Tag Archives: updates

MONDAY MORNING LEARNING – 30 MAY 2022

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Social Media Managers Can Now Post to TikTok from Their Favorite Social Media Management Tools

TikTok has now integrated a new set of social media management tools to its Marketing Partners Program, allowing you to organise, schedule, and publish content to TikTok from your preferred platform.

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/social-media-managers-can-now-post-to-tiktok-from-their-favorite-social-med/624505/

International Burger Day Posts From McDonald’s in Asia – Great Way to Increase Engagements

McDonald’s Singapore initiated the conversation by posting their favourite burgers and tagging McDonald’s Korea to contribute their favourites as well.

McDonald’s Korea then tagged McDonald’s HK in order for them to share theirs.

According to social proof, a post from McDonald’s SG received over 2.5k likes, much beyond their usual 200-500 likes. At the same time, it piques consumers’ interest in the burgers available in other Asian countries, encouraging them to click on each of the marked McDonald’s locations to learn more.

Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CeFfxF1Dnwp/?igshid=NWRhNmQxMjQ=

Chevrolet’s WhatsApp Game Drives Awareness of Texting and Driving Dangers

Chevrolet Brazil created a WhatsApp mobile game to raise awareness about the dangers of texting and driving. The campaign will be promoted by promotions on Instagram Stories and Twitter during Yellow May, the international awareness month for decreasing road accidents.

By typing “hello” to Chevrolet, mobile users can access the Zap Racing game on the messaging app. Messages fill the screen with emoji depicting a car approaching obstacles such as trees, bikers, and other vehicles, while players can drive their vehicle by responding with commands in the chat. With each stage, the game becomes tougher, and all players will inevitably crash in the end. The last message informs viewers of the dangers of texting and driving.

The game builds on Chevrolet’s increased focus on social media marketing and shows that it is targeting younger consumers who are heavy app users.

Instagram’s Working on a Video Reaction Option for Reels

Instagram is presently testing a new feature that prompts users to ‘make a reaction video’ directly from the Reels share sheet. The user can film a reaction video by clicking on the settings menu found on the reel they want to react to.

Instagram has previously added a handful of TikTok-inspired features, and this is another move in TikTok’s direction, as Instagram explores ways to more closely coincide with TikTok’s core, and enormously popular product, in order to neutralise TikTok’s growth and keep users linked with its apps.

Link: https://thenextweb.com/news/instagram-remix-feature-reels-tiktok-duets

NFTs Are Coming to Instagram

Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that Meta will begin testing NFTs on Instagram very soon, most likely right now.

This experiment is intended to allow creators and collectors to display their NFTs on their accounts. This would also be available on Facebook in the future, although no timetable was provided. There are no expenses associated with showing NFTs on your profile.

Augmented reality NFTs are also being created for Instagram, and one area to use them is in IG stories, where you can project digital art into 3D and physical places utilising Spark AR (software AR platform).

This is being tested in the United States and would allow testers to share their NFTs, whether they created them or have them in their collection, on their Instagram feed, stories, or in messages.

The community has expressed concern about the massive quantity of carbon footprint this would cause as power is consumed when transactions that employ that power occur. While this may encourage more people to participate in NFT creation and purchasing, it is unclear how much carbon footprint will be freed as a result.

Link: https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/nfts-are-coming-to-instagram-with-testing-starting-this-week/

MONDAY MORNING LEARNING – 09 MAY 2022

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Facebook’s Removing a Range of Location Tracking Tools as Data Regulations Continue to Evolve

According to Meta, these services will be discontinued after May 31st, 2022, at which point Meta will cease collecting the data necessary to power these elements, even if you had previously enabled them. According to Meta, all previously logged information pertaining to these functions will be destroyed on August 1st.

“While we’re deprecating some location-based features on Facebook due to low usage, people can still use Location Services to manage how their location information is collected and used.”

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebooks-removing-a-range-of-location-tracking-tools-as-data-regulations/623365/

TikTok Has A New Way For Advertisers to Reach Users

TikTok Pulse is a new advertising alternative for marketers unveiled by TikTok. This new ad option exposes brands to the top 4% of videos. More specifically, your advertising may appear alongside content in a user’s For You stream.

Additional benefits of TikTok Pulse include:

  • Drive engagement and action
  • Confidence in brand suitability measurements

Currently, TikTok will offer 12 categories of Pulse for brands to choose where to show their content. Some of the categories included are:

  • Beauty
  • Fashion
  • Cooking
  • Gaming

By allowing you to select the category in which your advertising appears, you may engage with the groups that are most relevant to you. TikTok will apply an in-house designed inventory filter to ensure that your advertising appears next to top content. They simply ensure that the information published on the site is validated and has the highest level of brand compatibility.

Individual producers and media publishers with at least 100,000 followers are currently eligible for the programme.

