Stay Up to Date on the Latest Trends, Platform Updates, and Social Media Holidays
February is the shortest month on the calendar—albeit one day longer in 2024, due to Leap Year—but it is jam-packed with noteworthy events for brands and marketers to pay attention to.
Black History Month spans all 29 days, and February also features the Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day, and the long Presidents’ Day holiday weekend.
Social Media Holidays to Mark on Your Calendar
- Feb. 1: First day of Black History Month
- Feb. 4: World Cancer Day
- Feb. 6: Safer Internet Day
- Feb. 10: Chinese New Year
- Feb. 11: Super Bowl LVIII
- Feb. 14: Valentine’s Day
- Feb. 17: Random Acts of Kindness Day
- Feb. 19: Presidents’ Day
Social Media Platform Updates
Meta
Creator Management Tools
Meta added Creator Management Tools to Meta Business Suite as a way for agencies and creators to manage their relationships on Facebook by connecting their accounts and granting access to assets and information.
The company said its Creator Management Tools can help agencies managing many creators scale their day-to-day operations.
Once a creator grants an agency access to their page—a one-click process—the agency can funnel the creator’s page earnings directly to the agency payout account and consolidate it outside of Facebook, and that direct account connection provides increased security for both sides.
Other functionalities in Meta’s Creator Management Tools include:
- Permission management, enabling agencies to search creator pages and request that creators link their assets to the agency.
- Access management, allowing for managing permissions at the creator page level and assigning only necessary permissions to each content manager.
- Revenue linking, which lets an agency send a request to creators to link the agency’s payment account to specific monetization products—such as video ads breaks, Stars on Facebook Live videos, fan subscriptions and Reels ads—with income generated going to the payment account.
- The option to migrate existing shared assets from Business Manager into Creator Management Tools.
- Agencies can request to terminate existing relationships with creators.
- Agencies can gain insights into a creator’s page earnings to help shape content strategies.
- Creators can review incoming requests and manage or terminate existing relationships with agencies.
Performance-Based Payouts
Meta provided an update on the new payout model for creators of Facebook Reels and in-stream ads that it began testing last year, saying that it will be extended to more partners in 2024.
The company said its performance-based payout model brings together the best of a traditional revenue share and a bonus program, allowing creators to earn based on the performance of their public Reels or on-demand videos so they can focus on creating engaging content.
This differs from the current system, under which payouts for ads on Facebook Reels are based on the number of monetizable plays the Reel receives, while in-stream ads payouts are based on the number of qualified views a video receives.
“It’s harder to reward our highest-quality creators because the only way to do so is to put more ads in their content, which, after a certain point, creates a worse experience for their viewers,” Meta explained. “With a performance-based model, creators can focus on the content that’s resonating with their viewers and helping them grow. Creators don’t need to worry about CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) or RPMs (revenue per thousand impressions) or other ad metrics. This is particularly valuable for creators early in their journeys who may not be as sophisticated in their understanding of how ads work.”
IP Protection
Meta rolled out an updated version of its Brands Right Protection and a new Intellectual Property Reporting Center, as well as implementing several changes to Rights Manager, to help protect businesses against harm and misuse, increase transparency, and resolve issues more efficiently.
The new version of Brand Rights Protection, located in Meta Business Suite, leverages the company’s artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to provide updates such as improved matching, saved searches, cross-surface searching, and reference library expansion.
Reporting content that rights holders believe is infringing their IP rights was made easier with the new Intellectual Property Reporting Center, which saves relevant information and keeps reporting history in a single place.
And Rights Manager now includes automatic blocking of matching images, the option of adding attribution links with ownership information to matching content on Facebook (Instagram coming soon), and bulk actions covering multiple image reference files simultaneously.
Finally, the company added a Protecting Businesses section to Meta for Business website, providing a guide to help businesses develop a brand protection strategy and mitigate the impact of brand misuse.
