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Social Media Updates for December 7th

Facebook Updates for December 7th

Holy moly it’s already December! Weren't we just watching fireworks? Lol!

This is my favorite time of year. Even with all the hustle and bustle, we take the time to be with family and friends. And we get great food and special events along the way in the holiday season!

Just because it’s the holiday season doesn’t mean social media updates slow down!  In fact, we’ve had quite a few significant updates in the past few weeks.  Here a number of them:

Facebook

Facebook Local

Facebook recently relaunched its Event app as Facebook Local. (This is different from Facebook Events in Facebook. This is a stand alone app.) The Local app combines Events and Places and is geared to be a “Yelp” challenger.

Bottomline

There’s a lot of searching power in this new app. View upcoming events or places to visit in list or map view. Local business pages, their reviews, and check-ins will be included in the apps data set.

Users can group results by causes, theater, food, movies, fitness, music, parties and more! It will be the easy and quick way to find something to do in your local area for the weekend and maybe the only Facebook app you need.  Will it compete with Yelp?  Time will tell but it’s got the userbase already to do that!

Customer Chat Now Open and in Beta for Facebook Messenger

This is an awesome opportunity to quickly respond to customer inquiries in Facebook Messenger. The marketing strategy of using lead pages has just evolved. Now, instead of directing fans to a website lead page, use a messenger bot to communicate the benefits and answer questions before a sale in an interactive manner.

Bottomline

A friend created a bot for a program she’s selling and I was able to see her beta test before she went live. Her bot asked leading questions and replied to answers just like the bot was human. (Congrats to her for using a great script for the bot.) I initiated the conversation with the bot because I was curious, but the encounter and the messaging I received moved me forward in the sales funnel and I signed up for her course! Lol

Facebook Will Test Ads at the Beginning of Videos

I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. As a consumer, I hate ads of any type. As a marketer, I understand that these ads work. YouTube has proven that people will sit through and tolerate these ads.

Bottomline

These will be very short ads right at the start of a video so people are guaranteed to see them. I see these ads as being valuable for brand recognition and exposure.  Stay tuned for the rollout!

Facebook Messenger Kids

Created just for kids ages 13 and under, this app is privacy-focused and designed to eliminate child predator threats while giving the young a way to get started on Facebook. The app will have SnapChat like features and let kids text and video chat with parent-approved friends. Kids won’t sign up for a Facebook account and don’t need a phone number to use the app.

Kids will be able to join family group chats so staying in touch with Grandpa and Grandma will be easy now.

Bottomline

The app has been created with help of the FTC. Special proactive safety filters will prevent nudity, sexual content or violence from being shown on the app. There is no monetization planned for the app, meaning no ads!  Will it take off?  I’m not sure yet.  Younger kids text and they are jumping on apps like Instagram.  Will they want to Message within this app or have it just in case they need to use it to chat with grandparents?  Time will tell.

Instagram

Archive and Highlight your Favorite Expired Instagram Stories

A brand new announcement that is HUGE! Instagram Stories are now going to be automatically archived to a private part of your profile after they disappear (24 hours).  This means you’ll be able to access them but also pull pieces together to display a non-disappearing highlight Story.

Bottomline

This could be HUGE for marketers.  Use your stored Stories to create an even better source of information for your products and services. And it’s easy for fans to view these collections, they will show up in a horizontal bar across the top of your profile.

This is a “win” and shows Instagram is seriously upping their game.  This takes it beyond SnapChat for sure.

Twitter

Twitter Lite Now Available

In countries where mobile use is abundant but data plans are expensive Twitter Lite is the answer. The app loads faster on slower connections and is more stable on unreliable networks. The app size has been reduced so it doesn’t take up too much memory.

Bottomline

Countries where cell connections are unreliable and data plans are expensive will now get the benefit of one of the world's largest news sources, Twitter. Hopefully, this will help families communicate with one another even though they may be far apart.

This is the first social media update for December. I expect lots of changes for the rest of the year and going into next year. Social media never stays still!

Stay tuned and happy holidays!  Are we connected on social?  Find me on Facebook at https:fb.com/mikegdigital, Instagram at @mikegingerich and on Twitter at @Mike_Gingerich.

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