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Starting something new can feel terrifying.

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I remember when I first launched my

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into with Shopify Today.

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Sign up for your $1 per month trial at shopify.comchc go to shopify.comchc that's shopify.comch.

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Tax season is right around the corner.

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next update.

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Kind of.

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I don't know how I feel about this one. I mean, it's good and it's, it's good. Personally, business wise, I'm not a fan. Okay. You'll soon be able to view stories anonymously on Instagram. So meta's testing anonymous story viewing. Not just Instagram. This is Instagram and Facebook. Sorry. You can watch someone's stories and they won't see your name. How many times have you asked your best friend, go watch so and so story and tell me what they're doing. Like, I've been there, done that. I think we all do it. This is going to change Instagram behavior pretty dramatically though, because right now, story views are social signals. And so when they're anonymous, that means we're going to get more silent viewers, fewer visible interactions, and it's going to be harder to gauge engagement. Right. So story replies and polls are going to matter even more because passive viewing data will become less reliable. We're going to need them to do something to know that they're there. So I, I went ahead and I came up with a couple of things that you can do for when this update does actually come to fruition. Three updates that you can do to make sure that we're still engaging our audience. 1. Ask for low effort response questions. If people can watch anonymously, they're less likely to interact unless it feels super easy. So instead of like, I Did this today, what do you think? Like no, you cannot ask them an open ended question. You need to have a poll sticker there that says, yep, you did great, or no, this sucks or pick one and they have, you know, poll sticker there. Or maybe you use that little emoji sticker and it says tap this if you like it and it's like a thumbs up. The rule here is to make it take under two seconds for them to respond to you because most people are going to be silent viewers. So lowering that friction to interact with you is going to increase the participation there. Next tip here is create that curiosity gap, make them reply. Okay. If viewers know they can watch without being seen, you need to give them a reason to engage. So maybe you say something like, I can't share this publicly. Reply story and I'll tell you or want this template. DM me the word template and I'll send it to you. Or I only send this to people who reply. This creates exclusivity and incentivity, incentive to interact. I don't know if you guys have seen like all of these lifestyle influencers. They're doing the whole story thing that says tell me what you're doing today and I might send you $5 for coffee or something like that. Like that is an engagement tactic. Love it. Because they're, they know what they're doing. But just because you replied doesn't mean they're going to send you money. Just keep that in mind. It is an engagement tactic. Number three, use storytelling that invites emotional reaction. So if passive viewing is increasing, we need some kind of emotional connection. So we need some stories that drive responses, personal wins or a personal struggle. Even better when you have a struggle. If I share anything about my Hashimoto's or what I'm going through, or I'm crying or I'm just struggling, I get the most support from my people and I am so, so grateful for it. Like it's super hard to be vulnerable with some of the stuff that I share on my stories, but when I do get vulnerable like that, I typically get some kind of feedback from them. You can also ask them point blank like, hey, I need your opinion on this. What do you think? Hey, I'm nervous to share this, but what would you do in this situation? And then you walk them through. Emotional storytelling naturally is going to prompt some kind of reply in the dm. So this is a really great way to do that. If anonymous viewing becomes normal for Instagram and Facebook, story success is no longer going to just be measured by views. Creators too, with brands like, you're going to have to make these people respond to you. So the creators who are going to win are going to be the ones who stop broadcasting and start prompting some kind of response. All right, next update. Threads can now be managed inside of Meta business suite. This is nice, especially for social media managers. What this means Meta is positioning threads as a serious long term platform, not just an experiment. And I can say I used threads. I've gotten rid of Twitter or X whatever it's called. I don't even log in there anymore. I'm only using threads. So we can definitely expect more brands to adopt threads. We can expect more scheduling tools, we can expect monetization features coming. Basically, if you're building a personal brand, Threads is still an early stage growth opportunity for you. So don't be sleeping on threads. Next update TikTok launched a local feed in the US so TikTok now has a local feed tab showing content based on your physical location. This can include businesses, events, local creators, nearby recommendations. Many people do fear that this will revere reveal where they live or it will increase safety concerns. And so some creators are privatizing their accounts. But if you're a small business owner, this is really huge. TikTok could definitely become a discovery search engine for local commerce. So local businesses should start posting on TikTok right now. If they haven't, this is the biggest organic reach opportunity since early Instagram, which has been a While next update AI content labeling deadline is coming February 20th. Instagram and X must begin labeling their AI generated content by February 20th. This is part of a broader push for transparency around AI media. We're entering a new era of social guys. Authenticity will become a premium asset. I don't care what these people say about their AI twins, like human LED content is going to stand out more trust will become the number one differentiator and this aligns perfectly with what I teach. Connection over perfection. And if you need help understanding what connection content is, get inside of social media school. I'll link it in the show notes. I'm actually running a sale on social media sales school right now because I need you guys to get inside. You need to enroll, you need to understand the five core framework for content creation in 2026 because that's what's gonna allow you to stand out on social media. So not only do I teach you what kind of content to post, I also teach you how to the differences about different social media platforms. Which one's the right one for you and your demographics. We'll talk about how to create the most perfect target audience for you so that you can speak directly to them. We'll talk about sales psychology, when to use call to actions. All the things are in Social Media School. So overall what we're seeing right now with all of these updates is a massive shift towards emotional storytelling, AI integration. Hyper personalized feeds platforms are moving away from static content and they're going more towards that immersive, human centered experiences. Which means if you're building that personal brand in 2026, your biggest competitive advantage is not better editing, it's not even better trends. It's being real, it's being recognizable and it's being deeply relatable. So like I said, if that is something that you struggle with, check out Social Media School again. It is on sale right now and it's going to teach you the difference in your content so that you can stand out and grow in 2026. And that's all the updates I have for you. I hope you love today's episode. Please send it to your social media friend or your creator friend. Let's get the weekly scroll on the map and come connect with me over on Call her creator on Instagram. I'll see you soon.