This Week On Social - IG's 100K Club, YT Livestream Chat Upgrade, Sydney Sweeney Bath Water!
Each week, the marketing team at The Goat Agency pull together the latest news from the social space in a weekly social media news round-up. 👩🏻💻
This week Instagram’s giving its 100K+ creators powerful new tools to manage clout-filled comment sections, while YouTube is turning livestreams into competitive arenas with leaderboard-fueled fandom. Meanwhile, photo lovers rejoice as Instagram shows love to 3:4 snaps, and Sydney Sweeney gets sudsy in the most meme-worthy brand collab of the year...
Don't Miss This Week's Headlines!
(1/5) Instagrams 100K Club 💬
Instagram just handed the 100K club a shiny new set of filters - and the rest of us are officially in our feelings.
Here's everything you need to know:
🔍 New Filters for the Elite: Creators with over 100K followers can now sort comments by Top (most engaged), Newest First, and even by the follower count of the commenter. AKA: Find the fans with clout, fast.
💙 Prioritise Your Inner Circle: Additional tabs let you filter by People You Follow, Verified Users, or Subscribers Only.
🚀 Why It Matters: These tools help high-volume creators cut through the noise, spotlight key interactions, and supercharge engagement by responding to the comments that count.
📈 Strategic Plays Only: Whether you want to engage superfans, reward subscribers, or spot fellow influencers in the mix, this is about using your comment section as a growth tool, not a scroll trap.
(2/5) Livestream Chat King 👑
YouTube is gamifying livestream engagement with a new leaderboard that rewards your loudest superfans and opens the door to some strategic fan behaviour.
Here's what you need to know:
👑 XP is the new clout: Viewers now rack up points for comments, Super Chats, Stickers, and gifts during live streams. The more they engage, the higher they climb on the leaderboard - and the closer they get to streamer spotlight.
📊 Leaderboard status = bragging rights: The top 50 most engaged viewers are ranked, and the top 3 get badges next to their names in chat.
📈 Engagement = revenue: This isn’t just about ego, more interaction means more monetisation via chat features (and yes, creators get a cut). A win-win for platform and partners.
🧪 Still in test mode: This is currently rolling out to a small group of users, and viewers can opt out of being publicly ranked.
(3/5) Photos Still Matter to IG 🖼️
Instagram’s giving your 3:4 pictures the glow-up they deserve, finally no stretching, no cropping, no compromises.
While Reels may be ruling the feed, IG just gave photo enthusiasts something to smile about. Here's what you need to know:
🆕 3:4 aspect ratio is now supported natively: This means your vertically shot phone photos can live their best unedited lives, no awkward stretching or framing tricks required.
🎡 Applies to both single posts and carousels: Your entire visual story can stay consistent and camera-true from start to finish.
It’s a small update, but a big win for creators and brands who obsess over visuals and want to retain authenticity without platform interference.
(4/5) Rub-a-dub-dub 🛁
In a move that blends Euphoria-core with meme marketing, Sydney’s latest brand collab is making headlines, and bathtubs, a whole lot steamier. Here’s what you need to know:
🧼 Sydney Sweeney x Dr. Squatch: The soap brand known for its viral, hyper-masculine suds is releasing a “Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss” bar - yes, allegedly made with her actual bathwater. The campaign leans heavily into Sweeney’s sex-symbol status and her self-aware online persona.
🎥 It all started with a cheeky ad: Dr. Squatch dropped a 2024 campaign featuring Sweeney in a bathtub, sparking thirsty fan comments. The brand clapped back with, “You kept asking about her bathwater… so we kept it.” Enter: the soap collab no one saw coming (but the internet totally manifested).
🔥 Sex sells, and so does satire: This isn’t just viral bait, it’s calculated, meme-forward marketing that taps into fan culture, parasocial obsession, and the collectible economy of internet fame.
(5/5) Inside the Call Her Daddy Empire: How Alex Cooper Became a Media Powerhouse 🎙️
Sharp, unfiltered, and unapologetically real, Alex hasn’t just found a seat at the table; she’s built the Call Her Daddy empire from scratch and engaged an entire new generation of listeners, redefining the podcasting experience. The cultural force behind one of the most talked-about podcasts in the world.
Trends come and go, but one thing’s crystal clear – Alex Cooper isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
In this blog, we will unpack:
🎙️The Call Her Daddy origin story
📞 How Alex has expanded her platform into a multi-media empire
💡 What brands can learn from Alex Cooper
Read the full blog here!
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And that’s all for this week, but don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for real time announcements of all our new blog content!