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Welcome to our monthly Social Media News Roundup. The world of social media is constantly changing. To keep you up to date, we’ve curated a list of the top 10 biggest social media news announcements from each month. This edition features the highlights from March.
1. Pinterest lets users share idea pins on other social sites
Idea pins have always been a format native to Pinterest and could not be shared off-platform. On March 15th, the Pinterest newsroom announced an update, giving users the capability to download idea pins and share them to other platforms, specifically Facebook and Instagram. This presents an exciting opportunity for creators and brands to cross-promote and reach a wider audience.
2. Instagram adds moderator function to Live Streams
Simultaneously hosting and moderating Live Streams has been difficult for creators, so to keep trolls at bay, Instagram has finally made it possible to assign a moderator to an Instagram Live Stream, a feature TikTok paved the way for, by launching it last July.
In a recent tweet, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram said, “We believe in the importance of the creator community. We believe that they’re pushing culture forward, establishing trends, and setting new norms.” Moderators have the power to remove viewers from live, report comments, and turn off comments for a viewer and can be assigned by clicking the three dots from within a Live stream to add one of your viewers.
3. Instagram launches Creator lab education portal for creators
The creator economy is in full effect as Instagram gives voice to its most established creators to offer a collective of best practices for novices looking to launch their careers. For creators, by creators, the Creator Lab contains videos about monetization, production, channel growth and safety with notes on algorithms, optimization, and strategy.
4. Key Takeaways from the Pinterest Presents Ads Summit
Held on March 10th, the second annual Pinterest Presents virtual conference focused on the theme “It’s Different Here,” featuring presenters like Queer Eye style expert, Tan France. Pinterest’s yearly trends report called Pinterest Predicts, looks forward rather than back, so your brand can plan for trends rather than be late to the game.
Topics from the conference include:
- A more inspired internet
- Trends from the future
- A shop for you
- Values-led creators
- An online oasis
- Your return on inspiration
You can watch the video here.
5. Independent musicians get support through TikTok’s "Sound On" program
Sounds are an essential part of TikTok trends. Now, unsigned musicians can upload new music to TikTok for use in the TikTok Sound Library and its partner music streaming platform, Resso. Artists will earn an unheard of 100% of royalties in the first year and 90% after with no stipulations in distributing their work to other streaming platforms. We think SoundOn: the new platform for TikTok music marketing and global track distribution is going to pioneer the next frontier in music distribution.
6. Twitter Creator Dashboard helps creators track monetization
Twitter is ready to compete in the creator economy too and has been ramping up its efforts over the past year with new features: Professional Profiles for businesses and creators, Super Follows, Ticketed Spaces for broadcasters, and On-profile Tipping. Payment options for tipping include GoFundMe, Strike, Bitcoin, Patreon, and more. To simplify earnings, the Monetization Tab on the Creator Dashboard breaks down income from various Twitter streams and sources.
7. Twitter begins testing profile shops
Professional Profiles for brands on Twitter made it past the testing phase, and Twitter is piloting a new feature called Shop Module, which will likely become a paid tool—not unlike Twitter Blue— since Twitter aims to double its revenue by 2023. The shop module will allow viewers to scroll through a carousel of products and pay for merchandise in-app.
8. Birdwatch is Twitter’s new crowd-sourced fact-checking feature
On March 3rd, Twitter’s Product VP, Keith Coleman announced the expansion of pilot-testing for a feature that has been in development for over a year: Birdwatch. A unique, crowdsourced, fact-checking tool, Birdwatch intends to add context to tweets by allowing users to leave notes on tweets that may contain misleading information. Notes are only approved when enough Birdwatch contributors of varying perspectives find the same note helpful.
9. All Instagram users can tag products in IG Feed posts
Select creators were granted the privilege of tagging products in IG Feed posts. Rolling out soon, you no longer need to be an influencer—anyone can tag a product. However, Stories and Reels product tags will be limited to business and creator accounts.
This is a huge win for small businesses: happy customers can tag a product in a post for followers to not only see, but click on and be directed to an IG shop. We predict user-generated content on IG will become more valuable than ever, because if anyone is hesitant to buying on IG, social currency will certainly sway them.
10. TikTok Unveils GIPHY Clips Library
GIPHY has been developing a new video meme product called GIPHY Clips—essentially GIFs with sound. Partners include Hulu, HBO, Xbox, ABC, and Roku, so Clips will contain high-quality video content. TikTok users will have access to the GIPHY Clips library to add Reactions, Quotes, People, and Iconic Moments to their content, creating or participating in trends. It will be TikTok’s first integration with a video platform.
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