Have you noticed how much social media platforms have been expanding with feature after feature over the past two years? It seems like since the popularity of TikTok took off, everyone started scrambling to be the next big thing. Some did their own thing, and some outright copied TikTok. We don’t have to name names. They know who they are.
So how do you, as an affiliate marketing manager/executive/partner, use any of these tools? Or do you at all? Are they simply going to be a passing fad? It’s hard to tell when it comes to social media. What was deemed a passing fad soon became something to make an Aaron Sorkin movie about. Maybe these new tools will yield some impressive results, but only if they’re used right. Take a look at our guide to using all these new features right.
Twitter – Notes, Shopify partnership, Product Drops
Twitter is going through quite the mid-life crisis right now. It’s a theme you’re going to see a lot in this list: the goal for younger users. Twitter is at least not really going about it in a way that would make you think they’d sold their soul, Meta, and are instead simply giving loyal users exactly what they have been asking for for years, which would be more text, and appeasing marketers better with a partnership with Shopify, and product drops for the middle ground.
The Twitter Notes feature is a wealth of untapped potential. Initially touted as a way for influencers to better write out an apology, or an activist to write a manifesto, the tool is actually a way of turning Twitter into a blogging platform. If your affiliate partners have a writing bone in their body, they can write blogs, and depending on the capabilities of the feature, include a link. See where we’re going with this? Turning a Twitter profile into an affiliate blog would be easy and the audience would already be there.
The Shopify partnership is Twitter’s push into turning itself into a retail platform. No matter what you think of a platform whose bread and butter is opinions and outrage turning into an online mall, there are marketing opportunities there. The Shopify partnership will allow sellers to display their products on Twitter Professional Profiles, which is an innovative new feature in itself that turns users into retail avenues.
And the product drops feature is essentially notifications. For feverish users waiting for the launch of that product they saw or the latest merch drop from an influencer, they will be notified of a product launching straight to their phone. There is no need to explain why any marketer would find that useful.
Instagram – Reels, Shops, Product Tagging
Sure, Instagram is “trying to be TikTok” according to that Change.org petition, but when it comes to Reels, the Instagram equivalent of a TikTok, they have a very different purpose and user experience. TikToks are there to be listened to for an “authentic” experience, whereas Instagram Reels are shorter, perhaps because they don’t have a pause button. If you try and pause the way you would a TikTok, the sound cuts out. That’s good, because rarely does anyone want to listen to the snippet of music being used over and over again. This is Instagram. Show us something pretty. It is the lifestyle platform: health, food, cars, travel, home, etc. TikTok is somewhere between a meme marketplace and a video version of Twitter.
Using this Instagram feature effectively doesn’t mean posting your TikTok to Instagram and hoping for the best. It means tailoring your TikTok to a different demographic with editing and subject.
Unlike Twitter, however, Instagram is doing well in turning itself into a social media marketplace. Two reasons for this are Shops and Product Tagging. Users can not only find what they want to buy on Instagram, but even click to find it at its source and buy it all in the one move.
Facebook – Facebook Gaming
No one is looking at Facebook Reels, but what they are looking at, the dark horse in this race, is Facebook Gaming. Facebook Gaming actually surpassed YouTube Gaming for hours watching in the third quarter of last year. Did Facebook capitalise on this? Not really. TikTok has made more of an effort to push live streaming gaming, with announcements of a desktop version tested late last year.
Let’s be clear: Twitch is still the behemoth platform to watch gaming streams on, but if you are already marketing on Twitch to the same demographic, you might consider moving into Facebook too.
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