Social Media Buzz - 18 Dec 2020

Social Media Buzz is a monthly update of the latest news on the major social media platforms that are relevant to marketers, in just 3 minutes.

Pinterest Adds New Board Features to Improve User Navigation

The new notes, favourites and boards toolbar features provide more ways for users to keep track of ideas and inspirations found on the platform. With active boards now containing at least 150 pins on average, this will help to maximise search and discovery. This update ties well with the platform’s aim to connect influencers and creators to a broader audience.

Source: TechCrunch

Pinterest Partners with NAACP on New Inclusion Advisory Council

Facebook appears to be testing a new feature within its Creator Studio dashboard which would provide a calendar overview of your Instagram post activity—both past and scheduled. The calendar displays a listing of all of your Instagram posts, with separate icons for single image updates, carousels and more. That could make it much easier to map out your Instagram strategy—within Creator Studio, you can schedule your Instagram feed and IGTV posts up to six months in advance, and havethe capacity to see them planned out like this could help in ensuring optimal coverage ahead of time. Of course, ideally, you'd be able to schedule your Instagram Stories via Creator Studio as well, but at present, it's limited to feed and IGTV posts.

Source: Zet Business

Facebook's Testing an Instagram Content Calendar in its Creator Studio Tool

Facebook appears to be testing a new feature within its Creator Studio dashboard which would provide a calendar overview of your Instagram post activity—both past and scheduled. The calendar displays a listing of all of your Instagram posts, with separate icons for single image updates, carousels and more. That could make it much easier to map out your Instagram strategy. Within Creator Studio, you can schedule your Instagram feed and IGTV posts up to six months in advance. Being able to see them planned out like this could help in ensuring optimal coverage ahead of time.

Source: NewsBreak

Facebook launches its Collab music app to the public

Facebook has publicly launched Collab, an experimental music-making app that first launched as an invite-only beta back in May. The app allows users to create short-form music videos by combining up to three independent videos. So, you could also record one part, then mix it with two other parts you find on the Collab feed that other people have recorded. Or you can just mix other people’s videos together — you don’t need to be a musician yourself. (Every user is properly credited for their contributions, according to Facebook.) You won’t have to worry about lining all the videos up — Collab includes in-app tools to sync the parts together.

Source: The Verge

Instagram Tests Sharing Reels to Facebook's News Feed and Watch Listings

Facebook is stepping up effort to make Reels as popular as TikTok; and maybe even more popular. The social media giant is reportedly testing the possibility of sharing Reels to Facebook’s News Feed. It’ll be a win-win situation for Instagram and creators. The opportunity to expand the reach is limitless when an opportunity such as the News Feed beckons. For creators, it is also an opportunity to reach out to as many people as possible.

Source: Social Barrel

Instagram Adds Shopping Tags to Reels, the Next Step in its eCommerce Push

Instagram’s found another way to add pressure to TikTok, this time by adding new shopping tags to Reels, it’s TikTok clone functionality. It’s another small step in Instagram’s gradual evolution into an eCommerce powerhouse, while for Reels, it adds another way for creators to make money directly from their Reels clips. Creators are also now able to add “Branded Content” tags to their Reels, in order to provide more transparency about paid promotions. This is a critical element in short-form video, because ads don’t really work when the content itself can only be seconds long.

Source: Gadget Page

Twitter Buys The multi-participant Streaming Giant, Squad!

Twitter has officially acquired multi-participant video chat app Squad, which could pave the way for new video streaming features in the app. Squad is primarily a video chat tool, which enables users to connect in real-time, similar to Houseparty. Squad noted that its usage had increased 1100% as a result of the COVID-19 lockdowns. It makes sense - simplified chat, with the capacity to provide additional context. And now, Twitter will likely look to incorporate that functionality to facilitate broader discussion of tweets, specifically.

Source: The Verge

Twitter Seeks to Provide More Brand-Safety Tools with New Ad Verification Partnerships

Twitter has announced new partnership agreements with both DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science in order to provide advertisers with increased assurance around the placement of their ads within the app, and safeguard against potential brand association with controversial content on the platform. In addition to this, Twitter says that it will also undergo an accreditation process across all four of the Media Ratings Council’s offered Accreditation Services: Viewability, Sophisticated Invalid Traffic Filtration, Audience Measurement, and Brand Safety.

Source: Social Media Today

Twitter Announces New Integration to Share Tweets in Snapchat Stories, with Instagram Coming Soon

Twitter has announced that iOS users will now be able to add tweets directly into their Snapchat snaps, providing more options for sharing tweet conversations. That's significant because the major social platforms don't tend to play well together, preferring instead to keep users within their own apps. But tweets are shared everywhere regardless, and it makes logical sense for Twitter to enable expanded tweet sharing, with official linkage back to the app, as that could help to drive more Snap users back to Twitter to view the expanded discussion.

Source: Social Media Today

FTC orders Amazon, Facebook and others to explain how they collect and use personal data.

The Federal Trade Commission is requiring nine tech companies to share information about how they collect and use data from their users. Amazon, TikTok owner ByteDance, Discord, Facebook and its subsidiary WhatsApp, Reddit, Snap, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube were each sent orders to hand over information about their data practices. The companies have 45 days to respond from the date they received the orders. The FTC is using its authority under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act, which allows it to pursue broad studies separate from law enforcement.

Source: CNBC

Samsung Announces New Partnership with TikTok to Bring TikTok Videos to Your Home TV

TikTok is heading to the living room as the popular social media app began rolling out an app for Samsung Smart TVs. The new app will first be available in the UK and can be accessed on Samsung TVs from 2018 or later. In a press release, Samsung says that the TV version of TikTok is exclusive to its televisions, adding that it has been "specifically created for a home-viewing experience" including offering the app's popular "For You" and "Following" feeds.

Source: CNET

TikTok beats Facebook to become the most downloaded app in 2020

TikTok also ranked second for the most consumer spend on apps this year, according to data from App Annie. Facebook is now the second most downloaded app followed by WhatsApp. App Annie even predicts TikTok to break the 1 billion Monthly Active User (MAU) club in 2021. In 2020, it secured the eighth position among apps with the greatest number of MAUs. TikTok also rose to the second position for consumer spending this year. Tinder continues to lead this space.

Source: The Hindustan Times

LinkedIn Adds New Company Page Roles to Provide More Management Options

This will be helpful for LinkedIn managers - this week, LinkedIn has expanded the roll out of its new company page administrator roles, which provide more options for maintaining your business' on-platform presence. As explained by LinkedIn: "LinkedIn Pages offer Page Admin and Paid Media Admin roles to allow for tiered levels of management for all activities related to your Page. Page Admin and Paid Media Admin roles can be granted to members, associated employees, and advertisers."

Source: World Tech News

LinkedIn Starts Testing Ads in "Stories"

LinkedIn has begun testing advertisements within its fledgling "stories" format in the U.S. and Canada as the Microsoft-owned professional networking platform seeks to boost ad revenue. LinkedIn already has been experimenting with ads within stories in markets such as Latin America and Europe. Its stories advertising tests now span about 1,000 campaigns from more than 600 advertisers, including WeWork, Daimler, Cadillac and Bank of New York, the company said. It plans to make the ads in stories widely available in 2021.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Reddit Acquires Video Creation App Dubsmash to Boost its Video Offerings

Reddit has seen a big increase in video engagement of late, and while it may have taken a while to come to the video party, it's now looking for more ways to build on its video options in order to cater to those trends. As a result, Reddit has now acquired interactive video app Dubsmash, which enables users to lip-synch and dance to audio tracks, in a similar vein to TikTok.

Source: Gadget Page