Each month, our team of social experts dig through the trenches of the internet to find the biggest, best and most important news coming out of the social platforms we and our clients use daily.
The travel industry was at an all-time high before the pandemic hit early last year, and many speculated that it may never bounce back now that it’s so easy to connect with distant friends and families virtually. But Pinterest data on consumer search behaviors suggests that consumers are ready to get back to wanderlusting with travel searches on Pinterest up 40% from their previous high in 2019.
What it means for brands: While consumers are ready to travel again, their interests (and availability) in where to travel has narrowed. Instead of international travel, more consumers are looking at how to satisfy their wanderlust in other ways. The increase in travel searches that Pinterest identified included Rural Tourists, Outdoor Enthusiasts and Weekend Travel—suggesting people are looking to stay a little closer to home.
Facebook is expected to add a new, lower-fi feature to their Rooms feature: audio. The recent (and growing) hype and conversation around Clubhouse, an audio-only social platform that allows users to join “rooms” based on their interests and either contribute to the conversation or simply listen in (think an audio version of Reddit), has Facebook looking to capitalize on the growing consumer interest. Twitter launched a similar copycat back in December.
What it means for brands: There is clearly potential to reach consumers in this rising mode of audio-only social engagement. What remains to be seen is if the big guys’ (Facebook, Twitter) copycats will compete with Clubhouse or if a new rising star will soon be factored into our social marketing mix.
Snapchat is the latest social platform to add a TikTok-like feature to their functionality—this time, looking to compete with TikTok’s Stitch and Duet feature with the introduction of Remix. This new functionality will allow users to create new content using their friends’ existing content by reacting to, adding to or complementing the original Snap with their own take. Initially, users will only be able to Remix with their friends’ content, but expect an expansion to include other creators in the future.
What it means for brands: Don’t expect these imitations to replace TikTok. As with many other platforms looking to add TikTok-like features to the platforms, the biggest challenge is competing with the robust editing tools that TikTok offers creators. Many of these copycats fall flat given these limitations.
YouTube Rolls-Out ‘Shorts’ in the USIn September last year, YouTube began testing its TikTok competitor in India. This month, we see that test expanded to select US users who can watch Shorts from other creators as well as begin making their own. In its current form, the feature is fairly minimal (especially when compared to TikTok) and the platform has not announced a rollout for additional features to be added, but Shorts is highlighting its large library of songs that are available directly through labels and publishers.
What it means for brands: Because the music available through YouTube’s Shorts is available directly through relationships with those labels and publishers, brands will legally be able to use songs in future Shorts, something that is fairly limited on TikTok. This limitation extends to creators looking to turn their accounts into revenue drivers, something that may make Shorts more appealing for creators in the near future.
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