Welcome to this week's episode of Social Chatter, your weekly 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.
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, JoAnn Krall.
You can learn more about JoAnn Krall here.
Watch This Week's Social Media Updates
Introducing LinkedIn Video
In LinkedIn news, they are adding LinkedIn video to your account.
Why LinkedIn Video Matters For Your Business
If you're a business owner, LinkedIn video will give you another place you can share your experience and tell your story.
With LinkedIn video, you can share a work project (provided you have permission), go behind-the-scenes and more.
It's up to you how you want to tell your story to your customers.
To use LinkedIn video, follow these steps.
How to Use LinkedIn Video
- Launch the LinkedIn mobile app
- On iOS, look for the "share box" at the top. On Android, look for the "post button."
- Tap on the video icon
You will be able to record video in the LinkedIn app or upload one you recorded earlier.
In addition to rolling out LinkedIn video, once you post your videos, you'll also "see audience insights such as the top companies, titles and locations of your viewers, as well as how many views, likes, and comments your videos are receiving."
LinkedIn has started rolling out LinkedIn video.
Be sure you've updated your app to the latest version.
You can read the announcement about LinkedIn video here.
Facebook 360 Cover Photos
In Facebook news, you can now take 360 photos and use them as your cover photo.
Why Facebook 360 Cover Photos Matter For Your Business
Facebook is rolling out two updates.
One is the ability to take Facebook 360 photos.
First, you need to check if you have the ability to take Facebook 360 photos.
To do this, in the status update box, tap on the photos icon.
It will bring up this menu.
If you have this feature, you'll see a 360 photo option.
From there, it will launch your camera and you can capture 360-degree photos in the Facebook mobile app.
In your Facebook 360 photos, you'll also be able to tag friends that are in your photos.
The second update is once you have taken a Facebook 360 photo, you can upload them as your cover photo.
How to Take 360 Images In Facebook
- Launch the Facebook mobile app
- Tap the 360 photo option from the status update box
- Press the blue button and follow the path from start to finish
- Select the starting view for your Facebook 360 photo
These new features for Facebook 360 photos are rolling out to both iOS and Android users starting this week.
Facebook Removing Some Boosted Post Options
This week, we also saw Facebook announce they were removing some of the uncommon boosted post options.
Why Removing Facebook Uncommon Boosted Post Options Matters For Your Business
In an effort to improve Facebook Ads for businesses, Facebook is removing a number of uncommon boosted post types.
These include:
- Boosting share of products from shops
- Boosting the share of a story about a for-sale post
- Boosting a check-in on a map, at a restaurant, or in a city
- Boosting the share of a note
- Boosting the share of a poll
- Boosting place recommendations
- Boosting the share of cultural moments
- Boosting the share of comments
- Boosting change of a Profile picture
- Boosting a file upload or share
- Boosting a sports event
- Boosting of a video or image uploaded through the Facebook camera
- Boosting of attendance for an event
- Boosting the share of a video playlist
- Boosting the status of watching a television show, movie, or other types of programming
- Boosting a post from an app posted to a Page's timeline
- Boosting a political endorsement






























As you can see, a lot of the options for boosting a post are ones you likely didn't use.
According to Facebook, "this change will allow us to improve and expand our most effective ad products, and help advertisers identify solutions to help them reach their goals."
As a business owner, Facebook wants you to advertise more, so this change should help improve your overall experience.
Remember, Facebook wants "to help advertisers drive business outcomes while providing people with the most engaging experiences possible," so their ads ecosystem will continue to evolve to meet these objectives.
You can read more about why Facebook is removing uncommon boosted posts here.
Taking Action Against Facebook Video Clickbait
This week, Facebook began to take action against video clickbait.
Why Facebook Taking Action Against Video Clickbait Matters For Your Business
In an effort to fight video clickbait, Facebook is rolling out two updates to limit the spread of stores in News Feed that feature fake video play buttons in images or videos of only a static image.
