Category Archives: Uncategorized

Monday Morning Learning – 31 May 2021

Instagram Adds New Engagement Insights for Reels and Instagram Live Broadcasts

Instagram has launched insights for Reels and Live; providing new metrics for creators and business accounts when they post any content on these two formats. As these data are already available for feed posts and IGTV, extending these metrics to Reel and Live could help give creators and business accounts a broader overview of their account’s performance over time.

  • For Reels, Instagram will now provide data on Total Plays, Accounts Reached, Likes, Comments, Saves, and Shares.
  • For Instagram Live broadcasts, users will be able to access data on Accounts Reached, Peak Concurrent Viewers, Comments, and Shares.

This can help creators better understand what type of content resonates with their audience, and see areas of improvement with more detailed information in Reach. Reach in Account Insights provides new breakdowns with more transparency into the type of accounts the content reaches to and what formats are the most effective. Plus, you can view insights beyond the 7 days and 30 days limit.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-adds-new-engagement-insights-for-reels-and-instagram-live-broadca/600652/

TikTok’s New Marketing Guide for SMBs

The guide provides information on how SMBs can make the best use of TikTok tools, including a range of explainers, tips, overviews, and case studies to provide perspective and guidance for those looking to map out a more effective TikTok strategy.

  • Outline the benefits of TikTok for small business promotion, and includes a range of engagement stats and pointers aligned with this approach
  • Includes a range of TikTok-specific tips, designed to help brands implement a more effective approach to their TikTok marketing efforts
  • Providing clear, actionable advice on exactly what brands should do to maximize their on-platform performance, and what they’ve found works best in terms of branded content and posts
  • A range of case studies and examples to illustrate the key points

https://adobeindd.com/view/publications/aaf16c5a-81e9-4e41-87f6-ee1e704b7c97/4kn8/publication-web-resources/pdf/UK_desktop_v03.pdf

Instagram Expands its Test of Reels Ads to More Regions

Much like TikTok ads, Reels ads appear between other Reels clips within your feed and include a ‘Sponsored’ tag below the profile icon to denote that they’re part of a paid promotion. 

Instagram first launched Reels ads in India, Brazil, Germany, and Australia late last month, and as reported by AdWeek, it’s now expanding them to brands in Canada, France, the UK, and the US.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-expands-its-test-of-reels-ads-to-more-regions/601021/

LinkedIn Introduces a Boost feature

LinkedIn adds a new Boost feature, similar to what Facebook and Instagram already have.

It works similarly – you post an organic update to your company’s page, you notice it getting some early traction and you may want to seize that opportunity to enhance the reach without having to create a dark ad.

We will be able to pick from 4 different objectives – Brand Awareness, Video Views, Engagement, and Website Visits. And subsequently, we will also be able to select our target audience based on their Profiles (job senioritis, industry), Interests (member groups on LinkedIn), or an Audience Template that has pre-set targeting options.

Other things you can choose are location, exclusions, and desired budget. As this is a new feature, LinkedIn has also prepared a PDF guide on the best practices to boosting on their platform.

https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/marketing-solutions/resources/pdfs/lms-boosting-best-practices-guide.pdf.

And of course, with the increasing demand for virtual workshops in the thick of the pandemic, the platform has also introduced Event Ads to help marketers boost awareness of their virtual events. Virtual events seem to be a vertical LinkedIn is expanding on because they started out making Events options available for all company pages in Apr 2020. Then they went on to add live-streaming for events.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/linkedin-adds-new-boost-option-for-organic-posts-new-event-

Foodpanda CS team not updated on local events

Backstory:

An order came in from an outlet in Westgate (shopping mall) that was recently closed due to Covid cases. 

The delivery rider notified the CS team of the closure, however they did not cancel the order as requested by the rider until he posted it on social media. The rider’s post went viral and the public’s confidence in Foodpanda was once again lowered.

Key takeaway:

It is important to inform offshore teams on local events that are ongoing at the moment this way they can be better informed.

  • Covid restrictions
    • Singapore – we can only go out in pairs till 13th June
    • India – certain states continue their curfew lockdown beyond 1 June

https://mothership.sg/2021/05/foodpanda-rider-westgate-closed/

Royalty Free vs Rights Managed with stock images.

Royalty-Free license grants non-exclusive, unlimited and multiple uses of an image, with few restrictions. It’s a one-time fee that allows perpetual use of the image in all the permitted ways. You can then use the licensed material for your own company, website, or for advertisement. These licensed images are usually called royalty-free images and are different from rights-managed images (below you find more info about it). Cheaper to attain.

Rights Managed license provides time and geographically limited, specific, and per-use rights to use an image, and oftentimes also grants exclusive usage during the licensed period. The license only covers the consigned use. So to use the image in any different way, a new license is needed. This license includes digital rights management and basic rights management. This is more expensive.

Monday Morning Learning – 24 May 2021

Facebook introduces Live Shopping Fridays

Facebook is introducing a series of live shopping events weekly this summer till 16th July.

It may not be something new, but it could bump up people’s desire to see more live events from their favorite brands.

Infographics: Simple SEO Checklist for Website Owners

Content Marketing Agency Brafton (based in Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco) have kindly shared a Local SEO Checklist.