Link: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/tiktok-pulse/448948/#close

LinkedIn Updates Feed Algorithm to Downrank Engagement-Baiting Posts and Polls

LinkedIn users dislike engagement baiting posts. These posts specifically request or encourage the community to interact with the material through likes or reactions. This type of content can be deceptive and frustrating for LinkedIn users, who are mostly professionals.

LinkedIn also recognises that polls are frequently utilised by social media marketers since they are straightforward and easy for the audience to engage with. To combat this, their algorithm will only display polls that are useful and relevant.

LinkedIn also published a paper titled “5 Key Ingredients for a Unified Brand,” which contained a table format outlining how marketers may assist in finding the correct story for each audience (page 15). Download the PDF here: https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/marketing-solutions/case-studies/images/pdfs/5-key-ingredients-for-a-unified-brand.pdf

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/linkedin-updates-feed-algorithm-to-downrank-engagement-baiting-posts-and-po/623313/

LinkedIn Feed Algorithm Updates

LinkedIn users can now opt out of political content within the app. While it does not influence everyone, persons in political and advocacy roles may become involved, affecting platform reach and performance for select users and brands.

LinkedIn is attempting to reduce notification volume, so you will receive fewer updates from your network. Instead, it will display more targeted activity from your network, where you are more likely to participate in the conversation or interact with the post. (For example, if you don’t know that other person, you may not get much value from reading a connection’s comment on someone else’s post about a job move, thus they will show fewer such posts.)

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/linkedin-updates-feed-algorithm-to-downrank-engagement-baiting-posts-and-po/623313/

Millennium Hotels & Resorts Launches M Social Decentraland

Millennium Hotels & Resorts, which debuted on May 5, 2022, is the world’s first hospitality group to run a hotel in the metaverse. M Social Decentraland is the hospitality group’s newest hotel and is positioned as a destination for those who want to learn new things and interact with like-minded people.

Guests can engage with the avatar that greets them in the foyer and will be led on a discovery tour within the hotel. Those that make it to the summit of Decentraland will be rewarded with real-world hotel delights. Millennium Hotels and Resorts is searching for like-minded partners for future partnerships, as well as adding treasures and surprises to their virtual world visits as an incentive for more visitors to explore their new hotel. 

Link: https://www.millenniumhotels.com/en/m-social-decentraland/

Whatsapp launches New Communities feature

This is the first stage of the community feature announced last month:

  • Able to send files over 100MB which was the limit but now increased to 2GB
  • New admin tools, sub-groups
  • Whatsapp calls can hold up to 32 people using audio only
  • Reactions are avail in group chats and possible to add up to 512 people in a group chat! The current limit is 256 people

On the brand marketing front, this opens up new opportunities in which brands may create a loyalty group within Whatsapp itself and offer unique deals and sneak peeks to their chosen clientele.

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/whatsapps-doubling-the-size-of-group-chats-in-the-app/623363/

MONDAY MORNING LEARNING – 14 FEBRUARY 2022

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NFL Opens Snapchat Playbook for Super Bowl Sunday

The NFL is teaming up with Snapchat for a number of Super Bowl activations, including three shows that will stream on Snapchat Discover, Cameo stickers that can be used in the app, and top plays from the season that will be shared in Spotlight.

The league also collaborated with Snapchat on a National World Lens based on the company’s TV ad, which will air during halftime. The Lens will be unlocked with a Snapcode and will be promoted on the NFL’s social media channels. For the first time, the NFL is integrating Snap’s Camera Kit into its One Pass app, which gives you unique access to NFL events.

The NFL and Snapchat are attempting to increase participation during an event that is not only the year’s most-watched television broadcast but also one that is becoming increasingly dependent on mobile devices. When it comes to sports, 87% of Snapchat users prefer it to other apps, making it an important platform to watch the event on.

Link: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/nfl-opens-snapchat-playbook-for-super-bowl-sunday/618537/

Mr Beast – Video Growth Framework

Capturing attention through thumbnails, headlines and introduction.

  • Mr Beast’s Squid Game It included all of the game’s key aspects, such as the life-size doll, the green and red suit, and the players’ (fear/stress) vs. guards facial expressions (happy)
  • “I played Squid Game In Real Life!” vs. “$456,000 Squid Game In Real Life!” in the video title. The latter generates a sense of surprise, which leads to the next point: creating a curiosity gap.

Creating a curiosity gap by releasing information throughout the video to optimise audience retention.

  • For example, other YouTubers who created squid game videos took about 1-4 minutes to get the games started, while Mr Beast’s optimised his audience retention by taking only 16 seconds to introduce the video and then jump straight into the first game.

Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/dickiebush/status/1491945998742085651?s=21

YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ZbGnwXjj4

The Rollout of TikTok Stories

All users of TikTok now have access to the app’s Stories feature. If you haven’t made a story yet, you’ll see a notification at the bottom of the screen prompting you to do so when you start the app. 

