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This episode is sponsored by Brevo and Collective. Brevo helps you grow smarter with email, SMS automations and AI powered marketing tools. And Collective keeps your business tax ready all year so tax season doesn't feel so overwhelming. Get started with brevo@brevo.com Creator and save on collective@collive.com CHC.
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Welcome back to the Weekly scroll your Go to Social Media update for creators who want to grow smarter, not harder. I'm your host Caitlin Rhodes and in the next 10 minutes or less I'll catch you up on everything trending on Instagram right now, from new features to algorithm shifts so you can stay ahead without spending hours researching. This episode is brought to you by Club Influence, the creator membership everyone's raving about. Each week you'll get viral reels ideas, fill in the blank canva templates and swipe ready captions that take the guesswork out of the content creation. Imagine logging in, grabbing your ideas for the week and posting with confidence. No more wasted time scrolling for inspiration. If you're ready to finally make Instagram work for you, this is where it starts. Your access code is waiting in the show notes. Come join us inside. All right ladies and gentlemen, let's scroll. Instagram just rolled out some something new inside the professional dashboard and if you're someone who loves to peek at what the competition's doing, you're going to like this one. What's new? They've added a competitive insights feature that lets you compare your account performance against up to 10 other profiles. You'll see side by side stats like follower growth, posting frequency, and even how well their reels or feed posts are performing, even if they've hidden their like counts. My take is it's definitely cool to find finally get a built in way to benchmark your account without leaving Instagram. But let's be honest here, follower growth alone doesn't tell the full story. I remember I don't know if you guys ever did marketing over on Facebook, but Facebook actually let you put in pages to watch and I would get in there and I would see how the competition was doing, but it always just had me in like this comparison box which I didn't really like so. So it was kind of nice not doing that over on Instagram. But I will say I'm happy that this is here for the people that do want to use it. I probably will not use it because I am the worst at comparison and comparison is the thief of joy here. But let's say you know one of our clients Here at the social media agency, maybe we want to keep tabs on their competitors so that we can see what they're posting and how their content's performing so. So that our client can measure up higher. Like, I don't mind that for us to do it on their part, but I would hate for you all to focus on this too much because it's going to steal your joy. What really matters at the end of the day is your own content. Are you getting views? Are you getting saves? Are you getting shares? You can look at all of that through your own analytics. Are people actually engaging with your content? Are they commenting? Are they replying? Are they clicking? And then at the end of the day, your conversions, are you driving clicks or signups for from that engagement? You do not need to compare yourself to others to understand if you're doing well or not on Instagram. So follower counts are basically just those vanity metrics if they're not tied to real action. Still, this feature could be a great way to track trends or show your progress over time, especially for the creators or agencies who need to demonstrate growth to their clients. My takeaway? Use it as context, not as your gospel. If you want to stay ahead, focus less on who's posting, more and more on what's actually actually moving the needle for your business. Content that gets shared, saved, and clicked. All right, next update, which I briefly talked about last week, but Instagram has added the Watch history for reels, and I really like this feature now. TikTok did it first. Shocker. You'll now be able to go into your profile, click Settings, Activity, and then you can find a new watch history section that shows every reel you've watched over the last 30 days. You can even filter it by date or by creator. Which means if you ever think like, oh, I saw the perfect sound for this trend, but I can't remember who posted it, your scroll regrets are officially over. This is good for creators and marketers, you know, you'll now be able to revisit reels that performed well or sparked new ideas for you. You can study trends that are gaining traction. You can reuse audios or formats that caught your attention. Basically, your inspiration archive just got way easier to access. My take on all of this is that it's one of those small updates that quietly changes your workflow. So most of us use reels research as part of our strategy, but now we can actually track what we've seen and save what's worth creating instead of endlessly scrolling to find it over and over again. So the next time you're doing a trend research session, go through your watch history instead of starting from scratch. You'll probably spot patterns in what caught your eye, and that's often the best clue to what your audience will love anyways. Update number three TikTok ads generative AI Creation Tools it's officially going all in on AI. Just like Meta, they rolled out a new set of generative AI tools directly inside the TikTok composer. So now you'll be able to turn your images into videos, which is a pretty cool feature. Create videos from text prompts, use AI for transitions between clips. Basically, if you can describe it in words, TikTok can now help you create it. And there's no fancy software required, which I do feel bad for some of these big AI editors. I know that I partnered with a few last year which were pretty cool, but now it's all being given for free inside of these apps. So this update makes TikTok less like a social app and more like a full blown AI powered creative studio. You can use it to quickly generate short form content ideas, bring static photos to life, test new video styles or storytelling formats or or even speed up your editing processes, which is really nice. This tool especially stands out. It's a creative shortcut that could make your content look way more polished with less effort. Sign me up. This is where things get interesting though, and a little messy. Yes, these tools make it easier than ever to create, but we're also entering an era where AI generated content could flood the platform. What's going to stand out more than anything else is you, your human perspective. And I think this is what's going to really take the toll on people that are just using AI to grow their businesses. If you have that human touch, you're going to connect with people more. So use these tools to enhance your creativity, but don't replace it. The creators who win are not going to be the ones who generate the most. They're going to be the ones who create with purpose, personality and perspective. I was listening to Lori Harder's podcast this morning on my money walk and she explained it too. Like showing up on Instagram and getting a million views used to be super duper easy for all of us, but now it's getting harder than ever because we're being so flooded in with everyone creating. So this is your chance to stand out by putting that human element into everything that you create. So try the AI transition feature in your next video. Layer it though, with your voice, your story, or your insights. If you mix up that tech with your authenticity, that's how you're going to cut through the noise as AI content floods or feeds.
