Summer is almost officially here. Vacations are booked and it’s said to be one of the biggest travel seasons ever. People are making up for the last two years and are eager to post about the new places they are discovering.
With arguably more content on social media during this part of the year, you want to ensure your posts are getting seen.
It’s been speculated that platforms will reward content that utilizes their newest features and will push those posts out to more users.
Let’s dive into those new social media updates that could have a huge impact on your creator marketing content strategy.
TikTok LIVE Subscription
TikTok LIVE subscription just launched. To help communities form even deeper connections, this new feature offers subscribers custom emotes, subscriber badges, and even a subscriber-only chat. The TikTok creator marketing team further explains the perks like this:
- Subscriber Badges: Subscribers receive badges that are displayed next to their name on their profile and upgraded over time.
- Custom Emotes: Subscribers get access to exclusive emotes custom-designed by the creators to use during LIVE sessions to bring the community together and make your sessions more spirited.
- Subscriber-Only Chat: When the subscriber-only chat is turned on, creators and their subscribers have exclusive access to one another, enhancing an even more personal connection between creator and viewer.
“As interest in live streamers continues to grow across platforms, TikTok is also expanding their LIVE offering into the subscription space. Starting May 26th, TikTok will work with a select few creators to participate in this beta subscription program, which unlocks subscriber benefits, including subscriber-only chats, custom emotes, and badges. Creators selected not only include popular gamers, but also users across beauty, art, dance, and more.”
– Ashley Balmaceda, Open Influence’s Senior Paid Social Manager
For the creator, the goal is to generate a more predictable monthly income. TikTok creators with a minimum of 1,000 followers will be able to take advantage of this monetization feature. However, it is currently in beta testing so only a limited number of creators have access to it.
@tiktoklive_creator 5 days to go! Join @JACK BE to learn about LIVE subscription. #LIVESubs #TikTokLIVE ♬ Inspiring Upbeat – audiomechanica
To further reward creators for their creativity, there are new tools that will help credit trend originators. Here are TikTok’s step-by-step instructions for giving credit to a video:
To use TikTok’s new creator crediting tools, follow these steps:
- Create or edit a TikTok video.
- On the posting page, tap the new “video” icon.
- Once on the video tag page, you can select a video that you have liked, favorited, posted, or that has used the same sound.
- Once selected, the video tag will be added as a mention in the caption.
Instagram’s Visual Refresh
The Instagram creator marketing division just announced a new look.
- The gradient is reimagined with vibrant colors to make it feel illuminated and alive, and to signal moments of discovery.
- Our new typeface, Instagram Sans, is designed with our heritage in mind and includes multiple global scripts.
- Our new layout and design system is content-forward and celebrates creativity, simplicity and self-expression.
In an effort to put content first, Instagram has been testing a full-screen immersive feed, similar to TikTok. This would include regular Feed posts, Reels, and Stories all in the same flow.
Speaking of changes to Instagram Stories, another test may have gone under your nose. This feature could be hard to detect, which is why we want to raise awareness to it. Users would only have the first three frames of their Stories displayed, along with a tiny ‘Show all’ prompt in the top left of the screen. As you can imagine, this feature would inevitably cause views on Stories to decrease.
Fun Fact:
Reels are now the biggest contributor to engagement growth on Instagram, and users spend more time on Stories than they do on their main Instagram feed.
Twitter Create
Instagram isn’t the only one freshening up their look. Twitter decided to change some things as well. Twitter Media is now called Twitter Create. Same content, but with a new look and name.
Notice anything different around here? Twitter Media is now Twitter Create. Same great content, with a brand new look. pic.twitter.com/elwXkijn3s
— Twitter Create (@TwitterCreate) May 24, 2022
Twitter said:
“For the last four years we’ve served up product guides, case studies, and interviews with the social media experts and content creators that make Twitter so, well, Twitter. Like Twitter, we’re constantly evolving, and decided it was time to freshen up our look, and our name.”
Instagram and TikTok aren’t the only platforms to have exclusive subscriber-only content. Twitter does too, and that program is called Super Follows.
Super Follows Spaces on Twitter
Twitter’s Super Follows and Twitter Spaces are nothing new. However, combine the two and you get Spaces for Super Follows.
What are Super Follows? It is a paid monthly subscription program that offers extra content, exclusive previews, and different perks to users who wish to purchase a Super Follows subscription.
What are Spaces? It is a place on Twitter where users can have live audio conversations.
Spaces used to be open to the public, so anyone can join as a listener, including people who don’t follow you. However, now there is a new option to have Spaces for Super Followers only.
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Luckily, you don’t have to buy a subscription to get access to our content. We’ll always tell you the newest monthly updates, as well as days to plan for in your content strategy.
There are quite a few special days in June that you won’t want to miss!
- Father’s Day: Sunday, June 19, 2022
- Juneteenth: Sunday, June 19, 2022
- First Day of Summer: Tuesday, June 21, 2022
- Social Media Day: Thursday, June 30, 2022
- Pride Month: All of June
Aren’t confident enough to use these features on your social media? Work with someone that does it for a living. Open Influence is not only full of social media gurus, but we work with content creators daily (AKA experts in the social media industry). Work with us!
And make sure you’re getting caught up on all the new creator marketing updates every month on our blog!
