Welcome to the latest edition of Social Commotion, Motion’s roundup of social media news. Check out our top updates from April 2024.
A Ban on TikTok Inches Closer
A lot can change in a month. On April 24, President Biden signed legislation into law, which received bipartisan backing, that would require TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, to sell the app. TikTok has already indicated it intends to contest the law in court, so don’t expect anything to change immediately.
If TikTok’s sale is not finalized within nine months, the app will be prohibited in the United States. What are the ramifications for brands and consumers who have built a following on the site? Look no further than Motion’s latest blog, which discusses just that.
How to Increase Engagements on LinkedIn, from LinkedIn Premium’s Head of Engineering
In an article on SearchEngineJournal, Prashanthi Padmanabhan, head of engineering for LinkedIn Premium, discusses how her team laid the groundwork for helping advertisers and brands develop high-quality content that is genuinely engaging. Here are some of our favorite tips from Padmanabhan:
- Create content that adds value to your audience. Here at The Motion Agency, we stress this every day. Our content teams emphasizes “audience-first” content, which means we create content rooted in addressing what interests our audience rather than exactly what our clients want to communicate.
- Align your content strategy with your brand goals. “Anchor your strategy to your mission,” Padmanabhan says. It’s why we always ask our clients, “What are your objectives for your online presence on LinkedIn?” Or, “How can you use your LinkedIn content to achieve these objectives?”
“Our product engineering principles at LinkedIn are rooted in three fundamental elements: starting with the ‘why’ aligning on the ‘what’ and optimizing for the ‘when,’” she says. “We found these principles are a solid guide for navigating through the complex process of creating impactful products that resonate with our members.”
And for brands looking to reach potential customers, the same roadmap applies: Use your “why” as your content North Star, find “what” value your content can bring to you and your audience, and determine “when” the best time to share your content is.
TikTok Shares Research on the Benefits of Multilingual Ads
If you’re not creating and displaying your ads in multiple languages, you’re missing out on opportunities! That’s according to the latest TikTok Research Report, which looked at how TikTok users respond to bilingual ads, highlighting a strategy that brands can take to help boost their brand affinity across language barriers.
According to the report, bilingual audiences represent the future of marketing on and off TikTok, given their role in driving U.S. population growth. Brands can create lasting connections with this growing audience by incorporating Spanish language elements in ads, going beyond heritage months and speaking to their day-to-day lives year-round through authentic collaborations with creators and influencers within their communities.
“Ads resonate most with bilingual speakers when they make use of both languages—an ad entirely in Spanish doesn’t speak to the dual sense of identity these audiences feel. Layering English and Spanish creative elements to create balance ensures that brands can speak to bilingual users in a way that feels true to their identity as well as appeal to a broader audience,” according to the report.
This research indicates that by addressing multicultural audiences in their native languages, brands can create long-lasting consumer relationships, build community and brand affinity—recognizing that bilingual audiences are not a part of one culture or another but a full participant of both.
Check out the full report here.
