Video Podcasting on Spotify
Nearly one in five Americans listen to podcasts, which is huge. But what about watching podcasts? Do people do that?
Spotify thinks so. It’s rolling out video podcasting to all regions that support its podcasting platform Anchor.
This is a clear swipe at YouTube which is often considered the home of video podcasts. It also helps them recoup their investment in Joe Rogan. But will it work?
Longer sounds for YouTube shorts
This seems crazy, but up until now, you were only able to add 15-second sound clips from the YouTube library to your shorts. And of course, shorts can be 60 seconds long.
Just like TikTok and Reels, you can add music and sound clips to your Shorts from a library of music. But because of licensing restrictions, this had been limited to just 15 seconds. That’s now expanding to the full 60 seconds.
This makes Shorts a lot more familiar to those already using TikTok or Reels.
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YouTube product tags for shorts
Select creators will soon be able to add product tags to their YouTube shorts. These are clickable links that will encourage viewers to purchase products featured in the videos.
Similar to product tags on Instagram, this could be a great way for businesses and brands to work with creators who share their audiences to sell.
It also shows that YouTube is still invested in its e-commerce project, even if other social networks are moving away from that model as people return to real-life shopping.
TikTok Shops in the US
TikTok is scaling up its e-commerce platform as others are scaling down.
Does this sound familiar? Shops were launched last year in the UK, but stuff went wrong so they put a hold on expansion. Now they’re giving it another go and expanding to selected brands in the US.
The shop tab will appear on profile pages as a separate tab.
This is the latest move that expands TikTok beyond being just a video-sharing app. Could we see TikTok becoming more Facebook or WeChatish in the future?
Twitter Blue re-launch
Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue relaunch didn’t go too well. As most people could have predicted, people used verification to set up imposter accounts mimicking public figures and brands.
The most damaging of these was a fake tweet from an account impersonating Eli Lily, the pharmaceutical company that produces insulin, causing stock in the company to tank.
So Twitter Blue is on hold again. Apparently, it will be re-launched on November 29th.
Introduction prompts for Facebook Groups
How many Facebook groups have you joined and forgotten about? For me, it’s way too many. Facebook wants to stop this from happening.
Spotted by Matt Navarra, it’s testing ‘Introduction prompts’. You can choose from Facebook’s own suggestions or add your own.
These will be given to new members to encourage them to make their first post. I love this idea, if it’s automated it will take the pressure off of group admins to welcome and engage each new member themselves and could increase activity in the group.
Choose your Insta grid layout
You can post semi-portrait images on Instagram, so why does your grid display everything in a square format?
We’ve seen that Instagram has been testing different views of the grid but its latest test is the option to switch the display of your feed from square to portrait. Spotted by Alessandro Paluzzi this may not be the best solution, it’s unclear how square posts will display. Unless all your images and videos are at least semi-portrait size it could look bizarre.
https://twitter.com/alex193a/status/1592608310414692352/photo/1