Local SEO can be a very important connector for businesses, with people in the area looking for providers. And you want your business to show up to the people who are looking in your niche or vertical.

They have broken it into 7 separate categories: 

  1. Know Your Ranking Factors
  2. Optimise your Domain
  3. Optimise your Google my Business
  4. Get Social and Get Niche
  5. Encourage User Reviews and Ratings
  6. Generate Backlinks and Referral Traffic
  7. Ensure Mobile Usability

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/a-simple-local-seo-checklist-that-all-website-owners-should-follow-infogra/600238/

Pinterest Now Facilitates More Than 5 Billion Searches per Month

“There are now more than 5 billion searches on Pinterest every month. As people prepare for a post-pandemic life, searches for outfits, vacations, and home renovations are at all-time highs, and searches for weddings have presumed pre-pandemic levels.”

For context, Pinterest last officially reported its total search volume in 2016, when it was facilitating 2 billion searches every month. That means Pinterest has increased its search volume by 150% over the last five years – which, given the pandemic, and the subsequent boost for eCommerce and online product discovery, is not overly surprising

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/pinterest-now-facilitates-more-than-5-billion-searches-per-month/600578/

Twitter’s Close to Reopening Public Applications for Profile Verification

Back in Nov 2020, Twitter had announced they would look into reopening applications for verifications and by this week, we should be able to see this go into effect. However, the public applications for verification are only limited to:

  • Activist, Organizer or Influencer
  • Company, Brand or Organization
  • Entertainers or Entertainment Groups
  • Government Official or Affiliate
  • Journalist or News Organization
  • Professional Sports of e-Sports Entity

This would be helpful for companies or institutes that have yet to be verified and would prefer the added credibility to their tweets. Plus, with tweets showing up on Google search results, it would look better to have an official profile and adds significant value to the information shared on the tweets.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/twitters-close-to-re-opening-public-applications-for-profile-verification/600180/

Twitter Adds Scheduling for Spaces, Reminders to Attendees

The addition of Space scheduling enables broadcasters to plan out, and build hype around their upcoming events.

  • When you go to set up Space, you’ll see a new option to ‘Schedule for later’ beneath ‘Start your Space’. You can then share the details of your upcoming session via Tweet, or via DM, or really, by any other means, as you’ll be given a unique URL for your scheduled Space.
  • Users will also be able to sign up for reminders of upcoming scheduled Spaces by tapping on the ‘Set Reminder’ prompt on the Space holding card.

Together with the new addition of purple rings around user profile bubbles in-feed, signifying when that person is in a Space, these tools help to boost the discoverability of Spaces, which is a huge issue for both Spaces and Clubhouse. Facebook’s approach of adding audio rooms within groups, and recommending them to members, could be a more effective, and engaging, way to go for audio rooms/Spaces in the long run.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/twitter-adds-scheduling-for-spaces-reminders-to-att[…]tter%20%5Bissue:34405%5D&utm_term=Social%20Media%20Today

Monday Morning Learning – 26 April 2021

Facebook Flags Changes to News Feed Ranking, With New Tests to Determine What Users Want to See

Facebook exploring news feed changes with new surveys rolled out, trying to understand what’s relevant and what’s inspiring.

Political content will also be reduced over time as the political alliances and ideals have seen posts with angry reactions by both friends and non-friends on pages and groups.

Facebook is also bringing the hide option of a post as a simple X button.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-flags-changes-to-news-feed-ranking-with-new-tests-to-determine-wh/598916/

Facebook Tests New Video Ad Options, Including Updated Targeting Categories

Facebook has announced their new video ad targeting segmentation based on topics users are interested in, this works as a double-edged sword for advertisers. On one hand, we are able to specify the type of audience who are interested in the video ad, but we might also miss out on exposure to new audiences as they might not have any interest in the topics the video ad is categorized under.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-tests-new-video-ad-options-including-updat[…]2J7wIxBVWvqnjun2gxozNATr_qifyrkXzEp2HU0NDeB8LQcq0YJZ80Nw

Facebook Flags Changes to News Feed Ranking, With New Tests to Determine What Users Want to See

Facebook has long been using surveys to improve user experience in providing what they want to see on their Newsfeed. With the new survey questions, it seems like they will be focusing more on content that is valuable and inspirational, instead of simply being interesting and engaging.

Here are the new outlines on what Facebook plans to roll out in their surveys: https://about.fb.com/news/2021/04/incorporating-more-feedback-into-news-feed-ranking/

  • Whether people find a post inspirational
  • Gauging interest in certain topics
  • Better understanding content people want to see less of (looking at angry reactions, etc)
  • Making it easier to give feedback directly on a post (tapping X at the corner of posts to hide from News Feed)

Marketers should consider this potentially new algorithm and include inspirational/valuable content in their Facebook marketing mix instead of producing content simply for higher engagement.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-flags-changes-to-news-feed-ranking-with-new-tests-to-determine-wh/598916/

Instagram is testing a new feature that will allow link posting on Stories

This new feature will enable the users to open the links as currently, the links being posted on Instagram stories are not accessible and are sometimes referred to as dead. But now it seems like Instagram has finally decided to load this platform with this new feature as well.

