Welcome back to Spark Social Report by Spark Growth, your weekly source for social media updates! This week, Facebook introduced new ways to monetize Reels with overlay ads, Instagram announced a range of new ad features, and Twitter released a mixed-media feature. Continue reading for more updates across social media from this week!
Digital Marketing Insights
Gen Z is causing many marketers to rethink their marketing plans thanks to this demographic’s behavior when it comes to new platforms and trends. Here are some insights on marketing to Gen Z:
- 77% of marketers plan to use the new Metaverse platform to reach Gen Z.
- 64% of marketers believe they need to rethink visual communications to appeal to Gen Z trends.
- Rethinking their channel strategy was agreed upon by 61% of marketers.
Click here to read more about the study.
Tweet Editing is Here…For Twitter Blue Subscribers
Twitter has announced its first official launch of the Edit Tweet feature! Twitter Blue subscribers in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are the lucky markets that get to try the feature out first. Revisions can be made to a Tweet up to 30 minutes after posting and users can only edit their Tweet up to five edits. Twitter Blue subscribers in these select countries can find the feature in the three dots menu. Look out for the new symbol on Tweets that have been edited and click “Last edited” to see a full edit history.
Tweet View Count
Twitter is testing a view count to show the total number of times a Tweet has been viewed. The count is displayed as an eye icon and is beside the likes count. Could this be helpful for your Twitter account?
New Mixed Media Tweets
Get ready to mix it up with visuals on Twitter.
You can now add a combination of media to your Tweet on Android and iOS. That means you can include a photo, GIF, and video (or two!) all in the same Tweet. Tap the photo icon in the Tweet composer to start mixing your media. pic.twitter.com/9D1cCzjtmI
— Support (@Support) October 5, 2022
Lastly for Twitter, you can now include videos, images, and GIFs in a single Tweet with the new mixed media feature. This feature will help users express more creativity and decrease the need for threads. The feature is currently available for iOS and Android users.
Full-Screen Video Viewing
Next, Twitter is jumping on video consumption trends with some new updates. First off, clicking on a video will expand it to a more immersive viewing layout. Once in full-screen mode, users can scroll to watch more video content. Secondly, Twitter has added a “Videos for you” carousel on the explore tab. This will showcase the most popular videos and recommendations.
Multiple Links on Instagram Bios
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Exciting news! Instagram is testing out the ability to add multiple links to the bio. A small number of creators are seeing a “and 2 others” option besides a bio link that pulls up a list of additional URLs. This could expand business potential on the platform and eliminate the need for sites like LinkTree.
Creator Portfolio is in the Works
Moving on, Instagram is in the next stage of developing an in-app Creator Portfolio. This feature would enable creators to share their work with potential partners. Creators can make their portfolios public for brands to discover.
New Ad Features
Instagram has new ad tools to help businesses to expand their revenue. First, songs from the Meta Sound Collection library can be added to carousel ads and Reel ads. This can be automatically applied based on Instagram’s suggestions or manually chosen. Secondly, ads will be newly featured on the Explore page and the profile feed.
Next, be sure to check out the new multi-advertiser ads. These include suggested shopping products in a carousel format for users to see more than one brand option for the same category of interest. Lastly, AR ads are available on feed and Stories, where users can interact with effects found on the promotions.
Click here to learn more about these new additions!
Overlay Ads for Reels
Facebook has introduced overlay ads for Reels which are placed on top of a Reel. Creators can earn revenue from the advertisements. There are two overlay ad options: banner and stickers. Banner ads are transparent and appear at the bottom of a Reel below the caption. Sticker ads are an image that can be placed by the creator within the Reel. Creators a part of the in-stream ad program are eligible for these new ad features!
Say Goodbye to Bulletin
Facebook’s Bulletin newsletter platform is coming to an end. Initial excitement about news platforms has slowed down since its launch last year. Bulletin is being closed down, allowing the Facebook team to focus on the Creator community instead.
Music Revenue Share is Now Available Globally
Next, music Revenue Sharing on Facebook is now available globally for creators. By choosing music through the licensed music library, creators can earn a 20% revenue share on eligible videos. Click here to learn more about the eligibility of this program!
Customize your Facebook Feed
Last but not least, Facebook has announced a new feature to customize what you see in your feed. Users can now select “Show more” or “Show less” on recommended posts. Your selection influences posts for a 60-day period. So while it’s not exactly permanent, it’s a step in the right direction when it comes to customizing the content you see.
TikTok
New Partnership to Improve Live Shopping
Live shopping is dead? Well, not quite. At least, not yet! TikTok is partnering with TalkShopLive, a live shopping network, to improve its in-app shopping. The site offers live shopping streams that are becoming more popular with users — and now, content can be cross-posted onto TikTok. Live shopping is extremely popular in China and other countries, but TikTok has failed to bring that momentum to the U.S.
YouTube
Suggest Edits to Video Captions
YouTube is trying to improve its caption accuracy by allowing users to suggest edits. Click the pencil icon in the video transcript to enter a suggestion. Users can even select the re-listen option to hear that part of the audio and confirm a correction. Having accurate subtitles on video content is an absolute must! On social media, videos with subtitles tend to perform better thanks to it being more accessible to a wider audience.
That wraps up the latest social media updates for this week! Be sure to check us out on LinkedIn for more digital marketing trends and news.
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