The Story will expire in 24 hours, just like Instagram and Snapchat Stories, but it will appear on users’ FYP in the same way as regular video content does on the app. Instead of showing up as separate stories, you can access all of the Stories published by the user on your FYP page within 24 hours.

The little tag in the top right corner distinguishes a Story from a regular post. While Stories is progressively gaining traction among content creators who want to try it out, because it’s similar to Instagram Stories, it may take some time for other users to catch on.

Twitter Tests New ‘Articles’ Option, Potentially Enabling Long-Form Posts in the App

Twitter’s currently working on a new option called ‘Articles’, which appears to provide a means to create blog posts within the app, which would then, assumably be shareable, in some form, via tweet.

It’s unclear how it would work in practice, but it’s something Twitter is working on.

Some have speculated that this will be a Twitter Blue option, or at least that this will be the case at first, with paying customers able to make long-form pieces that they can subsequently publish in the app. Of course, the true value is in the mechanics of how it works and how Twitter would display these longer postings in the app. However, it’s worth noting that Twitter hasn’t given up on the idea of longer-form writing in tweets.

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/twitter-tests-new-articles-option-potentially-enabling-long-form-posts-i/618228/

Instagram Experiments With Stories Highlights to Reels Conversion Option, Longer Reels Clips

Instagram is currently allowing you to convert an Instagram story highlight to a reels clip. The process then enables you to synch the highlight to music, providing a whole new way to create Reels content. 

This allows you to recycle your best posts, and boost your overall Instagram engagement.

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-experiments-with-stories-highlights-to-reels-conversion-option-l/618227/

Adidas’ Controversial Bare Breasts Campaign – Great Example of Why Strategy & Creative Go Hand-in-Hand

Adidas created a 24-square grid of “real” breasts to promote their new sports bra range, which comes in 43 different versions for a better fit. Consumers reacted negatively to the promotion, and marketing professionals were split on how to respond.

Customers were outraged because their children follow Adidas on social media, and they believed this was inappropriate. Marketing experts believe that this was done for shock value, given the target audience for sports bras already knows that all breasts are different and that different people require different sorts of support. As a result, the question of what this ad was aiming to achieve in terms of awareness by having bare breasts in front of the camera was raised.

Adidas claimed to be “normalising” breasts of various shapes and sizes, but this failed to materialise as breasts had to be censored on several social platforms to comply with platform guidelines, and their 43-variant sports bra range did not adequately cater to all sizes or shapes, offering only compression rather than encapsulation. For example, according to Adidas’ sizing chart, a 4x bra fits anywhere from a 46DD to a 48A.

Link: https://www.marketing-interactive.com/adidas-bare-breast-tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/02/10/adidas-bare-breast-ad/

Instagram Stories Poll Stickers Are About to Get a Major Upgrade

New poll sticker styles are being tested on Instagram Stories, allowing users to add more than just ‘yes’ or ‘no’ alternatives to the poll. New text customization capabilities and the ability to add up to four different response options are included in the new poll sticker.

This new option is not yet available to everyone, so keep an eye out for it!

Link: https://later.com/blog/instagram-stories-poll-stickers/

MONDAY MORNING LEARNING – 20 DECEMBER 2021

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Instagram Adds New Option to Embed User Profiles on Third-Party Websites

Instagram launched a new “Profile Embed” feature that allows users to embed a mini-version of their profile on a website. Users will be able to better integrate their Instagram profiles with websites such as blogs and portfolios using the new capability. 

According to Facebook, the feature is presently only available in the United States. In a video shared to Twitter, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri announced the launch of the new feature.

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-adds-new-option-to-embed-user-profiles-on-third-party-websites/611677/

Instagram Publishes 2022 Predictive Trends Report

Instagram has released a new 2022 predicted trends report that covers a variety of growing movements across many categories in order to help brands and marketers better grasp key shifts. 

The 13-page report covers a variety of topics, including cuisine, wellness, memes, and fashion and beauty.

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-publishes-2022-predictive-trends-report/611438/

Twitter Tests New Creative Tweet Options as it Looks to Move In-Line with User Trends

Twitter is testing a new option for adding a reaction to a tweet called “Quote Tweet with Reaction,” which allows users to capture a response to a tweet using the full-screen camera mode.

By attaching the original tweet as a sticker to your taken image or video, you can replace the current Twitter reaction with a direct and visual engagement.

Twitter is also experimenting with an updated text editor option tweets that would allow you to add more colour and make comments more visually appealing.

