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Read time: under 10 minutes (it's longer than usual but there's some GOOD stuff in here and you can skip what doesn't interest you!)

Welcome back!

Lucas O'Keefe here and if this is your first copy of my weekly newsletter: Welcome!

This week we've got A LOT of new Instagram features and announcements to share. You may have heard some IG news that initially made you panic, but I'm here to explain why you don't need to worry.

*First if you'd like to support this newsletter, why not click on my sponsor: Semrush Social (my go-to tool for social media management)

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This week's news:

• What is engagement bait on Instagram?
• Instagram testing unskippable ads?​
• Meta is offering a money back guarantee on Meta Verified to some users
• Instagram rolls out new features for Notes​
• TikTok launches free guide for Fashion Content Creators​

Scroll down to the bottom of the email for:

• 5 easy content ideas you can post next week (scroll to the bottom of the email)

And if you'd rather listen to a podcast today:

Listen to my latest episode on Dealing with Low Reach as a Content Creator: Spotify | Apple Podcast​

Okay, on to the news...

What's this about engagement baiting on Instagram?

Last Friday, Instagram's official @creators account posted a video with some confusing information about how certain actions can get your post reach limited. In particular, they described how getting your audience to comment a specific word (like what happens with tools like Manychat) can limit your reach. Obviously this was very confusing since Manychat is an official business partner of Meta.

The post was promptly taken down due to all of the confusion, BUT it's now been put back up with a lot more clarification in the caption to explain what Engagement Baiting is and as you can see, tools like Manychat are NOT effecting your reach. Instead, as I expected, engagement baiting is when you try to hack or game the system to get more reach. MOST of you reading this email don't do this and need not worry. So including engagement prompts to comment, using Manychat, generating leads for your business, it's all OK.

​You can see the post here and I've screenshotted the caption below:

Instagram is testing unskippable ads like YouTube has

You may have heard this news doing the rounds too and I'll say, yes it is true. Some users (Canada in particular) have been shown something called an Ad Break on Instagram that doesn't allow them to scroll past the ad being shown. You can see a real example of it here. But here's why you shouldn't panic about this. This is a VERY limited test. In fact, I've only heard of two users who have actually reported on seeing this (the example above being one of them). It's likely that Instagram is testing the waters to see how this goes over. I'd expect we hear a lot more from Instagram officially before this is considered as a widespread feature. So be calm everyone!

Hey at least this might stop you from doomscrolling right?!

Money back guarantee on Meta verified?

If you've been waiting to try Meta Verified, it looks like money-back guarantees are being sent around to some users who want to try it out for 14 days. While it's unclear on if this is only for certain countries, if you've been waiting to try Meta Verified you may want to check if this option is available when you go to sign up. Personally I've paid for it for about a year and it's a nice backup to have for support in case something ever happens to my account. Read about it here. And see the notification that users are receiving when signing up here:

Do you use Instagram Notes? Look for these increased features

Apparently Instagram Notes is continuing to be a more and more used feature. Building on this, Instagram just launched "Notes Prompts" which allows you to spark conversations based on templates. You can also @ mention other users in your Notes in order to make a more "collaborative" status that mentions someone else. Finally, you can double tap Notes to like them. Read about it all here.​

TikTok publishes a free guide for fashion content creators

TikTok has been launching weekly free guides for various niches lately. This week is focused on Fashion Content Creators They're all free and have some useful tips for Reels creators too. Check it out here.​

Now here's what you can post next week:

-Share some of the content, discussions, or connections you're making on other social media platforms.

-Turn some of the "Frequently Asked Questions" you get from your audience into a post.

-Share a sneak peek/sample of an upcoming or current product or service you have for July/summer.

-Share a few mistakes that you've made in your industry and explain how to avoid them.

-Share something great that has happened for your business this week or a positive interaction you had with someone.

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