In April, spring is in full swing, so expect colorful, earth-centric content to flow across your favorite social media platforms. As a brand, it is a must that you mark your calendars for Easter and Earth Day.
These holidays are significant as many consumers celebrate religious beliefs and their dedication to sustainability, respectively. Gen Z is a sustainably-minded generation, so don’t miss the opportunity to be part of or create eco-friendly initiatives during April. What other big days should you plan for in April?
April Social Media Holidays You Need to Know About
- April 1: April Fool’s Day
- April 9: Easter
- April 10: National Siblings Day
- April 11: National Pet Day
- April 22: Earth Day
- April 23-30: World Immunization Week
- April 29: International Dance Day
Make sure you don’t miss any big dates this year with our report: Social Media Holidays to Plan for Your Content Calendar.
Brands That Stay on Trend
At Open Influence, we put humanity and authenticity first. One of the great powers of social media is the ability to connect with people and form meaningful connections through relatable content. Check out how our brand campaigns with our partners created interactive experiences for audiences and showed the human side of influencing:
UScellular
UScellular created a branded challenge and asked creators to participate for their campaign content. The #PhonesDownFor5 Challenge asked creators to put their phones down for five minutes, five hours, or five days and sent them a box containing everything they needed to be phone-free, including a Polaroid camera, watch, compass, and more. The creators then encouraged their followers to participate. @naturallynella had a date night to build her connection with her partner.
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Macy’s
@skhammer brought her audiences inside her trip to Los Angeles, sponsored by Macy’s, for a photoshoot. Her insight into the trip provided behind-the-scenes content, and the authenticity of her day-to-day activities brought the campaign to life.
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Lexus
@sam.cushing brought in his audiences to decide his next adventure and followed through with their decisions, leading to an icy and inspiring workout.
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Social Media Platform Updates
TikTok
TikTok is launching a new feature called TikTok Series, which will allow creators to create premium content behind a paywall that users can pay to access. A series can include up to 80 videos, and TikTok is extending the possible length of the videos to up to 20 minutes!
Creators will be able to set their rates between $1 and $190. This feature will give creators a new way to monetize their content and connect with followers with even longer long-form content.
@tiktoknewsroomIntroducing TikTok Series 🥁 Our new premium feature enables creators to post Collections of up to 80 videos, each up to 20 minutes long 🙌♬ original sound – TikTok Newsroom
TikTok will roll out a STEM feed. The STEM feed will join other Topic feeds on TikTok, such as Fashion, Food, Gaming, and Sports, and it will be accessible alongside the Following and For You feeds in the app when it launches. TikTok revealed plans to ensure the integrity of content on its new STEM feed by extending its existing partnerships with Common Sense Networks and Poynter.
Common Sense will help TikTok creator marketing determine whether content is appropriate for the feed, while Poynter will assist in verifying the reliability of the information contained within. Content that does not pass muster with both organizations will not appear in the STEM feed.
Lastly, TikTok has released a Free Keyword Insights Tool. This tool allows users to choose a market and view the 500 most-used terms in ads on TikTok over the past seven, 30, or 120 days, along with the number of times each term was used, the change in its popularity over the specified period and the click-through rates for ads containing those terms.
Searches can be further refined by industry, objective and keyword type (selling points, pain points, products, target audience, calls to action, and other).
Twitter is introducing a new option to allow users to learn why they are seeing a particular post on their feed. According to Social Media Today, Twitter users are frustrated about why they see random tweets in their feeds. This feature responds to this and explains why specific posts are being shown. 
Facebook (Meta)
Meta announced that it will slow its NFT efforts and end its NFT display projects. This action will occur on both Facebook and Instagram. Meta head of commerce Stephane Kasriel stated that the company will shift its focus away from NFTs to concentrate on other areas where it can support creators.
Secondly, Facebook (Meta) is looking to create a platform where users share text updates, similar to Twitter; in fact, the platform will serve as a rival to Twitter.
“We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests,” a Meta spokesperson told Reuters.
The release of this platform is still to be determined. Stay up to date with the following editions of our Stay on Trend blog.
Instagram is testing a Top 3 Story Button for Stories. This will allow Instagram creators to highlight their top three favorites of a topic of their choice, including top three creators, accounts, songs, places to visit, and more. 
Reminder! As discussed in our last Stay on Trend, Instagram officially removed its Live Shopping feature. This update is big news for brand marketers and creators, as users can no longer tag products during live broadcasts.
Spotify
Spotify, yes Spotify, the music-streaming platform, is introducing a music discovery feed similar to other short-form supporting platforms such as TikTok and Instagram Reels. The feature was in a beta-testing phase last year and has been rolled out more widely as of March.
This feature, titled Discovery Mode, will provide users with a more dynamic and interactive way to discover music and give music marketers a way to connect with new listeners. It will provide options to save, share, preview multiple songs, read episode transcriptions, and watch video podcasts.
Social media platforms continually update their features and policies to suit users best. Staying on top of these updates ensures that your brand will stay ahead of the game and allow you to be the first to utilize a new tool.
Open Influence’s team always remains on top of the latest updates and trends and is here to help you do the same. Reach out to us today to join the influential marketing team used by some of the world’s biggest brands, and let’s begin creating thumb-stopping campaigns.
