There's a new social platform in town from the creators of TikTok. A new app called Lemon8 was recently launched in the UK and the U.S. by ByteDance. The app was first launched in Japan in 2020 and has since expanded to several other countries.
Business Insider reported today that creators are now getting paid to post on the platform, which is described as Instagram meets Pinterest.
🍋 About Lemon8
Lemon8 is picture-based and describes itself as a “lifestyle community.” Like TikTok, its main feed is divided into a “Following” and “For You” feed, however, it can be sorted by content categories such as:
- Beauty
- Fashion
- Food
While another page organizes content by hashtags, which is similar to Instagram's Explore tab. Trending content can be found by searching keywords.
📜 Creator Guidelines
Several influencers who are being paid to post reported that they're also being asked to follow specific guidelines in order to receive payment.
According to a document obtained by Business Insider, that criteria includes:
- High-definition, vertically shot photos.
- A minimum of 3 to 7 photos.
- 100 to 300 word captions to “inform and inspire people on your topic.”
- The captions should be “exciting,” “self-explanatory,” and “give an overview of useful information.”
- Captions should also include calls-to-action and hashtags.
The platform also provides templates and stickers to use in post captions, and requires “use of templates/other beautiful text creations for designing a magazine look cover page.”
In terms of hashtags, the document outlines guidelines like:
- Don't use hashtags that don't apply to your post just because they're ‘hot hashtags'
- Use hashtags that match your content
- Don't mix hashtags from different topics – try and stick to a theme for each post
Several influencers noted that creating content for Lemon8 was significantly more time-consuming and demanding than posting on other social platforms, because of the length and detail necessary in captions and posts.
Some said they weren't sure creating this content was worth their time, while others expressed high hopes for the platform's growth in the coming months.
