Change is the name of the game in social media! To be an adept social media marketer you MUST keep up with the constant changes that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the other social media networks make.
In this review, we cover some of the latest and most important updates from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter that rolled out in the past 2 weeks.
Facebook has been moving towards giving preference to video for some time now. However, this is THE FIRST TIME they actually shared a specific guide to help! They have outlined best practices for shows and videos to engage a loyal audience.
Here are a few of their headlines and be sure to click through for the full details:
We keep encouraging businesses to be aware that to win on Facebook you need to use some video. And, now, Facebook gives you a roadmap for how to do this! That’s H-U-G-E! Pay attention to this.
Key point: Engaging, consistent content that is connected (like episodes in a TV season). Things should build on each other and reference past videos.
[clickToTweet tweet="Click to Tweet! 'Instagram nametags will allow quick access to your Instagram account. By using the Instagram Stories camera, users will be able to scan a special image that you create and which has your account username in the center.'" quote="Click to Tweet! 'Instagram nametags will allow quick access to your Instagram account. By using the Instagram Stories camera, users will be able to scan a special image that you create and which has your account username in the center.'"]
This is another welcomed Snapchat copycat idea! It means that businesses can more easily promote their Instagram account visually in the ever-more-popular Stories area. They can promote their nametag on other social media platforms as well, and even have it printed out on posters and merchandise.
All people have to do is scan the nametag to follow you. It’s a win for businesses on Instagram. We’ll watch for the full roll-out of this tool and recommend specific ways you can use it to grow your Instagram following.
Time spent on Instagram continues to grow as this social network moves forward with strong momentum.
Focus is a new feature in the Instagram camera. You will notice that when you take a selfie or a picture of a person, the person stays in focus while the background is softly blurred out. It’s a nice effect.
This tool will allow you to focus on a person in an image and in a video. It will be another tool that you can use to create unique stories for your business. It’s just another advancement and powerful tool in your pocket to help you provide high-quality content and a great experience to your community.
The new Twitter rules are in place to help keep Twitter free from spam by preventing you from posting to multiple accounts, multiple similar tweets, multiple tweets to a trending topic, and simultaneously perform actions such as Likes, Retweets, or follow multiple accounts. This takes away an efficiency many people used to share the same tweet to multiple accounts but it was needed. Why? Spammers.
You’ll see this change in any Twitter tool you use.
Two big changes are that you can no longer select multiple twitter accounts to post to and you can’t use the drag-and-drop copy feature to copy posts to another Twitter Queue. Plan for a bit more time in scheduling your tweets!
That’s a wrap this week on important updates for you in the social media marketing space! Any thoughts on these changes and updates to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter? Let me know!
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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 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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Things continue to change in social media! There’s never a “dull moment” (or week) in social. These are key social media updates I think you’ll want to be aware of.
If you’re in an area affected by crisis or natural disaster you can check in with your loved ones via Facebook. When enough people post about an incident Facebook’s Safety Check is activated.
If you’re in the affected area you can go to Safety Check and mark yourself safe. If you know someone in the affected area you can check Safety Check for their safe status.
The Community Help feature helps people find and give help. People can offer food, transportation, and shelter to those affected by the crisis. This feature has been added to desktop.
Fundraisers - People can start fundraisers for the natural disaster immediately and quickly get attention for the cause. This feature will let people help even though they can’t physically be there.
Personal notes - A way for Facebook users in the affected area to relay their personal safety status rather than the default utilitarian safe.
Is Safety Check a good feature? People have been asked by Facebook about their safety status even though they’re 6 miles away from the affected area. Will Facebook Safety Check cause more worry than it alleviates?
Facebook is building a world where each and every person has a sense of purpose and community! To do that they've added some new features to Facebook groups.
Facebook is making it easier to connect with like-minded people. So if you're a non-profit, a group of friends or a business that uses groups to build sales if will now be easier to keep the conversation going in your Facebook group.
These digital book alternatives, which are presented as text messages, have been dominating the app charts for the past few months. The format may seem a little strange for people who are used to paperback books, but at least young people are reading.
Chat Fiction Apps are digital book alternatives that teens are flocking to. Viewed in a chat-like format these books include images (for a small fee). The app is free, but you'll have to wait to get the next chapter, or pay the weekly or yearly cost and get the whole book and it's images right away.
Currently, only suspense/horror YA books are available on the apps.
