Lately in Social Media: March 2017
YouTube’s in hot water with advertisers, and Facebook’s been busy stealing features from Snapchat (again). Here’s what marketers need to know about the latest in social media.
YOUTUBE
- You might have noticed that advertisers have been pretty unhappy with Google since they noticed their ads were being shown alongside racist, extremist or otherwise offensive content. This is especially problematic because 1 in 3 viewers think an ad counts as an endorsement from a brand. How this trend will impact your marketing strategy is up to you, but it’s pretty clear that YouTube needs to clean up the platform to protect its own bottom line. You might want to consider concentrating your video content strategy on Facebook instead – native video views there are crushing YouTube’s numbers lately.
- Now anyone can go live in 360 degrees. Anyone with a fancy 360 degree camera, that is.
- It turns out bots haven’t been measuring up to businesses’ hopes, so Facebook is scaling them back for the time being. Instead of letting users ask your bot anything, you can set a predetermined menu of buttons they can click. It’s not the sophisticated capability everyone was hoping for, but at least it limits how badly your bot can screw up.
- A new ad unit, Collections, can showcase video, images and Canvas-like elements into a single post. Speaking of ads, did you know Boosted posts tend to have the best ROI?
A advanced local search feature, currently being tested, could give your local marketing a boost by better connecting users to nearby businesses and restaurants. It’s not clear how Facebook would choose to order listings, but it could mean Facebook-specific SEO considerations> for your business down the road.- Facebook stole another feature from Snapchat with the launch of Messenger Day, a Snapchat Stories clone that we’re waiting to see if anyone will actually like/use. If you’ve been debating whether your business should be on Snapchat, our Facebook/Instagram overlords are determined to convince you they already have everything you need.
- The shopping potential of Messenger gets a boost with the integration of TransferWise, which will allow international transfers for the first time. It’s a good indication that Messenger wants to emulate WeChat and may some day be your go-to platform for everything.
- Facebook is reportedly testing an option to post GIFs in comments, which could make your branded interactions a little more exciting. The company is also testing an option that would allow Pages to post in Groups – which could be great for brand engagement with targeted audiences.
- Mobile users noticed Facebook experimenting with an alternate news feed that would help users discover relevant content from sources they don’t follow. If you’re one of the few who can see the rocket tab in your feed, give it a tap.
Who needs Snapchat when Instagram steals all the best features? Now marketers can add Geostickers to their Instagram Stories, which are handy for sharing events and enhancing location-specific posts.- If you use Instagram’s Live Video feature, you can now save your posts to archive them, share them with your team, or just review them privately to fret over your weird voice and double chin.
- Stories Ads are available globally! Now you can reach all of Intagram’s 150 million daily users.
- There’s big news on the horizon for service-oriented businesses, as Instagram announced that users will eventually be able to book a service within the app. This feature is planned to launch by the end of the year.
- Security matters for both users and marketers, so take advantage of Instagram’s new two-factor authentication to protect your accounts. You can also use the “sensitive content filter tool” to keep your feed SFW.
- This explains why hashtags came back – LinkedIn announced a Trending Storylines discovery tool to encourage users’ engagement with content. Instead of sifting through your (often boring) news feed, you can shift over to your Trending feed to see stories curated by LinkedIn’s editorial team, and flavored by your own interests and network.
Twitter plans to monetize Periscope, starting with pre-roll ads that air before live and archived videos. Advertisers in Twitter’s Amplify program will be able to participate. Periscope also added new analytics tools, and you can now watch Periscopes in moments.- It looks like Twitter is considering launching a subscription service, a kind of “Twitter Pro.” And this rumored version would likely include an advanced version of TweetDeck, but no one knows what Twitter might charge for this service. The company is still determining if there’s enough interest to make “Twitter Pro” a thing, especially with the multitude of third-party options such as Hootsuite and Buffer. If Twitter offered exclusive options for a fee, would you pay?
- Now regular ol’ Twitter Analytics includes data for the Moments you create. Does that encourage you to use them more?
- Don’t you hate when your business Twitter feed gets too NSFW? Twitter is taking another step toward addressing offensive content by experimenting with marking entire profiles as sensitive content. Just make sure it doesn’t block out the accounts you actually like to follow 😏
SNAPCHAT
- Snapchat is pitching on-demand Geofilters that are more affordable for smaller businesses than video ads, but they’re not necessarily the right fit for every brand.
Do you use the Pinterest Chrome extension to save ideas? The little Pin button just got an AI upgrade to become a visual search engine for the web – now when you hover over an image, you’ll see the familiar Save button and a new magnifying class icon, which you can click to see similar items from around the web. This new discovery feature is an interesting opportunity both for consumers and marketers, especially since it’s easy to find similar items from different companies.- Businesses and agencies willing to spend at least $100 a day are invited to join Pinterest’s Propel Program to access one-on-one support, educational materials, house-made custom pins and more.
- Promoting an app? Pinterest just released a Promoted App Pin ad format for that.
- Pinterest also added new features for Spanish-speaking users, by ensuring that search features like typeaheads and search guides also work in Spanish, and by launching Pinterest Explore in Mexico and Argentina. If your audience demographic includes Spanish speakers, you can follow Pinterest’s new Spanish blog for more updates.
