Welcome to our May edition of the Social Media Snapshot! Every month we try to catch you up with a brief overview of what's been happening in the social media world as it pertains to businesses. This month, we're taking a look at new social media monetization options and social media platform updates that happened in May.
New Social Media Monetization Options
In May, there were a few new monetization options that were announced and discovered for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
- Instagram appears to be testing a new 'bonuses' program, which would be focused on Reels promotion. The idea is to boost the use of Reels by people who would alternatively choose to use platforms like TikTok.
- Twitter’s getting ready for the launch of its Ticketed Spaces feature. Their hope is to encourage companies running online events to choose their platform to do it.
- Facebook is looking to expand its paid online events option to include sports league broadcasting. According to CNBC, "The social media giant envisions high school sports teams and smaller leagues using the feature that allows users to make money for virtual attendance, and keep ticket profits — for now."
Social Media Platform Updates
Twitter, surprisingly, had a lot of new updates in May! We're seeing them ramp up as they try to stay competitive in this ever-changing world of social media. We also saw some minimal updates from Instagram and Facebook.
- Twitter is developing four new tweet response options. So far, the new options will be "cheer," "hmm," "sad," and "haha."
- Twitter opened applications for its verification process but then quickly put a hold on them to try to catch up, only a week after opening applications again. They were quickly overwhelmed by the number of profiles that wanted to be verified.
- Twitter has now enabled Spaces for the web (mobile and desktop).
- Twitter Spaces hosts can now schedule a Space for later use.
- Twitter profiles will eventually include an “About” tab that will allow users to share more about themselves, including their pronouns, location, interests and more.
Instagram and Facebook
- 'Drops' has been launched on Instagram, which features new products and aims to boost e-commerce sales. Consumers can now discover, browse and shop all the latest product launches as well as view upcoming launches all in one place.
- Instagram is officially rolling out the ability to hide like counts from posts, as is Facebook. After months of testing, they decided that it was best to give profiles the option rather than forcing them to hide like counts.
- Instagram introduced new insights for Reels and Live to help creators and businesses alike. The goal is to "provide transparency into which types of accounts you’re reaching and which content formats are the most effective at driving Reach," according to Instagram.
- Live Shopping on Facebook has launched! They're kicking it off with weekly events on Fridays called 'Live Shopping Fridays.'
Interested in learning more about social media strategy and the tools available to you for social media marketing purposes? Check out our Social Media Marketing resource page!
Written by Sarah Wai
Former Content, Email, and Social Media Marketing Specialist of Tribute Media. Bachelor of Science in Digital Communication Arts and Master in Business Administration.
