This Week in Social Media | Instagram for Kids and Twitter Subscriptions
Social Media is always changing, it’s a moving target that is nearly impossible to keep on top of, and that’s why we are publishing a semi-weekly entry in our blog that aggregates social media news, insights and updates from across the world wide web. We will narrow it to the hits we think are most relevant, will highlight key points and add some perspective to help you understand “so what?”
Week of June 21, 2021
Instagram for Kids? Nope, not an Article from the Onion.
Just what today’s youth needs right? More screen time! Not to sound like a jaded millennial looking down disparagingly at the youth of today, but much like the Fyre Festival, this idea does not sound like it was thought through. We believe that kids don’t need to be rushed into the societal pressures that coincide with social media usage; they will get to enjoy all of those fun features for life once they start using social media. Additionally, kids really do not understand the whole ‘the internet is literally FOREVER’ aspect of posting to social, and most if not all kids under the age of 13 (or any teen for that matter) lack the judgement, awareness, and knowledge to know when something they are posting is objectively wrong. The internet is a place of permanency. We at WAU take the side of dropping this project; let kids be kids, and let parents have one less massive headache to worry about.
Twitter Subscriptions….You Must be Kidding Right?
Twitter just released subscription based additions to the platform in Canada and Australia. Currently, the list of features include being able to undo tweets that have typos for up to 30 seconds after they have been posted (Twitter users have been asking for something along these lines since the dawn of social media), a new feed-reading mode that makes skimming large threads much easier on the eyes and the mind, access to ‘dedicated subscription customer support’ and more. The subscription is around $3 per month as of right now.
While it would have to be a cold day in hell before many current users would even consider paying to use Twitter, we believe that these features are just the tip of the Twitter Blue iceberg. With features such as the dedicated support, we foresee Twitter Blue potentially blossoming into a platform that businesses will utilize to stay ahead of the competition by gaining insights that only Twitter can unveil. Or, maybe this feature will flop, and Twitter will continue to be the unfriendly and unforgiving app that you see currently.
Will Allowing Facebook iOS App Tracking Keep the Network Free?
Tired of hearing about the iOS 14.5 update for Apple? Facebook is trying hard to sway users into allowing tracking of their data through the app. Facebook is leveraging that the platform is currently free as one of the reasons why users should be pro-tracking. When users receive the iOS 14.5 update prompt, “Help keep Facebook/Instagram free of charge” is included in the messaging. However, this does feel like an empty threat, due to Zuckerbeg saying “Yes, there will always be a version of Facebook that is free,” during a hearing in 2018.
While this warning does not hold much weight, it does hint that Facebook may have to result in tiered levels to the platform if Facebook’s ad revenue begins to dry up. According to Flurry Analytics, the U.S. Daily Opt-in Rate after the iOS 14.5 Launch across all apps is tracking well below 10%. What will be interesting to see in the weeks to come is if users are more fond of the non-personalized ads they are getting, or if they would rather go back and enable tracking so that the ads they are getting are at least relevant to them. For the time being, we recommend that all who boost and advertise through Facebook and Instagram continue to closely monitor CPM, reach, landing page views and other Facebook given analytics to ensure that you are not wasting spend due to this new Apple update.
Photo from The Verge
