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.
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 Live Video With Friends
In Instagram news, you can now go Iive with friends.
Why Instagram Live With Friends Matters For Your Business
One thing we're really impressed with is how easy it is to use Instagram Live with a guest.
In fact, here's how you bring on guests.
How to Use Instagram Live With Friends
- Launch Instagram
- Switch to live video
- Start your Instagram live video
- Tap on the two faces icon
- Add someone to go live with
When you're finished, you can add your live video to Stories or "discard" it.
When someone you follow is going live with a friend, you'll see two circles stacked together in Stories. It looks like this.
As a business, we love how easy it is to bring someone on during an Instagram Live video.
Hopefully this makes its way to Facebook Live video as well.
You'll now have to add this feature to your collection of Instagram Live video tools to use when creating content.
You can the announcement from Instagram here.
Facebook Post Sets
Facebook is set to take on Pinterest with Facebook post sets.
Why Facebook Post Sets Matter Your Business
Facebook is testing a new feature called "sets," that make it easy to create sets of specific posts, photos and videos for people to follow along with.
According to TechCrunch, here's how Facebook post sets work.
"Those with access will see the option to create a Set on their profile based around a theme of their choice. By default, Sets are visible to friends on your profile and in the News Feed. All your friends are defaulted to be "following" the Set so they'll keep seeing updates about it, but they can unfollow so they'll only see that Set on your profile and not in the News Feed. Facebook is also testing "Secret Sets" that default to only being visible to a private selection of friends you choose."
If you have this feature, this is what you'll see.
We're particularly excited about Facebook sets.
If it's anything like Pinterest, this should also help content last longer.
You can read more about Facebook post sets here.
Peer-to-Peer Payments With PayPal and Facebook Messenger
In Facebook news, they are adding peer-to-peer payments and stock trading in Messenger.
Why Peer-to-Peer Payments Using PayPal and Facebook Messenger Matter For Your Business
First off, PayPal is teaming up with Facebook Messenger to offer peer-to-peer payments.
What this means is that you can send money using PayPal in Facebook Messenger.
Here's how you can send money using Messenger.
How to Send Money With PayPal and Facebook Messenger
- Create a new Facebook Messenger message
- Tap the blue plus icon
- Select the green payments button
- Send or request money
As a business owner, you probably already collect PayPal payments from customers already.
Having the option inside Facebook Messenger will be even more convenient.
You can read more about this partnership between Facebook Messenger and PayPal here.
TD Ameritrade Partners With Facebook Messenger
Also this week, TD Ameritrade announced they were adding a chatbot service to let you trade stocks using Facebook Messenger.
Why Trading Stocks With Facebook Messenger Matters For Your Business
Back in August, TD Ameritrade launched a chatbot that let its customers get basic information and do research.
This week, they're rolling out the ability to fund their account, place orders, make ACH deposits and more.
Here is what TD Ameritrade looks like in Facebook Messenger.
This particular feature shows the power that having a chatbot can do for your business.
Instead of getting on the phone with a representative, you can handle a lot of the things you need to do with minimal interaction.
As a business, this particular example of a chatbot should get you thinking how you can take parts of your business and turn them into a chatbot.
This will in-turn free you up to grow other parts of your business.
To read more about TD Ameritrade and Facebook Messenger click here.
Facebook News Feed Publisher Guidelines
Facebook is rolling out News Feed publisher guidelines to help publishers succeed on Facebook.
Why Facebook News Feed Publisher Guidelines Matter For Your Business
It's no secret, it is getting more and more difficult to be seen in the Facebook News Feed.
In an effort to make it easier to understand how your News Feed works, Facebook is publishing News Feed guidelines - a collection of "do's and don'ts."
This particular document outlines a number of "publisher principles" such as "people on Facebook value standards for safe, respectful behavior"
The guidelines also talk about posting misleading content, bullying and more.
As a business, you'll want to familiarize yourself.
There are a lot of so-called social media influencers who use a number of these tactics. If you end up working with them, you'll know if they're leading you down the wrong path for your business.
You can view the Facebook News Feed Publisher Guidelines here.
Facebook Temporary Status Updates
In Facebook news, they are testing temporary Facebook Profile status updates.
Why Facebook Temporary Status Updates Matter For Your Business
Facebook is giving a nod to the past with a temporary Profile status update.
Users can set a temporary status update on their profile, along with an expiration date.
They can also choose whether it shows up in News Feed or just on their profile.
This could potentially be a useful feature for businesses if it makes it way to Pages.
Sometimes a business might be attending an event and they need to set a quick status update, but then they get busy and forget to switch if off.
With temporary status updates, a business could conceivably set a status update to let fans know they're at a conference or an event and to expect a delayed response and then have that status update change after a certain amount of time.
You can read more about temporary Facebook Profile status updates here.
New Facebook Custom Audiences for Dwell Time and Link Sharing
Facebook is updating custom audiences with two new options - dwell time and link sharing.
