A new month means a new Social Update. And March has been very busy for Meta: lots of new features, updates and security measures.
Meta.
Meta introduces a new update called "Take it Down”. This allows young people to take back control of their intimate images. Take It Down assigns a unique hash value - a numeric code - to their image or video, privately and directly from their own device. Once they submit the hash, they can use these hashes to find any copies of the image, delete them and prevent future content from being posted on our apps.
As with Twitter, a blue checkmark is now available on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. The Meta Verified service costs $11.99 a month on the Internet. Subscribers must identify themselves with an official ID card. At this moment, there is a waiting list for those who wish to make use of the new feature.
Unfortunately, Meta has also indicated that a new round of layoffs will take place. Furthermore, the company wants to focus more on AI products. Mark Zuckerberg announced late last month that the company was bringing many of its AI specialists under one roof to form a unit in an effort to "ramp up" its work in this sector.
Google.
Speaking of AI, Google launched a new AI chatbot named Bard. You can already sign up to get on the waiting list at https://bard.google.com. The difference between ChatGPT and Bard is that ChatGPT types out the answers to your question word for word, while Bard produces texts in an instant.
YouTube.
YouTube recently launched a revenue model for Shorts that allows creators to earn money from their content. The fees are still relatively minimal, but the model does seem to work much better than that of TikTok and Instagram, for example.
How it works is that YouTube pools all revenue from Shorts ads and then distributes about half of that money to the best Shorts creators, based on number of viewers, eligibility, etc.
Pinterest.
Pinterest is testing an interesting new spotlight position ad, amidst the search pages. Premiere Spotlight could be thought of as a kind of "Instagram or Snapchat Story" but for ads.
It is an attention-grabbing ad option that will no doubt be popular for large companies. Pinterest has not yet announced the official cost of the Premiere Spotlight, but it appears to be a premium option, which may make it a less attractive option for smaller businesses.
A few months ago, Pinterest launched the new "Shop” feature. This upgrade allows you to buy the advertised item right through the app. This feature is going to play an increasing role on the app.
Pinterest says "We want Pinners to be able to shop everything they see on Pinterest and retailers are an important part of making that possible. In the past year, we have seen a 66% increase in retailers uploading or integrating their digital catalogs on Pinterest.'
Reddit.
Reddit is coming out with an enhancement to a much-requested feature, namely being able to search for comments. A few months ago, Reddit announced the ability for users to look up comments on all platforms in Reddit. But users could only search for comments across the platform via the comments tab in the search bar; they still couldn't search comments within a post. That process has received an upgrade. Reddit announced that users can now search for comments within posts.
TikTok.
TikTok comes with a new feature for younger users. For example, there will be a "timer" on the app where children under 18 are only allowed to spend 60 minutes a day on TikTok. The timer can be lifted by entering a password, but users will then have to make a conscious choice to stay on the app. A parent or guardian will be responsible for entering the access code for users under 13, allowing them to spend an additional 30 minutes on the app.
There will also be a new feature on TikTok called "Series" this is a kind of subscription to a Creator. You get exclusive videos for a monthly fee. Creators can create 80 videos per series, all of 20 minutes maximum. Creators get to decide how expensive they want to make their subscription. TikTok says "Through Series, creators can build even stronger relationships with their viewers while also giving viewers another way to support creators.”
Spotify.
Eunice Shin, head of media and entertainment at brand strategist Prophet indicates that "Right now people go on TikTok for entertainment, they discover new music and then look it up on Spotify. TikTok is the discovery mechanism, but Spotify wants to change that behavior." They describe this update as the biggest change for Spotify since they launched the mobile version 10 years ago. So, they want to incorporate more video into their app. This so that users keep their attention longer, and also search for new music through Spotify itself, rather than using another platform to do so first, such as TikTok.
Twitter.
Twitter-Blue is now also available in the Netherlands. This subscription costs from €8.47. With this upgrade, you can post longer videos and tweets. Not to mention, you get a blue checkmark. Twitter-Blue is now available in 35 countries. The upgrade has been running since June 2021, but Twitter says it is not immensely popular with less than 300,000.
In fact, did you already have a blue checkmark? Then it will be taken away if you haven't purchased a Twitter Blue subscription.
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