We might have taken a little longer than usual to recover from all that Easter egg hunting, but we have not forgotten about your March social media updates dosage! This month’s updates include feature releases from Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. If you missed some of our previous social media updates you’ll find them all here.

Facebook – Facebook for creators: A showcase community for creators
Instagram – Increase your Sales with Shoppable Instagram Posts
Instagram – Link Sister Companies and Products or Branded Hashtags through your Instagram Profile
Snapchat – Tag Your Way to the Top with Snapchat

Facebook is testing a new program where creators of all sorts will be able to monetize their content and widening their fan base. Similar to Patreon, the new Facebook for creators, lets fans sign-up for a monthly subscription to gain access to exclusive content by creators. According to TechCrunch, creators will earn $3.50/month for each subscriber, during the testing phase when Facebook foregoes its commission.

Photo by Josh Constine from TechCrunch

Additionally, creators can create a portfolio of their work and audience profile to businesses for brokering branded content and sponsorship deals. This has been compared to the creator-sponsor deal broker Niche.

Facebook for creators will be launched next month with 10 creators from U.S. and U.K. Sign-up here if you wish to get access to the tests.

Read more: TechCrunch – Facebook builds Patreon, Niche clones to lure creators with cash

With 500 million daily active users, Instagram  is already an important source of income for some businesses. Since September, Instagram partnered with Shopify to help improve users’ shopping experience and businesses’ sales by tagging products in shoppable posts.

It was initially tested among selected merchants in the United States. Now, there are eight additional countries – U.K., Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Brazil.

Photo by Shopify

Because links are un-clickable in captions, businesses would usually leave the product name in the caption, with the shop link in the bio. From a consumer point of view, it can create friction in the buying process, leading to low conversion rates. However, the new tagging feature minimises the friction and makes it easier for customers to identify and purchase items by clicking on the tag itself. This in turn should help increase sales by simplifying the shopping experience.

Instagram is not alone in the journey to revolutionise the shopping industry. Just last month, Snapchat hinted at a possible expansion into the e-commerce industry as well, after its participation in NBA All-Star Weekend´s Air Jordan III sneaker sales.

Read more: TechCrunch – After launching in the U.S., Instagram expands its shoppable posts features to business users in eight other countries

Since last December, Instagram made it possible for us to follow and incorporate any hashtag into our newsfeed. Now they are making it possible for you to incorporate any #hashtags and @profiles on your profile bio. Businesses can make use of this feature by for example link sister companies profiles and branded hashtags for viewers to explore within Instagram. We have heard some speculations of the feature being taken down in the future but until then, move along with your enhanced profile now!

Photo by Instagram

Read more: Instagram – Introducing Hashtag and Profile Links in Bio

Many have compared Snapchat’s move to incorporate its tagging feature as a move to copy-back what Instagram did, back in 2016 with Stories. Despite some small differences from Instagram, the new tagging feature in Snapchat better facilitates influencer-brand partnerships. By tagging your brand in their stories, your influencers can easily send their audience to your brand profile for higher brand visibility and following. Previously, viewers had to remember usernames, search for them manually before following the brands mentioned! This new feature facilitates and simplifies the entire process, making it much easier for you to reap the benefits of influencer marketing.

Photo by Josh Constine from Techcrunch

If the person tagged is part of the test, a notification will be sent to them. If not, the only way for them to know is to wait until they receive an influx of new followers. From viewers’ point of view, a video with tagging reveals a “More” option that invites them to swipe up. This brings up a panel of tagged profiles with a button to follow them.

However, unlike Instagram, Snapchat does not offer a type-ahead drop-down menu. This means that you need to remember the username of the person you would like to tag.

Read more: TechCrunch – Snapchat finally adds @ mention tagging

That’s it from us in the month of March. Stay tuned for April’s update!