Other Meta News
- Meta will comply with the Digital Markets Act in Europe by giving Facebook and Instagram users in the European Economic Area, European Union, and Switzerland several options for managing their experiences across those platforms. Those choices cover actions including information sharing between Facebook and Instagram; use of Messenger with Facebook accounts or stand-alone; use of Facebook information in ecommerce destination Facebook Marketplace and Facebook Gaming; and the previously reported option of subscribing to not see ads on Facebook and Instagram.
- The ability for teens to receive messages on Facebook and Instagram from people they aren’t connected to or do not follow was turned off by default, and parents must approve any change to that setting.
- Teens on Facebook and Instagram are being automatically placed into the most restrictive content control settings, and more items were restricted on Instagram search. Teens on Instagram are also seeing notifications that let them update their privacy settings with one click.
YouTube
New Shorts Community Requirements
Business Insider obtained a leaked email regarding the more stringent requirements for addition to YouTube’s exclusive community support program for short-form creators.
The invite-only community provides YouTube Shorts creators with perks such as best practices and tips, access to exclusive events, community sessions, and dedicated partner managers.
According to the YouTube email, the new requirements are:
- Post at least one YouTube Short per week.
- Use the Shorts camera creation tools—such as add text, add audio, and cut—to create YouTube Shorts.
- Attend at least one community session per quarter.
Other YouTube News
- Starting Jan. 16, YouTube now strikes content that realistically simulates deceased minors or victims of deadly or well-documented major violent events describing their death or violence experiences.
- The Google-owned video site updated the harassment and cyberbullying policies in the platform’s Community Standards.
- Instructional videos on basic first aid and emergency care from authoritative health organizations are being elevated in search results on YouTube, with new information shelves being pinned to the top of results.
TikTok
AI That Song
TikTok began testing a new AI Song feature that uses AI to create songs based on prompts entered by the application’s users.
@jonahcruzmanzano How to create a song using AI on TikTok. 🎵 Explore the world of AI music on TikTok! Join me in creating catchy Pop, EDM, and HipHop songs using simple prompts and words. 🤖✨ Let’s make music together! 🚀🎶 What is AI Song? AI Song is an experimental feature available on TikTok, utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to generate songs based on prompts you input. How does AI Song work? The lyric generation in AI Song is driven by Bloom, a robust language model employing machine learning to produce text. It’s important to note that lyrics generated by this model might include errors, and the same lyrics may be generated for multiple users utilizing the feature. For your security, refrain from sharing personal or confidential information while using AI Song #tiktok #tiktoknewfeature #tiktokai #tiktoknews #tiktokupdate ♬ Vibes – ZHRMusic
The experimental feature uses large language model Bloom to craft lyrics based on users’ text prompts, and then pairs those lyrics with music from an existing, presaved catalog in TikTok.
Other TikTok News
- Gwen Stefani will be the headliner at the Super Bowl LVIII TikTok Tailgate at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas Feb. 11, prior to the Big Game. Portions of her performance will air on CBS’ pregame show.
- TikTok brought four leading creators from across the globe to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, giving them the chance to champion their causes at the annual gathering of global political, business, and other leaders.
- The platform detailed steps it is taking to protect the integrity of elections across the globe, including: connecting users to trustworthy information verified by electoral commissions and fact-checking organizations; promoting media literacy; countering misinformation via specialized moderators with enhanced tools and training and teams on the ground that partner with experts; remaining vigilant against covert influence operations; and prohibiting AI-generated misleading content.
- TikTok began testing an auto-scrolling feature, which users in the test group can access by holding down on a video on the app’s For You page and clicking the auto-scroll button, enabling them to swipe through videos hands-free.
New nighttime nudges for teens will alert them when they have spent more than 10 minutes in areas on the app such as direct messages or Reels, as well as reminding them that it is late and encouraging them to close out the app and go to sleep.
Snapchat
Evan Spiegel’s Manifesto
Snap Inc. cofounder and CEO Evan Spiegel sent a long post-holiday email to employees, in which he outlined priorities for 2024 and took shots at other social networking platforms.
