Social Trend Watch – Edition 8

IG Testing a Full-Screen Main Feed for Feed Posts, Stories and Reels

This week IG has started testing a new, fully-integrated home feed, that would do away with the top Stories bar (gasp), and present everything in an immersive, full-screen, swipeable UI.

The ‘experimental’ feed update would include regular Feed posts, Stories and Reels all within a single flow.

Stories would be presented with a frame bar at the bottom of the display, indicating that you can swipe left to see other frames, while videos will have a progress bar instead.

A more intuitive, and logical way to present IG content, aligning with TikTok-led usage trends.

The update would also come with algorithmic improvements based on users’ responses to specific posts. The continuing re-positioning of the platform is another key move in its user war with TikTok, to mitigate TikTok’s rising dominance in video content.


TikTok x Warner Bros Live Event For The Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore Release

It’s time for arguably Warner Bros second biggest release of 2022, behind The Batman of course, to now take centre stage across social. The TikTok live event, hosted by none other than Draco Malfoy himself Tom Felton, will see the HP actor return to Hogwarts to put questions to the cast.

The key CTA from the campaign push is that audiences can sign up before/on March 30th to submit their questions to @WarnerBrosUK for Tom to potentially read to the cast. The red carpet was streamed live last night on TikTok in the build-up to the live Q&A today, much like WB’s UK releases for The Batman and Boxing Day.

An exciting and free event for all Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter fans, however, has this TikTok campaign push by WB missed a trick by not including a trending hashtag on their front and centre discovery page content to drive more talkability and content sharing around the film’s release?


The Conversation – Twitter Trends 2022

Just as Q1 draws to a close, TW has released its 2022 Trend Report, consisting of billions of Tweets to reveal tomorrow’s big movements. Analysing billions of Tweets over a two year period, the platform has uncovered three must-know trends about to go big, these include:

  • The Great Restoration – How can your brand step up as humanity regroups and restores?
    • Conversations on Twitter show a shift in perspective during the pandemic. People are slowing down and taking a moment to breathe, regroup, and restore.
  • Fan-built Worlds – Fans own your brand…now what?
    • Twitter’s data reveals a new generation of fans taking the reins in artists’ and creators’ success. These fans aren’t content with sitting on the sidelines anymore—they want in on the action.
  • Financial Goes Social – How can the crypto mindset transform your brand?
    • Finance Twitter used to be exclusive, highly technical… and just kinda boring. Crypto and DeFi (decentralized finance) have blown those notions right out of the water. The openness, transparency, and fun of this renewed conversation aren’t just for banks and NFT bros anymore. 

These insights and trends are key pulls to implement across social strategy and community management, especially across businesses with catalogue content, tapping into the key talent, franchise and nostalgic moments in conversations with fans both on and off feeds.

To access the full report and find out more details and stats about the three overarching trends, go to the link here and insert the appropriate details.


Update – Mason Mount March Stats Roundup

As #MasonMountMarch draws to a close, and the first activation of its kind on the platform, check out the topline figures from across the TikTok Campaign:

  • Start of March = 2.6M Followers – End of March = 2.8M Followers 7.7% Follower Increase
  • Start of March = 15.3M Likes – End of March = 18.6M Likes 21.6% Increase
  • 9th of March = 37.6M # Views – End of March = +80M # Views 112.8% Increase
  • Mason Mount March Dueted Video Views (4 Total) = 18.4M
  • Total Engagements (likes, comments, shares) Across the Videos = +2.9M

The Campaign has highlighted what a well-liked, social first, and popular individual Mount is across not only his primary target audience of Chelsea and England fans but global Sporting and Gen Z wider target audiences too.