ICYMI: Twitter's Play for Teenz
Here's what happened on social media this week, March 11
💻 ROADMAP
🎙 Music discovery is getting a big boost: TikTok launched SoundOn, a promotion and music distribution platform to help unsigned artists gain more exposure. “The platform allows artists to upload their music directly to TikTok and begin earning royalties, when that music is used. SoundOn pays out 100% royalties to music creators in the first year and 90% after that, and provides a range of promotional tools and support.”
☢️ Meanwhile, Amazon launched a ‘live radio’ app called Amp, which lets anyone play DJ by curating songs from the Amazon Music catalog. They seem to be taking a cue from Clubhouse’s invite-only playbook so you need an access code the app but a helpful Twitter user pointed out the codes WELCOME and INSTAGRAM are currently valid.
🔵 Is Twitter positioning itself to be a Gen Z favorite? The company recently hired a Silicon Valley prodigy, Michael Sayman, who’s worked at Facebook, Google and Roblox on products like Instagram Stories, Facebook Groups and YouTube Shorts. At Twitter, he’ll be building experimental features meant to attract a younger demo.
“Young people want a service where they can share their thoughts without the pressure of having an algorithm factor their physical appearance into the popularity of their content.”
As a fan of the platform, I’m totally buying into Taylor Lorenz new article outlining Twitter’s possibilities. Some of what Sayman says does, in fact, track with previously reported data which suggests nine in 10 users don’t ever post a single video. And as Lorenz points out, Twitter plays a key role in fan communities and pop culture and increased its creator tools last year with the launch of Super Follows and Tip Jar.
But will Twitter’s text-friendly format actually encourage teens to share more? Or are they just uncomfortable with the public performance aspect of any platform — which is why Snapchat and its one-to-one messaging consistently rank so highly among teens? Either way, I’m here for this journey.
🛍 Twitter launched Twitter Shops, which allows merchants to curate up to 50 of their products to showcase to shoppers on Twitter. The feature, which is free to use, gives people the chance to view products from the profiles of their favorite brands. It’s still in beta but you can check it out on the mobile profile pages of large and small brands such as @Verizon, @GayPrideApp, and @AllIDoIsCookUS.
📍 Pinterest announced "Your Shop," a personalized shopping page featuring an algorithmic curation of brands and products based on your activity and preferences. They’re also beta testing in-app checkout to shop directly from your feed.
📲 Instagram had a few noteworthy updates this week, which include:
Launching a new Creator Lab which they describe as a hub of tips and advice for creators by creators. It’s a worthy effort but also feels like a shiny new thing that might not actually distract creators who’ve seen a recent dip in engagement, had an account suspended or lost access to their account and can’t get any help from the platform.
Announcing that it will introduce a special tag for professional accounts and influencers to ensure they receive credit for their content, an attempt to address complaints that Black creators are not credited for starting trends.
Removing its separate Boomerang and Hyperlapse apps from the App Store.
👆🏻 CLICK THRU
💵 Creators say the money they make from platform creator funds is “a little bonus, like lunch money,” according to this article. This is as good a time as any to remind you of this recent chart which shows almost 80% of creator revenue still comes from sponsored content through brand deals. Creator funds don’t pay the bills.
💰 Taxpayers who call themselves creators, streamers + influencers on their tax forms increased 207% between tax years 2018 and 2020 on Turbo Tax, according to Kaya Yurieff’s Creator Economy newsletter.
👀 More US marketers now use TikTok than YouTube for influencer marketing, but TikTok still sees significantly lower usage than Instagram.
🌮 Doja Cat pulled back the curtains on a deal with Taco Bell, revealing she was contractually obligated to write a TikTok (don’t call it a jingle) about their Mexican pizza. The “I know it’s bad” roast video has 10.8M views while the actual Mexican pizza TikTok rap racked up 16.7M views. The Taco Bell team is laughing either way but if this was intentional… applause!
🗓 SXSW starts Friday, March 11th through March 20th.
🔨 RESOURCES
There’s a new hub with information and resources of accessible best practices for social media content: Accessible Social.
There’s a new listings newsletter of job openings in the world of Digital Media and Marketing: Duffy’s List.
📖 ALSO ON MY READING LIST…
Tens of thousands of Russian gig workers left behind as tech platforms pull out -The Washington Post
TikTok Has Blocked Russians From Covering Protests. Creators Feel Abandoned. -Vice
The Myth of the ‘First TikTok War’ -The Atlantic
Xiaohongshu is China's Instagram on steroids, blending influencers and shopping. Here's how it works. -Business Insider (paywall content)
The video essay boom -Vox
This New Instagram Will Make You Excited About Fashion Again -The Cut
