Welcome to this week's episode of Social Chatter, the longest running social media marketing talk show where we cover the latest social media news from this past week.
As a reminder, each episode of Social Chatter is available as a blog post or video.
For those of you who missed last week's show, you can find it here.
We're also joined by this week's special guest, Sonia Figueroa.
Let's see what's new in social media this week with your hosts, Christian Karasiewicz and Nick Rishwain.
Watch This Week's Social Media Updates
Instagram Adds GIF Stickers to Stories
In Instagram news, they are working with Giphy to add GIF stickers to Instagram Stories.
Why Instagram GIF Stickers Matter For Your Business
Instagram is working with Giphy to roll out GIF stickers to Instagram Stories.
This is what it looks like.
What this means is that you'll be able to tap into animated GIFs that better mesh with your Instagram Stories that you apple them to.
As a business, while you might not find animated GIFs to be especially useful, they can be in certain situations.
You can read the announcement about Instagram GIF stickers in Instagram Stories here.
New Instagram Stories Format Called Type
Also this week, Instagram began testing a format for Instagram Stories called "type."
Why An Instagram Stories Format Called Type Matters For Your Business
Instagram is testing out a new format for Instagram Stories for typing out text.
This is what it looks like.
When you use the type of Instagram Stories format, you'll be able to ad a gradient background or use a photo for a background.
Overall, this seems very similar to what you can currently do on Facebook, by adding text with colored backgrounds.
While this feature isn't yet available on Instagram (it's being tested with a select audience), your business can prepare by creating a strategy for Instagram Stories and to think about how you might use a text format.
We would see this format being useful if you wanted to add a beginning or end to your Stories - when creating more elaborate ones.
You can read more on fun fonts in Instagram Stories here.
Facebook Trusted Sources
In Facebook news, they're working on ways to have the community rate truster sources on Facebook.
Why Facebook Trusted Sources Matters For Your Business
Facebook needs to find a better way to identify trusted sources of content.
To do this, they are going to prioritize the following types of news in your News Feed.
- News from publications the community rates as trustworthy
- News people find informative
- News that is relevant in the local community
Starting next week, they are going to start by prioritizing news from publications "that the community rates as trustworthy."
From there, they will continue to rely on core values to ensure that the content being shared on Facebook is quality, trusted content.
As a publisher, you stand to benefit if you're content people deem trustworthy (this is done via surveys).
If you're identified as being trustworthy, you may see an increase in the distribution of content.
Remember, this doesn't just apply to content you publish. Be sure that you have read an article before you choose to share it. Otherwise, people might begin looking at you as a publisher as not being trustworthy because of the types of content you share.
Facebook Testing New Ways to Display Photos
Facebook is testing new ways to display photos in your News Feed. These include the ability to write a comment, a carousel format and a way to blur the background around photos so that they are all uniform.
Why Facebook Photo Changes Matter For Your Business
This is what the new updates to photos in your Facebook News Feed look like.
It is good to see Facebook making adjustments to how they display photos in the news feed.
As a business, by adding a quick way to write a comment, this should encourage users to engage more with the photos that you are sharing with them.
While this is currently available for some users, the best way for you to plan is to continue to share quality content with your customers.
Facebook Training For Small Businesses In Europe
Also this week, Facebook said they were looking to train 1 million people and small businesses in Europe by 2020.
Why Facebook Training For Small Businesses In Europe Matters For Your Business
Facebook wants to help bridge the gap for people in the EU by offering digital skills training hubs.
They're initially launching these programs in Spain, Poland and Italy so that they can provide them with the necessary skills and resources to get jobs or help them put their ideas into action.
The program will:
- Offer training in digital skills, media literacy and online safety to underrepresented groups
- Provide different training for small businesses to help expand their digital footprint
- Provide digital skills training to 15,000+ women in France for their #SheMeansBusiness program
- And much more
If you run a small business in Europe, you should keep an eye out for Facebook's training hubs so that you can continue to improve your digital skills.
You can read more about Facebook's efforts to train 1 million people and small businesses in Europe here.
Facebook Testing Messenger Lite
Facebook is borrowing another feature from Snapchat. This time, they are looking to reduce the clutter in Facebook Messenger and make the app easier to use.
Why Facebook Lite Matters For Your Business
Facebook Messenger has gotten quite cluttered. What started out as a messaging platform now lets you send payments, create customer service bots, view Stories, make phone calls, play games and much more.
In essence, it's too much for a number of users who just want to be able to message their friends or for businesses to communicate with customers. It's as if there is a separate version of Facebook outside of the Facebook app.
To help streamline the clutter, Facebook is working on a Messenger Lite version that will let you use basic messaging features.
As a business, you're probably thinking Messenger needs to be cleaned up. There are so many different actions you can do, that it can become quite confusing to the average user.
A Facebook Messenger Lite version should help people in developing countries use Messenger more because it won't rely so much on a data carrier.
Overall, we would love to see a lite version of Messenger that allowed you to turn on and off just the options you wanted. This way you can have your own customized version of Messenger minus the clutter.