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Next update Instagram's edits app gets custom captions, color correction and more. So what you can expect from this Animated captions. You can now customize your on screen captions with animations and effects to match your vibe. Color correction tools. You can adjust the hue, the saturation, the white balance just like a pro. Perfect for setting the tone or enhancing your clips. And then there's the 28 new effects so super zoom, low res, tunnel vision. All new effects that are eye catching in scroll stopping for your reels. Meta's been stacking features since the launch like the fonts, the filters, the beat markers, AI restyling, teleprompter tools and even royalty free music are already built in. So I see this really taking over Cap Cut, which I'm super excited about because I know a lot of you pay for Cap Cut and you guys all agreed for for Cap Cut to basically own your lives. So this is your way to get out of it.
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Guys.
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Go use the Edits app. They've even said that when you use the Edits app and post to Instagram you will get more traction because they are favoring reels from the Edits app. And that's a wrap on this week's Scroll. Every week I share these updates because I know how fast this industry moves. One day it's a new editing tool, the next it's a shift in engagement or algorithm trends. But here's the thing, you don't have to figure it out on your own. You can just meet me for the weekly scroll every Thursday. And I also created Club Influence. It's my weekly membership that gives you everything you need to actually keep up and stand out without spending hours researching what's working online. So inside the club you're going to get weekly viral reels, ideas that align with what's trending right now, editable canva templates for carousels, captions, hooks, a behind the scenes looks at what's performing for my clients and my students and then simple strategies to grow your own reach, your confidence and your sales. One post at a time. If you're ready to stop scrolling for ideas and start showing up with strategy, Club Influence is where you need to be. I'll link it for you in the show notes and I'll see you inside.
Date: February 5, 2026
Host: Katelyn Rhoades
In this “Weekly Scroll” edition, host Katelyn Rhoades delivers a rapid, information-packed roundup of the latest Instagram and TikTok feature updates every creator needs to know. The episode focuses on:
[00:26 – 02:40]
“Comparison is the thief of joy here...You do not need to compare yourself to others to understand if you’re doing well or not on Instagram.” (01:36)
“Follower counts are basically just those vanity metrics if they’re not tied to real action.”
“Use it as context, not as your gospel. If you want to stay ahead, focus less on who’s posting more and more on what’s actually moving the needle for your business.”
[02:40 – 04:37]
“Your inspiration archive just got way easier to access.”
“The next time you’re doing a trend research session, go through your watch history instead of starting from scratch.”
[04:38 – 07:56]
“If you have that human touch, you’re going to connect with people more. So use these tools to enhance your creativity, but don’t replace it.”
"The creators who win are not going to be the ones who generate the most. They’re going to be the ones who create with purpose, personality, and perspective.”
[10:02 – 11:01]
“They are favoring reels from the Edits app. And that’s a wrap on this week’s Scroll.”
Katelyn’s delivery remains friendly, supportive, and built on real world experience (“no hype, just action”). She blends enthusiasm for new tools with thoughtful warnings about comparison, burnout, and over-relying on automation at the expense of authentic, human content. There’s a motivating, “let’s do this together” vibe throughout.
Want more?
Katelyn wraps with an invitation to join Club Influence—for up-to-date trending content ideas, templates, strategies, and a supportive creative community.