https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2021/04/instagram-is-testing-new-feature-which.html

TikTok Outlines Ad Campaign Changes and Impacts Due to Apple’s IDFA Update

  • For Tiktok campaigns with app installs as the primary objective, the way only to target iOS 14.5 users would be through the TikTok iOS 14 Dedicated Campaigns.
  • The feature is available for all advertisers
  • Create the campaign by choosing the app install objective or catalog sales objective with app prospecting. You then select the iOS app and set the toggle to ‘Deliver to iOS14+ conversion events’ to ON at the ad group level.
  • Tiktok is becoming a more popular social media platform among advertisers for its ease to attain organic reach.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-outlines-ad-campaign-changes-and-impacts-due-to-apples-idfa-update/598924/

TikTok adds a “just watched” thumbnail to make finding videos easier

When users view a video on the FYP they sometimes need to scroll intensely to find part 2. Now, TikTok has added a “just watched” thumbnail which can be used in many creative ways.

TikTok Adds A “Topic” Option for Live Stream Videos

The Live option on the platform is doing very well and TikTok like other applications brings about changes in its already existing features on the application and this time a change was brought about in the Live video option. TikTok is introducing a new option in the already existing Live called “Topic.”

The topic option will give users the ability to insert a title about what the Live they are doing is related to and there are several built in options to select the topic from which range from none, music, dance, beauty and fashion, fitness, and sports, pop culture, outdoors and a few others. Among this one topic can be selected to let the followers know what the creator has set the live stream about and this will help them to decide whether the live is of their interest or not and if they do want to join what questions and queries would be answered in live.

https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2021/04/tiktok-adds-topic-option-for-live.html

The Rise of Social Commerce [Infographic]

In 2020, social media commerce saw a steady increase of people opting for online shopping, and that’s primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some social platforms such as Facebook and TikTok have stepped up their eCommerce integration efforts, to make online shopping much convenient. As if it’s not convenient enough already. This infographic provides insights into this growing trend and reasons for brands to get on board with in-stream shopping on social.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/the-rise-of-social-commerce-infographic/598525/

Monday Morning Learning – 19 April 2021

Facebook to test new business discovery features in US News Feed

Users tap on topics they’re interested in underneath posts and ads in their News Feed in order to explore related content from businesses 

  • Helps small businesses become more discoverable
  • Helps users discover new businesses that they might not have found on their own
  • Can potentially become an ad unit as Facebook can create a new set of data (which users click to see more, what sort of businesses they engage with, etc)
  • In future, businesses could potentially pay for higher placement

Facebook Adds Scheduling for Stories, New Ad and Business Discovery Options

Sharing scheduling for stories. It has finally arrived on the official channels!

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-adds-scheduling-for-stories-new-ad-and-business-discovery-options/598508/

Facebook May Soon Offer Campaign Budget Optimization Across Platforms, Not Just Ad Sets

With the digital ad landscape becoming increasingly more crowded, Facebook is looking into offering advertisers Campaign Budget Optimization that can help optimise ad budget across different platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, etc. The idea is this process will help to automatically allocate your assigned ad budget across chosen Facebook ad sets, to ensure the best performers see the most spend. Thus, getting more bang for your ad buck, while decreasing workload from the advertisers’ end.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-may-soon-offer-campaign-budget-optimization-across-platforms-not/598524/

YouTube Tests A New Dubbing Feature by Introducing Multiple Audio Tracks in One Video

Does it ever happen to you that are want to watch a video on YouTube because you like its content but you do not understand it as it is not in the language that you speak or understand?

Solely because of this reason many content creators who make videos in different languages are deprived of a handful of more views and subscribers they can have from people who like their content but do not understand it. YouTube realized this issue and is testing a few options which will help overcome this problem.

https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2021/04/youtube-tests-new-dubbing-feature-by.html

Google Updates Search Ranking for Product Reviews to Better Highlight More In-Depth Information

According to Google – “We know that people appreciate product reviews that share in-depth research, rather than thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products. That’s why we’re sharing an improvement to our ranking systems, which we call the product reviews update, that’s designed to better reward such content.”

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/google-updates-search-ranking-for-product-reviews-to-better-highlight-more/598097/

WANTED: FB & IG Like Counts

  • Last year, Instagram announced that they were removing like counts on posts
  • It was rolled out and selected users received the update
  • Based on sentiments in the past year, some felt that it took the pressure off when posting to IG
  • Cut to this year, they are testing out a feature in which users would be given the choice to show or hide post likes. These are the options:
  • Hiding Like counts on other people’s posts
  • Switching off Like counts on your own posts
  • Keeping full Like counts in the app
  • This has also been tested on Facebook as well, as some users have seen their like count gone

What does this mean?

