Welcome back to another Spark Social Report by Spark Growth! Let’s bundle up and read about some of the latest digital marketing insights and social media updates, including Clubhouse’s launch of Replays!
Social Media Marketing Insights
As the weather is getting chillier and the Christmas trees are already starting to go up, social media platforms are publishing guides to help brands leverage their digital marketing strategies for the upcoming holiday season.
TikTok published a holiday guide that outlines usage trends, important dates for planning, tips on ad solutions, and holiday templates. Some examples of trends on the app include 77% of users expressing that the app is likely to inspire gift ideas for the year, 47% saying they have bought something they saw on TikTok, and 39% of TikTokers reporting they discovered a product or brand they didn’t know about before. These usage trends indicate that channels like TikTok are effective platforms for driving brand discovery.
Pinterest also released its own gift guide based on emerging trends, highlighting top trending searches to help inform marketers for the upcoming holiday season. The guide offers insights into gifts for fashion lovers, beauty enthusiasts, and comfy home items. Pinterests’ guide won’t only just help marketers look for their target audience, but will also help shoppers get an idea of what to get their loved ones! Additionally, Pinterest’s Holiday Marketing Hub may help marketers with their campaign strategy. The platform presents that campaigns receive 4.7 times more conversions when people are exposed to Pinterest ads earlier in the holiday season. The hub also includes a timeline to help get ready for the season, tips on finding audiences, creative campaign examples for better informed strategic thinking, and a campaign guide for ad-options and objectives.
Social Media Updates
During Facebook’s Communities Summit, the platform announced new tools to help cultivate and empower communities. Some new tools include being able to present community awards, a new posting button, community chats, the ability to create subgroups, and much more!
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Facebook also launched new monetization tools for Subscriptions. New tools enable content creators to earn more on the platform. First, with the company’s commitment to invest over a billion dollars in creators, Facebook is paying creators a bonus for every new subscriber until the end of the year. Creators can earn up to $10,000 over the course of the program.
Although Facebook does not collect any fees, creators still have to give up 15-30 percent of their earnings to companies like Apple when people purchase Subscriptions within the app. To combat this, Facebook is offering users the ability to redirect subscribers to a website to complete their Subscription through Facebook Pay. That way creators will be able to keep a hundred percent of their earnings excluding taxes.
Lastly, new features for subscriber badges will better help users feel a part of a community while also helping creators see who their biggest supporters are! On the anniversaries of a user’s subscription, the subscribers’ comments will be highlighted and animated to stand out in the comments. Additionally, in livestreams, subscriber badges will be differentiated based on how long a user has been subscribed.
Facebook also released a series of videos called “Boost with Facebook Good Ideas Season” to help marketers better prepare for the holiday season and stand out. The series offers resources, education, tips, and thought leadership for small businesses. Some video guides include how to catalog for the shopping season, build an engaging brand, and how to use dynamic ads. For small and big businesses alike, the video series is a great resource to help polish up marketing skills and get ready for the busy holiday season.
The platform also announced its removal of Detailed Targeting options starting on January 19, 2022. Facebook’s Business Products VP, Graham Mudd, tweeted that thousands of interest targeting options will be removed. Options related to topics that users may perceive as sensitive such as causes, organizations, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or public figures. Although Mudd states this was a complex decision, the platform looks towards providing more value and reducing any potential for abuse.
Instagram released new stickers and AR effects in celebration of Diwali, a holiday which occurred on November 4th. Instagram’s design team worked with Bangalore-based illustrator, muralist, and pattern designer Neethi to create a Diwali sticker collection for Instagram Stories. The app also brought back its Festiva Diya AR effect for the holiday and made it available for Reels, Stories, and regular feed posts. With fun stickers and AR effects, users were able to celebrate Diwali on the app and share the fun with friends and family who may be near or far.
The platform is also testing a new break feature called “Take a Break” to encourage limiting social media usage time. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri posted on Instagram revealing the test of the break feature. Take a Break is meant to enable users to opt-in to receive break reminders and, after a certain amount of time, the app will suggest users close Instagram. Although Take a Break is still currently in its testing phase, Instagram is waiting on test results in order to make improvements to launch sometime in December!
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Instagram provided some quick tips and insights via the founder of stationery brand “Oh Lolly Day”, Lolly Hu. Insights revolve around building a relationship between brand and audience, including sharing one’s journey on Instagram feeds or stories, using hashtags, and creating filters or GIFs that the audience can interact with. Insights are simple steps that businesses can take to facilitate engagement and community building to drive business growth.
