Welcome to this week's episode of Social Chatter, the longest running social media marketing talk show, covering 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.
Let's see what's new in social media this week with your hosts, Christian Karasiewicz and Nick Rishwain.
We're also joined by this week's special guest, Adam Leidhecker.
If you would like to connect with Adam, be sure to check out his podcast, More Than Hashtags.
Watch This Week's Social Media Updates
LinkedIn Active Status - See When People Are Online
In LinkedIn news, they have added a new feature called active status to see when someone is online.
Why LinkedIn Active Status Matters For Your Business
LinkedIn is rolling out a new feature called "active status."
The goal is to make it easier for you to know when someone is online so that you can connect with them or send them a message at the optimal time.
This is what LinkedIn active status looks like.
When your connections are online, you will see a green dot.
When your connections are available on mobile, you will see a green and white dot.
As a business owner, your time is valuable.
Now that you can see when someone is available on LinkedIn, you'll know whether you should hit send or wait a few hours to try and reach someone.
You can adjust your active status on LinkedIn from the settings menu.
Simply look under Settings > Privacy > Manage active status
You'll see the following options.
It is important to note that when you hide your status from someone, you lose the ability to see when they are also online.
While Facebook has had an active status feature for a while, it's good to see LinkedIn is finally getting one as well.
You can read the official announcement Facebook Page
WhatsApp Testing Verified Business Accounts
In WhatsApp news, they are testing verified business accounts.
Why WhatsApp Verified Business Accounts Matter For Your Business
WhatsApp is testing verified business accounts with some users.
You'll know a WhatsApp account is verified if they have a green checkmark next to the contact's name.
What this indicates is that WhatsApp has verified that the phone number associated with that contact belongs to a business account.
Another neat addition is that when you begin talking with a business on WhatsApp, you'll see yellow messages in the chat.
We're currently in a part of the world where WhatsApp is used a lot for business - more than Facebook and Instagram.
While businesses cannot currently get a WhatsApp verified business account (they're part of a pilot program), you can prepare yourself by adding your business phone number to your WhatsApp account and to be sure you've updated the name of your WhatsApp login to your businesses name.
To learn more about verified WhatsApp business accounts go here.
WhatsApp Launching Free Business App
Also this week, WhatsApp announced they are releasing a free business app.
Why A WhatsApp Free Business App Matters For Your Business
With over 1 billion people using WhatsApp every day to communicate and conduct business, it's time WhatsApp improved their platform for businesses.
Over the coming months, WhatApp said "we want to apply what we've learned helping people connect with each other to helping people connect with businesses that are important to them."
To do this, they're working on a free business app for small businesses as well as an enterprise solution for larger ones.
Some of the features for businesses include WhatsApp verified business accounts as mentioned above, along with features to make it easier for businesses to communicate with customers and close transactions.
The good thing about WhatsApp for business is that in order to contact customers, companies will also have to receive approval from a user first.
Right now, this free WhatsApp tool is not yet available.
In the meantime, you can prepare your business by creating a WhatsApp account just for it.
This way your business is ready to go when the new business tool becomes available.
You can learn more about WhatsApp's free business tool in this announcement.
Edit Your Business Listing In Google Search
In Google news, businesses can now edit their listing in Google search.
Why Editing Your Business Listing In Google Search Matters For Your Business
Businesses can currently create their own business listing on Google with this tool/
Here, you can add things such as your store hours, update your contact information, photos and more.
Now, they're looking to make it easier for businesses using Google's business listing tool.
Enter your businesses name in Google search.
From there, you'll see a dashboard for editing your business listing.
Here is how it works.
As a business owner, this is great news because you can now edit your business listing from anywhere.
You can also upload your own hi-resolution photos that you've taken to populate your business listing for customers.
It also means you'll have no excuse for your business not to have a listing on Google or to have incorrect or outdated information.
You can read more about editing your business listing on Google here.
Add Facebook Pages You Manage to Your Profile
In Facebook news, you can now add Facebook Pages you manage to your Facebook Profile.
Why Displaying Facebook Pages You Manage On Your Profile Matters For Your Business
Facebook is making it easier for you to display Facebook Pages you manage on your Profile.
Previously, it was difficult to add your Facebook Page to your Profile.
Now you can add Pages to your Profile in seconds. Here's how.
How to Add Facebook Pages You Manage to Your Profile
Not only will this build out your Facebook Profile, but it will also help let your friends know that you're now a business owner or that you help other businesses.
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.
Grids for Instagram
The first tool that we have discovered this week is called Grids for Instagram (web).
Do you wish you could use Instagram from your desktop?
While you can engage on Instagram through your web browser, if you want to upload photos and videos to Instagram, you have to use the mobile app.
Not anymore though.
With Grids for Instagram, you can upload photos and videos to Instagram, add to your Instagram Stories, edit your profile and more - all from your desktop.
Grids for Instagram is available as a freemium app and can save you hours of time managing your Instagram channel.
You can download Grids for Instagram from the link below.
Download Grids for InstagramChattyPeople
The second tool that we have for you this week is called ChattyPeople (web).
Do you find you spend more time managing Facebook Messenger conversations or comments?
Free up some of that time by creating your own Facebook Messenger and comments chatbot with ChattyPeople.
ChattyPeople is a Facebook chatbots tool.
You can build your own chatbot for your business without any coding experience.
ChattyPeople makes it easy to create your own chatbot.
You can also create chatbots to take orders from Facebook Messenger as well as from comments.
This way you're still actively managing your business, but automating some of the tasks that slow you down and keep you from growing.
You can register for free with ChattyPeople at the link below.
Try ChattyPeopleWrap-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 to our Facebook Page to find out what's new in social media news!
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.