Here is an example of a video violating Facebook's video clickbait standards.
To limit this, Facebook is going to be "demoting stories that feature fake video play buttons and static images disguised as videos in News Feed."
As a business, not much should change in your approach to creating engaging content.
Here are some recommended tools that can help you create authentic, engaging video content.
Remember, it's about being authentic in your marketing and giving users the experience you want them to have.
If you're a business that is trying to trick people into clicking on your videos or links, that speaks volumes about your business.
To read the announcement about cutting down on video clickbait, go here.
A New Way to Buy In-Stream Video Ads on Facebook
Also in Facebook news, they are rolling out a new way to buy in-stream video ads on Facebook and Audience Network.
Why New Ways to Buy In-Stream Video Ads on Facebook Matters For Your Business
More and more people are watching longer videos on their mobile device.
Facebook wants to capitalize on this trend.
As Facebook expands its range of vide ad options, advertisers have asked for more control over where their ads will appear.
Starting this week, advertisers can choose to "deliver their video ads specifically to in-stream placements in videos on Facebook, on Audience Network or across both."
This is what Facebook in-stream video ads look like.
For those of you using Facebook's Audience Network, you'll get to choose between in-stream ads in pre-roll and mid-roll across select apps and websites.
As a business, if you're running Facebook Ads for your business, you'll want to begin to give more thought to where you're running your Facebook Ads.
Remember, not all ads are created equal.
What works best on mobile doesn't necessarily translate to the same experience on desktop and so on.
You can read the announcement about new in-stream video ad placements on Facebook here.
New Ways to Reply to Instagram Direct Messages
In Instagram news, they are adding new ways to reply to Instagram Direct messages.
Why New Ways to Reply to Instagram Direct Messages Matters For Your Business
Instagram is rolling out a host of new ways to use photos and videos to reply to Instagram Direct messages.
In Instagram Direct, now when you go to reply to a message, "your reply will include a sticker of what you're replying to."
Simply hit "reply" to open your camera.
From there, you can take a selfie and send it to your connection.
Another neat feature introduced in this Instagram update is the ability to send a split-screen reply.
This is what the Instagram split-screen replies feature looks like.
To use the new split-screen replies in Instagram Direct, simply tap on the sticker mentioned above.
You can then draw on the sticker, add camera effects and more.
To get this update, simply update your Instagram app to version 10.34 and above.
As a business, if you find yourself messaging customers through Instagram Direct, the new stickers feature makes it easier to keep up with the conversation to make sure you're replying to the right customers.
You can read more about this announcement on the Instagram blog.
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.
PicFlow
The first tool that we have discovered this week is called PicFlow (iOS).
Are you looking for other ways to create engaging content for your Instagram channel?
With PIcFlow, you can mix your photos and music to create a photo slideshow video in seconds.
Not only will PicFlow give you another type of content you can create and share on your Instagram channel, it is also extremely easy to use.
Simply add your photos, add music, and record your timings.
In no time, you'll have a baby music video slideshow to share on Instagram.
PicFlow is available as a freemium app.
You can download PicFlow from the link below.
Download PicFlow for InstagramNarro
The second tool that we have for you this week is called Narro (iOS | Android).
Do you spend more time in the car, on trains or exercising?
How would you like to be able to consume more content while you're on-the-go?
With Narro, now you can.
Narro is an app for iOS and Android that let's you save blog posts, PDFs, items from RSS feeds, your web browser and more.
When you save an item to Narro, the text to speech podcast app, automatically converts it to audio for you.
Now you can listen to those articles you've been meaning to read from anywhere!
Narro is available as a free app.
They also offer a Narro Pro account, which charges $0.50 per hour and adds in additional integrations, such as the ability to email articles and text into your Narro feed, create a custom rotation of voices and more.
You can try Narro from the link below.
Try NarroWrap-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.