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Pinterest published its latest Transparency Report for the first half of 2021. The report covers information on moderated content, including Pins that the platform deactivated for policy violations. The report also included a new section on Community safety and well-being that describes the platform’s investments towards its community through policies, products, and partnerships. Pinterest has invested and put effort into refining features such as AR Try-On and skin tone ranges, introducing creator codes to help educate content creators, and generating awareness for National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. The report covers a lot more, ranging from community guidelines enforcement to child safety in order to make internet usage safe.
YouTube
YouTube is helping users connect to mental health assistance by rolling out crisis panels. Users who are watching sensitive topics about suicide or self-harm will be prompted with relevant resources to call or chat locally. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, about 4 in 10 adults in the U.S. have reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder over the course of the pandemic. With the pandemic resulting in many people staying home, users may be more likely to spend time on social media platforms like YouTube. These crisis panels may help users looking at sensitive content find the support they need locally.
The video-streaming platform is also making dislikes private. The platform earlier this year had experimented with the dislike button to observe any changes that might affect creators from harassment and reduce dislike attacks. In the experiment, users could still see the dislike button but the count was not visible to them. The results showed that there was a reduction in dislike attacking behavior. Making the dislike button private may help protect creators from harassment and make the platform a more inclusive environment.
Twitter launched Profile Search for users to locate Tweets from specific users. Social media consultant Matt Navarra updated users on how they are now able to search users’ tweets on profiles. Although it was already possible to perform searches like this through Twitter’s advanced search, having the new feature makes searching more accessible and easier for less tech-savvy users.
Twitter 🔍 search user’s tweets button on profiles is now available (for some users)
h/t @RefaelCohe pic.twitter.com/K8QSUZ0iHr
— Matt Navarra (I quit X. Follow me on Threads) (@MattNavarra) October 11, 2021
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The app also brings in new enhancement tools to its image editor by taking features from Fleets. WFBrother tweeted the latest update demonstrating the various filters, stickers, and colors users can now use when editing images on the app. The new batch of editing tools will be useful for creatives to show off their skills while having fun trying out new editing tools on the app!
Twitter Blue is now finally available for iOS, Android, and web users in the U.S. and New Zealand. Previously, Twitter Blue was only available in Australia and Canada. Users will now be able to read ad-free articles from sources like The Washington Post, L.A. Times, USA Today, and more. Twitter users subscribed to Twitter Blue will also be able to customize their Twitter profile, undo Tweets, gain early access to new features, and much more! For users who are on the platform daily and want to have more access to features on the platform, this subscription might just be worth it!
Twitter also announced its partnership with global media and entertainment company ViacomCBS. As part of the platform’s push for video content, users will see more host streaming content from ViacomCBS’ shows and live sports. ViacomCBS has a portfolio of entertainment and news which includes BET, CBS, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, and Paramount+. Paramount+ will also host three Twitter Watch Parties to bring fans together and prompt engagement. Twitter users and television viewers can look forward to what Twitter has in store in terms of upcoming video events.
Snapchat
Snapchat advanced its AR try-on tools with new updates and integration for ComplexCon.
Figuring out an item’s sizing and fit can be tricky when online shopping, but with AR try-on tools, users are now able to try on branded clothing on the app before investing in the product. While the clothing’s sizing and placement may not be 100% accurate when using the try-on tool, users will still get a sense of how the items will look on them.
#ComplexCon drops are now in AR. Shop exclusive items from home with this Gift Shop Lens, just…
📱 Open your Snapchat
🤳 Scan the Snap code
✅ Choose your apparel or accessory
👕 Try-on virtually
🔥 Cop the dropTry it athttps://t.co/89yDJkPk4P pic.twitter.com/CMztpyfUMG
— Snapchat (@Snapchat) November 6, 2021
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Clubhouse
Clubhouse has finally launched its Replay feature for iOS and Android users. Replays allow creators to record their live rooms so other users can replay the experience whenever is convenient for them. Users can also pause, clip, and listen to Replays at different speeds or even just skip to the next speaker. Pinned Links will also still be available and interactive in Replays so users can access relevant content. Room creators will now also be able to see analytics such as cumulative counts of users who have come into a room.
https://twitter.com/Clubhouse/status/1457798431175430149?s=20
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That’s all for this week’s digital marketing insights and social media updates! Make sure to follow us on Facebook to always stay up to date with social media news.
Are you wondering how leveraging social media can benefit your brand? Check out the results from our case study with Melitta USA, and see how our experts can help you drive business!
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