Welcome to another edition of The Matter Social Second — keeping you informed about what’s trending in social media. This month, our social team shares the most important and impactful social media stories from September.

Instagram Removes Swipe-Up Feature for Stories

Instagram has begun the removal of the infamous swipe-up feature and is replacing it with a link sticker. This feature will still be available to users with 10k+ followers for now, although IG is currently evaluating expanding access in the future to all users.

LinkedIn Gives up on Stories

LinkedIn gave ephemeral video a chance with stories but, similar to Twitter, decided it wasn’t for them. LinkedIn users are not looking for disappearing video and instead would rather consume and create long-lasting content. Users should see a full removal of this feature by the end of September.

Twitter’s Newest Feature: Super Follows

Twitter has begun rolling out it’s newest feature, super follows, which lets creators provide subscription-only content and will receive 97% of all earnings. Users who “super follow” an account will be subscribed to exclusive content from the creator.

TikTok Reigns as Platform with the Most Watch Time Per User

TikTok surpasses Youtube as the social media platform with the most watch time per user in the U.S. and U.K. After swapping spots multiple times in 2020, TikTok has been holding on to 1st place since April.

TikTok Rolls Out Quick Promote Option

TikTok’s newest feature is a boost-like promotion option for all business users. Similar to the Facebook boost, this feature allows you to turn your current organic videos into paid ads, immediately pushing it to a new audience.

TikTok Tests 5-10 Minute Videos

What started with 60 seconds may be turning into 5/10 minutes. TikTok is in the testing stages and select users have already reported having the option to extend their videos, some up to 10 minutes.

Pinterest Tests Vertical Video Scrolling

Following in the footsteps of our holy grail short-video platform – TikTok – Pinterest begins  testing watch mode. Watch mode will be a full-screen feature with both browse (photos) and watch (video) options – all with the continued intent of discovery and inspirational content.

Twitter Launches Initial Test of “Communities”

Communities will be a topic-based space to share and discuss specific topics with a user-selected audience. According to Twitter, you can think of it as, “an alternate timeline where everyone just gets you.”

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