5 Social Media Updates You Need To Know About – July
It’s fair to say that social media has yet to go on its 2021 summer holiday. June was a crazy month online! Some of last month’s updates edged closer to completion, EURO 2020 continues to dominate our feeds and throughout it all, your favourite platforms continue to evolve. It looks like there are plenty of changes coming this month.
But like Raheem Sterling in the Wembley penalty box, by keeping up with our ‘5 things’ series – you won’t miss a thing. Here are July’s social media updates that you need to know about:
1. Facebook Works on Integrating ‘Reels’ and ‘Rooms’
In what would be a major update to the feed, Facebook is reportedly working on integrating IG Reels and their brand-new audio ‘Rooms’ into the face of the platform.
This would be a major boost for IG Reels. Not only would it mean that creators of Reels can reach entirely new audiences, but it would also help in Facebook’s battle against TikTok’s maintained dominance. The prominence of Reels only continues to grow. Their popularity is increasing and Facebook seems keen on continuing that upwards trajectory as the battle for the short-form video throne rages on.
Also appearing in the update are promoted ‘Rooms’. Rooms are Facebook’s take on Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces. They are currently in a testing phase, but Facebook seems keen on ensuring they are prominent upon their full introduction.
2. Snapchat Partner With Universal Music Group
On June 24th, Snapchat announced a new partnership with Universal Music Group. This comes after the launch of ‘Sounds‘ in October, which allowed users to add music to their Snapchat creations.
Sounds launched in collaboration with Warner and Sony artists, but in adding Universal to the mix, users will have access to music from the likes of Rihanna, Justin Bieber, and Kanye West.
As is the case with most recent updates to major social platforms, this feels like another retaliation to the popularity of TikTok. TikTok is heavily centered around the audio elements of its content. Not can music give more options to creators, but it can also give birth to viral trends.
According to reports, the Snapchat-UMG deal will also see related AR lenses appear in Snapchat’s carousel of filters. It seems that music will be a significant element for Snap in the coming months, as the platform continues to evolve and diversify its range of abilities.
3. Instagram Tests ‘Fan Club’ Story Setting
It has been almost three years (believe it or not) since IG added the ability to show stories to a predetermined list of ‘Close Friends’. But what is most interesting with their latest feature that is reportedly in testing – ‘Fan Clubs‘ – is that on the surface, it doesn’t appear to be all too dissimilar.
The update will see stories become visible only to members of the creator’s ‘Fan Club’. Whilst that does resemble ‘Close Friends’, here’s where they differentiate.
It seems that ‘Fan Clubs’ is aimed at digital creators and online brands. Firstly, it is the user that has the opportunity to opt in. This is different to ‘close friends’, where it is the user posting the stories who decides who is able to see them. ‘Fan Club’ viewers will not be able to screenshot the story, but they will be automatically added to a highlight, to ensure that they are viewable on demand.
This opens up interesting possibilities for the likes of photographers or graphic designers, for example. It would allow them to showcase their work, without fear of it being screenshot or re-used without their knowledge. In this sense, this is a very considerate move from Instagram. We’re big fans of it here at Uni4m HQ.
4. Twitter Introduces Further Updates To Spaces
The interactive audio industry’s growth is gathering serious momentum. With Clubhouse, Facebook’s aforementioned ‘Rooms’ and Spaces battling it out for the crown, the latter is striving to improve its UX in order to gain a crucial advantage.
We spoke about Spaces’ rapid evolution on Episode 2 of The Social Jar Podcast. Twitter continues to make the feature as intuitive as possible. This week, they enabled hosts to see how many speakers invite slots are left when creating a Space. A Twitter Space can currently have up to 11 speakers.
Whilst it may seem a very small change, it is all about making the feature as user-friendly as possible. After all, with such choice available, whichever platform is easiest for the user to operate could well become the industry favourite.
As Clubhouse continues to create frustration, Twitter’s simple and accessible alternative is becoming increasingly popular. But now Facebook has entered the arena, how those two platforms strive to outdo each other could be a very interesting watch over the coming months.
5. TikTok Launches ‘Jumps’
Now – this is interesting. For so long, TikTok has been the victim of the copycat nature of the social media industry. Whether it be Reels, Spotlight or Shorts, watching rival platforms unveil their own TikTok replica must have been painful for mainstream social media’s new kid on the block.
But now, in a crazy turn of events, TikTok has now taken a feature from Snapchat’s Spotlight – which is, in itself, a remodelled TikTok. Snap recently announced the ability for creators to create (or use) content from a third-party app and include it in their Spotlight posts.
It widened the range of tools available to users and evidently, this impressed TikTok. So, recently, they announced ‘Jump’.
The update aims to “enrich the TikTok experience”. It will allow users to link to third-party-owned platforms and services from their posts. This could be anything from recipes, to articles, quizzes, or more.
As you can see in the Tweet above, the ‘Jumps’ will appear as a link above a TikTok’s given information. It seems that there is a general theme to this month’s ‘5 things’ – enhancing the creator experience. Social media continues to experiment and allow users to express themselves more so than ever before. And we’re all here for it.
For more information on any of the aforementioned updates, or how you can use social media for your brand or business, follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @Uni4mBrand or send a Whatsapp message to +447555892554.