Welcome back to another Spark Social Report by Spark Growth! Let’s take a peek at some of the latest social media trends and updates including Facebook rebranding its corporate name to Meta.
Digital Marketing Trends
The Head of Content and Social Media at Social Media Today, Andrew Hutchinson, provides insights into some social media marketing predictions for the new year that’s fast approaching! Hutchinson gives a platform-by-platform rundown of trends that are expected to be seen from each platform including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Some key overarching trends for the coming year include cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and virtual fashion. Check out the article to get a more in-depth look at some of the predictions that might come to fruition in 2022.
Social Media Updates
TikTok
TikTok launched a video series called “Small Wins,” an initiative to highlight small and mid-sized businesses’ (SMB) growth and success on the platform. The platform has uploaded a short video series on YouTube to showcase small businesses across the globe. The aim is to educate and demonstrate how small businesses have excelled on the app. Small Wins also showcases how businesses using TikTok are making it big on the platform thanks to its user-friendly in-app tools, the ability to be authentic and creative, and the endless connections users can make on the platform. Check out the Small Wins mini-series on YouTube!
The app is also testing out a “Tips” option for a few selected creators to monetize their content. Social media consultant Matt Navarra tweeted a video of TikTok creator Jera Bean testing this feature. As seen in the TikTok video, users will need to have at least 100,000 followers and meet a specific age requirement to be eligible for Tips. Although Tips is only in testing and currently not widely available to all users, this is an example of how TikTok is aiming to create more monetization options for its users.
TikTok is rolling out a Tips feature to some creators
h/t jera.bean https://t.co/fmrfuxdkrG pic.twitter.com/hufl2qopk2
— Matt Navarra (I quit X. Follow me on Threads) (@MattNavarra) October 27, 2021
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The company has rebranded its corporate name to Meta to reflect its vision of the metaverse. The metaverse is composed of 3D spaces that allow users to socialize and collaborate with one another. The company is also further developing technologies to help users connect and explore in the metaverse, some of which include virtual reality, augmented reality, and smart glasses. The company is aiming to innovate while also investing in immersive learning and providing users with a new experience to connect from all over the world.
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Facebook further showcased its efforts towards immersive learning and augmented reality by offering new certificate courses in marketing analytics and AR creation in its Facebook Career Programs. Certified users will be rewarded with exclusive access to the Facebook Certification Career Network, which boasts over 130 top employers. Employers sourcing talent through Facebook’s certification program include companies such as BBDO, Dentsu, Facebook, and more. Students will be able to cultivate in-demand social media skills and relevant career credentials. The company says it’s “proud to help learners around the world develop the necessary skills to enter growing fields, regardless of their experience or background.”
The company has also called it quits with its Face Recognition system. Facebook, now known as Meta, is deleting more than one billion people’s individual facial templates. For users who have opted into the feature, it means that they’ll no longer be automatically recognized in photos and videos. Eradicating the Facial Recognition system also impacts Automatic Alt Text (ATT). This system creates image descriptions for the blind and visually impaired and without facial recognition, ATT will no longer include the names of people recognized in photos.
Facebook also released “Spotlight conversations” enabling users to reply to comments in a separate new chat thread. Matt Navarra explained through a series of Tweets that Spotlight Conversation allows users to invite people to respond to a post in a private dedicated space. Other users will still be able to view and comment on the post, but replies are moved to another tab within the reply stream.
This is Facebook’s new Spotlight conversation feature.🔍 pic.twitter.com/2n7A4EKKuA
— Matt Navarra (I quit X. Follow me on Threads) (@MattNavarra) October 29, 2021
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Next, the app also expanded its Climate Center to more regions! In an effort to tackle climate misinformation, Facebook has partnered with more than 80 independent fact-checking organizations globally to ensure the content put out is reliable and educational. Climate Science Center has expanded to more than 100 countries, which includes a new section that shows countries’ greenhouse gas emissions to help further educate users.