As a business, that would be a great solution because your primary focus might be on sending messages, Stories, payments and calls.
There is already an Android version of Facebook Messenger Lite. Hopefully Facebook releases a version for iOS.
You can read more about Facebook Messenger Lite here.
Snapchat App Installs Add Deep Linking, Deeper Analytics
In Snapchat news, you can now download their mobile app for Android.
Why Snapchat Deep Links and Deeper Analytics Matter For Your Business
Previously, Snapchat let app advertisers attach deep links to their campaigns. Users could then swipe up to open a specific spot in their mobile app.
They're now starting to make tweaks to improve these features for advertisers.
First up are quicker deep links.
Snapchat is automatically creating deep links for advertisers so that it immediately brings up a brand's mobile app. Previously, users had to swipe up on an ad to have it display a web page with a button that a user had to tap on to bring up a brand's app.
Now, when a user swipes up and they don't have the app installed, they will be taken to their respective Apple or Google app store to download the app if they don't have it. This is in an effort to improve the user experience.
Second, Snapchat is showing ad-to-install attributions. Users can now see how many installs their ads generated, even if they didn't directly install the app from an ad.
Brands can see how many times people swiped up on an ad in the past day, seven days or 28 days.
Brands who have enabled a Snapchat-approved mobile measurement firm, will be able to trace app installs to overall ad impressions.
A third update is <b.
What this update does is app install advertisers can use Snapchat's Ads Manager tool to see how the people who installed their app through Snapchat are using the app using in-app event tracking.
As a business, if you've hesitated to use Snap Ads, they're adding a host of new features that should help you better track, analyze and measure the performance of your app install ads.
You can read more about Snapchat allowing deeper links and analytics in app installs here.
Share Snapchat Stories Outside of the App
Snapchat is adding the ability to share some types of Snapchat Stories outside of the Snap app.
In order to do this, you’ll need to hold down on a public story in Snapchat, copy the link, and then email it, share it on another social media channel, or text it to someone you want to share it with.
Why Sharing Snapchat Stories Outside of the App Matters For Your Business
While Snapchat pioneered the idea behind creating stories on social media channels, they’re falling behind, as Facebook and Instagram have copied those features.
By adding the ability to share public Stories outside of the app, they hope to expose Snapchat to more people, especially those who find it confusing.
As a business, if Snapchat seems like an afterthought, it might be time to begin creating content there and embedding it in your blog posts.
This can help you attract new followers on Snapchat, but also open your business up to new and creative tools (also something that Snapchat does a great job at).
In order to get this new feature, you’ll want to be sure you’re running the latest version of Snapchat.
You can read more about public Snapchat Stories here.
WhatsApp Business App Now Available
In WhatsApp news, you can now download their mobile app for Android.
Why A WhatsApp Business App Matters For Your Business
WhatsApp has rolled out a business app in select markets. These include Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the UK and the United States.
The WhatsApp business app is a free app that is currently only available for Android at the moment.
With the WhatsApp business app, your company can set up a business profile to include a description of your business, email, a physical address and a website.
Customers can then interact with a business using quick replies to answer common questions, setup automated messages that are similar to Facebook response assistant, and view metrics to see messages that were successfully sent, delivered, and read.
You can download the WhatsApp business app here.
Tools
In addition to sharing the latest news from this past week, we also highlighted some great social media tools and apps for you to check out.
Convoz
The first tool that we have discovered this week is called Convoz (iOS).
Convoz is an app for creating public collaborative conversations.
Rather than share a video or photo and communicate with others just through the comments, Convoz lets you have face to face video chats.
Convoz is available as a free app. You can download it from the link below.
Download ConvozIntoLive
The second tool that we have for you this week is called IntoLive iOS).
IntoLive is a mobile app you can use to create live wallpapers from your favorite videos or GIFs.
If you're an iOS user, you can use it to create a live photo or wallpaper that can have a hidden video, such as a video from your Facebook Page.
Here are instructions on how to do this.
How to Use IntoLive
- Download the IntoLive Pro app
- Create a photo with a call-to-action, which you'll use for IntoLive
- Select the video you want to show when you create a live photo
- Launch the Facebook mobile app and share your photo
- To see the hidden video, tap on the "live photo" option on Facebook
IntoLive is available as a free app. If you want to create a hidden video for Facebook, you'll want to upgrade to IntoLive Pro for just $2.99 using the link below.
Download IntoLiveWrap-up
That's it for this week's show!
To watch next week's episode of Social Chatter, your weekly social media marketing talk show, tune-in here to find out what's new in social media!
If you have any questions about of the social media news or tools that were mentioned this week, please share them with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or in the comments below.
This Snapchat news is awesome! I’ve so often wanted to share content outside of the app, and longed for this feature. I’m excited!
I think I’ve put off getting WhatsApp for far too long. I’m going to get on my Android and download it now.
Thank you, Christian, for all the hard work you do to keep everyone in the loop with the latest social media news and helpful tools. 🤗