Social Media News: ‘Add Yours’ sticker, TikTok feature lets creators share TikTok Stories to Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat+ now has 1 mill subs
The SocialDay - Social Media News Roundup, Your Midweek social media news is rounded up from the past week in one place so you don't have to go anywhere else! Arm yourself with the latest social media updates so you can impress your colleagues, boss, clients etc... We've got you!
This week, watch an archived session with Matthew Forrester Media Sales Lead and Camilla Burchill Creative Strategist for ecom and retail at Snap
In this weeks session, you will learn about Reimagining Retail in AR - Snap
If you haven't got your ticket to this year's SocialDay in London grab yours here and if you need help getting your boss to pay for your tickets, see our guide to convincing your boss. - Snap will be back again talking all things AR ads.
Next month’s Social Media Forum is going to be epic, but don’t take my word for it! See what these industry experts have to say about why they love SocialDay:
Here are your TOP Social Media Stories...
(Scroll down to read the full stories)
👉 Meta rolls out new Reels features on Instagram and Facebook, including an ‘Add Yours’ sticker
👉 Meta Is Tracking Users Who Visit Websites Via Facebook and Instagram's In-App Browser
👉 A new TikTok feature lets creators share TikTok Stories to Facebook and Instagram
👉 TikTok launches new ad solutions with smarter targeting and amplified product discovery
👉 YouTube Will Now Automatically Add Watermarks to Downloaded Shorts Clips
👉 Snap says Snapchat+ now has 1 million subscribers, introduces new features
Your stories in more detail:
👉 Meta rolls out new Reels features on Instagram and Facebook, including an ‘Add Yours’ sticker
Meta announced today that it’s launching new Reels features for Instagram and Facebook. Most notably, the company is rolling out an “Add Yours” sticker for Reels on both social networks. The sticker allows users to respond to other users’ Reels with their own following a prompt or a certain topic. For example, you can share a Reel with an Add Yours prompt that asks others to post videos of their pets.
Each time you share a new Add Yours prompt, Reels added by others will appear on a page dedicated to that prompt. At the top of the page, people will see who started the prompt in order to give credit to the originating creator. Although the feature is aimed at getting users to collaborate, it can also be seen as a way to discover more people to follow.
The feature was first introduced for Instagram Stories last fall. The company says the sticker is a popular Stories feature, so it makes sense for Meta to bring it Reels as well, especially given its plans to double down on the short-form video feature. Since the sticker encourages users to post their own Reels in response to an original one, Meta could see it as a way to increase the number of Reels on its platforms, while also getting users who may not have otherwise posted Reels to share one.
Meta also announced that it’s opening up Stars, the virtual items that allow fans to express their support for their favorite creators on Facebook Reels for all eligible creators. The company previously expanded Stars to Facebook Reels and is now rolling it out to all eligible creators. Meta also notes that it recently launched new mobile options for getting started with Stars and for tracking earnings.
In addition, Meta now allows all users cross-post Reels from Instagram to Facebook easily. The company says this will allow creators to build communities on both social networks and participate in monetization programs offered by both Facebook and Instagram.
Learn more on this story from Tech Crunch
👉 Meta Is Tracking Users Who Visit Websites Via Facebook and Instagram's In-App Browser
An analyst has now revealed that Meta is tracking its Facebook and Instagram users by injecting code into websites they visit through the apps. According to a new report from The Guardian, privacy research and former Google engineer Felix Krause has found additional lines of code on websites that were injected by Meta when you visit them by clicking on links while you’re in either the Facebook or Instagram apps, which opens the pages up through the in-app browser instead of external ones like Safari, Chrome or Firefox.
“The Instagram app injects their tracking code into every website shown, including when clicking on ads, enabling them [to] monitor all user interactions, like every button and link tapped, text selections, screenshots, as well as any form inputs, like passwords, addresses and credit card numbers,” Krause explained.
