Your Social Media Updates for March

 

January felt like a time warp of a whole year, but February- did it even happen? We aren’t sure. Seems like yesterday we were praying for January to end and now here we are in March? Someone has some explaining to do. However, this month we saw lots of politically charged social media updates as well as some new developments on our favorite platforms. From Facebook supporting those affected in Australia to possible IGTV monetization, this month could be interesting. Let’s dive into the very interesting updates we have this month: 

 

Michael Bloomberg’s Meme Scandal and Facebook Restrictions 

 

No, you read that right. Due to the meme scandal that broke of Michael Bloomberg literally commissioning memes (who does that anyways?) about himself and his campaign, Facebook decided to implement restrictions on political candidates. If they are in any partnership with Influencers or organizations that post memes about them on their behalf or content related to them whatsoever, they must disclose this information. Kind of interesting this ever happened, but we guess this is for the better? 

 

TikTok now has parental controls 

 

The dance video viral app has gotten so popular with tweens, teens, and the occasional 10 year old, that they’ve released a way to restrict content from this audience via a parent lock. No one is safe now! The way it works is a parent must have an account to link to their child’s in order to implement the restrictions, and from their they can select the type of content they’re allowing to be seen and not be seen. Crazy how parental controls have been extended from just cable and streaming devices to social media apps now. 

 

Vine 2.0 launch week did way better than we expected 

 

Byte, the second coming of Vine they say, did a whole lot better than we expected it to. In it’s first week being live it received 1.3 million downloads, exceeding its predecessor’s download count. But as we know, not everything is rainbow and flowers for the new app. While Byte has promised to provide monetization for the app’s top creators, the comments section are plagued with people commenting that ridiculous “follow for a follow?” type of stuff for people who want to gain any sort of income from the app. Byte now poses a liable threat towards TikTok, but what happens we can only wait and see. Maybe a dance battle to the death? 

 

Monetization could be coming to IGTV 

 

Oh we’re EXCITED for this one. It seems a little late coming, but Instagram has been nonstop lately with the updates for IGTV in pursuit of making it more profitable and more popular. The latest addition to this is the possibility that you can add ad content to your IGTV in exchange for a profit. Of course, your account must be eligible for this type of thing, but nothing’s been set in terms of rules yet as this is isn’t anything official. Instagram has described it as “You can earn money by running short ads on your IGTV videos. When you monetize on IGTV, you agree to follow the Partner Program Monetization Policies.” So yes, while this feature is still in testing, it poses an interesting question to how are brands going to take this into consideration when thinking about their marketing plan? 

 

Facebook Helping out Australia 

 

*intense clapping* Now THIS is the type of content we like to see. Facebook using it’s platform (literally) to give back to small businesses affected by the horrible bushfires. What are they doing, you ask? WELL, let us explain. They’re offering free seminars in towns hit harder than others for helping improve their digital presence and offering help with using their online tools such as how to better target audiences with their ad tools. They’re also offering “business Page coaching and advice, one-on-one business consultation with a Facebook Small Business Support Specialist, and $200 in Facebook ad credits for those in the impacted regions.” Way to go Facebook. Keep setting the bar! 

 

Twitter helping sift out political misinformation 

 

SOMEONE had to do it. At least Twitter is starting us out. According to NBC news, there was a leaked demo sent to them that showed red and orange badges underneath politicians tweets that labeled them as “harmfully misleading”. Nothing is confirmed about if this update will be coming out anytime soon, but it was confirmed to be in testing by Twitter. This is part of a larger initiative to inform the public of tweets that have little to no truth to them. Tweets would potentially look like this: 

With everything in this election that’s been happening, it’s nice to know that at least some platforms are willing to hold some politicians accountable. This is in addition to Twitter banning any sort of edited media such as deep fakes that could be very misleading. What’s interesting is that those online who help point out misleading or untrue tweets can receive “points” and a “community badge”, and the more points you have basically means your vote is weighed more. We’re excited to see how this plays out. 

 

TikTok now allowing desktop uploads 

 

TikTok has enabled a desktop version of uploading video content now! We see this as a good thing for big brands who want to edit their content off the app and then upload in the style of the app. It’s providing another way to create for brands that isn’t just on their phones. This is also helpful for those of us (like, well, LBMG) who are dealing with posting and managing numerous different platforms from a laptop. Hurray for efficiency! 

 

Twitter is potentially jumping on the story bandwagon

 

Twitter buys Chroma Labs and announces that they’re teaming up to give users more creativity in conversations. We’re hoping this means stories are finding their way to Twitter. Chroma Labs is known for the Chroma Stories app which allows you to edit short videos and throw some cute filters on your photos. The company was founded by the creative mastermind, John Barnett, who brought Instagram boomerangs into existence (bless this man). As one of the last major social networks to bring stories to life we’ve gotta say, they have some fierce competition. However, it’s pretty exciting news as we can see some ways to shake up content in the future. 

 

Snapchat has the power to make the floor lava

 

Our favorite childhood game is reality! Well, virtual reality, but that doesn’t spoil the fun visually. Snapchat rolls out ground transformation filters that allow you to turn your floor into lava, and much more. With the new augmented reality features, Snapchat has partnered with numerous brands to showcase some pretty creative ads. You can open the app and scan barcodes on products to see a whole new perspective. Like a lot of trends for 2020 predicted, virtual reality is starting to break through into digital and social media marketing. 

 

 

Whew! We didn’t know these updates were going to be so… reflective of the current state of American politics? Or something like that? If this is any indication of how the rest of the year for social media updates is going to go leading up until the elections, then we’re about to strap in, and you should too. Stay tuned for next month’s updates!