What Happened on Social Media in February 2021?
It’s been another eventful month for the world of social media, with LinkedIn announcing a range of new initiatives to support health organizations in maximizing their vaccine distribution efforts, Facebook banning news in Australia and Twitter launching a live test of voice recordings in DMs, have a read on to find out what the social channels have been up to this month.
Facebook Updates February
Facebook Bans News in Australia & Then Reverses It
After months of tense back and forth and a lot of speculation, Facebook announced it was going to cut Australian news publishers off from its service. It blocked news to Australians on its platform since the 18th of February amid a dispute over a proposed law which would force Facebook and Google to pay news publishers for content.
Shortly after this happened, the platform announced that it will restore news content in Australia – Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg had told him the ban would end “in the coming days”, after the pair had talked. Mr Frydenberg said amendments would be made to the law. “Facebook has re-friended Australia,” he told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
Shopify Expands its ‘Shop Pay’ In-Stream Payment Process to Facebook and Instagram Shops
Shopify has announced an expansion of its ‘Shop Pay’ payment feature to Instagram and Facebook shops, meaning, faster and more secure payments can be made on social media.
As explained by Shopify:
“We’re expanding Shop Pay – the fastest and most secure way to shop online – to all Shopify merchants selling on Facebook and Instagram. With Shop Pay now available as a fast and secure payment option on Facebook, people also get access to industry-leading order tracking and carbon offsets from their deliveries.”
Instagram Updates February
Instagram facts 2021
Social Media Today shared an interesting infographic with updated stats about Instagram in 2021. Some key facts from it were:
- One billion people use the platform every month
- 500m people share Instagram stories daily compared to 95m people who post onto their Instagram feed daily
- 200m users visit at least one business profile daily
- 76% of worldwide businesses are using Instagram for marketing purposes
- Instagram has a 40% higher engagement rate than Facebook
- Posts with a location tag get 79% more engagement
Instagram Announces Multi-Participant Lives are Coming
Instagram Chief Adam Mosseri revealing that that company is planning to launch multi-participant IG Live video chats within the next few weeks. Adam Mosseri shared the news during an interview with Lilly Singh on her talk show.
As explained by Mosseri:
“We have been working on live groups – finally. […] We’re releasing the ability to go live with more than one other person, so with up to four other people, in the next couple of weeks, which we’re really excited about.”
Group lives could not come at a better time, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, many more people are on social media and the demand for video content is more than ever, in particular
Twitter Updates February
Twitter Launches Live Test of Voice Recordings in DMs in India, Brazil & Japan
After this new feature was tested last year, Twitter have now officially rolled out the feature in India Brazil and Japan. They launched the news on Twitter, this month:
🎤test,🎤test: Starting today, you’ll be able to record and send voice messages in DMs 😉 Here’s how👇
PS. The experiment will be rolled out in phases. pic.twitter.com/aqQM6h9sof
— Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) February 17, 2021
With the ongoing demand for fast information, voice notes are a great way of communicating a timely fashion.
You can Tweet a Tweet. But now you can Tweet your voice!
Rolling out today on iOS, you can now record and Tweet with audio. pic.twitter.com/jezRmh1dkD
— Twitter (@Twitter) June 17, 2020
LinkedIn Updates February
LinkedIn Helps Businesses During Covid-19
LinkedIn has announced a range of new initiatives to support health organizations in maximizing their vaccine distribution efforts, while also looking to assist disadvantaged workers in the UK as they look to get back on their feet. Last April, LinkedIn provided a similar service with free job listing available for all essential services, this was to help businesses during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. As well as this, this month LinkedIn announced they’re offering free ads to non-profit organisations that are recruiting people to aid the Covid-19 vaccines.
“We’re offering free ads to select non-profits and disaster response organizations that are recruiting at least one thousand volunteers to help distribute COVID-19 vaccines through June 30, 2021, including the California Volunteers, Office of the Governor and Team Rubicon. We’re also providing free ads to organizations that will disseminate critical information on COVID-19 vaccines such as the UN Verified Initiative and The Ad Council.”
We look forward to seeing what the rest of 2021 has in mind for the social channels and how they continue to change to fit with the new way of living. Stay tuned for our guide to future updates in the world of social media.
