This week in social media news, Snapchat research highlights users’ excitement about returning to the movies, TikTok launches a creative hub to help guide business accounts, Twitter’s latest study reveals users’ financial optimism about the year and Facebook may soon launch campaign budget optimization across multiple platforms, not just ad sets. 


Snapchatters Plan Their Return To The Movie Theaters

As movie theaters start to reopen, the top activity Snapchatters are most excited about doing post-pandemic is going to the movies, shows the platform’s latest research. Another 81 percent say they’ll watch movies in theaters as much or more often than before the pandemic.

Why it matters: Snapchatters are 1.7 times more likely to see a movie on premiere weekend compared to non-Snapchatters, giving studio advertisers an opportunity to boost opening box office sales by running native Snapchat ads like AR Lenses, Story Ads and Filters leading up film releases.

Snapchat’s findings come as large movie chains including AMC and Regal Cinemas have reopened some of their locations nationwide in recent weeks.

The details: Nearly all of Snapchatters (96 percent) say they heard about a film they watched in theaters from an ad, usually weeks before they ended up seeing it. Among that group, 36 percent say they hear about a film more than one month before watching; 27 percent hear about it weeks before watching; 26 percent hear about it within a week of watching; and 11 percent hear about a film the same day they watch it.

Back in August last year, Snapchat teamed with Atom Tickets, the social movie ticketing app, to launch ‘Movie Tickets By Atom,’ a branded experience that enables Snapchatters to invite friends to the movies and buy tickets together directly in Snapchat.


TikTok Launches ‘Business Creative Hub’ To Provide Content Inspiration 

TikTok has introduced a new, free in-app resource, Business Creative Hub, where business accounts can access a stream of trending content, creative ideas and best practices to inspire their TikTok videos.

Why it matters: This new online resource center is one of TikTok’s many recent attempts at simplifying the road to success for brands. Recently, it launched a free video editor that enables brands to create native ads in their browser, plus it’s reportedly building four new ecommerce ad solutions so that brands can showcase their products and retarget audiences.

The details: TikTok’s new Business Creative Hub — which is located in the ‘Business suite’ section of a business account’s ‘Settings and privacy’ menu — comprises two sections: the Business Content Guide and the Video Showcase, the latter which is constantly updated, according to the app.

The Business Content Guide is a “cheat sheet” brands can follow for tips on content strategy, storyline ideation and video shooting. Additionally, it offers best posting times and showcases successful business account case studies.

The Video Showcase section includes three curated feeds of trending content that’s popular in your country over the past 30 days. The first feed, Trending: Business, displays videos from business accounts ranked by the total number of likes they’ve received. 

The second feed, Engaging: Business, shows videos from business accounts ranked by the level of engagement, measured by the ratio of comments to video views. 

Lastly, the third feed, Trending: Community, features videos from all account types, ranked by the total number of likes they received.


Twitter Study Shows Users Are Ready To Make Major Life Purchases In 2021

In a new Twitter study of more than 1,000 US users, people are ready to spend again on travel and clothes, as well as anticipate resuming major life moments including buying a new house and having a child.

Why it matters: Twitter reports that during 2020, the conversation about people’s financial future jumped more than 26 percent from 2019. With users now expressing a hopeful outlook on the future and saying they’re likely to reevaluate their financial service providers, banks and home and auto insurance lenders have an opportunity to reach this audience on Twitter.

The details: According to Twitter’s study, 46 percent of people surveyed say the pandemic negatively impacted their finances. Nevertheless, people who use Twitter are 2.4 times more likely to be optimistic about their finances heading into this year than those who don’t use Twitter.

Compared to non-Twitter users, Twitter users are 2.3 times more likely to get a new job, 2.3 times more likely to have a child, 2.3 times more likely to buy a house and 1.5 times more likely to buy a new car.


Facebook May Launch A Campaign Budget Optimization Tool Across Platforms 

Facebook is potentially working on a budget management solution that would optimize campaign delivery across multiple Facebook products, not just ad sets, reports Social Media Today.

Why it matters: As a new 20-page Facebook paper notes, the issue that brands face when running campaigns to users across different internal products, which in this case Facebook refers to as “platforms,” is the campaign must acquire impressions from a variety of platforms that serve different value, possibly due to a different user base and different prices.

The details: To find a better way for online advertisers to optimally spend budget for a campaign across Facebook platforms, Facebook set out to learn the valuation of bidding on each platform studied while “simultaneously maximizing their cumulative rewards.”

Currently, Facebook’s Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) lets brands set a campaign budget with flexibility in how the budget is allocated across campaigns with at least two ad sets. Should the company introduce this new process, advertisers will have the ability to implement CBO across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp from a single campaign.