👋 Welcome back Reader

We've made it to the end of January 🥳 that is cause for celebration!

This week in The Roundup we're discussing:

→ The Instagram Algorithm in 2025
→ HubSpot’s State of Blogging Report
→ Updated Instagram Insights

Let's dive in...

📌 The Instagram Algorithm in 2025

Struggling to keep up with Instagram's ever-changing algorithm? You're not alone! In this week's post, I break down everything creators and small business owners need to know about Instagram's ranking systems in 2025 — including tips on boosting your reach across Feed, Reels, Stories, and Explore.

Get the insights

🔥 Is blogging actually dead...?

If I had £1 for every time someone said blogging was dead, I'd be writing this from my beachside retirement home. Spoiler: I’m not.

HubSpot’s State of Blogging 2025 Report shows that blogging is still a powerhouse for businesses:

65% of marketers work for companies that maintain blogs
50% saw a higher ROI from blogging in 2024 compared to 2023
22% post daily while 37% publish 2-3 times per week

When asked why they blog, the responses were surprising:

66% for brand awareness
53% for customer engagement
49% for lead generation
34% cited SEO (this shocked me!)
26% for thought leadership

Can businesses rely on blogging alone? No, not quite. The study showed that 81% also invested in video, 53% in podcasts and 46% in newsletters.

So yes, blogging is still a big deal but diversifying with other content formats is the way to stay ahead with owned channels being the key focus!

Read the full report

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📰 In the news

Another week of social media news, let's dive in...

Instagram adds new views insights

Instagram are adding some new views-related metrics to help you understand why your content is performing the way it is. The new metrics are:

View Rate: What percentage of your followers and non-followers continue to watch after the first 3 seconds
Views Over Time: How many views your post has received so far compared to the average views your posts typically get over the same time period

Instagram will also provide more actionable, personalised tips to help you understand if your content is performing better or worse than usual.

Other updates

Instagram adds in-stream translations for DMs
Instagram will start prioritising longer Reels in Explore
Instagram is reportedly working on the ability to dislike comments
TikTok’s future is still unclear, as Microsoft join discussions to take on ownership
Threads roll out photo tagging and adds a media tab on user profiles
Threads release a new markup feature letting you add your take on someone else’s post
Threads reaches 320M monthly active users and more than 100M daily active users
Threads experiments with spoiler tags and post templates
LinkedIn updates Top Voice badge requirements and add a 6-month review process
Pinterest launched its 2025 marketing moments calendar to help you plan for key dates and events
Buffer look to gamify consistent posting with their latest Streaks feature
Everyone is talking about the latest version of DeepSeek AI chatbot - but how does it compare to other models
Digiday+ Research: Marketers expect bigger budgets in 2025, with an eye on investing more in influencers