Facebook pushes hashtag use, Instagram continues fighting fake accounts, LinkedIn publishes new guide and more in our weekly overview!

Facebook finally gives value to hashtags

Pretty much everything posted on any of the social platforms is followed by hashtags. Love them or hate them, on most of the platforms they help reach audience and are an unavoidable part of being active. 

Not using a hashtag on Instagram, Twitter or TikTok is a huge mistake if you’re trying to get discovered. Facebook's hashtags have, on the other hand, been practically useless by now. 

The social network is following the trend that hashtags have a tendency to increase engagement and help users rally around their common interests or concerns. The benefit is being announced via user prompting tips saying they can improve their reach by adding hashtags to posts.

Instagram launches new review and ID process to fight bots

Instagram stamps out bot accounts via a new process that requires the owners of profiles connected with suspicious behavior to provide identification information, confirming that they are, in fact, a real person.

It's the latest push to ensure that Instagram profiles represent real people and businesses, and are not being used for manipulative purposes, like providing fake likes and followers in order to inflate other accounts' numbers. 

Instagram will take a range of measures into account when assessing potential bot activity, including when the majority of the profile's followers are in a different country to their location, if there are clear signs of automation use, such as bot accounts as followers and accounts engaged in coordinated unauthentic behavior.

LinkedIn helps improve presence with a brand new guide

In order to maximize engagement, boost content reach and drive sales potential through connections, LinkedIn has published a new guide to help social media managers make best use of the various tools the platform has to offer.

This handy document consists of 32 pages and is split into five parts: Your business case for investing in social, Why social media managers should spend time on LinkedIn, How to tell your brand's story on LinkedIn, Building your audience on the platform and A guide to LinkedIn's paid ad solutions.

Each section includes a range of stats and figures to support the case for social media marketing on the platform.

Twitter rolls out reply-limiting feature globally

Twitter’s reply-limiting feature is now available to all users as part of the platform’s efforts to give people more control over their conversations on the platform.

“Sometimes people are more comfortable talking about what’s happening when they can choose who can reply. Starting today, everyone will be able to use these settings so unwanted replies don’t get in the way of meaningful conversations.”

Using the feature is quite easy. After composing a tweet you can choose whether you'll give reply option to everyone (the standard default setting), only to people you follow or people mentioned in tweet.

When looking for influencers, don't forget about your employees

Influencer marketing has become a staple in the marketing utility belt. Almost as quickly as it arrived, it has evolved. In just a few short years, we’ve seen the space pivot from being dominated by celebrities and macro-influencers to relatable everyday experts and micro-influencers. We couldn't agree more with the latest article published by Forbes, claiming you don’t need megastars or big budgets - the micro-stars you have within your own company can make a difference.

''Who better to represent your brand than your employees? Your people are real people with real connections and have real knowledge of your brand, products and services. They are authentic voices who can bring information bi-directionally: from you to your audience and from your audience to you. It’s a great match.''