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Twitter Tests New ‘Super Follow’ and Tipping Buttons for Profiles

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twitter tests new super follow and tipping buttons for profiles

At its recent Analyst Day preview of upcoming tools and features, Twitter showcased its initial plans for new ‘Super Follow’ and tipping options, which will provide tools for Twitter users to directly monetize their presence by offering locked, exclusive content to paying members.

And it seems that Twitter’s now closing in on the next stage of the project, with reverse engineering superstar Jane Manchun Wong uncovering these new profile layouts, incorporating both new options, within the back-end code of the app.

Twitter super follow mock-ups

As you can see here, with these new formats, Twitter users may end up having the option to add:

  • A ‘Tipping’ button to accept fan/follower donations direct on their profile
  • An additional ‘Super Follow’ option alongside the ‘Follow’ prompt (the “+” icon in the first image)
  • Or, a new ‘Super Follow’ button featured prominently, which would replace the ‘Follow’ button for those already following (people would be able to unfollow by tapping on the profile/tick icon alongside the ‘Super Follow’ button)

Twitter’s still working through the details, with several variations in testing, but it does look like, soon, users will have a few new optional buttons to add to their profiles, if they want to try and monetize their Twitter following.

As noted, Twitter first previewed its coming ‘Super Follow’ option at its Analyst Day in February, in which it also outlined a range of ways in which Twitter users would be able to incentivize paying subscribers with various add-on options.

Twitter Super Follow options

The idea is that by providing ways for users to monetize their Twitter audience, that could help Twitter to both keep its top users tweeting more often, while also incentivizing them to build more reliance on the app. That would ideally help Twitter boost overall time spent within its app by keeping its most engaging voices more active, while new eCommerce and newsletter tools, among other functions, would also help to expand Twitter usage, and broaden its functionality.

That also ties into Twitter’s larger plans for business interactions, which advanced a little further this week with the initial live test of business profiles in the app.

Twitter business profile options

As you can see here, aside from business info panels, which will provide contact details and directions for physical stores, business profiles will also likely have product listing options, image galleries, and more. 

Combine these tools with audio rooms, communities for enclosed discussion, and new audience restrictions on tweets, and you can see how Twitter is building towards the next stage of more enclosed, exclusive content tools, which will facilitate its gated subscriptions, and provide a whole new range of options for those who want to base their community-building, and community monetization process, within the app.

Effective audience monetization has become a bigger focus for all platforms of late. With every app competing for attention, and a finite supply of actual talent that people will pay to tune into, the race is now on to provide the best home for creators, where they can make actual money from their online efforts.

Indeed, Snapchat this week reported that it’s seeing good results from its ‘Spotlight’ TikTok-clone, which is likely due to Snapchat offering up big cash incentives for the best Spotlight clips, in a bid to steal creators away from TikTok – or at the least, keep its own top creators from switching over to TikTok instead. TikTok, meanwhile, has its own ‘Creator Fund’ to incentivize its rising voices, while Instagram and YouTube provide valuable incentives through their established monetization programs, based on their expansive ad networks. 

Even so, Instagram’s parent company Facebook is also looking into paid newsletter subscriptions and an expansion of its Facebook Stars donation process into more platform elements, while it’s also adding ads in Instagram Reels – its own TikTok clone – and Stories sticker ads to further its creator monetization options. LinkedIn is also investigating incentive programs for its top voices.  

Keeping your most popular creators active is key to maintaining audience, and building a sustainable content ecosystem, and now, the competition is truly heating up as each platform pushes to provide more tools to help their best users make real money from simply being active and present.

That’s good news for creators, but it could end up being problematic for the platforms – especially if the bigger players decide to up the ante, and provide financial incentives beyond what the smaller players can offer.

For example, Snapchat, as noted, is currently paying out $1 million per day for the best Spotlight content, a process which, at least for now, appears to be somewhat sustainable, as it continues to boost usage, and thus, advertiser growth. But what if Facebook offered $2 million for Stories content, or for the top Reels instead? What if it offered $5 million?

