Top 5 trends in Social Media and Influencer Marketing | April 2021

After having reigned supreme for so many years, visual content is now sharing the stage with audio, and the main social media platforms are taking notice. Following Clubhouse’s success, now Facebook, Twitter and even LinkedIn are working on their own audio-based features. Check out below what our favorite social networks have been up to this month and keep yourself updated!

1. Clubhouse Launches “Payments” For Creators

Photo Credits: Clubhouse

Clubhouse Payments, the app’s new monetization feature that allows creators to receive tips from their listeners, is now being tested by Clubhouse. At the moment only a small group of users can enable the feature on their profiles, but, eventually more and more creators will be able to start making money from their shows. 

How does it work? It’s quite simple. If the creator has the feature enabled, a user can go to the creator’s profile, scroll all the way down, tap on the “Send Money” button and enter the amount of money (s)he wants to give to the creator. The creator will then directly receive 100% of the payment. 

With Payments, Clubhouse wants to focus on direct monetization for creators, instead of advertisements. In addition to the creator grant program, Clubhouse Payments aims to not only support emerging creators in the platform, but also incentivise them to produce high quality content. 

2. Facebook’s New Q&A Platform To Compete With Clubhouse

Photo Credits: Alessandro Paluzzi via TechCrunch

Back in February, it was reported that Facebook was working on a new product to compete with Clubhouse. Screenshots shared by mobile developer and reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, show how this new product would look like. However, a spokesperson from Facebook has mentioned that these are just examples of their “exploratory audio efforts”.

According to the images, there are three different types of rooms that you can choose from: a private video room, a private audio room and a live audio room. The difference between the two audio rooms is that the live audio option allows you to broadcast to a wider group of listeners by sharing it through a Room link.

In one of the screenshots, we can see that the space for the Live Audio option looks much like Clubhouse rooms.

This is not the first time we have seen Facebook reproduce features from other social media networks as it was with the Instagram Stories concept from Snapchat, and more recently Instagram Reels that rivals the TikTok experience.
When talking about social audio, Mark Zuckerberg once said, “Overall, I think that this is going to be a pretty big space”, so we will definitely see Facebook continuing to explore audio chat features.

3. LinkedIn Is Looking To Tap Into Social Audio, Too

Photo Credits: TechCrunch

Following Clubhouse’s success, other social platforms have been working on new audio-based features—which is the case for Facebook, Twitter, and now LinkedIn, too. 

The professional networking platform indicated that the decision to add an audio-based feature came from their members and creatives’ feedback to increase the ways to communicate on the platform. LinkedIn has released a mock up of how the feature would look like.

“We’re doing some early tests to create a unique audio experience connected to your professional identity. And, we’re looking at how we can bring audio to other parts of LinkedIn such as events and groups, to give our members even more ways to connect to their community,”, Suzi Owens, a spokesperson for LinkedIn, said.

4. Facebook Kicks Off #MonthOfGood For Ramadan

Photo Credits: Facebook

Ramadan started mid-April and Facebook is celebrating it throughout the month with #MonthOfGood, an initiative that includes collaborations “with creators, communities, publishers and NGOs to spotlight those who are making a positive impact in their communities and inspire others to do the same.” 

With the #MonthOfGood initiative, Facebook wants to start a movement where everyone inspires each other to be kinder and do good. To kick-off the celebrations, the tech giant released a guide with different ideas for users to join the celebration.

Additionally, Instagram’s official profile is featuring live video content from the creators taking part in the movement and sharing their most special moments from Ramadan celebrations. You can also find stickers dedicated to Ramadan on Facebook and Instagram, and much more, inviting everyone to celebrate!

5. New Facebook Features That Will Save You Time

Facebook has added new features to its Business Suite platform to help business owners plan their content ahead of time. Users can now post and schedule Stories to Facebook and Instagram as well as edit scheduled posts.

Facebook also announced there will be new features coming soon, including the possibility to create and manage all of your Facebook Photos and Albums, and saving posts as drafts.

Photo Credits: Facebook

Do you want to leverage the latest social media and influencer marketing trends in your marketing efforts? Check out our previous work and