Long-form Twitter is here
One of the key selling points of Twitter is its short, snappy updates. It makes it fast to consume and forces us to be creative with our words.
But it’s also annoying. When you have something big to say you have to chop it up into a thread or link offsite. Soon that could change.
Twitter is testing a new feature called ‘Notes’ which similar to LinkedIn articles, will allow users to post long-form blog-style content that includes styled text and uploaded media.
Meta cracks down on customer reviews
Facebook reviews and ratings have their upsides and downsides. The upside is that they are an easy way for your customers to tell others about how you have helped them. The downside is that people can leave unhelpful, inaccurate and nasty reviews and ratings.
When I saw that Meta was updating their Community Feedback (read review) policy in the US, I thought it may address the issue of fake reviews.
But it doesn’t. The update talks about not incentivising reviews, says you aren’t allowed to post graphic or inappropriate content, that reviews must be based on direct experience of the product or service and that it must not be used to misrepresent, deceive, defraud or exploit others for a financial or personal benefit.
That sounds like it covers a lot of bases but how can you prove when someone has broken the rules? Will Meta change its reporting so that businesses can tell them when someone breaks one? Will they act even when it is reported?
TikTok Influencers Watch Out
The EU is forcing TikTok to become a safer space. Had you noticed that it’s not always clear that what you are watching is an ad? This is both good because it doesn’t disturb your viewing experience, and bad because… well you need to know when someone has paid for you to see it.
TikTok is making changes to its branded content tools and ads in line with EU rules. From now on it will be easier to identify ads with a new tag, creators will be prompted to disclose brand collaborations when they add #ad #sponsored to their videos and there will be a ban on videos promoting inappropriate products and services like alcohol, cigarettes and ‘Get rich quick’ schemes.
All good news.
Facebook avatar brand store
It may sound nuts to older people but it’s cool to dress your avatar in branded clothing. That’s your avatar, your pretty rubbish cartoon version of yourself. Already there is a huge market for Avatar clothing in the Metaverse but now you’ll be able to dress the 2D version for use on Facebook, Messenger and Instagram.
For now, it’s just big brands selling virtual clothing but this could be a new business model for designers in the future. Will there be room for merch stores in the virtual world? If so this could be an income stream for all creators.
Twitter Shopping + Shopify
Still only available in the US Twitter shopping just got easier for Shopify businesses. As of Wednesday Shopify, store owners will be able to automatically sync their catalogue to Twitter.
This means that Twitter will know what products are in stock and will update sale items as you update them on your site. A great way to get more sales and happy customers.
So what’s next for Twitter shopping? Will they roll it out to more regions? Surely that will be easy to do now that they have this vital integration.
Snapchat subscription service
How do you raise revenue when you are a social network? They’ve all taken a hit from recent privacy updates which means their ads are less effective and less enticing to big advertisers. So how else can they make money?
As discovered by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi it seems that Snapchat is considering a subscription service for users. It will cost users €4.59 a month and for that you’ll get exclusive access to new features on the platform.
Will this work? We know Elon Musk has said he’ll double the revenue from Twitter Blue when he takes over, if that’s possible for Twitter it’s possible for Snapchat.
See Who Watched Your TikToks
On Instagram stories, you can see who has seen your stories. This is great for analysing if you are reaching the right people. Soon you may be able to see the same for TikTok.
In a tweet shared by Matt Navarra, you can see that users will have the option to have ‘Post View History’ switched on. This means that you will be able to see who has seen your posts and others will see that you have viewed theirs.