You can see how this type of escalation would work to the benefit of the larger, more well-resourced players, which could theoretically blow opponents out of the water with more lucrative offers in this respect.

At the moment, the biggest platforms are focusing on refining their existing ad ecosystems instead, which is a more sustainble, long-term path. 

But if programs like Spotlight continue to work out, and the race comes down to incentives, that won’t work in favor of the smaller apps.  

This is the landscape that Twitter is now wading into with its creator tools, and while it’s looking to build an array of options to cumulatively add to its paying subscription models, it will also need to weigh the benefits of each process as it seeks to establish the best way forward, and the best offerings for its platform stars.

It’s an interesting time, which will see a range of new options rolled out, and a flood of successes and failures, both among platforms and creators, as they evolve.

We’ll keep you updated on Twitter’s evolving ‘Super Follow’ plans. 

Socialmediatoday.com

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The best social media hacks to blow up your following in just a year

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The best social media hacks to blow up your following in just a year

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Get viral fast. Plus more social media hacks to grow your accounts.

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X Pitches Advertisers on Audience Reach Opportunities in ‘Q5’

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X Pitches Advertisers on Audience Reach Opportunities in ‘Q5’

X is making a push to win over advertisers in the holiday season, by promoting its opportunities in “Q5”, which covers the post-Christmas to mid-January period.

As explained by X:

During [Q5], we see reduced CPMs and cost-per-conversion as consumers shop for post-holiday deals and products to support their New Year’s ambitions. Last year, X saw a 5% reduction in the average CPM and a 27% reduction in the average cost-per-conversion1.

Which could present new opportunity to reach a larger audience with your promotions, if indeed they are engaging on X over the holiday period.

“Q5 is filled with a wide variety of tent-pole moments, ranging from the holidays to sports, entertainment and more. With a surge of engagement around these conversations, your brand can remain relevant to your audiences while driving maximum ROI.

X says that, based on engagement data from last year, there are a lot of potential topics of interest for brands.

X also notes that sports video views are surging in the app, up almost 25% YoY over the past 6 months, while vertical video is also gaining momentum.

“Vertical video is the fastest growing surface on X. Over 100M people around the world are consuming vertical video daily at an average of over 13 minutes per day. On many days, vertical video accounts for around 20% of all time spent on the platform.

Though I would advise some caution in trusting these data points.

In recent months, various questions have been raised as to what X counts as a video “view” versus an impression, which is when a post is shown in-feed.

Technically, X counts video views like this:

“The main X video view metric is triggered when a user watches a video for at least 2 seconds and sees at least 50% of the video player in-view. This applies to View metrics for both uploaded videos and live broadcasts.

But that’s different to the actual view count that’s displayed on posts:

“Anyone who is logged into X who views a post counts as a view, regardless of where they see the post (e.g. Home, Search, Profiles, etc.) or whether or not they follow the author. If you’re the author, looking at your own post also counts as a view.

Even worse, X counts multiple views from the same person in that count:

“Multiple views may be counted if you view a post more than once, but not all views are unique. For example, you could look at a post on web and then on your phone, and that would count as two views.

So you can see how the public view count on video posts can massively overstate how many people actually watched a clip, which could be why X is reporting such big spikes in engagement. It just depends on which “view” metric it’s referring to here, actual views or exposure in stream.

Which makes all of these numbers a little difficult to determine, while X owner Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino have also continued to amplify misleading engagement stats via their own X profiles, muddying the waters as to what kind of actual reach and engagement you can expect.

And that’s before you consider the concerns that other advertisers have had with their promotions potentially being displayed alongside harmful or offensive content in the app.

But depending on how you feel about these aspects, and where your target audience is active, it could be worth considering X for your post-holiday promotions, as you look to maximize sales activity over the holiday period.

