Oh, Instagram, you cheeky thing. Over the last week, Reader, things have been heating up. Chief Gram-mer Adam Mosseri released a video outlining the focuses of the platform in the coming months.

1. Creators
2. Shopping
3. Video
4. Messaging

Not too much gasping over here, it was quite an expected announcement if it weren't for the fact that chief Mosseri name-dropped TikTok as the platform Instagram is looking at for inspiration for their video efforts. 

Apparently, people head to Instagram to be entertained - even if, I personally am struggling to see this one. I see loads of content that is educational and inspirational, so over-generalisation may actually be penalising the future of the app.

You can watch the full video below if you're interested in all of the updates from the man himself. This week you also get some very special goodness from the one and only Lucy Werner for a very special bonus episode, all about DIY-ing your PR.

Fab

PODCAST EPISODE SPOTLIGHT 🎙

In this chat , Fab catches up with old friend Lucy Werner to discuss how to hype yourself and master DIY PR as a founder, professional and even expert.

NEWS IN BRIEF

• 🤝 Marketers, rejoice. I flagged this a few months back, but Instagram is now running a test to give all users the option to add URL links to Stories through linked stickers. For now, the test is small, and Vishal Shah, Instagram’s head of product, tells The Verge it’s mostly to learn how people might take advantage of links. This could be a very exciting development for all marketers out there.
• 🎥 What's the deal with Instagram? Check out Adam Mosseri's update on Twitter. Right now the app is focusing on four key areas: Creators, Video, Shopping and Messaging.
• 🏅 Pinterest has been making big changes for a more positive experience on its platform. First, the brand was awarded the brand safety certification from the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), an organization that works to increase trust and transparency in digital advertising by fighting against criminal activity online. Secondly (and potentially on the back of it) Pinterest has banned ALL weight-loss ads. Bold move considering how much money weight loss brands spend on advertising, but a welcome one.
• 💌 Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced their new newsletter platform, Bulletin, in an Audio Room on Tuesday. It’s deemed to be *another* place for writers and podcasters to publish content and build a subscriber base. Do we really need another place to build our database? One owned by a social network that does not give ultimate freedom to control said database?
• 📣 Instagram has released a significant new e-commerce feature that gives black-owned brands the option to add a label signifying diversity. There are over 1.3 million posts supporting “Black-owned” or “Black-led” businesses from last summer through fall and US based businesses saw an over 50% increase in “Black-owned” or “Black-led” marked in their bios. Instagram will be using this label to add and highlight Black-led business profiles in the Shop tab and curated product collections.
• 🤔 For the segment ‘features we are not sure we really need’, Facebook said it was testing a feature on Instagram that allows some content creators in India to share short video clips, known as reels, on their Facebook accounts. Call me cynical, but aside from untargeted reach, I truly do not see this update benefitting marketers a huge deal. If your target audience is not active on Facebook, you may never get them to take action on your content anyway. This feels like another attempt to grasp vanity metrics and re-direct people to Instagram’s fading older brother.

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