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, video or you can listen to the Alexa Flash Briefing.
For those of you who missed last week's show with Phil Gerbyshak, Nick Rishwain Christian Karasiewicz and guest, Jessica Dewell, you can find it here.
We're also joined by this week's special guest, Rachel Moore.
Let's see what's new in social media this week with your hosts, Christian Karasiewicz and Mike Gingerich.
Watch This Week's Social Media Updates
Snapchat Snapkit For Developers
In Snapchat news, they are rolling out the Snapchat Snapkit platform for developers.
Why the Snapchat Snapkit Platform Matters For Your Business
The Snapchat Snapkit will allow developers to finally offer features such as the ability to "login with Snapchat," use bitmoji avatars, tap into Snap's camera software and more.
As a business, if you use Snapchat or you have a majority of your customer base using Snapchat, it might be useful to be able to offer features such as the ability to login using Snapchat or use a custom bitmoji to show-off your personality or learn more about who your customers are (are they just like their avatar)?
While this feature hasn't launched yet, you may want to start surveying your customers to learn more about their behavior and how much they use Snapchat.
To learn more about the Snapchat Snapkit platform, click here.
Facebook Removing Trending Topics
In Facebook news, they are removing the trending topics section from your News Feed.
Why Removing the Facebook Trending Topics Section Matters For Your Business
Facebook is removing the trending topics section. They're currently testing Today, a dedicated section for people to learn about breaking and important news from local publishers near them.
In addition, Facebook is adding a "breaking news" label on posts in your News Feed and testing notifications for breaking news.
They are also pushing into Facebook Watch for news. This would let people in the US "view live coverage, daily news briefings and weekly deep dives that are exclusive to Watch."
If you produce news, your business may want to look into creating your own Facebook Live show to get into Facebook Watch. This way you can become a go-to source for local news coverage.
To read more about changes to trending topics on Facebook, click here.
New Facebook Fundraising Tools For NonProfits
Facebook is adding two new features to help fundraisers have more of an impact.
These include Facebook fundraising for Pages and Facebook fundraising organizers.
Why New Facebook Fundraising Tools Matter For Your Business
Facebook is expanding fundraising to Pages. "Brand and public figure Pages can now fundraise for nonprofit causes. Nonprofit Pages can now also start fundraisers for their own causes."
They are also now letting you add up to three friends to help organize your fundraisers.
As a business, you may find these new Facebook fundraising tools especially useful if you have ever thought about having your business support a cause that is important to you.
To read the announcement about these new Facebook fundraising tools, click here.
Facebook Lip Sync Live
Also this week, Facebook announced initiatives related to reducing the spread of fake news. These include the Facing Facts short film, news literacy campaigns and measuring misinformation through academic commission.
Why Facebook Lip Sync Live Matters
It should be obvious that Facebook really wants to use Facebook Live more.
While lip sync live might not be a tool for every business, if you have a remote team, this could be a good way to bring everyone together and help strengthen your team or consider using it as an ice-breaker in your Facebook Group to help make it easier to meet face-to-face with members.
In addition to Facebook lip sync live, Facebook is working with the music industry to help you to be able to include music in your Facebook videos.
You can read more about lip sync live here.
The Twitter Timeline Ad Network
In Twitter news, they are looking to place ads in Twitter Timelines that are embedded in a publishers' site.
Why A Twitter Timeline Ad Network Matters For Your Business
Twitter is looking to launch a Twitter Timeline Ad pilot program. This would let you generate revenue for your site.
Currently, while you can embed your Timeline on your site, you cannot monetize it with ads.
This new feature is looking to help you generate revenue from embedded tweets.
Here is an example of what it would look like.
To get more information about the Twitter Timeline Ads pilot program click here to sign-up and get notified.
Full Screen Ads In Instagram Stories
In Instagram news, you can more create full screen ads for Instagram Stories.
Why Full Screen Ads For Instagram Stories Matter For Your Business
Instagram Stories now supports creating immersive full screen ads.
Here is an example of these types of ads in Stories.
According to Instagram, "when a business uploads a single photo or a video under 15 seconds within Instagram Feed aspect ratios, Instagram will automatically provide full screen support for this content on Instagram Stories. Whether exclusively or across multiple placements, advertisers can seamlessly reach people across Instagram and Facebook."
Using what they call pixel matching technology, Instagram will automatically select a background gradient to turn the ad into a full screen one.
"If the ad creative is square or landscape, the text from the Instagram Feed or Facebook Feed unit will be added in stories text font below the photo or video. If the ad creative is taller than square, caption text will not show at this time."
People who view your Instagram Stories can swipe up to go to a destination link such as a product detail page, website and more.
Businesses who are already using Stories should consider
choose the video carousel option for Instagram.
You can read the announcement about full screen ads in Instagram Stories Instagram video carousel ads 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.
Almighty Press
The first tool that we have discovered this week is called Almighty Press (web).
It can be difficult to keep up with all of the news happening in your industry. With Almighty Press, you can identify content that is picking up based on engagement, time, comments and more.
Almighty Press can also be especially useful if you're looking to curate content for an article and want to identify quality sources to use.
You can start using Almighty Press for free from the following link.
Identify popular contentMediaToolkit
The second tool that we have for you this week is MediaToolkit (web).
MediaToolkit makes it easy for your business to learn about online mentions of your brand in real-time.
No more being late to find out you were mentioned in a major publication. With MediaToolkit, learn about every article, hashtag or comment that mentions your business. This way you can be proactive rather than reactive in controlling the online conversation about you.
MediaToolkit offers a free 14-day trial. Prices start at around $60 per month.
See who is mentioning your business onlineWrap-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.
