Mar 2024 Social Platform Updates

LinkedIn and Spotify are testing vertical video fees. Reddit went public. And TikTok is working on a photo app to compete with Instagram.

Here's everything you missed from social platforms last month...

Facebook 👍

✦ Brought back the Poke button, and Gen Z loves it.

Instagram 📷

✦ Now allows users to edit DMs up to 15 mins after sending.

✦ Users can also pin chats, save stickers in DMs, and personalize their inbox with animated themes.

✦ Testing a new feature called Spins, which allows users to swap out text or audio in Reels and repost the new videos.

LinkedIn 🤝

✦ Updated its Thought Leader ads so advertisers can promote content from any user, not just employees of their company.

✦ Testing a new short-form video feed.

✦ Added keyboard shortcuts.

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Reddit, Inc. 👽

✦ IPO'd on March 21st on the NYSE.

✦ Rolled out a new “free-form” ad format that’s designed to imitate “megathreads.”

Snap Inc. 👻

✦ Announced sponsored AR filters.

Spotify 🔊

✦ Testing a TikTok-like vertical feature for users to preview podcast episodes through swipeable clips and follow shows.

✦ Publicly revealed podcasts’ Spotify follower counts for the first time.

Threads 🧵

✦ Testing the ability to swipe right on a post to like it or swipe left if not interested.

✦ Experimenting with a feature to show start times and live scores for NBA games.

TikTok ♪

✦ Expanded its Effect Creator Rewards program to more countries and will reduce its payout threshold from 200K to 100K views on AR-created videos.

✦ Reportedly planning to launch a photo-sharing app to compete with Instagram.

✦ Bringing its Creator Rewards Program out of beta.

✦ Added “search value” to its formula for determining how much creators are paid, suggesting TikTok's growing importance as a search engine.

✦ Announced new ad formats for TikTok Shop, including shoppable video ads and a new Shop tab ad unit.

Twitch 🎮

✦ Revised its policies to restrict "content that focuses on intimate body parts for a prolonged period of time," in response to streamers broadcasting on their bodies as green screens.

X 🐦

✦ Elon Musk said X is considering getting rid of likes and reposts.

✦ Launching an app for Amazon and Samsung smart TVs.

✦ Added new DM features, such as the ability to edit a previous message.

Yahoo❗

✦ Testing a creator publishing platform that would share 50% of ad revenue with creators.

YouTube 🎥

✦ Now requiring creators to disclose when “realistic content” is made or altered using synthetic media, including AI.

✦ Testing the ability to jump ahead in long-form videos to see key moments.

✦ Announced that more than 25% of channels in its YouTube Partnership Program are now earning revenue from Shorts.

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