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, including Facebook updates advertising tools, Instagram quiz stickers, Backpack Studio and more.
If you like, you can watch or listen to Social Chatter on our blog, YouTube channel or the Alexa Flash Briefing.
For those of you who missed last week's episode on Facebook ad library updates and LinkedIn ad targeting audiences, you can watch the replay here.
Let's see what's new in social media this week with, Christian Karasiewicz, Phil Gerbyshak and guest, Geige Vandentop, co-founder of StreamYard.
Social Chatter: Social Media Marketing Talk Show - Episode 188
Facebook Updates Advertising Tools
In Facebook news, Facebook updates advertising tools.
This is a very important update, especially if you run a lot of Facebook Ads.
Facebook plans to update Facebook Ads Manager - to make it simpler to use.
This includes a new navigation bar, more space to manage your Facebook Ads, as well as tools to help gain better insights in the important of your ads.
Here's a look at the updates to Facebook advertising tools.
Sometimes you want an easier way to run Facebook Ads.
With updates to Facebook advertising tools, you'll now be able to create ads and understand them thanks to new tools.
For example, instead of spending time trying to name your Facebook Ads, Facebook is launching an "auto-naming feature that will make it faster for businesses to customize their campaign, ad set and ad names."
This way you can quickly create your ads without getting stuck on how to name your campaigns and focus more on creating the best versions of your ads for your business.
These updates to Facebook advertising tools and your Ads Manager, will be rolling out to advertisers over the next year.
You can access the Facebook ad library here.
You can read the announcement about Facebook advertising tool updates here.
New Facebook 3D Photo Features
Also in Facebook News, they are rolling out new features for Facebook 3D photos.
Previously, you could create Facebook 3D photos only from mobile and if you had an iPhone 6 Plus or newer (the models with a dual camera), that use portrait mode.
Facebook is updating 3D photos. You'll be able to post Facebook 3D photos in Stories, and also create them from the web.
To share Facebook 3D photos in Stories, upload a photo as your normally would to Stories. You'll now have an option to share them to News Feed or Your Story.
On desktop, it's a bit more complicated. You'll need two files that give your image depth.
Here's a look at how to create Facebook 3D photos on the web.
Why Facebook 3D Photos Matter For Your Business
Facebook 3D photos look great.
It's good to see Facebook pushing them out for Stories and the web.
What this means for you as a business, is that you can start to get more creative with your Facebook Stories content and now take and share 3D photos with your fans.
This way you can begin to incorporate them into your social media content that you share with your fans. For example, you could create 3D photos for your products that you sell.
You can read more about Facebook 3D photos here.
Instagram Quiz Stickers For Stories
In Instagram news, they are launching Instagram quiz stickers for Stories.
Instagram quiz stickers to make your Stories more interesting and engaging.
You can ask one question using the Instagram quiz stickers feature and use static images or videos with two or four answers.
Here's a look at how Instagram quiz stickers work for Stories
Starting today, you can use the new quiz sticker in Stories to ask your friends and followers a multiple-choice question. See how well your friends know you. 🤔🙃 pic.twitter.com/a6y1PaOnSY
— Instagram (@instagram) April 23, 2019
Why Instagram Quiz Stickers Matter For Your Business
Instagram quiz stickers are going to be very useful for Instagram Stories.
Not only does it help make your Stories content more engaging, you can also use it to gather feedback from your customers.
For example, maybe you want to launch a new feature or you're announcing a new blog post? You can include Instagram quiz stickers in your Stories when you announce your new content and solicit feedback from your followers.
Here are instructions on creating quiz stickers.
How To Create Instagram Quiz Stickers
- Launch Instagram
- Tap on the sticker tray
- Tap "quiz sticker"
- Fill-in answers and pick the right one
As you can see, it's very easy to create Instagram quiz stickers - that you can also use to gather feedback from customers to help grow your business.
You can read more about Instagram quiz stickers here
In Testing: Instagram Hiding Like Counts
Also in Instagram news, they are testing hiding like counts from Instagram posts.
In a surprise move, Instagram is testing hiding like counts from posts. This way your followers can focus more on the content and not false social media metrics such as the like count.
Here's a look at how this would look on Instagram
Instagram is testing hiding like count from audiences,
as stated in the app: "We want your followers to focus on what you share, not how many likes your posts get" pic.twitter.com/MN7woHowVN
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) April 18, 2019
Why Hiding Likes On Instagram Posts Matter For Your Business
A lot of people focus on metrics that don't necessarily drive business in social media. For example, showing the like count can give people an artificial sense of self-worth and that their post did well (or failed if the like count is low).
Just because a post had a lot of likes doesn't mean that it's true (it's easy to fake engagement).
By hiding likes from posts, you can focus on testing your content to see what resonates with your followers - you'll be the only one who can see the like count.
This way you can gauge what is and isn't working with your followers and adjust it.
Remember, this is a feature that they are testing. What do you think, should Instagram hide the like count? Do likes impact what you view or engage with or is it the content itself?
You can read more about Instagram hiding the like count on posts 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.
Backpack Studio
The first tool that we have discovered this week is Backpack Studio.
How would you like to be able to record a podcast on-the-go? What about adding sound effects and intros and outros to your live videos?
With Backpack Studio, you get a complete mobile recording studio in your pocket.
For example, you can hire someone to record elements for a podcast and then bring those into Backpack Studio. This way they are available at the tap of a button.
Backpack Studio is available for $9.99.
Record audio for your podcast or live video
Blogcast
The second tool that we have for you this week is Blogcast.
According to Blogcast, "it is a friendly robot who likes reading and podcasting, and he wants to help you increase impressions on your articles."
With the help of artificial intelligence, Blogcast can turn your written articles into an audio version using text-to-speech, that you can embed on your blog.
At just $1 per article, you can quickly convert your written articles and help you reach new audiences, such as those who prefer audio over written content.
You can use Blogcast to convert your articles to audio for just $1 per article or sign-up for their Agency plan, which is $99 per month, for 500 articles.
Wrap-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 any 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.
