Social media never stops evolving and each month welcomes brand new updates across all of the most popular platforms. Whether it’s for your brand or your clients, your business will benefit from keeping in the loop with the latest updates.
Snapchat introduces new ‘Catalog-Powered Shopping Lenses’ taking its AR tools to the next level for eCommerce. This new addition will enable brands to showcase their products within a single lens, providing more virtual try-on options for its users.
As per the example below, this new tool will help further brands’ AR experiences where the process of creating Lenses has been streamlined to do so, with their easy pre-made functions.
As said by Snapchat:
“We’ve now made it so brands can generate a commerce Lens in as fast as two minutes and Beauty brands can do so in just a few clicks. At launch, this quick click accessibility in Lens Web Builder will be available to Beauty brands and will roll out to other product verticals in the coming months.”
Will you be adding AR elements into your strategy?
Instagram has launched a test of its new Subscription options for creators on the platform. This new feature will monetise content across the platform, providing an incentive for them to keep posting. This new option is currently very limited while in its testing period with only a handful of prominent creators being selected to trial the subscription concept. Those users will have a ‘Subscribe’ button on their profile linking those who wish to subscribe to a sign-up flow.
As explained by Instagram:
“With Instagram Subscriptions, creators can develop deeper connections with their most engaged followers and grow their recurring monthly income by giving subscribers access to exclusive content and benefits, all within the same platform where they interact with them already.”
This exclusive content will come at a monthly charge where creators can charge a variable amount for access between $0.99 and $99.99 to provide its subscribers with the following:
Fancy improving your TikTok strategy? TikTok has just launched an online course helping marketers level up their approach. It’s easy to follow best practice guides to advertising which provide a range of lessons including attribution, targeting, creative best practices and more to help further your marketing strategies across the platform.
Twitter Blue subscribers will soon be able to have access to Twitter’s new NFT profile display option to showcase their NFTs in a more certifiable capacity with images directly linking back to the ownership data in OpenSea. This linking tactic is to stop unauthorised NFT use as people who don’t own the image won’t get the new hexagonal logo or additional linking options.
As explained by Twitter:
“Twitter is where people go to talk about things they care about, and often where people have their first experience with crypto and NFTs. We’re now seeing people use NFTs as a form of identity and self-expression, and as a way to join the thriving community and increasingly active conversation on Twitter. This new feature provides a seamless, user-friendly way for people on Twitter to verify their NFT ownership by allowing them to directly connect their crypto wallets to Twitter and select an NFT from their collection as their new profile picture.”
Twitter Blue subscribers will see the new option in their profile picture settings, which will guide them through the linking process for their NFTs. Your crypto wallet is connected which then links to your NFT collection, establishing a direct pipeline between image and ownership. Once connected, your profile picture will then change to the new hexagonal shape which when clicked provides visitors with more info on the profile picture.
TikTok is rolling out a new ‘Instant Page’ shopping display option which will allow brands to connect their TikTok ads through a native landing page built within TikTok itself, which will load 11 times faster than standard mobile pages.
As explained by TikTok:
“Within an Instant Page, users can view videos and images, swipe through carousels, or click on buttons to explore another destination – all without leaving the TikTok app. Instant Pages are easy to build and customize for your brand.”
It is argued that the process is a lot like Facebook’s Instant Articles where content is also built into the app itself as opposed to referring users off to a third-party site. The Instant Articles feature comes with inherent problems due to the limited data collection of publishers where the IA order is primarily aimed. However, TikTok’s instant pages will work a little differently where they will be focused on direct conversions for your brand but will still be a consideration.
To set up a TikTok Instant Page, businesses will need to create an eligible ad on TikTok Ads Manager and then build an Instant Page as the destination link for the campaign.
The Instant Page builder tool is embedded within the ad creation flow, enabling you to incorporate a range of templates:
You can add videos, carousels or product display elements, along with coupons, product shots and more.
Will you be trying this new feature?
Interested in how one (or more!) of these social innovations could help your brand reach more people on social media? Bring Cake into the mix and send us a message.
Chris has been at the forefront of eCommerce and a pioneer of online retailing since the early 00s. A 5-time Drapers Award winner, Chris has extensive experience in developing fashion brands online.
Chris founded Cake in 2016. Based in Birmingham, with offices nationwide, Cake specialises in helping fashion brands understand their market online and then helps to develop appropriate strategical direction to achieve their plan, all backed by his 20 years of operating in the retail market.
