ICYMI: Pinterest TV Edition
Here's what happened on social media this week, November 5
💻 Roadmap
📺 Pinterest TV rolls out this weekend. Someone described it as the Home Shopping Network for Gen Z and honestly could Pinterest hope for a better description? Creators such as Christian Siriano, Tom Daley (yes, the Olympian!) and Manny MUA will star in a series of live, original and shoppable episodes.
We’re a long way from China’s “lipstick brother” who sold $1.9 billion in products in ONE DAY. But the race is on in the West to find the right blend of entertainment and e-commerce to be the ultimate live stream shopping destination.
🛍 Meanwhile, Instagram’s #BuyBlack Live Shopping series launches today to discover brands from talented Black creators. It’s all part of the app’s Holiday Picks experience that offers exclusive drops and discounts only available in the app.
🧵 Instagram launched a useful engagement features this week: the Add Yours sticker creates public threads in Stories. So far I’ve seen WFH spaces, workout spaces and #ootds but the potential is there to encourage your audience to respond with their own relatable images whatever your industry.
🔗 Twitter will now offer a preview when you share an Instagram post. And there’s a fascinating backstory on how the two companies ended their 9-year-old feud.
Of course, it's more engaging for your audience if you post the actual photo to Twitter with a link push to Instagram but this method could be good for teasing a major reveal if there’s an actual payoff for clicking through.
📹 YouTube is testing a new Shorts experience. If you’re part of the beta test group and you close the YouTube app while watching Shorts, you’ll be dropped into the Shorts player when you reopen the app. But if you exit the YouTube app while watching any content other than Shorts, you won’t be directed into Shorts next time you open the app.
🧰 TikTok launched a step-by-step guide to creating your first brand video. It's all a part of their push to encourage marketers to feel comfortable on the platform. Don’t make ads, make new trends, goes the slogan.
💰Facebook is rolling out new group tools including a paid experience for members to gain exclusive access to more content, plus the ability to sell merch to the community through a Facebook Shop.
The app is also updating its subscription product so eligible creators can accept payments directly to avoid Apple’s 30% cut. Facebook has stated that it won’t be collecting any fees of its own from creator payments through 2023. At which time, it will destroy you. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.
👆🏻 Click Thru
📲 The flex! Jay-Z joined Instagram on Tuesday to promote his new Netflix series. Not only did he quickly gain over 2 million followers, he also became the only person Beyoncé follows. And then by Thursday he was gone and the account deleted. According to this report, it’s not the first time he’s deactivated his account without a second thought.
🎥 Hollywood’s got some competition as major advertisers move into digital. "The creator economy could easily rival Hollywood in terms of economic impact and job creation, just as it does today in terms of cultural influence." I’d argue that your cell phone’s already killed the Hollywood star (to the tune of the Buggles), it’s just a matter of time before we see the impact on our screens.
🎮 It doesn’t take a fancy set up to stream on TikTok which could help grow the app’s gaming audience: “A brief scroll through the gaming section of TikTok’s live content shows these streamers’ ingenuity; some will stream videos of tablets or phones as they play mobile games, while others will just put the camera in front of a screen.” This is an interesting look at the phenomenon that could make live streaming a lot more accessible.
🎭 Discovering that online connections may not actually broaden our perspectives and give us shared sense of humanity has been stuck in my head all week. The New York Times opined on a study that examined how technology amplified our political divisions and it’s not good, folks:
“It turns out there’s nothing intrinsically good about connection, especially online. On the internet, exposure to people unlike us often makes us hate them, and that hatred increasingly structures our politics.”
🩺 In the right hands, TikTok can be an incredible force for good. Meet the medical student whose video series “Racial Biases in Medicine” brings racial disparities in medicine to light and is leading to real change.
💚 If you’ve been on TikTok lately it’s hard to avoid Duolingo’s big green owl. Meet the social media manager responsible for the “evil” mascot going viral.
⏰ ByteDance has announced shorter working hours for employees. This follows a backlash against Chinese tech companies’ grueling “996” pace, where employees punch in from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week. TikTok’s parent company has instituted a new policy that limits work from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. five days a week — called “1075” by Internet users on Weibo.
🧶 There’s something so charmingly mundane about drama in the TikTok crochet community and there’s not really much else to add there.
🏆 I now work for an “award winning” app. If you’re a regular reader, you know the fitness app I work for was nominated for an American Influencer Award. Good news, Fit Body App won Fitness Program of the Year with Bravo legend Andy Cohen announcing the winners! A big thank you to anyone who took the time to vote for us!
