4, 2022.”
🛠 Why does this matter? For all the talk of TikTok killing off other platforms, there appears to be room for everyone.
Even Instagram’s (up from 52 percent) and Snapchat’s (previously 41) usage has grown since a similar survey was taken in 2014–2015.
TikTok may be the fastest growing, and by some measures, has already surpassed YouTube. But other leading platforms are still better for other things, and they shouldn’t be pushed aside.
Platforms whose growth has slowed have to worry about exactly that – slowed growth. But for a behemoth like Facebook, which has nearly 3 billion monthly active users and is hitched to still-growing Instagram, the end may not be as near as it would seem.
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II. Free LinkedIn Courses for 20 More Days
This was announced Aug. 1, but since I haven’t done a Friday update this month…
“Check out one of these most popular LinkedIn Learning courses for free until August 31, 2022.”
The top three:
1: Goal Setting: Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) (Less than an hour long)
2: Excel Essential Training (Office 365/Microsoft 365)
3: Interpersonal Communication
🛠 Why does this matter? LinkedIn courses are well-produced. If you see a top-20 topic that grabs your attention, it’s worth making the time by Aug. 31.
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III. What Snap’s Planned Layoffs May Mean
It’s currently unclear how many of Snap’s more than 6,000 employees will be laid off, as managers across the company are still planning the full scope of the cuts for their teams.
🛠 Why does this matter? Snapchat is the most differentiated mainstream social media platform. This makes it a key player in the online ecosystem, exploring new areas that others don’t dare to.
Having focused on AR and shied away from things like VR and obsession with video, it’s been less vulnerable (though not immune) to the “TikTok chasing” about which other platforms have been more earnest.
Even so, its daily user numbers are lower than Meta platforms, TikTok and YouTube. (But higher than Twitter.) And it’s only had one profitable quarter since going public.
Hopefully this is more of a course correction than an existential crisis.
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