Lastly, Facebook has introduced “#GreenBoost” for Small Businesses, a sustainability training program to support businesses to take climate action and cultivate their business in a sustainable way. The program is currently available for businesses in the UK and Spain, with plans to expand to France, Italy, and other countries in the following year. For now, users can watch Facebook’s #GreenBoost workshops for tips on how to implement sustainability in their businesses.
Instagram is getting users to boost engagement with its launch of “Add Yours” stickers for Stories. Add Yours stickers on Stories enables users to respond with images for the original poster to see and post. The addition of the new sticker results in more engaging reply threads and is now available to all iOS and Android users globally.
Add Yours = a sticker that creates public threads in Stories 🤝
With custom prompts and public responses, you can share the sticker and see who responds to it in their own Stories. pic.twitter.com/C9AXiFEo92
— Instagram (@instagram) November 1, 2021
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Just in time before Santa hops in his sleigh, the app released offers and exclusive drops by unique brands and Black-owned businesses in “Instagram Shop.” Users can skip holiday shopping crowds with Live Shopping events by simply tapping into “Holiday Picks” on the platform’s Shop tab. Throughout the season, the app will be releasing several opportunities for users to shop the latest trends, including #BuyBlack featuring talented Black creators! Holiday shopping will be easier than ever for Instagram users.
Instagram has also brought back support for Twitter Card previews! Prior to the release, when users shared Instagram links on Twitter, the Tweet would only display the Instagram post’s URL. Now, users can share an Instagram link on Twitter and a preview of the post will populate in the Tweet. It just means that sharing Instagram posts will be easier for many users and also help them promote their profile on Twitter.
They said it would never happen… Twitter Card previews start rolling out TODAY. 👀
Now, when you share an Instagram link on Twitter a preview of that post will appear. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/XSZRx9dzd1
— Instagram (@instagram) November 3, 2021
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Twitter has enabled its Super Follow option to all iOS users, giving the opportunity for users to Super Follow their favorite content creators on the platform. Users who pay a monthly subscription fee will receive exclusive content. Super Follow is another avenue for creators to monetize their content and acts as an incentive to push content creators for more content. With this new monetization option, content creators will be more incentivized to create additional content for their subscribers.
It’s Super Following time –– everyone globally on iOS now has the option to Super Follow select creators.
— Support (@Support) October 28, 2021
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Twitter engineer Ethan Sutan shared some new insights into the development of the NFT display option. Sutan tweeted a short-clip video of how users may be able to showcase their NFTs and how users can check information on NFTs used on the profile. The feature is still in its development stages and not currently available to users as of yet!
Cool stuff on the way to show off the NFTs you own👀 What do you think? pic.twitter.com/7Qftzfmdud
— Ethan Sutin (@EthanSutin) October 28, 2021
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Twitter also rolled out a new feature called “Labs” for its premium subscription service, Twitter Blue. Labs will enable Twitter Blue subscribers to have early access to features that Twitter is testing. Labs subscribers will also have access to interesting features, such as the ability to upload longer videos through desktop and Pinned Conversations for iOS users. Regular Twitter users are only able to upload videos that are up to two minutes and twenty seconds long, but for Labs subscribers, they’ll be able to upload videos up to ten minutes long! iOS users can now swipe in order to pin their favorite conversations to the top of their direct messages inbox. For now, Labs is only available to subscribers in Canada and Australia, but Twitter is looking to launch this feature in more countries soon.
https://twitter.com/TwitterBlue/status/1453457352426803202
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Yet another update is out for Twitter’s Spaces! The app has launched a recording feature for selected iOS hosts. Users with access to the feature will be able to record their spaces and share them to audiences who might have missed the livestream. Recordings can also be used and edited for podcasts or audio clips enabling users to further promote their Spaces and community.
On top of that, users are able to control their preferences for Twitter Spaces. Twitter users will now be able to manage whether or not their followers are able to see which Spaces they are passively listening to. These privacy options will surely give users some peace of mind when they’re engaging with Twitter’s audio-only feature.