Read more about this story on Hypebeast
👉 A new TikTok feature lets creators share TikTok Stories to Facebook and Instagram
Facebook and Instagram may be busy trying to clone TikTok within their own apps as Reels, but a new feature rolling out now from TikTok will see the short-form video app’s content showing up in more places across Meta’s social networking platforms. TikTok confirmed to TechCrunch it’s launching a new sharing feature that will allow users to publish their TikTok Stories — a feature it has been piloting since last year — to rival social networks, including both Facebook and Instagram.
The feature only recently began rolling out to TikTok users, the company said, so you may not see the option in your own app just yet.
The move could give TikTok’s content increased visibility on Meta’s platforms, as the tech giant has been working to downrank recirculated TikTok videos in Reels. Specifically, Meta advised its creators that it would prioritize original content on Reels across Instagram and Facebook, noting its algorithms would be on the lookout for watermarks — like the one TikTok includes on its videos, for example.
Learn more about this story in TechCrunch
👉 TikTok launches new ad solutions with smarter targeting and amplified product discovery
TikTok announced today that it’s launching a new commerce ad suite called “Shopping Ads” to make it easier for brands to advertise on the platform. The company is currently testing three formats of Shopping Ads, including Video Shopping Ads, Catalog Listing Ads and LIVE Shopping Ads.
The new Video Shopping Ads allow advertisers to highlight one or more products in their in-feed video ads in a way that amplifies product discovery and purchase intent. TikTok says video Shopping Ads provide dynamic experiences based on the shopper’s intent to purchase, with smart targeting and optimized ad delivery. Video Shopping Ads essentially put brands’ shoppable videos in front of users who are more likely to buy them. The ads will also automatically create a landing page to better determine a user’s intent to purchase. Video Shopping Ads are currently available to select advertisers for beta testing.
The company says Video Shopping Ads combine the best of its current Dynamic Showcase Ads and Collection Ads solutions. Although Dynamic Showcase Ads and Collection Ads will still be available for the rest of 2022, TikTok plans to phase them out next year.
Read more about this story on TechCrunch
👉 YouTube Will Now Automatically Add Watermarks to Downloaded Shorts Clips
This is interesting. YouTube is taking steps to stop users from re-posting YouTube Shorts clips to other apps, via the addition of new watermarks on Shorts clips.
As explained by YouTube:
“If you’re a creator who downloads your Shorts from YouTube Studio to share across other platforms, you’ll now find a watermark added to your downloaded content. We’ve added a watermark to the Shorts you download so your viewers can see that the content you're sharing across platforms can be found on YouTube Shorts.”
Which could be good, I guess, in terms of cross-promotion. But with other apps also penalizing clips that include visible watermarks, the true intention would appear to be limiting short video sharing across apps, in order to make it a little harder for creators to simply re-post their Shorts to Reels or TikTok as well, as a means to build their presence in each app.
Learn more about this story on The Verge
👉 Snap says Snapchat+ now has 1 million subscribers, introduces new features
Snap said today that the company’s paid subscription plan Snapchat+, which launched in June, now has more than 1 million users across the globe. The firm also introduced new features like priority replies to celebrities, new post view emoji, Bitmoji backgrounds and custom app icons to its subscribers.
Last month, a report from Sensor Tower noted that Snap already registered $7.3 million in in-app revenue within 30 days of Snapchat+ launch — with the paid tier estimated to contribute more than $5 million of that sum. The analytics firm said that while the $3.99 monthly plan was a top choice, many folks also opted to get six-month or 12-month subscriptions priced at $21.99 and $39.99 respectively.
Since its launch, the company has also introduced new features for subscribers like access to Snapchat for Web.
New Snapchat+ features
With the new feature drop, Snapchat will surface subscribers’ replies above non-paid users’ replies to stories posted by the platform’s celebrated creators known as Snap Stars.
Learn more about this story on TechCrunch
From the archives:
Matthew Forrester Media Sales Lead and Camilla Burchill Creative Strategist for ecom and retail at Snap
In this session, you will learn about Reimagining Retail in AR - Snap
Thank you! We'll see you again next week! If you enjoyed this roundup, you may also like our Digital Women news roundup too which includes content from the world of tech, web3, digital and social media and is totally up to date to the moment on the digital news on a Friday! - Between this one and that one, we really do have it covered!
All the best!