Right now it doesn't look like these these apps have ads or story sponsors. But that could be a way to monetize them in the future.
To compete with Facebook messenger Apple brings customer service and shopping into iMessage in iOS 11. Now you'll be able to open Maps, Safari, Spotlight, Siri, pay for a purchase using Apple pay, choose an airplane seat or schedule an appointment right from iMessage. Right now all Business Chats will be Human to Human, no bots allowed.
Will this make a big difference to businesses? Probably not because there are more Android users than iPhone users.
Uplevel your customer experience and service with buttons in Twitter direct messages. Now you can combine private messaging with links that make it easy to share from a private message to their public Twitter stream or share a page on a website.
If your brand uses more than 1 Twitter account DM's can be shared across all account. This will keep account admins aware of potential issues. ECommerce companies can now share product pages to drive sales and give the customer an easy way to buy.
Social Media platforms do not remain static. They shift and evolve and as a marketer, it's important to keep up. Here are recent changes I cover from Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook social media updates that have happened in the past two weeks!
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Now your Twitter direct message inbox is more like text messages on your phone. Messages from people you know and follow will go into your inbox. Messages from people you don't follow will go into the requests area.
It’s a nice addition to make Twitter’s interface for user-friendly. It’s taken them far too long to get to this but it’s a nice move to help us.
Now you can add videos, check-ins and text posts to albums. Show off your favorite collection in a "featured" album. Or follow your friend's album to get notified when they're updated. Create a collaborative album and easily add contributors.
Run an event? Add an Album for the event and let your volunteers post pics and text testimonials from the attendees. This way you'll have a wealth of info for next years event. It’s a valuable way to capture and retain more types of content per album. Another move by Facebook to make things “sticky” so we keep coming back!
As a side note … Facebook Messenger emoji’s have been used 2 Billion times in their first 2 months in the app! Now that’s a success!
Facebook Messenger’s artificial intelligence assistant “M” will make recommendations in Spanish if it detects Spanish as the user's language of choice. This new feature scans the words and intent of a message, then give suggestions for Messenger’s many features, like emoji's or payment buttons. This feature is available for US users with their language set to Spanish and in Mexico.
Since most of the world doesn't use English as their native language Facebook added a translation capability to their news feed. Spanish is the language with the second most native speakers after Chinese so it's only natural that Facebook would add Spanish capabilities. It’s just another big bonus from Facebook to “make the world a more connected place” and it shows they are not sitting still but helping marketers….remember when they help marketers they help themselves though as well because we are the ones that create ads and use AI!
This button will redirect users to Facebook Messenger to interact with potential customers. This lets account holders to use Messenger Bots to improve the customer experience.
This is BIG!
Since most people have a Facebook Messenger mobile app it's now seamless and easy to interact with potential customers whether they're on Facebook or Instagram. Facebook Messenger also accepts payments between friends and for gaming and eCommerce. It just a small jump to selling from Instagram. This is a huge cross-platform leap, enabling seamless movement from one social media network, Instagram, to Facebook’s Messenger. This is the start of more to come!
Now everyone can hide photos on Instagram thanks to the new archive feature. The photo has to be published, at least for 1 second and then you can archive it.
Hide photos that didn't get much traction or hide photos of the ex. Use this feature as a way to store photos for the future.
While this isn't a social media network update per say, Gboard does make posting to your social media network a little bit easier.
It's just cool! And makes texting and posting from your smartphone quicker and easier. It's my all time favorite keyboard with the ability to swipe to spell a word and built in gifs.
That’s a bit of the key news and tidbits that have happened recently.
Stay tuned and stay in the know...sign-up here!
Recently Twitter announced they would be changing their 140-character messaging format to make business marketing easier. Many business owners might be missing the benefits Twitter offers those promoting a business or product.
Changes to Twitter will make it easier to use the platform. It will help businesses engage in real time conversations and lower customer service response times.
Twitter has evolved since they showed up on the scene over 10 years ago. It's not just a 140-character messaging tool. Now it's a tool that can be used to conduct polls, share broadcasts, post photos and use searchable hashtags. It is great tool for getting news out quickly, whether it’s a new executive hire, industry trends or product introductions.
Twitter users have come to realize the value in each character when you’re only allowed 140 of them. And with the latest change Twitter has developed new rules to relax the 140 character limit.
If you haven’t been using Twitter, it’s time to take a look to see how their newest options will help you market your business.
