Welcome to Social Media Buzz Weekly, your weekly bulletin of the latest social media updates. With the social media landscape evolving with each passing day, it can be challenging to keep a tab on the rapid developments. Well, not anymore, as we have taken it upon ourselves to keep you abreast of every happening in the social media space.
So, without any further ado, let’s look at some of the most significant developments from the last week in the world of social media.
1. Facebook Will Now Allow Users to Create Multiple Profiles to Explore Different Interests
Meta has launched its new multi-profile option, which will enable users to create multiple Facebook profiles to explore different interests, share different content with different audiences, etc.
By using the new “Create another profile” option, you’ll now be able to put together custom, interest-based profiles, so that you can engage in a broader range of interests, and build separate friend lists and feeds. You can create up to four additional personal profiles in the app, each with its own username and feed, which will help to maintain a level of separation and privacy, and could also help users feel more comfortable sharing about more of their interests.
2. Meta Expands Its Paid Verification Program to Business Accounts
After originally announcing its Meta Verified program for creators back in February, Meta is now set to expand the program even further, with a new Meta Verified for Business package coming soon. Meta Verified for businesses will provide another way for brands to add more authority to their account, by buying a verified checkmark, even if the process of selling checkmarks lessens the value of the marker.
The current Meta Verified package for individual creators costs $US11.99 per month, per platform, when purchased on the web, or $US14.99 when you subscribe within the app. Meta’s verification for business package will cost $US21.99 per month per Instagram account or Facebook Page when purchased on the website, or $US27.99 for each via mobile sign-up. And interestingly, Meta’s also looking to offer a combination package this time around, priced at $US34.99 for verification of both your Facebook and IG business pages.
3. TikTok Is Exploring a Partnership With Google to Drive Search Traffic
TikTok and Google are reportedly exploring a new partnership, which would integrate Google search prompts, and potentially, at some stage, even results, into TikTok’s own search stream.
As a result, some TikTok users are now seeing a new prompt appear within their search results in the app, which includes a CTA to expand their search on Google. For TikTok, this provides more direct connection to broader discovery options, while there could also be additional benefits in terms of data sharing between the two companies that can help to improve their discovery tools.
4. TikTok Officially Launches New In-Stream Labels for AI Generated Content
After testing them out with selected users over the past few weeks, TikTok is now officially launching its new in-stream labels for AI-generated content, which will provide an extra level of transparency in the app.
TikTok will now require users who’ve used AI to create a post in the app to flag it as such, or risk having their content removed if they fail to do so. The new “Creator labeled as AI-generated” tag will help to avoid confusion, while also limiting the spread of misinformation within the app.
5. Snapchat+ Reaches 5M Paying Members
Snapchat+ now has 5 million paying members, rising from 4 million back in June, meaning that Snap has added a million more paying subscribers in just three months. However, that’s still only a fraction of overall Snap users. Snapchat currently has over 750 million monthly actives, which means that of all of its users, only 0.67% of Snap users are paying to use the app.
6. X Announces It’s Shutting Down Circles As of Oct. 31
X is shutting down Circles as of Oct 31st, 2023. After this date, you will not be able to create new posts that are limited to your Circle, nor will you be able to add people to your Circle.
Circles, which previous Twitter management first launched in May last year, was one of various projects that sought to better align in-app engagement with the broader shift of social interactions to more intimate groups, as opposed to public posting. Given that an increasing amount of users are now interacting this way, Twitter added Circles, Communities, and audience control options on tweets, in the hopes of sparking more types of discussion in the app.
7. X Announces Coming Community Features, Including Pinned Communities and Search
X is working on a new option that would enable you to pin a community to your timeline, seemingly similar to how you can currently pin lists as swipeable feed options. That would make it easier to switch across and check out the latest discussions within each community that you’re a part of, while X is also looking to add keyword search in Communities as well, so you can get to the key topics that are of most interest.
Wrapping Up
And that was a wrap of this week’s Social Media Buzz. We’ll be back next week with more news and updates for you from the social media world. Till then, stay tuned!
If you want to read more on the latest developments taking place in the social media space, take a look at ClickInsights’ Social Media Buzz, wherein we bring to you monthly reports on everything going on in social media, ranging from platform updates to policy changes that influence the way we market.