Welcome back to another week of Spark Social Report by Spark Growth! Let’s tap into some of the latest social media trends and updates, including Twitter updating its video playback!
Digital Marketing Strategies:
In terms of digital marketing strategies, LinkedIn shared an infographic on the building blocks of brand-to-demand marketing and why businesses should run their campaigns on its platform. Your brand strategy cultivates your company image, and demand strategizing means catering to immediate consumers and trends. Some of the building blocks that LinkedIn highlights include reaching the correct audience, finding the right engagement style, and obtaining data. Implementing these building blocks into your business strategy is an effective way to stabilize your messaging and marketing funnel to generate more value. Businesses looking to implement brand-to-demand strategies can leverage LinkedIn’s many marketing tools outlined in their guide.
Social Media Updates:
Facebook provides tips on how brands can improve ad performance. Practices that the platform advises users to put into action include waiting an allotted time before analyzing performance, setting up conversions API, and configuring web events using aggregated event measurement. On top of that, Facebook is also improving its campaign performance. Some of the work includes improving conversion modelling, accelerating its investments, and tracking web conversions. Through its many updates, the company continues to help businesses grow while continually improving its platform to better fit user needs.
Although not officially announced, Facebook is testing out an A/B post testing tool. According to social media expert, Matt Navarra, the feature will potentially allow users to try out different post formats and decide on a key metric to measure whether it’s comments, shares, reactions, or audience reach. The A/B post testing tool could be a convenient feature in the future as users may be able to configure and define what works best to optimize their content!
Social Media Managers…
– Facebook is rolling out its improved A/B post testing tool
– You can now run tests with different versions of text, link, image, and video to find the best performing combination
Here's what it looks like… 1/3 pic.twitter.com/XAgjL6RqLJ
— Matt Navarra (I quit X. Follow me on Threads) (@MattNavarra) September 22, 2021
[Source]
Finally, Facebook has launched Reels for its platform—this feature can be accessed from the News Feed or in Groups. Users will be able to follow creators directly from the video, like, comment, or share content with friends. Reels created on Instagram can also be shared to Facebook. For now, Reels on Facebook is available for iOS and Android users in the U.S. but the company hopes to release the feature in other regions later on.
Twitter has provided on-profile tipping called “Tips,” where users are able to tip or donate to content creators on their Twitter page via Bandcamp, Patreon, Cash App, or Razorpay. Users can even tip using Strike—a payment application built to pay with Bitcoin! The update will first launch for iOS users followed by Android later on. The Tips feature is just another effort on Twitter’s end to help creators monetize their content.
In an effort to promote climate change awareness, the app launched “#ExtremeWeather visualization.” The site includes interactive visuals based on case studies and data trends based on Tweet trends. #ExtremeWeather not only provides valuable information about current events, but it is also an example of how Tweet trends and data can be turned into educational and interactive content.
The company also updated its video playback to ensure a better viewing experience. Users can now enjoy or post higher-quality resolution videos on the platform. For standalone video ads, the app recommends:
“1200 x 1200 pixels is recommended for 1:1 aspect ratio. 1920 x 1080 pixels is recommended for 16:9 aspect ratio. Larger videos will be better optimized for when users click to expand videos.”
For digital marketers using Twitter as a means to promote their business, don’t worry! The recommended ratio and specs haven’t changed.
Some good news: we’ve made updates to improve video quality.
Starting today, videos you upload to Twitter will appear less pixelated for a better watching experience. pic.twitter.com/lJPI14PVRV
— Support (@Support) September 24, 2021
[Source]
Twitter users can now add specific “Topic” tags when creating a “Space”. While there are only ten tags to choose from, the company mentions more will be added in the future. Twitter plans to expand the number of tags and languages, and make the feature available for iOS users soon. Users will be able to engage with others who have similar interests and build a community on the app. Currently the feature is only available for Android users in English so stay tuned for further updates!
new in Spaces: Topics!
when creating or scheduling a Space, some of you on Android can choose up to 3 Topics to tag it with from a list of our top 10 Topics. BUT it’s only 10 Topics for now and we’ll expand as we build together
English only (also for now!), iOS soon pic.twitter.com/6PfbZtwWMH
— Spaces (@XSpaces) September 24, 2021
[Source]
Instagram has launched “Yours to Make”—a global branding campaign celebrating the good that can come from connecting with communities on the platform. The campaign highlights how younger demographics explore their interests, giving the audience a look at how others use Instagram’s products and features. The campaign is currently live in the U.S. and U.K. and will soon be released for other countries later throughout the year, so make sure to check it out!
