New study finds best times to post on social media
Publishing posts on TikTok early in the day? A new report from Sprout Social found that delaying going live until the afternoon might be better. The highest levels of engagement on TikTok are generated between 2pm to 6pm. In contrast, morning posts work better on Facebook and LinkedIn. Instagram has a longer window with engagement peaking anywhere between 9am to 2pm. One theme is common across the board; weekdays are better than weekends.
X is planning to hide likes for all users
X isn’t a fan of ‘likes’ and is ready to hide them for all users. X engineer Haofei Wang believes it incentivises the “wrong behaviour”. They added: “For example, many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be “edgy” in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image.”
Search volatility settles down before spiking again
Volatility in search rankings has been a hot topic during the last two months. There was a brief respite earlier this week with “normal” levels before another spike on Wednesday (22 May). Semrush logged a score of 9.2 or “very high” in midweek. News site SE Roundtable doesn’t think the rollout of AI Overviews caused the latest ructions. Is there another core update on the horizon? There has been nothing official from Google yet.
Instagram chief says shares heavily linked to reach
Shares are no longer a vanity metric on Instagram. Head honcho Adam Mosseri revealed in an interview this week that the platform is more likely to serve posts to users if others widely share them. He said the algorithm is more attuned to this than “watch time or like and comment counts”. Mosseri added that higher share rates will boost reach as the platform aims to serve content that users can “connect with friends over”.
Consumers happy to use AI search to find products
Google’s continued AI push might be winning over some consumers. A new survey from Botify found that 55% believe generative AI could help them discover the right products and services. However, the vast majority are sceptical about its uses for more important decisions, such as seeking financial-related info and finding a new home. Generative search remains a novel concept for many too; 74% of Baby Boomers have not heard of it.
Grok chatbot ready to add multimodal inputs
Another AI update. It was reported this week that multimodal inputs could be coming to xAI, the AI company headed by Elon Musk. Multimodal is a form of artificial intelligence capable of processing multiple data inputs, such as text, speech and images. The Grok chatbot is already available in the X, formerly Twitter, app. Users can access Grok to ask questions and request features.
TikTok tests 60-minute videos
Finally, TikTok’s ever-increasing video upload limit continues. Just months after it was spotted testing 30-minute clips, the platform is now trialling content that runs for one hour. Back at its launch, TikTok videos had a max runtime of just 15 seconds. That increased to three minutes in 2021, then to ten minutes in 2022 before another bump to 15 minutes last year.
