ICYMI: Instagram's Coming for Google Maps
Here's what happened on social media this week, July 22
Welcome! This a recap of news and trends for and about creators — or anyone interested in social media and marketing. Thanks for reading.
💻 ROADMAP
🗺 Instagram Searchable Maps: Mark Zuckerberg announced (via Stories) Instagram’s new Searchable Map, which will allow users to find local businesses and filter them by categories. Users will also be able to see Stories, Feed posts and Guides tagged at that location. (Finally, a reason for Guides to shine!)
This accelerates last week’s trend when a Google executive was quoted saying, “40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search.” It’s not just the teens, Instagram is now actively courting Gen Z to turn to the social app first when looking for nearby businesses.
Each business listed has a short profile along with top or recently tagged content, which is a big incentive for businesses to keep their information up to date in the app and encourage people to post. But it could also be beneficial for creators and the visibility they’ll get in having their tagged content show up as the featured image.
It’s like Foursquare’s Mayor check-in all over again but with selfies this time.
TL;DR how you can take advantage of Instagram’s Map as a creator before everyone jumps on this feature:
Make Guides featuring your local favorite businesses
Tag your content when you go out to eat, shop or go to the gym
Contact local businesses and ask if they need a content creator to create amazing content they can post on their channels and tagged to their location
📲 This Week in Reels News: Instagram announced several updates to their short-form video format:
All videos under 15 minutes are now called Reels
The video and Reels tabs on your profile will be consolidated so there’s one home for all of your videos
Reels under 90 seconds may show up as recommended video content for other users
You can record using your phone’s front and back cameras simultaneously using their Dual feature (it’s been nice knowing you BeReal)
Remix for Photos means anyone can take public photos (your photos unless you change your Remix settings!) and remix them into new Reels
🛍 Instagram Shopping In Chat: Adam Mosseri told us it would go down in the DMs. Following last week’s announcement that Instagram subscriptions included subscriber group chats, this week Meta announced that users can now make purchases and track orders directly in chats with small businesses on Instagram in the US.
💵 Shopify x YouTube: Shopify’s partnered with YouTube Shopping to streamline live shopping. Creators with Shopify storefronts can sell their full range of products on their YouTube channels in three ways:
Live streams: Creators can tag and pin products at key points during a livestream
Videos: Creators can show a curated list of products in a merch shelf below on-demand videos
Store tab: A new tab will be added to a creator’s YouTube channel, featuring their entire selection of products
👻 Snapchat for Web: Snap announced that it’s launching Snapchat for Web. The feature, which is only available to Snapchat+ subscribers, will include Chat Reactions and Chat Reply on desktop.
There’s some speculation Snapchat for Web could try to compete with Zoom, but it would need some fairly intensive marketing to become an enterprise solution versus just another way to chat with friends.
📝 TikTok Captions + Translation: TikTok just announced the launch of new caption and translation tools. Along with auto-generated captions, viewers can now turn on captions if a creator hasn’t enabled them.
🖋 YouTube Text Markup: YouTube announced it would soon let creators add bold, italics and strikethrough text markup options to their video descriptions.
💡 LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program: LinkedIn is hosting its second U.S. Creator Accelerator Program, focused on creators who are passionate about Technology and Innovation. Apply here.
LinkedIn Carousels: LinkedIn just announced the launch of swipeable photos and/or video carousel posts.
👆🏻 CLICK THRU
💄 Kris Jenner On the Power of Personal Branding
This isn’t an endorsement but it’s becoming impossible to miss ads for Kris Jenner’s MasterClass on personal branding (or is that just me?). For $180 — the cost of a MasterClass annual membership — you get 1 hour and 46 minutes of Jenner wisdom on topics such as Creating Your Personal Branding Story, Consider Your Target Audience and Handling Fame. If you’ve taken the class, let me know. I’m so curious about this one.
🤑 YouTube quietly invites creators to test out new product-tagging shopping tool
YouTube is paying select creators to test a new feature as part of an affiliate-style program. The creators are being paid to tag third-party products in their videos, with rates ranging from $50 to $100 monthly, plus a potential $0.08 commission each time a viewer clicked on a product tag and visited the product page.
▶️ By signing stars, YouTube aims to replicate Twitch’s secret weapon: culture
You don’t have to be a gamer to appreciate this Washington Post piece on YouTube’s efforts to sign Twitch streamers.
What’s happening: YouTube’s actively pursuing Twitch streamers to bring to their platform.
What’s at play: YouTube accounts for just 14 percent of streaming hours watched (according to this report). Twitch accounts for 76 percent.
What’s the incentive for creators: YouTube, unlike Twitch, seems authentically interested in content creation and personality, according to the streamers quoted here. The platform is also offering “stupid” money to make the switch.
What does YouTube hope to gain: Beyond simply increasing time spent, there’s speculation that YouTube is looking to bring over groups of influential creators who will collaborate and create a new sense of community on the video platform.
What if you’re not in gaming: You can still lean in to the features and formats YouTube is prioritizing to potentially benefit from the added focus on live streaming and collaborative events between creators.
🔨 RESOURCES
📝 ANA Influencer Marketing Measurement Guidelines
The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) just released a set of guidelines for measuring organic influencer marketing, including actions that can be measured for engagement with data available through the API, a basic formula for measuring engagement and what counts as a video view depending on the platform.
📣 QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The typical lifecycle of a creator only seems to last about 5 to 7 years and that’s for creators who have made it.”
-Matt of YouTube’s Creator Dynamics channel, asking How Long Do Creators Last
🧮 DATA OF THE WEEK
“While 45% of consumers say social media influences their shopping, only 11% have purchased directly through social media”
-2022 was supposed to be the year of social shopping in the US but it’s over halfway through the year and platforms have had mixed reactions from creators, marketers, and consumers, according to this Insider piece, which suggests US creators and consumers may just not be ready for social shopping: 2022 was supposed to be the year Instagram, YouTube, and other major platforms broke through in social shopping
MORE FROM ME
🎙 I spoke with Eloiza Tecson of EY Ventures Group’s The Drift podcast on a range of topics from influencer marketing, why you need to be obsessively plugged into your community, one of my favorite books for creating experiences of extraordinary impact and how to manage work/life balance. (Live at 10am PST Friday)
❓NAME THIS SECTION
Kylie Jenner Posted A Video Shopping In Target Amid Private Jet Backlash -BuzzFeed News
We asked Emmanuel the TikTok-interrupting emu about his sudden fame -The Washington Post
Dylan O’Brien Is Taking the Piss Out of Influencer Culture -Interview Magazine
Chef behind viral ‘Pink Sauce’ speaks out -DailyDot
25-year-old TikTok creator with 7 million followers saves 50% of her income: ‘I know that this doesn’t last forever’ -CNBC
Pokimane announces streaming hiatus to take a “mental reset” -NME
I want to separate out influencers, creators and celebrities making news from tech or business news but not sure what to call it. Any suggestions? Please and thank you?!
📖 ALSO ON MY READING LIST…
The Patio App Is Facebook For Gen Z College Kids -BuzzFeed
Twitter's lawsuit against Elon Musk will go to trial in October -NPR
TikTokers say low payouts from its Creator Fund are affecting their mental health -Insider (paywall)
The terror campaign over coveted Instagram handles -Insider (paywall)
When Brands Got Horny; social marketing has entered its carnal era -Vulture
Minecraft won’t allow or support the use of NFTs on the platform -Minecraft
Google Will Begin Public Testing of its AR Glasses Next Month -SocialMediaToday
