Social Media News Round-Up: 21/05/21
Instagram announces new ‘Creator Week’ initiative
Instagram has announced a new ‘Creator Week’ initiative that aims to provide platform insights and tips to its community of aspiring and emerging creators. The event will run from 8th June to 10th June and will include a range of professional development sessions, in which creators will be able to pitch their dream product idea to a panel of judges, including:
How to Supercharge Your Community
Fund My Merch Line
How to Get Discovered on Instagram
How to Start a Podcast
And more.
Sessions will also address topics such as burnout and algorithm myth-busting, as well as “surprise special guest appearances” and new product news announcements.
Facebook launches live-stream shopping events
Facebook has launched the next stage in its evolving e-commerce push: live-stream shopping events! Every Friday through to 16th July, Facebook will be hosting live shoppable videos from beauty and fashion brands, allowing them to “build relationships with customers, provide new entertaining content, answer questions and streamline the purchase process through convenient checkout with Shops.” Some of the brands taking part include Abercrombie & Fitch, Clinique and Sephora. See the full line-up here.
Spotify announces it is testing auto-transcribe feature for podcasts
In an effort to increase the accessibility of podcasts on the platform, Spotify has announced it will soon be testing an auto-transcribe feature. The feature will allow people to read an automatic transcript of a podcast with or without audio, helping them to follow the content more easily. Auto-transcription will become available on certain exclusive and original podcasts over the next few weeks as part of Spotify’s beta testing.
Twitter starts showing users new prompts asking them not to switch off data tracking
In response to Apple’s latest iOS 14 update, Twitter has started showing its users new prompts asking them not to switch off data tracking. The message explains how keeping data tracking switched on will benefit users in terms of seeing more relevant ads, and provides a ‘learn more’ button which takes users to Twitter’s iOS 14.5 section in its Help Centre.
Twitter introduces scheduling for Spaces
Twitter has finally introduced the ability to schedule Spaces! Hosts can now schedule a Space for later and will receive 2 reminders, one 30 minutes before and one at the start time, to ensure they don’t miss it. Users will also be able to sign up for reminders of upcoming scheduled Spaces by clicking the ‘Set Reminder’ prompt. This is great news for brands and creators on the platform, who can now build hype around Spaces and integrate the feature into their content strategies more easily.
Snap announces new features including creator tipping and new AR features
In its latest Partner Summit, Snap has announced a range of new features for its users and creators. One of the most exciting features is its new creator tipping ability, which will allow Snapchat users to tip high-profile creators through the app’s chat function. Users will be able to purchase tokens in the app and use them to purchase ‘gifts’ to send to creators through story replies, which creators can then cash out once they accumulate $100 worth. It also unveiled some new AR features, including interactive lenses that allow users to collaborate with each other in AR even if they’re in separate locations, as well as a new partnership with YouTube which will let Snapchat users share clips from YouTube and YouTube Music directly into the Snapchat app.
