Twitter Topics Bar, TikTok Live-Stream Intros, & Instagram Profile Previews
A weekly round-up of social media updates.
It’s the first Social Climber of 2022!
We’re back with the scoop on the latest social media updates from the platforms you know and love (or need to know and love to hate.)
This week, we’ll deep-dive into Twitter’s upcoming Topics Bar feature, which if you’re like me and can’t stop refreshing your Twitter feed, you’ll 100% enjoy. We’ll also take a look at the introduction of TikTok’s Live-stream Intros, an effort to drive engagement and viewers to users’ Lives, and Instagram’s new, embeddable Profile Previews. Let’s get into it.
Twitter Topics Bar: What Is It & How Does It Work?
Excellent questions. Twitter’s new Topics Bar marks a new effort from the platform to improve tweet discovery in the app. On your main feed, trending topics will appear in bubble tabs (ex: election results, cryptocurrency, daytime emmys, etc.) These tabs will immediately link out to the latest tweets and conversations on your subject of choice, taking you straight to the Twitter action and the heart of any discourse.
The topics you see in your Topics Bar will correspond with Tweets and users you’ve recently interacted with or have searched in the past, much like TikTok’s FYP or Instagram’s explore page. It’s a win-win – you get more content that you’re interested in, and the tweets within the topic you selected get more eyeballs.
Introducing…TikTok Live-stream Intros
It’s a teeny addition, but it’s an important one.
If you’ve ever joined a Live on TikTok smack dab in the middle of someone’s sentence, or if you’ve noticed that the user who has gone live has to stop every few minutes to explain to users asking questions in the comments what their live is about, you’ll definitely appreciate this new feature.
TikTok now allows users to write a brief blurb accompanying their live streams. What users do with that blurb is entirely up to them. Whether it be a brief synopsis of what they’ll be discussing, their Venmo handle, or the release date of their upcoming Spotify single, these intros will alleviate pressure on the host to keep all of their viewers up to speed without having to restate what they said three minutes ago. Yay for quick fixes!
Embed Your IG Profile Preview Anywhere.
Huge news for content creators or anyone looking to show off their grid whenever and wherever they can. Instagram now allows users to embed a preview of their Instagram profile – not just a single post – into a web page, article feature, and beyond. Check it out below… and don’t forget to shoot us a follow, just in case you haven’t already (wink wink).
View this profile on Instagram
Subscribe to the BlogHer newsletter for more tactical advice, exclusive content, and timely event updates.