Welcome back to Spark Social Report by Spark Growth, your weekly source for social media updates! Meta announced ways to get more creative with new Reel tools, TikTok added new discovery trends tools, and Pinterest acquired THE YES for increased product recommendations. Continue reading for more updates across social media from this week!
Digital Marketing Insights
A study conducted by Scorpion discovers where consumers go to find new products and services. Here are some important insights from the study:
- 53% of respondents stated they learned about new products from online ads and email ads. 43% said they went to websites for new products.
- 43% of Gen Z respondents, 35% of Millennials, and 9% of Baby Boomers said they were influenced by influencers to buy products.
- Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X like to use messaging platforms like Discord and Reddit for product recommendations as they are up to 5x more likely to use those platforms than Baby Boomers.
To have a successful marketing campaign, marketers need to understand where their target audience is looking for new products. Read the study here to learn more.
New “Basic Ad” Product
Meta is developing new privacy-friendly Facebook ads that use fewer points of user data for targeting. These “Basic Ads” are targeted at brand advertisers who want to build product awareness and impression. The ads would be measured by engagement and video views. The ads won’t be targeted toward specific customers and therefore could be cheaper for brands. However, these types of ads are less effective for those who are launching campaigns that are further down the marketing funnel.
Get More Creative with New Reel Tools
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Next, Meta announced a range of new creative tools for Facebook and Instagram Reels. The first update is the expansion of polls, quizzes, and emoji stickers for Reels. Users can add these to their Reels for a more interactive experience.
There are new features for Facebook on desktop such as the ability to schedule Reels and new video clipping tools to turn longer videos into Reels.
With Reels, users will be able to make voiceovers and sync sounds to photos or video clips and it will adjust its length to join the beat of the sound. Users will also be able to import audio from their devices to create their own sounds.
Lastly, new templates will let users create Reels based on a previously designed structure. By clicking “Use Template” on a Reel you see, you can use the sound and clip structure to recreate the video.
Click here to learn more about all the new creative tools.
New Pride Features
Meta launches new Pride-themed avatars and stickers for Facebook and Instagram feeds, Stories, and Messenger. The stickers are designed in partnership with queer artist and creator, Shanee Benjamin. To continuously honor Pride outside of June, these new features will be available all year.
Additionally, the company added a new AR effect called “Show Your Skills” in partnership with Broadway’s Tony Award-nominee musical, A Strange Loop. The AR effect will bring users through a virtual audition process aimed to bring out their inner star.
Pin Posts on the Instagram Profile
You like it? You pin it 📌
You can now choose up to three posts or Reels to pin to the top of your profile. pic.twitter.com/9waQkueckG
— Instagram (@instagram) June 7, 2022
Users will now be able to pin posts to the top of their Instagram profile! This popular feature was already available on TikTok and is an effective way to highlight content. It’s been a much-requested feature from users and Instagram has run a few tests within the last couple of months. Up to three posts or Reels can be posted.
Customize the Algorithm on Communities
a new way to view your Communities timeline: sort Tweets by For you (most relevant to you) or Latest (most recent)—the choice is yours!
we’re testing this on iOS, Android, and web to see if it improves your Communities experience 🤞 let us know what you think pic.twitter.com/ygWXfBxbQf
— Communities (@HiCommunities) June 1, 2022
To improve the experience on Twitter Communities, Twitter is testing the ability to filter the way users see their timeline on Communities. This can be sorted by content that is the most relevant to the user or the most recent posts. This way users can choose how they want to view content and customize their experience.
New Translations Tools for the Visually Impaired
A product designer at Twitter, Julius Elias Sohn, announced a new Accessibility section for charts. Charts are found in the analytics section as a way to visually assess how a user’s Tweet is performing. Accessibility features that were previously available on iOS or Android devices did not work for charts because they couldn’t analyze an image-based graph. With this update on the app itself, those who are visually impaired can listen to the charts through a translation that uses pitched sounds and an audio description.
TikTok
New Trends Discovery Tool
✨ TikTok has launched a NEW Trends Discovery tool 📈
A new tool to discover the hottest hashtags, sounds, creators, and videos on TikTok pic.twitter.com/Xv94xcTKH2
— Matt Navarra (I quit X. Follow me on Threads) (@MattNavarra) June 3, 2022
TikTok launched a new trends discovery tool for its Creative Center platform. The tool provides insights on trending songs, hashtags, creators, and videos. This tool and the Creative Center platform will be helpful for creators and marketers to analyze the top trends within the app, especially if they’re looking to develop content.
TikTok’s New Digital Avatars
Next, TikTok introduced TikTok Avatars to help users express themselves on the app. Users can create their avatar in the “effects” section of the app. These can be used while recording videos where the avatar will copy your movements. While TikTok is a newcomer to avatars, other apps like Snapchat and its “Bitmoji,” have made extensive use of avatars.
New Creator Tools and Audio Events
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LinkedIn announced new creator tools including interactive audio events for all creators. Creators can use the audio event feature to connect with the community, have networking events, and conversations.
The company also officially announced the ability for creators to add links to their profile section. Rather than having a link hidden in the “Contact” section (which requires an additional click), these new links are immediately visible whenever a profile is viewed.
Lastly, the platform will have new ways for creators to gain new followers such as being able to follow others through the search results, recommendations on the main feed, and an advanced share button.
Product Listings on User’s Profiles
LinkedIn is working on adding product listings that users can add to their job experience. The product link on the user’s profile will connect back to the company profile where more product information can be added. This will allow users to showcase more accomplishments on their profiles and increase visibility for companies.
Pinterest Acquires THE YES for Improved Product Recommendation
Pinterest is set to acquire THE YES, an AI shopping platform for users to shop based on personal activity and interest. THE YES uses human expertise, machine learning, and fashion expertise to build its algorithm that will now be incorporated on Pinterest. A more advanced algorithm on Pinterest could increase brand awareness and user engagement and could provide a stronger online shopping experience through the app.
YouTube
New Critical Alerts for Analytics
YouTube announced a new critical alert process to inform creators if their channel’s performance is dropping. They will then be referred to information pages that will help them get their channel back on track. This is intended to simplify the analytics process as creators are only alerted to major concerns.
That wraps up the latest social media updates for this week! Be sure to check us out on Twitter for more digital marketing trends and news.
Do you want to implement these social media updates into your digital marketing strategy? Set up a conversation with one of our social media experts today! From influencer marketing to strategic ads that put you in front of your audience, our team can help!
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