  • The expansion of choice may keep users on the app and increase screen time, as they are not pressured to post in the interest of garnering Likes
  • This means ads may see greater results from the top to bottom of the funnel
  • The challenge, however, is still with brands, influencers to keep their content interesting and compelling enough as the visibility of their content is still at the mercy of the IG Algorithm

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-will-enable-users-to-choose-whether-they-want-to-hide-post-like-c/598420/

Employee-Driven Content Will Increase

An influencer marketing trend for 2021 that stems from the demand for more authentic content is that the desire to see employee-driven or employee-based content will increase. We’ve already seen how user-generated content can have a huge impact on sales and how brands are perceived; it only makes sense for brands to begin treating their own employees as influencers through employee advocacy programs.

We’ve already seen how this works for brands like Macy’s. With its Style Crew, Macy’s offers incentives and financial rewards to employees who use Macy’s products in their everyday lives if sharing that content leads to sales. This works for Macy’s employees and the company itself because consumers are fascinated by seeing “how the sausage gets made.” There’s a reason why the video of a Wendy’s employee making a Baconator got more than 3 million views after Wendy’s reposted it. People want to know what goes on behind the scenes at a company. Giving employees the go-ahead to share that content just makes sense.

https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-trends/

Monday Morning Learning – 5 April 2021

TikTok Launches New ‘Playlists’ Feature to Group Clips into Themed Collections

TikTok has begun rolling out a new feature on its platform, “Playlists” around the last week of March. This feature enables users to group these TikTok clips into themed collections. The new option enables you to create dedicated collections of video clips, which you can name as you wish (up to 15 characters), that are then displayed on your profile.

The option could be a great way to create longer, thematic TikTok content, and boost engagement with your clips. For brands, that could give you the opportunity to post product tutorials or explainers, for example, which run in sequence based on how people generally need them, while for regular creators, it could encourage them to create episodic content, with each clip carrying over to the next, ideally keeping people around for longer and building stronger audience connection.

TikTok is currently testing out this new feature on Creator and Business accounts.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-launches-new-playlists-feature-to-group-clips-into-themed-collecti/597460/

Instagram officially launches Remix on Reels, a TikTok Duets-like feature

Instagram today is officially launching a new feature called Remix, which offers a way to record your Reels video alongside a video from another user. The option is similar to Tik Tok’s existing Duets feature, which also lets users react to or interact with another person’s video content while creating their own. Instagram’s new feature has been in public testing before today, so some Instagram users may have already gained access.

We recently reported on Instagram’s plans with Remix, when noting that Snapchat was developing a Remix feature of its own. In fact, Snapchat is also using the name “Remix” for its TikTok Duets rival that’s currently in development.

YouTube could hide Dislike numbers from videos to help content creators

YouTube is planning to bring a major overhaul to its video platform that will benefit creators. The video-sharing platform announced that it will begin a test that will hide the dislike count on videos from public view.

YouTube says that it will run a small experiment wherein it will try several new interface designs that won’t publicly display the number of dislikes a video ‘has earned.’

While the move comes in response to creator feedback, YouTube says that it won’t remove the dislike button entirely. The announcement about the new plans comes via YouTube’s official community forum.

Twitter looks to release its own take on Social Commerce features.

Well, well, well. Looks like another social media network succumbed to making things shoppable on their feed! News around the block is that Twitter is experimenting with social commerce features to allow users to shop in-app without leaving the platform. While Twitter might be late to the party of bringing shoppable features to their platform, it still presents great opportunities for brands looking to boost their sales on Twitter. Watch out for a ‘Shop Now’ CTA on Twitter real soon, people!

Twitter to host a ‘Best of Tweets’ brand battle.

Over the past few months, Twitter has identified the best brands for their scroll-stopping tweets, and now they will all go head-to-head in Twitter’s ‘Brand Bracket’ aka, the epic battle to crown the best brand on Twitter. As explained by Twitter: “We know the conversational nature of Twitter makes it a place where brands can be their most human-sounding selves. Brands can have two-way conversations with their audience that are real and unfiltered and can’t be replicated anywhere else. With this bracket, we aim to celebrate those that do this the best – as selected by the people of Twitter.” Let the games begin!

https://www.falcon.io/insights-hub/industry-updates/social-media-updates/5-social-m[…]=IwAR2SyFm6jMdSv7jQ5v_nMwitvIMvcWKkcVy0LNLiGjN24O2xmSZvO6JQSLg

LinkedIn Adds New Profile Features, Including Video Cover Stories and ‘Creator Mode’

The update is part of LinkedIn’s increasing focus on content creators on the platform.

  • Profile picture will auto-play a preview of your video
  • “Creator Mode” enables creators to add a selection of hashtags indicating the topics they will post about most, helping LinkedIn showcase them to interested audiences
  • “Featured” and “Activity” sections will be at the top of the profile to more prominently display content creators post
  • “Connect” button will be changed to “Follow” to help LinkedIn creators build an audience
  • LinkedIn Live Broadcasters will have their videos played as the cover photo whenever they start streaming

This could be a big addition. If you’ve been looking for ways to build a stronger presence on LinkedIn, this will be a major update and could end up providing a significant benefit in your personal branding, and industry profile-building efforts.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/linkedin-adds-new-profile-features-including-video-[…]2004-03-2021&utm_term=Social%20Media%20Today%20Weekender

LinkedIn confirms it’s working on a Clubhouse rival, too

LinkedIn has now confirmed it’s also testing a social audio experience in its app which would allow creators on its network to connect with their community.

