Paid Instagram Subscriptions, Free LinkedIn Courses & More Social News

This week, the trending headlines are all about money; ways to save it, and ways to earn it. For a lot of creators and entrepreneurs, online courses are integral to picking up new skills. And when these resources are free, like LinkedIn’s new courses, it means the money that would’ve gone toward education can be allocated to more urgent business matters. At the same time, money-making opportunities on social media are always popping up.

Keep reading for the 411 on what Instagram and Meta are working on now.

Instagram is Testing Paid Subscriptions for Creators

Back in 2020, Facebook launched a Subscriptions feature, and now, thanks to positive feedback, the same is being brought to Instagram. The business model is simple: in exchange for a paid subscription fee, followers are given exclusive content and privileges, without of course, having the leave the social media platform.

As of right now, only a handful of creators have been selected to beta test the feature, which offers three benefits.

Per Instagram’s business blog:

Subscriber Lives: Creators can broadcast exclusive Lives to their subscribers, allowing them to engage more deeply.

Subscriber Stories: Creators can create stories just for their subscribers, allowing them to share exclusive content and to use interactive story stickers with their most engaged followers only.

Subscriber Badges: Creators will see a subscriber badge next to comments and messages so they can easily identify their subscribers.

Meta, Instagram’s parent company, has also promised not to collect any subscription fees from creators on Instagram and Facebook until at least 2023. No word yet on how long Instagram Subscriptions will remain in beta mode but if you want to see it in action, go here to see the list of creators selected for the launch.

Meta to Launch NFT Marketplace

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are here to stay. (If you’re still confused, here’s an explainer.) So much so, that Meta is already working on ways to integrate the alternative moneymaker into Facebook and Instagram profiles.

According to insider knowledge from The Financial Times, “Teams at Facebook and Instagram are readying a feature that will allow users to display their NFTs on their social media profiles, as well as working on a prototype to help users create – or mint – the collectible tokens, according to several people familiar with the matter. Two of the people said that Meta has also discussed launching a marketplace for users to buy and sell NFTs.”

Instagram started testing a “Collectibles” feature last summer and Vishal Shah, Facebook’s Head of Metaverse Products, previously confirmed that the platform will support NFTs, so expect beta testing sooner than later.

LinkedIn Launches Free Courses & More

LinkedIn is kicking off 2022 with so much newness. First, three new free courses have been added to the LinkedIn Marketing Labs. All are focused on building a larger presence on the site, which has emerged as one of the more popular platforms for creatives in recent years. They’re all short (10, 20, and 30 minutes) and worth the time if you want to maximize LinkedIn’s marketing tools. Here is an overview of each one:

• Building an Organic Presence with LinkedIn Pages (20 min): Create and maintain an active LinkedIn Page to develop your brand’s unique voice.
• Building a Full-Funnel Content Marketing Strategy (30 min): Strike a balance of organic and paid content to guide your audience through the customer journey.
• Creative Design for LinkedIn (10 min): Design visually compelling creative that attracts LinkedIn members to engage with your content.

LinkedIn is also beta-testing an “Audio Events” feature (similar to Clubhouse) and plans to launch a “Video Events” feature later this year. For more on this update and others, like a newsletter feature for business pages, head over to LinkedIn’s blog.

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