Spiegel said key focus areas for the first half of the year are:
- User growth in developed markets such as Europe and North America.
- A more iOS-centric approach.
- Improvements to the platform’s ad targeting and performance.
- A vertical swipe navigation to unify content and ad interactions across the Snapchat app’s main features, Spotlight and Stories.
The goal of that first-half-2024 push is to put the company in the financial position to make a big move into augmented reality products.
Spiegel wrote, “In 2012, we declared that we were building something different to capture the full range of human emotion, not just what is pretty or perfect. Then, in 2017, we separated social from media to strengthen relationships with friends. In 2024, we’re on the precipice of another revolution in personal computing that began with the desktop, evolved into the smartphone, and is becoming wearable with Spectacles, our AR glasses. We’re certainly far from perfect, but while our competitors are connecting pedophiles, fueling insurrection, and recommending terrorist propaganda, we know that Snapchat makes people happy.”
Other Snapchat News
- Samba TV will measure outcomes for linear TV, streaming network and entertainment advertisers on Snapchat following a partnership between the two companies.
- New in-app parental tools on Snapchat include letting parents view their teens’ Story and contact settings, monitor their Snap Map activity, and restrict the ability for AI-powered chatbot My AI to respond to their chats.
X
Brand Safety for Video Ads
Starting Feb. 1, X’s vetted inventory pilot with global media measurement and optimization platform Integral Ad Science will be extended to all advertisers in the U.S.
IAS classifies all vertical video ad adjacencies for brand safety and suitability aligned to the Global Alliance for Responsible Media framework, giving participating advertisers maximum control over where their ads appear exclusively on the platform’s vertical video feed.
On to 2024
X shared its top business priorities for the year ahead:
- More use of AI for tasks such as enhancing search, improving ads, and “fueling a new level of customer understanding.”
- The launch of peer-to-peer payments.
- Enhancing its AI-powered See Similar Posts feature and developing its upcoming See Dissimilar Posts option.
- Continuing to invest in creators and content partnerships to attract new users and boost advertising.
- Strengthening its full-funnel ads offer via the core pillars of video, performance, and brand safety.
- Continuing to partner with industry leaders on brand safety and verification.
- Creating more original content and working with more talent to do so.
Other X News
- Advertisers can now target premium subscribers.
- Support for NFT (nonfungible token) profile pictures was removed from the platform.
- Creator giant MrBeast reuploaded a video to X as an experiment to see how much ad revenue it would generate. That total turned out to be more than $263,000, but MrBeast cautioned in a subsequent tweet, “But it’s a bit of a facade. Advertisers saw the attention it was getting and bought ads on my video (I think), and thus my revenue per view is probably higher than what you’d experience.”
- Videos can now be downloaded in direct messages by long-pressing the video and clicking download. This only applies to videos sent after Jan. 19, the day the feature debuted.
- After pulling headlines from link previews in October and reinstating them in November, headlines were once again removed from link previews.
- The platform’s Verified Organizations Basic tier launched, with a price tag of $200 per month or $2,000 per year.
- Audio and video calls began rolling out for Android users.
- X iOS users in the U.S. can now login to their accounts via passkeys.
$1 Car vs $100,000,000 Car!!!
I’m curious how much ad revenue a video on X would make so I’m reuploading this to test it. Will share ad rev next week ❤️ pic.twitter.com/amSSmddFht
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) January 15, 2024
Measurement Updates
LinkedIn introduced several measurement features and updates for business-to-business advertisers on its platform.
The professional network said its B2B measurement suite is anchored by these five pillars:
- Signals: A mix of application-programming interfaces, customer-relationship-management data, tags, and uploads, powered by LinkedIn’s Conversions API, to analyze offsite and onsite actions taken by advertisers.
- Reporting and return on investment: Solutions like the platform’s Revenue Attribution Report and Company Engagement Report help brands understand how their ads are performing, augmented by advanced analytics and cross-channel reporting.
