Lately in Social Media: 8/25/17
Lots of good news for marketers and advertisers in this round-up: Greater control, more ad formats and the promise of better ROI ahead.
- Facebook is letting media publishers bring more of their branding to the platform by allowing them to display their logos next to headlines in Instant Articles. Subscription options are coming soon, too.
- 17 post types will no longer be available for boosting as of Sept. 15, including profile picture changes, polls and other post types that don’t make effective ads. Facebook’s just looking out for your ROI – that’s why you can choose a call to action button for your boosted posts.
- Regular users can take 360 photos and videos straight from the app, without fancy equipment, and even use them as a profile cover photo.
- Video series shows are already earning more engagement, which makes the Watch platform look even more promising for marketing and advertising content.
- Businesses with a physical store could soon create a custom ad audience from the users who visit.
- Are you using Facebook Stories yet? (We know, but it’s still a thing.) Now you can go live with your crazy face filters and whatnot, and you can limit your broadcast to a specific location.
- Layout changes are coming to the news feed soon, if you haven’t started seeing them already.
- After a year of testing, now all advertisers can make use of promoted video pins!
- Visual search keeps getting better and better – now you can pinch to zoom, or highlight a segment of a pin to search for specific items in the image.
- In an effort to boost engagement, Twitter is reworking the timeline algorithm to promote more relevant content, whatever that may mean to each individual user. According to Social Media Today, you can take advantage of this change by sharing engaging content (of course), replying to and liking mentions, and tagging other accounts strategically.
- The new night mode for desktop should make late-night Twittering easier on your eyes.
- Users can now share videos straight from the mobile app. Not clear when we’ll be able to share native video from company pages though…
- Like LinkedIn’s messenger? You might appreciate the “Active Status” feature, a green circle on your profile picture that alerts your contacts when you’re online.
- Last month LinkedIn added new companies to its Marketing Partner Program, so take a look here and explore how these connections can help you with analytics, media buying, audience management and more.
SNAPCHAT
- For advertisers using Snapchat, rejoice in the updated Ads Manager with new “Advanced” features. And you can better protect your brand by taking control over the context and types of content your ads appear alongside.
- Influencers and creators can now have verified accounts, which gives them a credibility boost and could make them more visible or attractive for brand collaborations.
- It’ll be easier to keep your comment conversations straight now that Instagram has organized them into threads, a la Facebook.
- Collaborate with your influencers to live stream together.
- Get creative with your DMs and replies to Stories by adding stickers of posts to your reaction selfies.
YOUTUBE
- In its fight against inappropriate content, the platform is tightening the rules that determine which videos can make money. But creators can file appeals for videos that aren’t selected.
- A test feature shows how many users are watching a video at the same time. This could be cool for creators judging how their video is performing, and for marketers trying to curate hot-right-now content.