Online networking, remote work and virtual events will only continue to grow, even post-pandemic, and this audio networking addition makes for a natural extension of other areas on LinkedIn, like Groups and Events – which have grown particularly during the pandemic

How LinkedIn’s version will be differentiated?

  • More connected with users’ professional identity, not just social profiles
  • LinkedIn already built a platform that better serves the creator community with tools like Stories, LinkedIn Live video broadcasting, newsletters, etc
  • LinkedIn just formalized some of its efforts in this area with the launch of a new “Creator” mode that lets anyone set their profile as one that can be followed for updates, like Stories and LinkedIn Live videos
  • Their focus on creators puts LinkedIn on a competitive footing in terms of expanding its own Clubhouse rival (for eg, for Twitter Spaces, the full set of creator tools have yet to arrive, and although Facebook has creator-focused features, they only recently invested in newsletters)

https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/30/linkedin-confirms-its-working-on-a-clubhouse-rival[…]oday%2004-03-2021&utm_term=Social%20Media%20Today%20Weekender

Facebook Adds ‘Feed Filter Bar’ News Feed Control Tool, New Options to Restrict Post Comments 

After testing the option out for more than a year, Facebook has today officially launched its new News Feed Filter Bar option, which makes it easier for users to switch between the regular News Feed, ranked by Facebook’s notorious algorithm, and either a ‘Favorites’ or ‘Recent’ listing of posts, the latter being kind of like a reverse-chronological feed.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-adds-feed-filter-bar-news-feed-control-tool-new-options-to-rest/597664

Facebook adds a new visual prompt in a bid to encourage take-up of the vaccines

  • They launched a profile frame on 1st April to go along with your current profile photo
  • They say “Let’s get vaccinated”
  • Same sticker on Instagram available through IG Stories that say “Let’s get vaccinated”
  • A visual cue that may encourage people to do the same: “Research shows that social norms can have a major impact on people’s attitudes and behaviors when it comes to their health. We know people are more likely to get a vaccine when they see many people they trust are doing it.”
  • Uses the concept of social proofing

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-adds-new-visual-prompts-to-encourage-covid-19-vaccine-take-up/597760/

Monday Morning Learning – 29 March 2021

STB takes Americans on a virtual taxi tour via Twitch to showcase the country’s hidden gems

With borders still largely closed across the globe and gaming usage up 75% amid COVID, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has partnered with creative agency TBWA\Chiat\Day NY to virtually open its doors for Americans to explore the country via livestream taxi tours on Twitch: Singapore by Stream.

https://www.marketing-interactive.com/stb-takes-americans-on-virtual-taxi-tour-via-twitch-to-showcase-countrys-hidden-gems

TikTok is Reportedly Looking to Add a Group Chat Feature Later This Year

TikTok may be looking at launching a group chat feature later this year to build on its engagement rate and to develop the platform into a social interactions app. This has been done by Douyin back in 2019 and TikTok is looking at possibly replicating the feature to challenge Facebook’s dominance over social media. By offering an extra channel to socialize, Douyin’s new functionality may keep its users in the app for longer periods and may even serve as a tool for current users to invite more of their friends to join Douyin.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-is-reportedly-looking-to-add-a-group-chat-feature-later-this-year/596923/

Twitter’s Developing New ‘Community’ Tools to Share Tweets with Selected Audiences

Twitter previewed a new, groups-like option called ‘Communities’, which would enable Twitter users to share their tweets within selected sub-groups of users, as opposed to sharing with everybody.

Communities would enable you to select a specific audience for each tweet. That could enable Twitter users to engage with a wider breadth of topics and interests, without being concerned about boring all of their followers with irrelevant updates, or more extreme, having to create separate Twitter profiles for different purposes.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/twitters-developing-new-community-tools-to-share-tweets-with-selected-au/597443/

Instagram Announces That Stories Drafts are Coming Soon

1. Instagram will soon introduce Stories Drafts

2. Helps brands, content creators schedule their posts to the most relevant, optimal timings

3. While we do have a subscription to OnlyPult, the limitation is that we are not allowed to add interactive stickers to the Stories while scheduling from the app

4. If we can schedule it natively from IG, there is the possibility of adding elements that would add life to the stories like GIFs, Question & Quiz stickers, poll stickers, etc. — all of which would be really helpful to us as social media practitioners

5. To be able to create more engaging content and being able to post it at optimal timings — it combines content and strategy, which is aligned to our approach

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-announces-that-stories-drafts-are-coming-soon/597230/

Monday Morning Learning – 22 March 2021

LinkedIn Provides New Worksheets to Help Map Out Your On-Platform Ad Campaigns

It’s a handy overview to have – and as noted, with more people turning to LinkedIn than ever, it may well be worth considering the potential of the platform for your marketing efforts, and checking out these notes and guides to see how they might fit into your approach.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/linkedin-provides-new-worksheets-to-help-map-out-your-on-platform-ad-campai/596750/

Telegram launched Voice Chat 2.0 to compete with Clubhouse

The team of the popular Telegram messenger has presented a big update. The main innovation is Voice chats 2.0 or, as the developers called them, “on steroids” voice chats. Voice chats appeared in Telegram groups in December 2020. With today’s update, they can also be created in channels, and the number of listeners is now unlimited.

