LinkedIn Loves Creators, TikTok Loves Small Businesses, and Instagram is Trying Something New (Again)
A weekly roundup of noteworthy social media headlines.
For content creators, there’s never been a better time to join LinkedIn. From investing $25M into their Creator Accelerator Program (application are officially open, BTW) to their upcoming Create Learning Week (five days of free, educational online programming), the social giant is making serious moves toward supporting creatives, and we couldn’t be more here for it. TikTok continues to prove its role as an unreal resource for small business owners, and Instagram is beta-testing a new feature to help you romanticize your life called Montage. Here’s the latest social media news that should be on your radar.
LinkedIn’s Creator Accelerator Program Sounds Like a Dream
After much talk earlier this year around making their platform more creator-friendly, LinkedIn is putting their money where their mouth is. The networking and social site invested $25 million into their 10-week, “incubator-style” Creator Accelerator program, applications to which are now live. The program is, as far as incubator and accelerator programs go, gigantic: 100 users will be selected from the applicant pool to participate. If you’re selected for one of these coveted spots, you’ll be matched with a creator manager/coach for the duration of the ten weeks, possibly featured across LinkedIn’s site, social, and editorial channels, become a part of LinkedIn’s exclusive creator network (hello, connections), and receive $15,000 in funding to help you bring your vision to life.
In Lieu of the Accelerator Program, LinkedIn’s “Create” Learning Week is the Next Best Thing.
Mark your planners, creators! Starting September 27th and running through October 1st, LinkedIn will be hosting its first-ever Create Learning Week: five days of live, interactive video events featuring LinkedIn Learning experts who will share deep dives into best practices for creators interested in building their personal brand, and expanding and engaging their audiences.
These events are available to all LinkedIn members, and are completely free! You can check out LinkedIn’s content schedule (and set reminders for can’t-miss sessions of interest) right here.
BTW- This Friday! Don’t Miss Infused by LinkedIn
If you can’t wait till September 27th for creator-friendly content from LinkedIn, start with Infused this Friday, September 17th, a collaborative event aimed at amplifying the voices of Black Creators by sharing tools and best practices to connect, uplift, and better engage with their audiences.
Boost Your Small Business’s TikTok Following with “Promote”
Socials have been a godsend for small businesses during the pandemic, and TikTok is no exception. Plenty of small businesses on my FYP have leveraged their TikTok accounts to build brand loyalty and awareness, connecting with customers with fun, relatable and authentic videos. One viral video is truly all it takes for your product to be flying off the shelves. Arguably, these short-form viral videos on TikTok feel more authentic, and compared to traditional ads, are much more cost-effective. But if you don’t know how to go viral or haven’t had luck doing so just yet, it may be time to turn to TikTok Promote, which launched earlier this month.
Promote was designed to help businesses reach more people and grow their community with their TikTok videos by turning any organic TikTok video into an ad, directly within the app. Once you’ve marked a video as part of a Promote campaign, TikTok’s algorithm will begin to prioritize your content by putting it on the FYPs of users who might be interested in your product. You’ll be granted insights into how users are engaging with your content when they see it, which will help you create more effective content for future campaigns.
TikTok Promote comes at a cost, not unlike Facebook or Instagram Ads, but if you can budget for it, this new feature might well be worth your time and funds.
Pssst… Look Out for Instagram’s New “Montage” Feature
It’s no secret that Instagram really, really wants its users to use Reels.
Their latest attempt to sweeten the pot is the launch of a new, “Montage” feature, which allows users to turn their favorite Stories into Reels. Montage works by automatically splicing past stories of a user’s choosing together. You have the choice of further romanticizing your life by syncing these videos or images to a song or sound in Instagram’s Audio library. For now, this feature is being tested internally, so don’t go rushing to your phones to try it out just yet.
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