This week in social media news, Meta’s Horizon Worlds is testing a feature allowing creators to sell virtual items and experiences, TikTok opens its Effect House beta to allow anyone to build Community Effects, Pinterest API (v5) brings open access to all developers and more.
Horizon Worlds Tests New Creator Monetization Tool, Bonus Program
Meta announced it’s testing new tools to help Horizon Worlds creators earn money by selling virtual items and experiences within their worlds in addition to a Horizon Worlds Creator Bonus program.
Why it matters: Meta is consistently trying to find new ways to support creators as part of its vision for the metaverse, which is a place where creators can earn a living and users can purchase digital goods, services and experiences. Meta’s testing of the new monetization tools is one more step in that direction and in expanding its $10 million Horizon Creators Fund.
The details: Horizon Worlds’ creator tools will be made available only to a select handful of creators during the testing phase. They’ll allow the creators to sell virtual items and effects within their worlds—for example, access to a new part of a world or to attachable accessories for a fashion world. Users who wish to purchase these items must be 18 years old or older and in the US and Canada.
In addition to the monetization tools, Meta is also testing a Horizon Worlds Creator Bonus program in the US. The bonuses are goal-oriented, fee-free monthly programs paid to creators as rewards for their progress toward the goal. During the testing phase, creators will be rewarded for building worlds that attract the most time spent. Meta said that over time, it may evolve these goals.
TikTok Expands Effect House To All Creators
TikTok has opened its Effect House beta to all creators, providing them with the tools and learning resources necessary to build more immersive and dynamic effects in videos.
Why it matters: In Effect House’s early beta, more than 450 effect creators published effects that led to the creation of more than 1.5 billion videos on TikTok and over 600 billion views globally. Now that the platform is open to all, TikTok can likely expect its number of users and time spent on the platform to increase.
The details: Effect House, the platform that allows anyone to build Community Effects for TikTok, has been in closed beta since fall 2021. As of April 12, all TikTok creators, designers and developers can use the platform to create effects for all of the social app’s users to enjoy. Each effect will have to align with TikTok’s Community and Effect Guidelines, and will be reviewed by its Trust and Safety team before being released to the community.
Users who engage with one of the new effects will know that it was made in Effect House in two ways—when the user taps the effect on a video and views the results page and when recording video using the effect. All of the published effects in a creator’s portfolio can be viewed from a designated tab on their profile page.
Pinterest Introduces Pinterest API (v5) And Makes It Available To All Developers
Pinterest’s new API (v5) will allow developers to connect quickly, start building applications fo faster creation of content and data, and provide advertisers with more analytics on their Pinterest ads.
Why it matters: This marks the first time in the platform’s history it’s offering a developer-centric, open API, which any developer can apply to access, Pinterest said.
The details: Pinterest will allow for any developer to apply for access and receive a response within a few days. The open program is a single API for all use cases and will enable advertisers to understand profile performance, including user and organic Pin analytics as well as the performance of their Pinterest ads.
From now on, Pinterest API (v5) will be the platform’s primary API for external developers with features such as content creation, analytics and Pinterest API for Shopping all available today. Beta features that will become available to all developers later in 2022 include a server-to-server solution that lets advertisers automatically send web, in-app or offline conversions directly to Pinterest in real-time or in batch.
Other features that will become available through the year include ads management tools for advertisers to create and edit ads, ad groups, campaigns and ad previews. Advertisers will also eventually be able to create and manage audiences and insights, create conversion tags, create and update advertiser targeting types and create Idea ads.
TikTok Shares Creative Marketing Best Practices
According to TikTok, 62 percent of users say they feel a deeper connection to the brands they interact with on TikTok compared to other sites and apps they use. So to help brands find their unique voice and direction, the platform shared a new set of best practices for how to get stronger engagement.
Why it matters: Many big brands have yet to join TikTok while others on the platform are looking for ways to hit the jackpot and go viral. Keeping up to date with the best practices can help a brand achieve its goals on the app. Though TikTok still has a reputation for being the wild west of social platforms, advertisers are clearly putting dollars behind it because the app is expected to generate $11 billion in advertising revenue in 2022.
The details: TikTok recommends keeping four things in mind before creating content: stick to a 9:16 aspect ratio, ensure your video resolution is 720P+, stick between 21 to 24 seconds and never go below 10 seconds, and include relevant audio of any kind.
For new brands, TikTok’s creative center is a useful hub. It has a trend discovery tool that shows you what’s popular in your vertical and region, which is important for tapping into real-time trends. It also includes a hub of top-performing ads from other brands and a commercial audio library that lists current trending songs.
In addition to its creator marketplace, which streamlines creator discovery for your next campaign, TikTok’s creative exchange program enables brands to partner with creatives who know the ins and outs of the app and can help strengthen your campaign.
When it comes time to make the video, TikTok has more than 100 customizable templates any brand can use to enhance their content. For brands that don’t have sufficient in-house resources to create videos from scratch, TikTok’s dynamic scene tool lets them turn pre-existing assets into hundreds of new variations.
Pinterest Launches WooCommerce Extension
Pinterest has just released a new WooCommerce extension, giving more than 3 million merchants a way to turn their product catalogs into shoppable product pins on Pinterest.
Why it matters: The debut is part of the platform’s wider commitment to helping brands reach customers who haven’t yet made up their minds. Ninety-seven percent of the top searches on Pinterest are unbranded, which means shoppers are more open to learning about a brand’s products. According to Pinterest’s data, when users do decide, they spent two times more than people on other platforms.
The details: If you don’t currently have the WooCommerce extension, Pinterest provides instructions on how to do so. Once installed, a brand’s entire product catalog uploads to Pinterest then shoppable pins will appear in people’s feeds as they search for things to buy. The extension also logs when customers interact with your products on Pinterest, so you can track your bestselling or most saved items.
If you’ve already manually uploaded your shop to Pinterest another way, Pinterest still recommends switching to the extension instead since it automatically updates details like pricing and product availability.
TikTok Tests New Tools To Prevent Harassment And Bullying
TikTok is experimenting with new safety tools to encourage genuine engagement in comments and has added a safety reminder for creators. It also released its Q4 2021 community guidelines enforcement report, which includes information on content removals in markets and ongoing improvements to its systems that detect, flag and remove violative content.
Why it matters: From Q1 to Q4 2021, TikTok says removals of content at zero views improved by 14.7 percent for harassment and bullying content, 10.9 percent for hateful behavior, 16.2 percent for violent extremism, and 7.7 percent for suicide, self-harm, and dangerous acts.
The details: TikTok started testing a way to let users identify comments they think are irrelevant or inappropriate—information that it says will add to the factors it already uses to help keep the comment section relevant and safe. Only the person who registered a dislike on a comment can see the action to avoid any negative feelings between members.
It’s also testing reminders that’ll guide creators to TikTok’s comment filtering as well as its bulk block and delete options. TikTok will show these reminders to creators whose videos appear to be receiving a lot of negative comments.