https://www.gizchina.com/2021/03/20/telegram-launched-voice-chat-2-0-to-compete-with-clubhouse/

Instagram really doesn’t want you to reshare posts to Stories

Instagram is adding labels to feed posts that are reshared to Stories. Instagram is experimenting a new feature that might discourage people from sharing posts to Stories. It recently started testing this new feature that disables sharing posts to Stories, it is now adding labels to posts that have been reshared from the feed. According to screenshots shared by TestingCatalog, Instagram is adding labels that say “Reshared Post” for those posts that are shared from the feed. This applies to photos, videos, and even Reels.

https://tech.hindustantimes.com/tech/news/instagram-really-doesn-t-want-you-to-reshare-posts-to-stories-71616227187795.html

Facebook is Reportedly Working on a Kids Version of Instagram

According to internal company communication, Instagram is now working on “a version of Instagram that allows people under the age of 13 to safely use Instagram for the first time. This might impact the way we create and deliver content for family or kids-oriented content.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-is-reportedly-working-on-a-kids-version-of-instagram/597014/

Facebook’s Looking to Launch Audio-Only Rooms to Hook Into the Social Audio Trend

Facebook was seen apparently exploring an audio-only option within Rooms. With its already existing DAU and MAU, they have the numbers to challenge both Telegram and Clubhouse, which is invite-only. Adding on to that, with so many audio-only apps taking over the social media space, there’s a need for us to be mindful that the audio-only experience will see a rise in use cases on campaigns, or in our daily lives. Integration of voice is something that we may need to explore and be familiar with across the experience we are building for clients, as users grow more comfortable with it.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebooks-looking-to-launch-audio-only-rooms-to-hook-into-the-social-audio/597083/

Facebook Shared Details of Coming Newsletter Platform to Attract Top Creators

How will it work?

  • integrate with Facebook Pages
  • ability to create Facebook Groups
  • features to easily discover new content
  • insights on content performance
  • monetization tools for individual website & subscriptions for individual businesses
  • accelerator services for creators to come together & share best practices

How can creators use this to their advantage?

  • build a community
  • opportunities for collaboration
  • get more insights on how to improve their content on Facebook

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-shares-details-of-coming-newsletter-platform-to-attract-top-creato/596815/

TikTok Changes Engagement Metrics

TikTok was previously focused on likes, comments, and shares, but now the metrics are slowly evolving to focus on video completion and video saves to the phone. To game the system several creators look for ways to improve video completion rate and increase video saves.

TikTok Launches New Ads Library, Enabling You to Find the Best Performing Ads in a Range of Categories

TikTok has launched a new Ad Library tool, currently called ‘Top Ads’ for those who are planning to run TikTok ads. This tool enables users to search for the best performing TikTok ad campaigns, with a range of search filters to navigate through the ad listings. Currently, the tool is still a work in progress and the ads displayed are limited to those who have been authorised by advertisers and may not reflect all the actual top-performing ads. However, it is a good place for existing and new advertisers to look into the different type of ads TikTok offers and serves as a good resource for marketers who needs ideas on how each sector is utilising different ad types for promotions.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-launches-new-ads-library-enabling-you-to-find-the-best-performing-a/596927/

Monday Morning Learning – 15 March 2021

Twitter is Testing a New ‘Undo’ Option for Sent Tweets

As you can see here, the new option would enable you to recall your tweet within a 5-second window, which could be enough time to quickly check over your witty observation and catch any clumsy errors before it’s unleashed.

The main usage here would be to catch errors, but an additional benefit could be that it enables users to also re-think their tweets before sending. Small elements of friction like this within the tweet process can often be enough to provide a moment of clarity and may stop users from sending offensive or unintended comments as a result.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/twitters-testing-a-new-undo-option-for-sent-tweets/596196/

Instagram Tests New Auto-Captions Option for Instagram Stories

  • What this means for social media marketers:
  • Helps to ensure Stories can be understood in the sound off scenario
  • Creators might start using the tool to create videos with auto-generated captions for other platforms such as TikTok

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-tests-new-auto-captions-option-for-instagram-stories/596409/

TikTok Adds New Comment Review Option, Providing More Control for Creators

TikTok has added a new option that gives creators more control over the comments that appear on their clips, with the capacity to filter all comments as they come through and approve or deny as you see fit.

TikTok already enables users to filter spam and offensive comments, and specific keywords of their choosing, but this new option will provide even more capacity to control what’s displayed on your video clips, which could help users have a better experience on the platform.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-adds-new-comment-review-option-providing-more-control-for-creators/596498/

NUS ad promising negotiation skills to fight Godzilla leads to application spike

Launching a new social campaign on Facebook and Instagram, the school told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that it is looking to promote its “Negotiation Strategies for Success” online programme.

https://www.marketing-interactive.com/nus-ad-promising-negotiation-skills-to-fight-godzilla-leads-to-application-spike

Clubhouse is the latest trend – Telegram joins the train

According to the report from WABetaInfo, Telegram will add this voice chat channel. This means that Telegram group chat will support large conversations.

