Welcome back to another Spark Social Report by Spark Growth! If you want to be equipped with the latest and most relevant digital marketing trends and social media updates, then keep your eyes peeled here! We’ve got tons of trends and updates to share with you, including TikTok integrating Stories in its “For You” feed. So, if you want to be in the know, then keep reading.
Social Media Trends
It seems that with each social media update, users are finding more e-commerce capabilities being added to the app, leading to more platforms seeing a rise in shopping through social platforms. As a result, consumers are more likely to shop in-app than ever before, and the pandemic has played a big part in this change. Consumers are spending more time at home, working, and scrolling through their social media feeds.
While making a purchase through social media might have intimidated shoppers before, with store closures and reduced capacity policies, a new social e-commerce path has been charted at an accelerated rate. With advancements in security on these platforms and increased consumer comfort with online shopping, it’s a brave new world for social media commerce!
Social Media Updates
Reddit’s Safety team has announced that they’re updating the app’s blocking feature for increased security with the changes starting to roll out this week. When a user is blocked, it not only removes their content from your feed, but it removes your content from their view too. However, there will be a limit as to how many times you can block and unblock a user. Reddit wants to provide its users with more control over the safety measures they can take and while the team notes that this doesn’t replace its reporting policy, they do want to hear from users about other security ideas the community may have.
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YouTube
YouTube’s Chief Business Officer, Robert Kyncl, has announced that the company is phasing out its Originals team after six years of production work. The decision comes after it was announced earlier this week that YouTube’s global head of original content, Susanne Daniels, would be leaving the company in March. According to Kyncl, the only content YouTube will continue to fund is its Black Voices and YouTube Kids programs. YouTube’s Partner Program for ad revenue sharing, which has over two million participants, has grown so much that they want to invest in projects that will have an even bigger impact on creators. The contracts signed with Originals creators will still be honored, but they won’t be extended once the contracts expire.
Next, YouTube wants to help content creators get more branded content deals, so the company added a new MediaKit addition. This will make it easier to create a channel pitch for possible ad partners within the app.
TikTok
TikTok users can expect to see Stories appear in their “For You” feed rather than being on a tab of its own. When users scroll through their feed, photos and video content from Stories will have a blue “Story” tag. This means that users can view the Stories created by anyone on TikTok, not just the people they follow. Creating a Story has changed too. Now, it’s done via a plus button, rather than the sidebar, and the new Stories create mode is called “Quick.”
NEW! TikTok has made big changes to TikTok Stories
– TikTok Stories now show up in FYP feed instead of the stories side bar
– You can now see anyone’s stories, not just those from people you followh/t @adrianokev1
1/4 pic.twitter.com/t9QKkW3L3a
— Matt Navarra (I quit X. Follow me on Threads) (@MattNavarra) January 17, 2022
That’s not all for TikTok! The company also added insights to its Trends section in the Creative Center. For example, the app now allows users to see a listing of the most popular songs within the app, which can be refined by region.
Snapchat
The process for adding friends on Snapchat has changed to prevent those over the age of 18 from sending messages to underage users. Snapchat’s “Quick Add” feature has been modified to make it impossible for users over age 18 to add users under age 18 without having several friends in common. Snapchat has a huge underage user base, and this move aims to protect underage users.
Snapchat is also doing its part in the fight against the opioid crisis. The company is cracking down on the ease drug dealers have previously had in accessing users they can sell drugs to on the platform. Snapchat is partnering with the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), which helps create drug-free space. The company has also released video content on the issue, called “Good Luck America.”
Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, shared an update about the app’s new subscriptions. Instagram is making it easier for creators to monetize their work and have a steadier stream of income. The endeavor will ensure that the creator’s income depends not on how much overall reach and engagement creators get with their posts, but on how their subscribers engage with them and their content.
Mosseri explained the three elements of subscriptions. First, Subscriber Stories allows creators to share Stories only with their subscribers. Users will know it’s just for subscribers because the Stories will be marked with a purple ring. The second subscription feature is Subscriber Lives, where creators can go live for their subscribers. The third feature is where users will get Subscriber Badges that will be shown in the comment section, DMs, and live streams. The subscriptions feature is currently being tested in the U.S. so stay tuned for more details!
Twitter is making improvements to TweetDeck Preview to make it easier for users to create custom columns within the app. When users click “Add column” and then “Search,” they get access to advanced search filters that they can use to create columns. Users can also discover new lists that they can love while making a list column of their own.
That’s a wrap for this week’s Spark Social Report! Be sure to check us out on Facebook to stay in the know of all the latest social media news.
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