Reader-First Marketing | June 4, 2026

Hello everyone,

This week’s edition of Reader-First Marketing is full of social media platform updates. So much has been going on the last two weeks that I wanted to summarize it all in one edition. Next week, we'll add some more practical tips back into the mix.

So, without further ado, let's dive right in.

Josefine

Instagram Subscriptions

One of the biggest news of the past week was probably the announcement of Instagram Plus and Facebook Plus, Meta's new subscription service for its apps. Prices are $3.99/mo for Instagram Plus and Facebook Plus respectively.

So far, little information has been released about what exactly it will entail, other than "fun new features." TechCrunch says it enables "extra features, like profile customization, super reactions, and story insights, among other things". However, there is no further detail in Instagram's knowledgebase, and the announcement has been rather vague as well.

What I'm most curious about is if this premium feature will move analytics behind a paywall, similar to what Twitter/X did a while back... I'll keep an eye on it and share more information in future issues.

BookTok creators are selling 59 million books a year.

A New Facebook App

Meta's new iOS app, Forum, is based on Facebook Groups and brings them into their own space.

The groups are also on Facebook, and any conversation you start or participate in will be visible on both apps. But if you're an active member of those groups, this app could help you focus on the group's topics without the distractions you typically see on your profile. 

TechCrunch article ->
Download from App Store ->

TikTok Trends

Metricool, a social media platform similar to Later or Buffer, released a study on TikTok user behavior. Here are some interesting insights:

• TikTok is saturated with more content than ever before, so pretty much every performance metric (reach, likes, etc.) has dropped over the last year.
• The "for you" page is still the biggest driver of views, meaning, the first seconds of your video are more important than ever. Plus, your content should assume that the viewer doesn't know who you are.
• Hashtags are still very important.
• Video is still the best format for TikTok.
• Ask questions to get people talking.
• Tiny and small accounts (0-10k followers) have the best chance of growing.

Here is the full study ->

There is More!

01 Instagram: The teleprompter function from Edits is now also available in the main Instagram camera.
Continue reading on SocialMediaToday ->

02 YouTube: AI altered or generated content will be labeled more visibly.
YouTube's announcement ->

03 TikTok: You can now add or block keywords for a TikTok post after publishing it. Click on ... on your video and scroll all the way to the right till you see "Manage keywords".
More information on SocialMediaToday ->

04 YouTube: There are more daily viewers on YouTube than on Netflix. In 2025, YouTube was watched for an average of 99.1 minutes per day, compared to 93.4 minutes per day on Netflix. Also, the number of people watching YouTube videos on TV continues to grow (I'm definitely one of those TV-viewers 😆 How about you?)
The Guardian article ->

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