Facebook & Instagram Subscriptions Feature: How to Make the Most of It
In 2020, Facebook released the Subscriptions feature, which helps individuals and brands better connect and engage with their followers. Instagram followed a year later based on the same model, but so far, it’s being tested only in the United States. It’s only a matter of time until Instagram releases the feature in other countries, so learn about it now and be ready when you gain access.
In this blog post, you’ll learn more about the Subscriptions feature, and how it can help you earn a recurring monthly income from loyal followers.
Make sure to read our blog Into the Metaverse: Understanding Facebook and Instagram in the Age of Meta, to learn more about these important social platforms.
What Is the Subscriptions Feature?
By subscribing to a profile on Facebook or Instagram and paying a monthly fee, followers can access exclusive content. The content for subscribers includes stories, lives, reels, posts, group chats. Additionally, a subscriber-only purple crown badge appears when subscribed followers comment on a creator’s post or send them a direct message.
Instagram Subscriptions Features
- Subscriber Lives: Exclusive Lives allow for greater engagement with followers.
- Subscriber Stories: Subscribers can access exclusive stories, and can use interactive story stickers with their most engaged followers.
- Subscriber Badges: A special badge is present next to subscribers, so they’re easily identifiable for further engagement.
- Subscriber Chats: Subscribers can access exclusive chats to interact with a creator (up to 30 subscribers per chat).
Additional Facebook Subscriptions Features
- Subscriber Email Access: Subscriptions creators can download emails of new subscribers (who have agreed to share their email addresses) so they can maintain a relationship off of Facebook.
- Creators can now use a personalized link to promote their Subscriptions to reach a wider audience and direct them to the platform.
What are the major benefits of using the Subscriptions feature as a creator?
You can build a stronger connection with your followers by earning a monthly subscription fee. Who doesn’t want that? By engaging with loyal subscribers, you can also build even stronger relationships that support your business and goals.
What’s even better is that you as a creator earn 100% of the profit from the Subscription fee, excluding taxes. But this might change. Meta noted that no fees will be collected for Facebook (and Instagram) Subscriptions until 2023 at the earliest.
Not sure how to make your content meaningful? Make sure to read our blogs Content Strategies for Different Stages of the Buyer Journey or What You Need to Know to Personalize Your Marketing Content for a number of different tips and tricks.
Sign up for our monthly GoViral newsletter below for more info on how to grow your business and create rich content for your target audience.
Into the Metaverse: Understanding Facebook and Instagram in the Age of Meta
Social media is always evolving, and the arrival of Meta signals sweeping change and a fundamental restructuring for a very different future. As a digital marketer, what do you need to know?
What Is the Metaverse?
In October 2021 Mark Zuckerberg announced the consolidation of Facebook and related products—including Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp—into a new brand called Meta. The rebranding is a nod to the metaverse, which Zuckerberg sees as the successor to today’s mobile internet.
The metaverse doesn’t have a single definition, but we can think of it in general terms as the next evolution in our digital lives. Today’s mobile internet gives us access to social media, email, internet browsers, cameras and more—all in one device we carry around with us.
The metaverse will combine social media platforms, digital storefronts, gaming applications and more into a single digital experience: a more fully fledged digital world, perhaps accessed with Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) headsets.
What will this look like exactly? No one knows for sure. In short, the metaverse is not here yet, but many of its components are. It remains to be seen how everything will come together, and it won’t happen all at once.
What Has Already Changed on Facebook and Instagram?
First things first, Facebook and Instagram are so popular that the leaders of these companies have every incentive to keep the user experience consistent. Even the most loyal users will only put up with so much change. As such, the biggest changes so far have been in branding, not function.
One change you might have noticed is increased connectivity and interoperability of Meta’s platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram. Regular updates to messaging tools such as Messenger and Instagram direct messaging have brought increased coordination, allowing marketers to more seamlessly manage direct messages across multiple platforms.
Another area for updates: ads management. The new Meta Advantage Suite will collect different automated ad products under one umbrella, allowing for increased efficiency in ad management.
Meta is also boosting their metaverse platform Horizon Worlds, a virtual reality video game focused on world-building for social interaction. A new fund for creators will further incentivize user-generated content on the platform.
Three Steps You Can Take Now to Prepare for More Changes
If you’re wondering what you need to do right now to prepare for the internet of the future, our first advice is don’t panic. These are long-term changes, some of them purely hypothetical, and even Meta sees the full introduction of the metaverse as more than ten years away.
However, there are steps you can take to improve your marketing efforts now and prepare for the future.
1. One of the goals of the metaverse is to build community. The hope is that a more fully realized digital world will encourage interaction among visitors that looks and feels more like “real life.” We recommend revisiting your buyer personas to make sure you understand what makes your potential customers tick, and keep refining your messaging to feel more natural and authentic.
2. Investigate ways to incentivize and promote user-generated content. The future of our digital lives will likely look more decentralized, with greater influence in the hands of individuals rather than platforms and other businesses.
3. As Meta continues to release updates and tweaks, take advantage of new features that make sense for your business. This could mean linking WhatsApp to your Facebook page to decrease your response time to direct messages, creating an account in Horizon Worlds just to explore, or experimenting with new enhanced product tagging on Instagram.