The original Clubhouse comes with strict moderations in discussions. We expect the Telegram version to also support these moderations.

https://www.gizchina.com/2021/03/14/clubhouse-is-the-latest-trend-telegram-joins-the-train/

Clubhouse Launches Creator Accelerator Program to Help Support Broadcasters in the App

Clubhouse has today announced a new Creator First accelerator program, which will see the app provide financial support and expertise to a selected group of creators, with a view to helping them build their audience, and ultimately monetize their Clubhouse efforts.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/clubhouse-launches-creator-accelerator-program-to-help-support-broadcasters/596682/

YouTube Looks to Provide More Tools to Tap into the Rise of Connected TV Viewing

Though most people view YouTube via mobile, the platform has found this fast-growing viewing experience is on TV screens. And there’s another interesting viewing behavior emerging. A new generation of viewers chooses to watch YouTube primarily on the TV screen. This trend has steadily increased over the past few years so back in 2019, YouTube added TV-screen specific targeting for marketers.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/youtube-looks-to-provide-more-tools-to-tap-into-the-rise-of-connected-tv-vi/596490/

There’s a group on LinkedIn; specifically for advertising copywriting. In this group, professional copywriters discuss industry trends, share articles helpful for copywriters, share their own experiences so if you looking to improve on your copywriting skills or just curious, here’s the link to request for yourself to be added to the group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/58585

88 Words and Phrases You Can Use to Convert [Infographic]

This breaks things down into the following sections:

  • Imply exclusivity
  • Imply scarcity
  • Lower risk
  • Power words

You can consider including these in your captions

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/88-words-and-phrases-you-can-use-to-convert-infographic/596348/

Monday Morning Learning – 8 March 2021

Instagram Adds New Group Livestream Feature Amid Growing Pressure From Clubhouse

Instagram is increasing its emphasis on group livestreaming as the established social media giant and its rivals seek to better compete with surging newcomer Clubhouse.

Instagram users will now be able to use so-called Live Rooms to broadcast with as many as three other people. The new feature is meant to “open up more creative opportunities, such as starting a talk show or a podcast, hosting a jam session or co-creating with other artists, hosting more engaging Q&As . . . or just hanging out with more of their friends,” a company spokesperson says. Instagram’s previous livestream function allowed only two people to stream together.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/03/01/instagram-adds-new-group-livestream-feature-amid-growing-pressure-from-clubhouse/

Instagram Says That it’s Exploring Options That Would Enable Users to Hide Like Counts if They Choose

Instagram has been testing hidden Like counts for some time now, and just last week has accidentally included more users than intended to test out the new option. Instagram admits that this idea is polarising for people, so they are looking into options to enable users to choose if they want to hide or unhide their likes count on their posts. Users may also have the option to hide like counts when setting up the post or after it has been posted.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-says-that-its-exploring-options-that-would-enable-users-to-hide/596253/

Facebook Enables More Users to Switch Off Political Ads, Expanding the Option to More Than 90 Regions

What’s new:

  • Now ads can be turned off entirely, previously could just reduce the frequency
  • Option extended beyond the US
  • Overall guidelines becoming more stringent for political content

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-enables-more-users-to-switch-off-political-ads-expanding-the-opti/596169/

Facebook Provides Tips on How to Maximize Paid Online Events

Last August, Facebook launched a new paid online events option, via Facebook Live, in order to provide another way for businesses to generate direct income amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Paid events enable businesses and creators to charge directly on Facebook for access to their online video programs, with exclusive tools and options available only to paying attendees. And recently, Facebook provided some tips on how to make best use of the process to maximize connection and opportunity, while also noting some coming features for the tool.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-provides-tips-on-how-to-maximize-paid-online-events/595906/

Twitter Looks to Get in on the eCommerce Boom with New Shopping Experiments

With eCommerce on the rise, the growing expectation is that, eventually, everything will be ‘shoppable’, with everything you see in a video on Instagram or TikTok, or every item you see in a posted image from a Facebook Page, made available for immediate purchase within a few clicks.

And Twitter’s also looking to ensure that it doesn’t miss the eCommerce boat. Last week, during its Analyst Day presentation, Twitter pointed to various new commerce options in development. And this could be the first one, with a new Twitter card type for eCommerce that adds a large ‘Shop’ CTA button, linking through to a transaction page.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/twitter-looks-to-get-in-on-the-ecommerce-boom-with-new-shopping-experiments/595988/

TikTok’s New TV-Connection Option Comes to US Homes

What this means for Advertisers & Marketers:

  • New opportunity to target Connected TV audiences as they can view even without a TikTok account
  • Translation issues – blowing up small screen clips on 4K screens
  • New Content Consideration for TikTok – TV-like ad campaigns with digital ad targeting

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktoks-new-tv-connection-option-comes-to-us-homes/596002/

17 Conversion Boosting Tips for eCommerce [Infographic]

The pandemic exacerbated the already rising trend towards online browsing and buying, with analysis showing that overall eCommerce sales saw 40% year-over-year growth in 2020.

