Here’s what has been happening with your favorite social media platforms:
Meta
- Meta’s first retail store will open on May 9, 2022, at Meta’s Burlingame campus in California. The goal: allowing people to experience the possibilities of the “Metaverse” for themselves and to try out Meta’s array of hardware products.
- Facebook gets platform user growth back on track despite decreased ad revenue due to the war in Ukraine, among other issues.
- In an effort to help advertisers get the most out of their campaigns, Facebook shares their recommendations for Landing page optimization and best practices to maximize conversions.
- You can now add music clips to your Facebook comments, a feature nobody asked for and surely won’t become obnoxious at all … 🙄
- The algorithm is updating…AGAIN. Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, recently shared an update that the platform has added enhanced tagging features and is prioritizing original content.
- During their Q1 earnings call, Meta announced that Reels now account for more than 20% of total time users spend on the platform. That being said, Instagram is now expanding the testing of 90 second Reels to more users.
- Reel “Templates” are now in testing for a small group of users in order to help creators create more engaging content more easily.
- Pinned posts are now in live testing. In a update decidedly reminiscent of TikTok, the new feature would allow users to pin certain posts to the top of a user’s feed.
- Twitter has announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Tesla mogul, Elon Musk, in an epic bid of roughly $44 billion.
In a statement announcing the deal, Musk said:
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” said Mr. Musk. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
- A full “Edit History” element is coming to Twitter along with the impending “Edit Button.” However, the latest news reveals that your posting faux pas won’t be edited out of existence. Instead, an edit will generate a new post, almost like a thread, where followers will still be able to see the original pre-edited version.
Snapchat
- Snapchat recently ranked as the happiest platform according to a commissioned study.
- 82% of Snapchatters say they regularly engage with brands. This highlights the ability for brands to leverage ads and create more opportunities for engagement and purchase.
- The platform’s latest performance update reveals 13 million new Shapchatters have joined the platform in Q1 alone. This brings Snapchat’s DAUs (daily active users) to 332 million.
Also Happening
- New emojis have arrived on iOS as part of the first iOS 15.4 beta! These include a melting face, pregnant man, mirror disco ball, multi-racial handshake emojis, and more!
- Pinterest’s latest performance report indicates an increase of 2 million new DAUs, however, the also note that revenue has decreased quarter-over-quarter. The platform attributes this to a spike in engaged users during the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and several other factors.
- Google Analytics 4 is coming. The global search platform announced last month that it intends to sunset universal analytics by July 1, 2023, in favor of Google Analytics 4 in order to help businesses navigate the, “complex, multi-platform journeys of their customers — all while prioritizing user privacy.”
- TikTok announces new features for API Heritage Month to recognize the rich history and achievements of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) people.
- YouTube’s TikTok-esque short-form video feed, “YouTube Shorts,” is now up to 30 billion daily views. Surprising no one, Google now says they have launched ad testing utilizing this platform feature.