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/twitter-tests-new-creative-tweet-options-as-it-looks-to-move-in-line-with-u/611596/

Changes to Objectives in Ads Manager – Full list shared

You’ll be able to choose from six new objectives when you start a new campaign. Campaigns created prior to the publication of our new objectives will stay active, and there will be no need to make any modifications to them. Until the end of 2021, you’ll be able to edit and duplicate your existing campaigns.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/325793898950394

MONDAY MORNING LEARNING – 11 OCTOBER 2021

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Introducing Instagram Video

Instagram has unified IGTV and feed videos into one format, Instagram Video, starting on October 5th. This means you’ll have a new video tab on your Instagram profile, where you can access all of your IGTV and feed videos in one spot. This new upgrade, according to Instagram, is designed to make it easier for people to discover new video content because the video is such a popular format among users, both watchers and creators, making it easier to create and discover videos on the site.

Video dimensions have changed as well. You can now post a video up to 9:16; same as Stories or in landscape. When you go through the stream, the videos will appear as they always have, but when you press on one, it will expand to the 9:16 view, where you may pause, fast forward, or rewind the clip. You have the option to keep scrolling, similar to TikTok’s interface, to discover additional video content from content you might be interested in. Under advanced options, you may also trim the video in-app, add a cover photo, and add captions.

Unlike a video post, if you include a video in carousel style, it will seem different. It will not appear in the Video tab, and it will not expand like the other video formats when you tap on it. In addition, IGTV Ads are now called Instagram In-Stream video ads. Long-form video creators may still monetize their work, and businesses can target audiences that are interested in long-form video. Videos must be no longer than 60 seconds in duration if businesses want to increase the number of people who see them.

Link: https://business.instagram.com/blog/introducing-instagram-video-combining-igtv-and-instagram-feed

TikTok Tests New Option to Pin Selected Video Clips to the Top of Your Profile

TikTok is currently testing a feature that allows users to pin specific movies to the top of their profile display, allowing them to highlight specific pieces to visitors.

You can pin up to three clips in its present test form, taking up the entire top line in your display, which provides another strategic opportunity to help increase your audience and maximise engagement by casting the spotlight on your chosen work.

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-tests-new-option-to-pin-selected-video-clips-to-the-top-of-your-prof/606871/

Internal Documents Show Facebook Usage Among Young Users is in Steep Decline

The recent whistleblower case within FB helps to shade more light on how FB has been manipulating the data of users to their own benefit.

Many social media platforms, however, tend to skew their data for their own publications. The metrics were further manipulated in recent years due to how popular Tiktok has been growing.  As a result, they’ve become yet another potential Friend/MySpace that Facebook “killed” when they first launched.

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/internal-documents-show-facebook-usage-among-young-users-is-in-steep-declin/607708/

YouTube Adds New Caption Options, Including the Expansion of Automatic Captions for Live Streams

YouTube has made some improvements to its video captioning tools, making it easier for more channels to add caption text to their videos. These advances include: 

  • Automatic captions for live streams, in English language, available for all creators (previously only for those with over 1k subscribers)
  • Expanding its subtitle translation options to mobile (currently available only on desktop)
  • Making video transcripts searchable, enabling viewers to find specific segments of video clips based on the caption text

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/youtube-adds-new-caption-options-including-the-expansion-of-automatic-capt/607963/

YouTube Tests New ‘Engagement Graph’ Insights on Videos, Adds New Member Acknowledgement Feature

YouTube is adding a new engagement graph where you can see the peaks and troughs in engagement activity when you scrub through the clip. Facebook did something similar in 2016, when they used reactions and comments as a signal. YouTube’s engagement graph, on the other hand, will be based only on interest, not on whether or not that particular cut of the video is controversial or engagement-baited.

Link: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/youtube-tests-new-engagement-graph-insights-on-videos-adds-new-member-ac/607819/

Tiktok has new mental health resources for its users

TikTok announced last week that it would be implementing new resources for those who were struggling with suicidal ideations. The new tools include An in-app resource list of crisis hotlines around the world to help users in every region; information on how to engage safely with someone who may be in crisis; resources, including the Crisis Text Line helpline, whenever someone searches for a term such as #suicide

Since the pandemic, as the community struggled with loneliness and restrictions, the hashtag Mentalhealth and Mentalhealthmatters was viewed 16.4 billion times and 13.5 billion times respectively, underscoring demand for such resources and support.

Link: https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/tiktok-has-new-mental-health-resources-its-users-some-experts-n1279944

NFT Museum is on the market

The Museum of Digital Life (MoDaL) has come up with a self-contained metaverse featuring everything from 2D images and 3D experiences. It is essentially a digital museum in the form of an NFT and is on sale. 

It contains 12 art pieces varying from 2D images and videos and 3D interactive objects and experiences. It works like a normal museum where you can explore and even interact with guests there. The intention for this idea is to be a ‘growing’ space where there will be new features of art, animations and environments

Link: https://sea.mashable.com/tech/17798/an-entire-nft-museum-is-on-the-market