New LinkedIn Stickers for tagging
I’m sure there’s a whole bunch of old-school LinkedIn users who are hating the new ‘hip’ updates that we’ve seen appear in the last year.
Maybe Stories were a mistake but now we’re seeing story-like features appear in posts. This includes ‘Link Stickers’ which you can add to any image or video on the platform linking to whatever you want.
Now LinkedIn is expanding stickers to allow you to tag individuals or companies in your posts.
This will make link posts and tags more visually interesting and way easier to click.
Does this mean an end to linking in the first comment? I certainly hope so.
Apple wants your Meta Boost money
When people make a purchase via an app on an iOS device, 30% of that purchase goes to Apple, or in most cases it does. But until now many social networks have gotten around that by offering different payment methods. For example, when you boost a post on Facebook it doesn’t use Apple’s payment system.
Apple is about to crack down on this and demand their 30% of boost posts. This won’t just affect Facebook but any app or social network that offers a boosted/promoted post function.
It will only apply to boost posts, not ads set up on the advertising platform but that’s still a lot of revenue that Facebook and others will lose. It almost makes me feel sorry for Facebook.
Will this also have the knock-on effect of ad costs rising to cover the charge?
https://gizmodo.com/apple-facebook-boosts-promoted-social-posts-payment-1849698467
New Facebook group tools
Facebook groups are one of the features that keep people coming back to the platform. Meta knows this and just announced some brand-new features for groups.
Including:
- Reels for groups
- Sharing of public group events to Instagram stories
- Points and badges to reward and incentivise active group members
- Chat channels for specific interests within a group (just like Discord or Slack)
- And updates to admin assist
With reach in groups way down is this enough to keep group admins from migrating to the likes of Slack or Discord?
More Snapchat+ Features
One of the biggest challenges for subscription models is keeping people subscribed. You have to work hard to get the subscriber, then you have to work hard to make them feel like their investment is valuable.
This is clearly on Snapchat’s mind as it keeps adding new, cool stuff to the Snapchat+ paid subscription service.
In the latest releases, subscribers can select a custom expiration for stories, choosing anything from an hour to a week.
Less exciting updates include custom notification sounds, customising the colours of your borders, and new Halloween Bitmoji backdrops.
Will this attract new subs and keep existing subs interested enough to keep paying?
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/Snapchat-unveils-new-additions-snapchat-plus/634550/
LinkedIn video gets accessible
LinkedIn has finally added auto-captioning to videos you upload there. Now when you upload a video it will create closed captions automatically and give you the chance to edit them (but only once).
It is also adding the option to view the video in high contrast. This can make them easier to watch for people with low vision or other sight difficulties.
It does seem that LinkedIn is a little late to the game with this but it will be a relief for a lot of creators who have to pay to auto-caption before uploading there.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/driving-more-equitable-workforce-enhanced-tools-resources-berger/
YouTube gives more people shoppable links
There is some debate about whether live-stream shopping will take off. It’s big in china but social networks seem to be shying away from it in other regions.
YouTube is still pushing. This week it announced it will be rolling out shoppable tags in videos to the US, UK, Brazil and India.
Will it take off?
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/YouTube-expands-access-to-shoppable-links-live-streams/634526/
Deepfake celebs and ads
Is it alright to feature a celebrity in an ad that they didn’t actually have anything to do with? Could this become a way to feature influencers at a fraction of the cost?
Deepfakes are computer-generated versions of people. They can be quite convincing, check out @unreal_keanu on TikTok for an example.
But this presents a problem. As the technology evolves spotting deep fakes will become harder, advertisers are already using them in ads, often without the celebrity’s permission. Could we soon be unable to tell the difference?
And if so, what happens to the cult of celebrity?
On a positive note, deep fakes could give us a lower-cost option to work with well-known figures. The deep fake version doesn’t need to travel or be fed, if you were licencing the fake it could be way cheaper than the real deal.
It may become a great way for influencers and celebrities to monetise in the future.
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