What Is Coming Next?
The long-term plans outlined by Meta are subject to change of course, and no one can predict exactly how the metaverse will unfold.
As we head into an uncertain future, remember that while it may not be your job to explain the technical details of the metaverse to anyone, it’s helpful to have a firm understanding of the ideas behind it. Of note: the majority of consumers, your potential customers, don’t have a strong understanding of what the metaverse is.
We’re all in this together, and regardless of what we call it, we use social media to connect with others and meet potential customers where they are on the buyer’s journey. The fundamentals have not changed.
Want to keep up with the latest in digital marketing? Sign up for our newsletter below for monthly updates on trends, best practices, helpful case studies and more.
The Importance of Video in Your Social Media Strategy
The world of social media is quickly moving to video. As if it weren’t obvious from channels like YouTube and the more recent TikTok taking over the internet, social video is here to stay.
What started as just another social app popular among Gen-Z now has influence over many aspects of pop culture, from what songs are charting to how other social media platforms operate. The COVID-19 pandemic sent the infamous TikTok app plunging into the mainstream, and Instagram and Facebook have already begun following their lead.
Facebook began putting a greater emphasis on videos quite a while ago, from Video ads, Facebook stories, prioritising videos in the algorithm, incorporating more features for Live Video, and more. And now Instagram is racing to catch up.
Instagram v. TikTok
Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, recently announced on his Instagram and Twitter accounts that the app will no longer be considered a photo-sharing app. The company is looking to lean into entertainment and video after seeing the success of competitors like TikTok and YouTube.
Some upcoming changes and experiments that Instagram will be doing include showing users recommendations for topics they’re not following, making video more immersive by offering a full-screen experience and continuing to prioritise reels.
Best Practices for Instagram Reels
According to Instagram, brands and creators should post Reels that:
- Are entertaining and fun (i.e. delights people, grabs their attention, makes them laugh, or has a fun surprise or twist)
- Are inspiring (i.e. starts a trend that others can easily participate in)
- Use creative tools like text, filter, or camera effects
- Use vertical video
- Use music from the Instagram music library and/or original audio you create or find on Reels
- Are experimental! Try something new, be yourself, and see what works for you
Worst Practices for Instagram Reels
On the flipside, Instagram advises that brands and creators should NOT post Reels that:
- Are blurry due to low-resolution
- Are visibly recycled from other apps (i.e, contains logos or watermarks)
- Are uploaded with a border around them
- Have the majority of the image covered by text
Do not meet Instagram’s Community Guidelines
Following these tips directly from Instagram will help you have a better chance at beating the algorithm, expanding your reach, and increasing your follower count!
Leverage Social Video for Your Business
Social video comes in many different forms nowadays. Here are five different ways that you should be using social video in your marketing strategy.
1. Reels
In case this isn’t obvious at this point, reels are essential in your Instagram strategy in 2021. Beyond the tips listed above, we recommend using any trending sounds, viral challenges, and effects in your reels to follow the curve.
Pro Tip: Follow Creator on Instagram for weekly updates on all the latest Reel trends and other Insta-hacks.
2. Dynamic Stories
Okay at this point, we know this might seem obvious, but we still see brands neglecting stories all the time.
Some ideas you can use on your Facebook and Instagram stories include:
- Question box/Ask Me Anything (AMA)
- Story takeovers
- Quizzes and polls
- Get creative with the look and feel of your stories
Now there’s a story option on almost any app, even Twitter and LinkedIn. Note that just as your regular strategy for Linkedin will differ from how you post on Instagram, the same goes for stories. Here are some fresh ideas for using LinkedIn stories for your business.
3. Live Videos
According to Livestream, 82% of consumers prefer live video from a brand rather than a regular social media post, and even tend to watch live video 10 to 20 times longer than on-demand content. Why? Going live is a great way to connect and engage with your audience and humanize your brand.
Facebook and Instagram have features that favor live videos with features including prioritising live videos in the algorithm, notifying your followers when you begin a live video and shortly after you end it, and now even allowing a donation option for fundraising.
4. User-Generated Content
In case you haven’t noticed, consumers are sick of being sold to. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to reach people on social media purely through sales ads, but what consumers are responding to is user-generated content. Ahh, yes. The age of the influencer.
Some examples of video formatted user-generated content include unboxings, story takeovers from brand ambassadors, reviews and testimonials on stories, and product tutorials. The trend here is human content that people feel like they can relate to.
5. Video Ads
Just as we mentioned above, video marketing is an effective way to break through the noise of social media and catch your audience’s attention. Some best practices for video advertising as suggested by Facebook include:
- Keeping your videos around 15 seconds so people watch until the end
- Capture attention quickly by putting the most important part of the video first
- Use vertical or square video
- Feature your product or brand message early
- Design for sound off
If you’re new to Facebook Advertising, here are 5 things you should know.
At the end of the day, it looks like video is here to stay.
As the world of digital marketing continues to change and evolve to be more video-focused, make sure to stay current with the latest trends and keep your marketing strategy fresh. Sign up for our newsletter below to stay in-the-know.