Commun.it is a free Twitter and Facebook community manager that help's users and businesses grow their followers with tools that streamline social media management. Here is a review of the app and some of its features.
The Commun.it app's dashboard give you quite a bit of information. We'll start by looking at one of the most useful features, the prioritized feed. To get to the feed, click the "community" tab at the top of the screen. The prioritized feed will show new followers and any tweets that you were mentioned in and may need your attention and response.
This prioritized feed is very helpful because it instantly shows you what needs a response. You don't have to waste time clicking through notifications because everything is right there in the feed.
To the left of the prioritized feed, you'll see another "community" button. When you click this, a menu will drop down with several items. Each of the items on the list of followers has been specially categorized and prioritized into lists. For example, your "new followers" list will be prioritized by the number of engagements you have with that account and by how influential those accounts are. Accounts that don't follow you back and are low-influence will be put in the "consider to unfollow" list so you can unfollow them and focus on accounts that are influential and engaging with you.
Commun.it's lists make it very easy to prioritize your social media interactions. You don't have to do the research to figure which accounts you want to engage with or waste time clicking through notifications. All of the information you need is listed right at your fingertips.
While the community lists are prioritized more by actions, the high-value members lists are prioritized by the relationships you've developed on social media. High-value members are categorized into influencers, supporters, and engaged members. These lists are very valuable because they give you a chance to reach out directly to the people who have been most active with you. You can also view the conversations you've had with any of the accounts on the list by clicking on them. Which will help you remember the kinds of conversations that have been successful in the past.
Suppose, you have breaking news about your company to share with bloggers or journalists that you've spoken to in the past. Instead of searching for those accounts, they'll pop up on your high-value member lists, making it easy to reach out, and reference any past conversations you've had.
Commun.it's monitoring tool allows you to enter any terms you want to keep an eye on. You could enter your business name, website, and hashtags related to your business or products. Monitoring terms related to your business can be helpful for reputation management. The terms you choose to monitor will show up in your prioritized feed whenever they're mentioned.
The Commun.it app can be a very helpful social media management tool because of the streamlined information it provides. The amount of information can be a little overwhelming initially, but once you understand the categories and lists, it can be very useful for getting the most out of your social media marketing.
Promotion and social media drive sales, making networks like Facebook and Twitter an invaluable part of any marketing plan. Of course, working with Twitter has a distinct downside—time. Sending out regular, relevant tweets takes a lot of time. You've automated your email marketing. You schedule your blog posts. Have you thought about how you can schedule tweets using automation?
Tweet JukeBox.com is all about Twitter. Through this easy-to-use platform, you can schedule tweets, automate “thank you” tweets for mentions and gather a ton of data about tweet performance. Imagine being able to setup all the tweets you need for a week in one day. How much time will it take to take it live? You could set aside time Monday morning to handle Twitter, spend a few hours working on a blog post and get on with the rest of your job. No more long days spent frantically promoting your content.
Tweet JukeBox combines all of these features along with the ability to recycle content and use pre-loaded tweets. While there is no comparison to live tweeting, there are times to use a tool like this to enhance and supplement the live tweeting that your business does.
When you use Tweet JukeBox, it's a lot like selecting a playlist. You can create and schedule your own tweets, or use the pre-loaded content. The platform includes inspirational quotes and pictures that go out automatically, based on the timing you select. Essentially, you can send out the pre-loaded content during regular hours and send out your homegrown tweets during high-traffic times.
With the combination of curated tweets and self-promotion, you can maximize audience engagement. Plus, you can find pre-written tweets specifically for your industry. They'll auto post until there are none left. Then, they will restart at the beginning. You'll never have idle time on Twitter.
The automatic thank you feature also helps keep engagement numbers high. Every time you get a mention or a re-tweet, you can send an automatic thank you tweet. You stay in contact with the people that help promote your content, all without spending hours on the Twitterverse.
Another great feature embedded in Tweet JukeBox is the ability to see every mention, organized in easy to understand graphs. Over time, you can track your biggest and most successful promoters. You can even break them down by volume and reach, so you can see who mentions you the most and who offers the most value with every mention.
With Tweet JukeBox, you can automate a lot of your promotional activities. Every time you post a blog, you can send out an accompanying tweet. Then set up a schedule of automatic reminders to go out about your new content. The possibilities are endless, and with automation, you can free up your time to work on direct earning activities.
Starting with a robust free version, Tweet Jukebox is a tool to consider to enhance your Twitter marketing!
