From Pinterest’s celebration of women for International Women’s Day to a new way to converse live on Instagram, here are a few updates you should know about for the month of March.

Instagram Announces Live Rooms

At this point you’re likely familiar with live broadcasting on Instagram, as you can rarely log on to the app without getting the notification that someone is going live. But a new feature announced by Facebook, Instagram’s owner, puts more people in the picture.

Live Rooms gives users the ability to go live with up to three people (that is, three separate accounts), expanding on the previous option of going live with just one other user. Though this update was likely spurred by the pandemic, during which the common practice of hosting in-person sessions has been on hold, this new feature can be used over the long term to get people together virtually from all over the world.

Instagram announced that it’s currently exploring more interactive tools, such as moderator controls and audio features, that may be available in the coming months. This is in addition to the Shopping and Live Fundraisers features that are already available through Live Rooms.

Details on how to host or start a Live Room are available on Facebook’s blog and can be read here.

New Pinterest Shop Features Women-Owned Businesses

Pinterest announced on March 1 that the latest rendition of its Pinterest Shop collection features over 25 women-founded small businesses and hundreds of products made or designed by women.

“Supporting small business has always been at our core, and in light of the COVID-19 crisis, this is more important as ever,” Pinterest stated on its website. “Over the last year, Pinterest searches for ‘support small business’ increased by 4.5 times as Pinners look for individual makers and companies to shop online.”

In addition, Pinterest announced the creation of an International Women’s Day fund, which will match donations made by employees to nonprofits helping women succeed, such as the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Global Fund for Women.

To visit the shop, head to pinterest.com.

Twitter Testing New E-Commerce Features

Twitter confirmed recently that it’s testing a new way to display tweets that link to e-commerce product pages, such as products on a Shopify store. These displays could include a large “shop” button, as well as important product details shown directly in the tweet itself.

This news comes on the heels of Twitter’s launch of Super Follows, a feature that allows creators to charge followers for access to additional content on the platform (we covered that on JCK last week; you can read all about it here). The new shoppable tweet feature could potentially assist these creators to direct followers to products and merchandise, enriching their followers experience and giving creators more chances to earn pay through Twitter.

“We know people come to Twitter to interact with brands and discuss their favorite products,” Twitter revenue lead Bruce Falck said at the brand’s Investor Day event in late February. “This demand gives us confidence in the power of combining real-time conversation with an engaged and intentional audience. Imagine easily discovering, and quickly purchasing, a new skin care product or trendy sneaker from a brand you follow with only a few clicks.”

Falck went on to caution investors that though Twitter was “excited about the potential of commerce,” it’s still something that’s in “very early exploration.”

For now, there’s always Instagram, which has made it very easy to discover and purchase directly through its platform.

(Photo courtesy of Pinterest)

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