Social Media News Round-Up: 28/01/22
THIS WEEK’S SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING NEWS AT A GLANCE:
Scroll down to read the full news stories
🔁 Instagram expands video remix options
👯♀️ Twitter develops new ‘Flocks’ option
🥊 TikTok faces creator backlash
🤖 Reddit tests NFT profile pictures
🛍 Snapchat introduces AR ‘Shopping Lenses’
Instagram expands video remix options
Instagram takes further steps to compete with TikTok’s more engaged in-app consumption by expanding its video remix option, first introduced last March, to all users’ videos and not just reels. When viewing any video users can select ‘Remix this video’ from the options menu (users can also choose to switch off remixes of their own videos in their post settings).
Image Source: Social Media Today
Last week the platform also released a statement that it was introducing new measures that will now reduce the reach of feed posts and stories which ‘likely’ violate rules around hate speech, bullying and the incitement of violence. The new measures are system based rather than reliant on independent fact-checkers.
Twitter develops new ‘Flocks’ option
Twitter previewed this new, variable audience control option for tweets last July, under the name ‘Trusted Friends’. The option lets users share Tweets exclusively with a chosen group of people on the app, as shown in the below screenshot shared by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi.
Image Source: Alessandro Paluzzi/Twitter
The Flocks feature is limited to include up to 150 users, which is a fairly large group but more enclosed than Instagram’s Close Friends option which is currently unlimited. Users in another’s Flock would be notified that the tweet has only been shared within the group with a marker on each Flock tweet.
Image Source: Alessandro Paluzzi/Twitter
Twitter was also seen implementing the ‘About’ tab first tested last May.
Image Source: Jane Manchun Wong/Twitter
TikTok faces creator backlash
TikTok has come under widespread criticism over its Creator Fund after several of the platform’s most successful user’s, including YouTube star Hank Green, criticised its revenue sharing method.
Green released an in-depth criticism of TIkTok on YouTube in a video titled ‘So… TikTok Sucks’ with the caption:
‘I have been making content on TikTok for over a year. I’ve got over six million followers and I reach millions of people everyday. It is a tremendously powerful platform that is extremely well designed. But they are dramatically under-paying creators…a decision that I think is very bad for the creator community there, and also potentially long-term bad for the platform itself.’
As more users join the platform and Creator Fund, top users’ payouts remain static or start to decline rather than rising to the amount of users in the app, due to TikTok’s limited $200 million allocation to the fund.
This failure to properly monetise famous creators led to the collapse of TikTok’s predecessor, Vine, after several of the platform’s top stars walked out.
TikTok’s statement on the matter read:
‘We continue to listen to and seek feedback from our creator community and evolve our features to improve the experience for those in the program.’
The app also tested a new Memoji-like avatar feature and a ‘Dislike’ button for comments on the app, this week.
Image Source: Matt Navarra/Twitter
Image Source: Matt Navarra/Twitter
Reddit tests NFT profile pictures
It’s the latest app to join a slew of platforms experimenting with connected NFT profile images, as spotted by app researcher Nima Owji.
Image Source: Nima Owji/Twitter
The move comes as last Friday Twitter launched the new NFT profile display options for users which had been in testing and Meta currently plans to establish an NFT marketplace.
Snapchat introduces AR ‘Shopping Lenses’
The new type of Shopping Lens allows users to easily swipe through a catalogue of products in one place, by allowing brands to showcase a range of products within a single Lens promotion.
Image Source: Social Media Today
As demonstrated in the image above, Snap’s Catalog Lenses will be directly linked to a company’s product catalogue. Snapchat’s simplifying the process of creating AR shopping lenses for brands by updating its Lens Web Builder tool.
The statement reads:
‘We’ve now made it so brands can generate a commerce Lens in as fast as two minutes and Beauty brands can do so in just a few clicks. At launch, this quick click accessibility in Lens Web Builder will be available to Beauty brands and will roll out to other product verticals in the coming months.’