It’s also worth considering that with fewer big-name brands taking prime spots in the app, there may also be additional opportunity to reach people via X promotions.

There may be value, depending on your strategic thinking, though I would be keeping an eye on actual engagement

You can read more of X’s Q5 insights here.



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Gaza and Instagram make an explosive mix in Hollywood

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Gal Gadot regularly posts demands for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza

Gal Gadot regularly posts demands for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza – Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File Drew Angerer

Audrey Pilon-Topkara

Hollywood celebrities are paying the price for taking sides in the Gaza war — plastering their social media accounts with slogans such as “Free Palestine” or “I stand with Israel”.

Israeli actress Gal Gadot, best known for starring in “Wonder Woman”, has expressed unyielding support for her country since October 7, when Hamas fighters burst out of Gaza, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostage, according to Israeli officials.

“I stand with Israel, you should too,” she declared to her 109 million Instagram followers.

She has continued to regularly publish or share posts demanding that Hamas release the civilians it is holding — earning her both approval and criticism.

“While you’re at it, can you use your platform to share all the missing and killed innocent Palestinians too?” a user on X, formerly Twitter, wrote in response to one of her posts.

In reprisal for the October 7 attacks, Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip and launched a ground invasion, killing more than 17,000 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas government.

The Instagram account of American model Gigi Hadid, who is of Palestinian descent and followed by 79 million, has spent less attention on fashion in recent weeks.

She cited the “systemic mistreatment of the Palestinian people by the government of Israel”.

“Stop spreading lies. You and your sisters are antisemitic,” said one comment, with many others expressing similar views.

Famous stars can generate equally strong admiration and repulsion from the public, especially if they comment on divisive issues.

Well before social media, boxer Muhammad Ali, the actor Jane Fonda and singer Bob Dylan were adored or hated over their opposition to the Vietnam War.

More recently the actors Ben Stiller, Angelina Jolie and Sean Penn showed their support for Ukraine by visiting the country, in moves that were approved by most of their Western fans.

– Insults –

But the Israel-Palestinian issue is more divisive than most, exposing celebrities to even fiercer backlashes.

Kylie Jenner, the half-sister of socialite Kim Kardashian, shared a pro-Israeli post with her 399 million Instagram followers shortly after October 7, which according to US media she deleted an hour later after being hit with insults.

The Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon was dropped by her talent agency in November for comments she made at a pro-Palestinian rally, for which she later apologised.

Melissa Barrera, star of the fifth and sixth instalments of the “Scream” franchise, was cut from the cast of the seventh by the producers, who said they had “zero tolerance for anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred”.

The Mexican had denounced what she called “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza.

Celebrities who take sides in the conflict have “a lot to lose and little to gain”, said Nicolas Vanderbiest, founder of the public relations firm Saper Vedere in Brussels.

Producers and sponsors have little appetite for mixing geopolitics and business, he said.

In this issue, two “extremely organised” communities are on the lookout, creating a “herd affect”, Vanderbiest added.

Tom Cruise prevented his own agent from losing her job after she had referred to “genocide” on her Instagram account, according to the cinema trade press.

Celebrities could just stay quiet, but with this conflict there is “pressure to pronounce” and no immunity from criticism, said Jamil Jean-Marc Dakhlia, a professor of information and communication at Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris.

“Silence is seen as taking a position,” Dakhlia said. “So we are in a situation where you are forced to take sides, and not necessarily with much nuance.”

American singer and actor Selena Gomez, with 429 million Instagram followers, has been criticised for not taking a stronger stance on the issue.

Along with hundreds of others, including Hadid, singer Jennifer Lopez and actor Joaquin Phoenix, she took a middle road, signing a petition calling for a ceasefire and the safe release of hostages.

Earlier, hundreds of celebrities, including Gadot, had signed an open letter thanking US President Joe Biden for supporting “the Jewish people” and calling for the release of all hostages held by Hamas.

Very few signed both.

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