Check out the infographic in the link for more tips to enhance conversions on eCommerce pages.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/17-conversion-boosting-tips-for-ecommerce-infographic/596235/

Monday Morning Learning – 1 March 2021

Twitter Adds First Visual Tools in Fleets with Stickers and ‘Twemojis’

Twitter’s version of Stories – called ‘Fleets’, for ideas that are ‘fleeting’ – is pretty much the same as Instagram or Snapchat Stories, but without the additional engagement options of playful editing tools and AR effects.

The new stickers tray, which you can access by tapping on the smiley face icon in the Fleets composer, provides a search option to help users locate the right sticker for their image or video post, while the Twemoji stickers will help convey a mood when added to your Fleet frame.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/twitter-adds-first-visual-tools-in-fleets-with-stickers-and-twemojis/595842/

Facebook is Reportedly Developing its Own Clubhouse Clone

Facebook is reportedly now in the process of developing its own Clubhouse clone, as it looks to nullify the rapid growth of the audio social app. Clubhouse, the invite-only audio social platform, has seen a massive rise of late, going from 600,000 active users in December, to 2 million just over a month later. That’s seemingly sparked Twitter to move ahead with a similar audio Spaces feature, and now Facebook is also looking to get in on the act.

Of course, Facebook already has its video Rooms and similar meet-up tools. But it doesn’t offer the exact same functionality, and with Clubhouse’ approach generating more interest, it seems logical that Facebook would look to add similar – given that it can, as it already has the infrastructure in place, and it has the scale to provide similar tools to its audience, which could then stop them spending their time in another app.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-is-reportedly-developing-its-own-clubhouse-clone/594888/

Facebook launches New App BARS for Rappers

If you thought you have had enough of Instagram’s ‘Reels’ features, Facebook has one more similar concept for you, but with a twist.

The social media giant, Facebook, has launched a new app called BARS that is being dubbed as a ‘TikTok look-alike’ but with a more concentrated audience and slight change.

https://www.wionews.com/technology/tiktok-look-alike-facebook-launches-new-app-bars-for-rappers-366736

Facebook Launches New, SMB-Focused Ad Campaign to Counter Apple’s Coming IDFA Change

With Apple’s IDFA changes set to roll out soon, Facebook launched a new ad campaign to explain why personalised ad targeting is a good thing, and justifies the need for data tracking so that people would not change their settings when they receive the new Apple prompts. In addition to this new ad approach, they have provided SMB other ways to help them out like simplifying Ads Manager to make it easier to get started and a new mini-site to promote this new push as they see this change will reduce effectiveness of ads; which may result in increase outreach costs for SMBs.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-launches-new-smb-focused-ad-campaign-to-counter-apples-coming-id/595737/

LinkedIn adds new features to boost employee engagement

LinkedIn is tackling the challenges of the virtual workplace with new features that will help businesses and employees connect in more meaningful ways.

The platform updated the “My Company” tab to help employers curate the employee engagement experience with their page. Employees can recommend and share content from their company and other coworkers and can recommend trending articles. Content reach and impact is easily measured with LinkedIn analytics.

https://www.benefitnews.com/news/linkedin-adds-new-features-to-boost-employee-engagement

Opinion: How do you find the sweet Spot(ify) in marketing?

The rise of Spotify as an advertising platform by brands isn’t new but the use of it in different ways is definitely interesting and most certainly worth exploring, especially when most marketers’ choice of social media strategy still remains Facebook and Instagram (with TikTok thrown in here and there). Globally, Spotify is being leveraged in several interesting ways, making the marketing mix a lot less conventional – and a lot more engaging. There are four broad buckets that define the usage of Spotify by brands: Quintessential Brand Advertisement, Making the World of Brand Come Alive, Using Spotify to Establish a Brand’s Utility, Using Spotify Podcast to Build Community

https://www.marketing-interactive.com/opinion-how-do-you-find-the-sweet-spotify-in-marketing

Would People Pay to Read Your Tweets? Considering the Potential of ‘Super Followers’ on Twitter

Twitter provided an overview of its in development ‘Super Follow’ option this week.  As a ‘Super’ follower of someone on Twitter, people could theoretically pay $4.99 per month to get things like a supporter badge, subscriber-only newsletters, exclusive content, deals and discounts, community access. Users would be able to run Twitter Spaces which only their super followers could join, post tweets that only their super followers could read and reply to, and share Fleets with their paying audience exclusively. The newsletter subscription element would be built into Twitter’s new Revue integration.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/would-people-pay-to-read-your-tweets-considering-the-potential-of-super-f/595767/

8 Types of High-Performing Video Content to Upgrade Your Marketing Strategy [Infographic]

It highlights the different components into the following parts of the marketing process:

  • Attract interest
  • Educate prospects
  • Convert customers
  • Retain clients

Check out the infographic in the article.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/8-types-of-high-performing-video-content-to-upgrade-your-marketing-strategy/595408/

TikTok is Slowly Moving Towards Affiliate Marketing

TikTok is planning new features akin to Instagram and Facebook, including self-service advertising, affiliate links (influencers make money on brands they promote), and in-app brand catalogues.

https://www.voguebusiness.com/companies/tiktok-e-commerce-could-harness-hyper-engaged-gen-z