This Week’s Social Media News — April 8, 2021
Welcome back to Café Social’s regular weekly social news updates. We’ll keep up to date with all things digital and social so you don’t have to.
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Discover New Social Trends
Feel like Facebook’s dead? It’s still the second-most used social network in the US trailing only YouTube. New data from Pew Research, sourced from 1500 American interviewees, shows that only YouTube and Reddit saw significant growth from 2019 and that — unsurprisingly — Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok remain popular with under-30s. Bear in mind that most social network growth has been outside the US lately, except for TikTok, especially as developing countries continue to connect people to the Internet for the first time.
Xbox Is Twitter’s Best Brand
At the tail end of Twitter’s first Brand Bracket, Xbox has taken home the crown. The gaming brand edged out Skittles by 0.5% to claim the crown and has promised, as a result, to produce Xbox Series X mini-fridges. Personally, we’re holding out until Halo 6 for an Xbox but are getting pushed closer and closer to an early purchase.
Twitter Rebrands Ad Suite
Staying with Twitter, they’re continuing to work on their ad offerings so brands can find the correct option for them. As such, they’ve rebranded their ad suite. Most SME brands will likely want to stick with the Promoted Ads but if you’re working with media a lot the Twitter Live options might be a good one too.
@jack Continues To Donate Square Equity
A year ago, Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey promised to donate USD$1 billion to charity in the wake of COVID-19. That stake in Square has now quadrupled so he’s got a looooong way to go before it’s finished being donated. Find out how he’s donating in real-time here.
Pinterest Launching Creator Fund
As the social networks realise they have to put their money where their users are, Pinterest is the latest to invest in its creators. The new USD$500k fund will provide support to creators from underrepresented communities and is currently only available to users in the US for now.
Facebook Tests New Audio Social App
For a long while, Facebook’s New Product Experimentation team has been putting out apps that might have potential. As Clubhouse has proven the viability of social audio, they’ve just launched Hotline to compete. It’s not available outside the US yet but stay tuned for its inevitable rollout.
Facebook Adds Zoom Support to Portal TV
Want to take a Zoom call through your smart TV? Now you can. Some amount of WFH is here to stay for sure so perhaps the alternative to hunching over a laptop screen all day is to take calls from the comfort of the couch. Frankly, it does sound like an upgrade.
Facebook Tests QR Codes For Funds Transfer
Forget eftpos — simply scan a QR code to send some money via Facebook Pay. The test is limited to users in the US, where Facebook Pay remains a much larger utility, but Venmo has proven the viability of fast, digital funds transferring. Australia’s already pretty quick with transfers from bank to bank while the US still gets their payslips as physical cheques (!) so perhaps not as vital here as over there. Still, one of WeChat’s many uses in China is funds transfers with QR codes so not really a surprise to see that functionality surface in the West after a lucky break for QR codes courtesy of COVID.
Facebook Launches New Dynamic Ads For Video Streamers
Are you gunning to be the next Netflix? If your business hosts a ton of streaming video, now you can run Dynamic Ads for your catalogue like ecommerce businesses can for their products. Perfect for highlighting a particular selection for streamers with varied libraries to a vast audience of potential subscribers.
