We Are Social Asia’s Tuesday Tune Up
10,000 character tweets and more Twitter updates
It wouldn’t be a Monday mashup without your fix of the latest Twitter news, of which is plentiful nowadays.
Twitter Blue subscribers will now be able to post tweets of up to 10,000 characters with the option of bold and italic lettering. This push for longer form content comes hand in hand with Elon’s introduction of monetisation for creators, offering subscriptions to users. To be eligible for monetisation, users have to have 10K followers, be over 18, and have tweeted 25 times in the last 30 days.
Twitter has partnered with the investment platform eToro to show real-time information about stocks and crypto prices. This expands upon the social network’s Cashtag feature, which provides info about a limited number of stocks and crypto coins through TradingView data.
The aforementioned date of 1st April to remove legacy checkmarks passed us by with no action, but Elon has now announced he will do so on 20th April (sometimes referred to as 4/20 🤔) If action is required, it seems ironic to have chosen this date – will he actually follow through this time?
In the recent BBC interview, James Clayton spoke to Elon Musk about his running of Twitter, with discussion involving the recent mislabelling of the BBC Twitter bio as ‘government funded’ 👀, Elon sleeping in the office and how the whole process of buying and running Twitter has been ‘painful’.
Instagram adds a series of creator-focused updates to Reels and extends access to creator marketplace
Instagram is adding a series of creator-focused updates to Reels that will help talent on the platform reach a wider audience. They include better access to trending audio and hashtags, with creators able to see the top trending songs on Reels and how many times the audio has been used, as well as trending topics and hashtags in the “Check today’s Reels Trends” section. Instagram is also expanding gifts on Reels to more countries, enhancing Reels editing tools and adding new metrics.
Instagram has also announced that it’s extending access to parts of its creator marketplace via APIs and expanding creator marketplace access to brand agencies. This will make it easier for brands to discover and work with creators on the third-party creator marketing platform.
Snap signs new music licensing deals to expand its Sounds library
Snap has signed a deal with multiple music labels to expand its Sounds library – its product that allows people to use song clips in Snaps and Stories. The company now has content from over 9,000 independent music publishers and labels in its library, after focusing on partnerships and artists fees to push Snap as a place to discover new music.
YouTube shuts product tagging shopping feature
YouTube is shutting down a tool that lets creators tag third-party products in their videos with shoppable links. The company has tested this feature with a small number of influencers and has now alerted creators that the tool would no longer be available starting April 19. Youtube plans to improve the feature for creators and marketers to re-launch further down the line.
The rise of Lemon8
ByteDance owned app, Lemon8 has taken to storm in western countries, after establishing itself in China. The app offers personalised content recommendations that keep users engaged through a ‘For You’ feed offering algorithmic-based recommendations, and a ‘Following’ feed showing content from accounts people choose to follow. We’ve gathered all the info you need to know in our blog.
In other news
In Facebook news, the company plans to expand the eligible creators getting paid for ads on their Reels 💰 The app is testing AI generated stories based on previously shared images and is introducing a new metric to the page insights API 📊 YouTube has added a new reminder button for upcoming live streams 💡In Instagram news, the app is adding a new badge for posts containing branded content and the possibility to show if someone reshares Reels publicly 🔄 Lastly, TikTok now helps you scroll even quicker – did we need further encouragement?