After recent social media reports, Facebook announced it will pause its “Instagram Kids” project and use the time to build parental supervision tools instead. The company still holds that it wants to create a safe and supervised environment for younger audiences to enjoy. Facebook recognizes that the younger audience will be engaging with technology and social media no matter what, so the company wants to develop an age-appropriate experience tailored specifically to them. Click the link above and learn more about how Facebook will be working with parents and policymakers in order to make Instagram Kids safe.
TikTok
TikTok has provided audience insights from a research study done in partnership with MediaScience. The study observed the effects of advertising on consumers on both a stated and subconscious level. With 343 participants in the U.S. ranging between the ages of 18-45, the results show that TikTok drove higher user engagement, stronger brand recall, and generated more positive brand sentiment compared to other platforms. With these results in mind, TikTok shares three tips to help integrate these findings into your business including creating lean-in entertainment or emphasizing brand storytelling. The key findings from the study can help businesses use TikTok more effectively.
Snapchat
Soon, we’ll be hearing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” in every store, which means it’s the perfect time to start thinking about your holiday marketing strategy. Snapchat recently launched its “Holiday Marketing Guide” to help users with their digital marketing strategy for the upcoming season, including holiday trends to keep an eye on. For businesses who leverage several platforms for their marketing strategy, it’s important to create content to make the best use of the platform’s unique features and audiences.
LinkedIn is providing more automation opportunities with its Lead Gen Forms Integration for Zapier. Zapier is an automation tool that allows users to streamline different app functionalities —in other words, it means users will be able to connect their LinkedIn Lead Gen forms and streamline them with other third-party applications. The update also makes automation more accessible since coding knowledge isn’t a requirement! Adding simple automation onto the platform helps users and businesses immensely to not only save time but also gather valuable audience insights.
Next, LinkedIn is also working on paid ticketed events to provide users with more monetization opportunities. Many free online events and seminars are held on LinkedIn, but recently TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that the platform is currently running tests on paid events. On a professional platform like LinkedIn, holding paid seminars and events is just another way for users to get exclusive content and insight from other business experts while giving hosts an opportunity to monetize their content.
Since Pinterest’s Creators Festival last year was such a success, the platform has announced its second Creators Festival will take place on October 20! It’s an opportunity for users to learn directly from global creators on how to grow their business and community and how to leverage different features on Pinterest. In the meantime, users who are interested can view the lineup of speakers from each region and register for the event.
Clubhouse
Clubhouse added a new “Wave” feature to facilitate more casual conversations with other users! Just like how you would see friends out in the streets, all you would have to do is wave to start a conversation. Clubhouse has taken that scenario and implemented it into its platform to help users prompt conversations. Users can wave at as many friends as they like or jump into other chat rooms. This allows users to quickly engage with others on the platform.
https://twitter.com/Clubhouse/status/1441116789862060034
[Source]
Twitch
Twitch has added verification updates that require users to validate their phone and/or email before they can send messages. Users are able to link up to five accounts to the same number—but if one is banned from a channel, all the accounts verified under the same number and email will also be banned. The update aims to combat harassment on the platform by preventing users from creating multiple accounts to post hate messages. Streamers will simply need to block a user once rather than multiple times.
YouTube
YouTube is combatting COVID-19 misinformation by sharing guidelines on currently administered and approved vaccines. For the past year, the platform has removed over 130,000 videos for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. In an effort to raise awareness among users, YouTube is highlighting credible health content and sources. The platform has consulted with local and international health organizations, as well as experts in developing these policies.
The video-sharing company has also brought three metrics to Studio Mobile. The metrics aren’t exactly new but are features that were only previously available on desktop. Now, mobile users will have access to key metrics to analyze their performance and channel growth. These include new and returning viewer metrics, members metrics, and aligning metrics under the latest video performance cards to get a brief insight on CTR (click-through rate) performance.
That’s all the trends and social media updates for this week’s Spark Social Report! Check us out on Facebook to keep updated!
This week, we talked about how Twitter videos will look even better after the latest performance updates. Our own data tells us that video content performs well on social media. Click the button below to talk with our marketing experts and learn how video content can help your business stand out!
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