News & Insights

Social Media News You Need to Know

The social media industry has been very active recently, and a few platforms have shared big news. Both Facebook and Twitter have announced some changes to their businesses. Social media platforms are always changing, and we can often ignore them. It’s usually an updated “terms of agreement,” a new look or some other minor change. This news cannot be ignored and will have a profound impact on the industry as a whole. Whether you’re a social media strategist, digital marketer or just an avid scroller, it’s important to understand the transformation coming your way.

Facebook Goes Meta

Yes, Facebook is no longer Facebook. The company rebranded as Meta, but the platform’s name will remain the same. Facebook, now Meta (that’ll take some time to get used to), has expanded into many things since its birth at Harvard University. Meta has acquired companies ranging from other social media platforms to messaging apps, and even a virtual reality headset company.

That last company, Oculus, is one of the largest reasons Facebook is now Meta. Virtual reality is the key to the next leap in technology. Meta aims to utilize this tool to create the metaverse, a digital universe that you can physically interact with. Creating this metaverse would be similar to the creation of the internet but to a much greater magnitude. Meta, if able to develop this platform, would transform the digital landscape as we know it today and bring us to Web 3.0. Social media, streaming, video games, online shopping and more would all be altered to an almost unrecognizable degree. Even physical activity could be affected. It will truly be revolutionary. For marketers reading this, your job will be dramatically different. Unfortunately, anticipating what it will be like or when this will happen is all a guess.

Twitter Launches Subscriptions in U.S.

In society today, we get bombarded with subscriptions all the time. We buy subscriptions for streaming platforms, music, clothes, food and wine, but is that something we really want to see done to our social media? Social networks have largely been free service throughout their history. You simply sign up and enjoy the platform. These companies rely on revenue from ads and selling your data. As we’ve become more conscious of our digital privacy, these companies are having to adjust their revenue models.

For Twitter, this comes in the form of Twitter Blue. While the platform as you know it still remains free, they’ve added a subscription that grants you special features in the app. Twitter launched this in June 2021 in Canada and Australia, but it’s now being introduced to the U.S. With this $2.99-a-month subscription, Twitter allows you to access ad-free articles, to edit tweets after the fact, the ability to change the app’s navigation bar and the option to choose new color themes among other things. All of these new benefits sound pretty great until you compare it to other platforms. Some of the features included are basic (and free) features on other social networks. For instance, the ability to edit a tweet is standard on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. For this reason, many users are upset by Twitter Blue. They see it as Twitter charging its users for the most basic features that many other platforms offer free.

Whether you agree with that or not, the fact remains that Twitter Blue gives you access to new tools that may be useful to you. Furthermore, if this subscription takes off for Twitter, it’s possible that you’ll see more social media companies follow suit. Twitter Blue may very well change the landscape of social media as we know it.