- Experimentation: A/B testing and brand lift testing help advertisers figure out what is resonating with their audiences.
- Verification: LinkedIn teams up with industry experts to ensure that ads are shown in a quality, contextual environment.
- Insights: Audience insights such as brand sentiment and engagement help advertisers craft their B2B marketing strategy.
Get a Job
LinkedIn announced three new job search feature updates:
- Job Collections, which is aimed at letting members expand their options and browse collections of relevant jobs across several companies, industries, and specialties, potentially discovering opportunities they otherwise may not have been aware of.
- The platform’s new job preferences page lets members choose and manage their preferences in a single destination, and those preferences will be highlighted in green on every job details page. They include employment type (contract, full-time, part-time), location (hybrid, on-site, remote), and minimum pay preferences (U.S. only).
- LinkedIn’s new “I’m Interested” button lets members privately express interest in working for a company without being required to apply for a specific role.
Other LinkedIn News
- The professional network shared a complete guide to advertising on LinkedIn.
Twitch
Twitch is adding a new tier to its Partner Plus Program for revenue sharing that will be more accessible to smaller creators, due to lower qualification requirements, and will grant those creators a 60-40 revenue split.
The rebranded Plus Program will launch in May and be open to the platform’s affiliates and partners.
In order to qualify, streamers must maintain 100 Plus Points for three consecutive months.
According to reports, Reddit will launch its long-awaited initial public offering in March.
The Reddit IPO has been in the works for roughly three years, and it would mark the first IPO by a social media company since Pinterest in 2019.
Reddit filed confidentially for its IPO in December 2021, and it reportedly plans to make its public filing in February, hold its investor roadshow in early March, and go public by the end of March.
WhatsApp is beefing up its Channels broadcasting feature with new options including additional administrator powers, polls, and voice updates.
The Meta-owned messaging app also added the ability for iOS users to turn their photos into stickers or edit existing stickers.
Lemon8
TikTok sister app Lemon8 burst onto the scene last year, but the ByteDance-owned app seemed to fizzle almost as quickly. Now, Lemon8 is making a comeback of sorts.
ByteDance kicked off a creator marketing campaign last month to back Lemon8, having creators post videos to TikTok about Lemon8’s 100 Bucket List Ideas feature and add link buttons to Lemon8.
Analytics firm Data.ai said Lemon8 was downloaded roughly 7.5 million times worldwide in the first half of 2023, spiking to 12 million—including 3.3 million in the U.S.—in the second half of the year. The app climbed from No. 13 in the Apple App Store in July to No. 3 in January, according to market intelligence provider Sensor Tower.
BeReal
Speaking of social apps on the comeback trail, BeReal is opening its platform to brands and celebrities starting Feb. 6.
Brands can sign up as RealBrands, while celebrities will be RealPeople, and they can share behind-the-scenes moments that might not otherwise be shared on other platforms.
BeReal said it now has roughly 23 million daily active users, up from 20 million in August.
Brands That Stay on Trend
Vail Resorts
The company touted its Epic Pass and its 41 mountain resorts, with Zoe Peterson and Kelby Jecker showing off gorgeous views of Heavenly in Lake Tahoe, Calif.
View this post on Instagram
Subaru
The automaker also headed to the mountains, but to take pictures, not ski. Tristan Zhou climbed into his 2024 Impreza and headed toward Mt. Rainier in Washington.
View this post on Instagram
Hilton La Romana
Finally, for those who refuse to accept that cold weather is part of winter, Christine Hsu shared her experiences from the resort in the Dominican Republic.
@kkarmalove_ 📍@hiltonlaromana in La Romana, Dominican Republic 🇩🇴 #AD #HiltonLaRomana ♬ A refreshing Tropical House with the Sun, the Sea and the Beach!!(1155203) – SK MUSIC
Open Influence’s team stays on top of the latest trends and is here to help you maximize your creator campaigns. Open Influence is a leading global creator marketing agency dedicated to creating engaging campaigns.
