📷 Image Credit: AdWeek 👆By: Brandy Shaul TL;DR Instagram's newest feature allows users to Pin comments on their photos. It is easy to use and could be a beneficial way for brands to up their community-building game by featuring select fans! Instagram recently added a new feature that allows users to pin comments to the top of their posts. This feature allows up to three comments to be pinned at the top of the comments on each post. Pinning comments can allow users to promote engaging comments that fit the post best at same time sorting out comments that might be less relevant to the user's message. In order to pin a comment, simply swipe to the left of the comment. Once you've swiped left, there will be a few options; you can reply, report, and delete a comment indicated by the icons. Once swiped, users will see a thumbtack icon in addition to the other options, just press the icon, and voila, the comment is pinned to the top. It is a simple process that can lead to a lot of great brand development and discussion by controlling the comments others first see and indicating what a user finds relevant to their post. Sources:AdWeek Written by: Sofia Christensen, Intern Edited by: Lisa Knight, COO & Mentor

📷 Image Credit: Digital Information World 👆By: Arooj Ahmed TL;DR The next big Instagram feature might be providing users with a list of accounts they might want to block. It is common for social networks to recommend whom we might want to connect with, this even happens here on Linkedin, but Instagram is going in a direction we haven't seen before. It has been reported that Instagram is working on a way to provide users with a list of people they may not want to follow. This list won't be randomized, though; it is likely it will use information from its parent company Facebook to determine whom a user has blocked on other social media platforms, including Facebook, Messenger, and maybe even WhatsApp. This feature seems to be in early development as it was discovered by reverse engineering on the platform, so if this feature truly will become available on Instagram, it is not known when it will be publicized and ready for use on the app, but look out for this as it could be an insight into the next big change on Instagram. Sources:Digital Information World Written by: Sofia Christensen, Intern Edited by: Lisa Knight, COO & Mentor

📷 Image Credit: Julia Alexander 👆By: The Verge TL;DR Lollapalooza is taking a huge step by offering a FREE four-day online concert. Events with thousands of attendees, like concerts, won't really be possible this year. Many concerts have been canceled or postponed...HOWEVER...not Lollapalooza. This year's festival will be on YouTube, streaming from July 30th to August 2nd at 6 pm ET, and the best part is that it's FREE! The four-day special will include over 150 performances, some new this year and some favorites from past years. Drum roll, please! New-to-scene artists like H.E.R. Louis the Child and Kaskade are on the playlist. The performances from past years feature fan favorites that include Lorde, Paul McCartney, Chance the Rapper, and Tyler the Creator, and the list goes on. A sign of the times, Lollapalooza isn't the only festival to move online. YouTube was used to show Tomorrowland, the EDM festival, virtually this year, as well many other artists have turned to different online platforms like Instagram and Minecraft to interact with fans digitally. While it won't be quite the same as attending the performances in-person, this is a cool way for festival lovers to listen to their favorite music from home, even if it's just in the background while you make dinner. Sources:The Verge Written by: Sofia Christensen, Intern Edited by: Lisa Knight, COO & Mentor

📷 Image Credit: TheVerge.com 👆By: Julia Alexander TL;DR YouTube has created a new metric for communicating creators' profits known as RPM. RPM should make it easier for Creators to measure their success and learn how to optimize their channel performance. Youtube creators can earn money on the platform through a number of ways, including advertisements, subscriptions, donations, live-streaming features, and Youtube Premium. All of these features have made earning money on Youtube quite confusing, but with the new monetization metric known as RPM, this confusion is made simple. RPM stands for Revenue Per Mille, which is a take on the previously known CPM, Cost Per Mille (sometimes referred to as Cost Per Thousand). While the names are similar, they are quite different metrics, and RPM will be much more useful to creators trying to grow their platform by giving them the ability to identify monthly income verticals. With this new system, Creators will be able to understand the breakdown of views and how the numbers change as content changes making it easier to identify what is working and what isn't working. Sources:TheVerge.com Written by: Sofia Christensen, Intern Edited by: Lisa Knight, COO & Mentor

📷 Image Credit: AdWeek 👆By: David Griner TL;DR Apple's new ad showcasing its products is a perfect example of a commercial that people actually want to watch. With funny and relatable working-from-home moments and quirky characters, viewers get product education and are entertained at the same time. In 2019 Apple released a 3-minute ad showcasing a team of co-workers working overtime to get a presentation done for their intimidating boss. The ad was a huge success mirroring a sitcom type of environment while subtly showing how new functions on Apple products work. Between the humorous reality, the deadline stress, and the teaching moments for the new functions showcased throughout the ad, at a time of diminished attention span, we were willing to watch the full 3-minute video. Now, Apple is back with a 7-minute advertisement and, better than ever, starring the team of "Underdogs" trying to impress their high-level exec boss. The antics are back with the same amount of chaos from the first video, but this time the team is working from home. And let me tell you, they capture "our" new corporate at-home lives to a tea! The quirky personalities seen in the Underdog Apple commercial do not disappoint. Suffice it to say, we've worked with some version of each character at some point in our career and can relate. The fast-paced nature of the ad and the humor embedded in every scene make it feel less like an advertisement and more like a short film. Coworkers not wearing pants on camera, parents dealing with kids at home, and young adults living with parents, are all cringe-worthy home realities we know well, and yet the team gets it done. Success! Apple nailed it and did an impressive job with their second "Underdog" commercial. Moments of brevity fill the soul, do yourself a favor, watch and laugh as we did. Sources:AdWeek Written by: Sofia Christensen, Intern Edited by: Lisa Knight, COO & Mentor