Lately in Social Media – 11/3/17
If you’ve been watching the news cycle, it’s fair to say it’s been a rough month for the major social media platforms. The upside to all this bad news? Apparently Facebook’s ad targeting is pretty darn effective. And as long as marketers promise to do no evil, maybe we can learn some valuable lessons from this whole unfortunate mess.
Anyway, even as the Russian troll farm revelations came to light, we also experienced some new updates and features on our favorite platforms. Let’s talk about ’em.
- Were you one of the estimated 126 million Facebook users exposed to Russian influence via ads and Pages? Probably. If anything, we learned that the best way to sow seeds of discord among your audience is with extremely polarizing language and a little devil imagery. Maybe Facebook adding a “paid for” disclaimer label to ads will help? Or having actual humans manually review certain types of ads? Worst case scenario, you can just distract yourself by uncovering these “Easter egg” text effects.
- As if navigating the news feed wasn’t complicated enough, a new Facebook experiment considers limit users’ main feed to just friends-and-family updates and paid content, while banishing organic brand content to a separate Explore feed that exposes users to content from Pages they don’t like or follow. Jury’s still out on how panicked brands should be right now, since the test is only limited to a few countries so far. But if the change goes global, this could completely upend strategies and budgets everywhere.
- Facebook claims it doesn’t use our phone microphones to spy on us for ad targeting purposes, but we’re still skeptical. The truth is out there.
- If you’re willing to connect with job candidates exclusively within Facebook, a potential résumé feature and a partnership with ZipRecruiter could bolster the Marketplace job ads to provide some competition for LinkedIn.
- Facebook is testing facial recognition as a way to authenticate that it’s really you logging into your account. Perhaps it’s time to “face” the music and accept that facial recognition is our future? (Sorry, had to.)
- Feeling hungry? If you’re not willing to leave Facebook for a different app, you could just order food from the Explore menu.
- Facebook Watch videos aren’t getting the long views that YouTube videos tend to, but many publishers say it’s still better than the views they get in the news feed.
- In response to #WomenBoycottTwitter, the platform shared plans for new rules and tools to combat abuse and harassment.
- Do you use TweetDeck as your Twitter management tool? Good news: You can now upload and send videos via tweets.
- Video card ads pair autoplay videos with a web page preview that loads faster than a standard text link. Perhaps more autoplay videos are a small price to pay for higher user engagement with your ads?
- You already turn to Twitter to follow what’s happening right now, and now those of-the-moment updates are even easier to locate with the creatively named “Happening Now” feature that sits at the top of your timeline.
- Instead of having to like a tweet or DM it to yourself to find it again, you’ll soon be able to bookmark tweets for re-reading later.
- The bright side of learning that some 20 million people saw Russian ads on Insta before the election? “You sure can reach a lot of people on this platform!”
- If you’re not using the new superzoom feature for comedic effect, you’re missing so many opportunities.
- A stop motion feature is currently in testing with some users, so start planning your super cool content now in anticipation of global release.
- Not sure if your viewers enjoy your Instagram stories? Ask them to take a poll.
- Now that all users can invite friends into their live streams, the content possibilities are incredible. Think of how you can collaborate with your influencers and partners to make exciting content.
- If you struggle with impulse control, beware the temptation of Instagram’s sleek shopping experience.
- If you’re a big Messenger user, LinkedIn now offers canned responses smart replies for your convenience.
- Talent Insights offers more data to help users refine their targeting approach for hiring and recruiting on the platform.
- Get ready to promote your next conference or event with custom Snapchat-like geofilters.
- Start budgeting to run autoplay video mobile ads as sponsored posts by next year!
YOUTUBE
- YouTube changed its algorithm to display more trustworthy sources after seeing a spike in false and hateful content on the platform in response to the Las Vegas shooting. How they determine which sources aren’t #fakenews is still a mystery.
SNAPCHAT
- Ready to retarget?? Soon you’ll have the power, thanks to the release of a pixel. Until that capability is fully available, you can use it for measurement purposes at least.
- Is it safe to assume that users will only go into Ghost Mode to hide their nefarious activities? Because if you don’t want Snapchat to share your location, you can just turn that feature off…
- What happens when more and more influencers leave Snapchat for Instagram? Considering all the ways Instagram Stories is surpassing Snapchat in terms of use and users, this doesn’t bode well either.
- Maybe Snapchat’s salvation lies in a future of AR-enabled Spectacles?
Got questions about how these features can benefit your business’ marketing and advertising? We’d love to chat with you about your strategy! Give us a call or contact us below.