Next, Twitter users who are logged out of the platform will still be able to listen into Spaces. This change is quite interesting for a number of reasons. By allowing non-Twitter users to access Spaces, Twitter has effectively broadened the audience. As a new feature, it’s likely that the company will want as many people engaging with Spaces as possible.
Finally, Spaces has new ways to promote user engagement. Hosts will now be able to view reactions from participants within the dock, essentially giving hosts the ability to read the room and see participant activity. Twitter also enabled the ability to toggle captions, which is an improvement to support the hearing-impaired feel included in these Spaces.
Pinterest introduced Pinterest TV, a series of live, original, and shoppable content featuring creators on the platform. Pinterest TV will have fresh new episodes every weekday that will be recorded and available for users to view on demand. Pinterest TV presents a streamlined shopping experience on the platform as users can shop directly from retailers when the products are showcased by creators. Each episode will cover specific categories such as food, home, fashion, beauty, and more! Pinterest TV episodes will start rolling out on November 8th and will air Monday to Fridays at 3PM PDT/ 6PM EDT in the U.S. for iOS and Android users.
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To celebrate Riot Games’ upcoming animated series, “Arcane,” Reddit has released League of Legends-themed avatars. Redditors will have the chance to check out the avatars on their profile avatar builder page. Avatars give users the opportunity to align themselves with their favorite communities and express their own individuality through a fun visual. Currently, two characters—Jinx and Vi—are available for avatars, but Reddit plans to roll out more characters on a weekly basis as they begin to appear on the show. Avatars are available for all users globally so that fans of League of Legends anticipating Arcane’s Netflix debut can express their excitement.
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YouTube
The video streaming platform released its YouTube Shorts Report to help users with their creative journey. Content creators making YouTube Shorts can leverage the report for trends, popular users, and insights on how to overall improve their shorts strategy and engagement. Some notes the report includes are using audio in clips, getting straight to the point to attract viewers’ attention, and experimenting with various strategies to keep users engaged.
Next, YouTube is testing out direct access to Shorts. For viewers that are in the experiment, if they close the YouTube app while watching Shorts, they’ll be able to dive right back into the Shorts player when they reopen the app. YouTube is only experimenting with this feature for a small percentage of users and it’s only for mobile users.
Snapchat
Snapchat has expanded its Sounds Library with its new deal with NBCUniversal. Snapchatters can add audio clips to their Snaps from NBCUniversal’s comprehensive catalog of famous quotes and music from hit movies and television shows like Back to the Future, Scarface, The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and many more. Users that are sent Snaps that contain audio can swipe up to view movie or TV titles from where the audio originated. The expansion of Snapchat’s Sound Library makes for a more entertaining and engaging experience with friends and family on the app!
The app also added a Snap Focus certification course in “Ads Manager Campaign Optimization.” The hands-on exercises allow users to learn the ins-and-outs of optimizing on the platform’s ads manager. The courses were designed to help strategists optimize for full-funnel results on Snapchat. The Snapchat Ads Manager Optimization course comprises five learning objectives which include visualizing campaign data, troubleshooting campaign performance, optimizing performance in-flight, applying learnings to future campaigns, and getting ad support. Marketers who are considering taking the course can look forward to reaping the benefits of maximizing their in-app results.
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Clubhouse
Clubhouse has finally announced its first wave of local language support! The platform is kicking things off first for Android users with thirteen new languages to be launched immediately. Languages include French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Portuguese, and many more. Clubhouse will be implementing language support for iOS soon with additional languages. The latest update will enhance user experience as they’ll be able to engage and experience Clubhouse more comfortably using their native language.
That’s all the social media trends and updates for this week, stay tuned next week for more! Stay in the loop by following us on Twitter for more social media news.
This week we talked about Facebook rebranding its cooperation name to Meta. Your brand doesn’t have to go as far as to change its name, but have you thought about elevating your brand’s image on social media? Chat with our digital marketing experts to learn how you can improve your social media presence and reap the benefits of leveraging social media.
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