Why New Facebook Custom Audiences for Dwell Time and Link Sharing Matters For Your Business
Facebook has a lot of different data points they can use to help you improve your targeting for Facebook Ads.
This week, they're adding two new options, dwell time and link sharing.
With well time, this will let you create a Facebook custom audience for a list of people who have spent time viewing your display adverts on Facebook or Instagram.
This means you can re-target users who have looked at your ads but didn't take action.
The link sharing option creates an audience based on people who have shared your content on Facebook.
As you can tell, both of these options should help your business improve its targeting for the content that you share.
You can find these when you go to create Facebook Ads - there's an option to create a new Facebook custom audience.
You can read more about these new Facebook Ad targeting options here.
Facebook Explore Feed
In more Facebook news this week, Facebook launched the Facebook Explore Feed.
Why Facebook Explore Feed Matters For Your Business
Facebook is running out of places to put content (and ads), which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
In an effort to help you discover more content, Facebook is rolling out Facebook Explore Feed.
This is a separate feed with posts you might find interesting based on your activity.
Where to Find Facebook Explore Feed
Facebook Explore Feed can be found under the menu on the left side of your News Feed.
Look under the "Explore" section for this icon.
You'll then see a separate section of content with no ads (currently).
We took a look through the content and some of the content. Some of it seemed like content we might be interested in, while a majority didn't.
Take a look at your Facebook Explore Feed and let us know how relevant the content is for you.
As a business, you'll want to pay attention to the Facebook Explore Feed and ask new customers how they learned about your business - maybe your Explore Feed is sending people there.
To see your Facebook Explore Feed, go here.
Facebook Testing Web-Based VR In News Feed
This week, Facebook began testing web-based VR in your News Feed.
Why Web-based VR In Your Facebook News Feed Matters For Your Business
The next frontier for Facebook to conquer is VR.
According to Facebook, "we are testing integration of React VR into the News Feed with a few partners. We'll have more to share on additional rollout at a later date,"
One such example of Facebook VR in your News Feed comes from the British Museum.
You can take a virtual trip around their museum.
As a business, VR could be a great way for you to explain your layout and where to find things or take customers on a virtual tour when you make changes to your store.
We're excited about the possibilities of VR in News Feed.
It will be up to businesses to get creative when this finally arrives.
You can read more about web-based VR in your Facebook News Feed here.
Facebook 4K Video
Also in Facebook news, they are now allowing 4K video.
Why Facebook 4K Video Matters For Your Business
YouTube has been allowing 4K video playback since 2010.
It's time that Facebook allows it too.
Some Facebook Pages and Profiles can now enable 4K video on Facebook.
You can check by going to a video on Facebook clicking on the gear icon.
If you have Facebook 4K video, you'll see 2160p (or 4K) listed.
Here's a screenshot of that this looks like.
Overall, this should be good news, with more and more devices supporting 4K.
It should also help Facebook get additional traction for their Watch for Facebook feature.
You can read more about 4K video on Facebook here.
Snap Accelerate From Snapchat
In Snapchat news, they are launching Snap Accelerate for startups.
Why Snap Accelerate Matters For Your Business
Are you a mobile startup in the digital space?
Snapchat wants to make it easier for you to scale your business with Snap with Snap Accelerate.
If you fit the following criteria, you can apply to join Snap Accelerate here.
Snap Accelerate is a smart move by Snapchat.
It helps them be more selective about the businesses they choose to work with.
In-turn, businesses will be able to gain added exposure from working with Snapchat.
To learn more about Snap Accelerate and apply, click here.
Share Links From Other Apps Via Snapchat
Also this week, Snapchat updated their mobile apps to allow you to share links from other apps via Snapchat's messaging feature.
Why Sharing Links In Snapchat Matters For Your Business
If you want to send someone a link in a Snapchat message, simply use the "share sheet" and select Snapchat.
This is what it looks like.
From there, you can choose who you want to share your message with and include a personal note.
To get this new feature, simply update your Snapchat app here.
Live Location Sharing In WhatsApp
In WhatsApp news, they are adding a new feature for you to share your location in real-time.
Why WhatsApp Live Location Sharing Matters For Your Business
With live location sharing in WhatsApp, this could be very useful for business owners.
This is what the feature looks like.
How many times have you had a customer call and ask for directions?
With this new feature, if you do business using WhatsApp, you can use this when communicating with customers.
Maybe a customer is lost and cannot find your business?
You can simply open a chat with a person or group and have them share their location with you so that you can assist them. Here's how.
How to Share Your Live Location In WhatsApp
- Launch WhatsApp
- Start a new conversation
- Under "Location," select "Share Live Location"
- Choose how long to share your location
Everyone who is in the chat conversation will be able to see real-time location on a map.
According to WhatsApp, if more than one person shares their Live Location, all locations will be visible on the same map.
This feature will be available on iOS and Android in the coming months.
You can read the official announcement from WhatsApp 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.
Picfy
The first tool that we have discovered this week is called Picfy (iOS).
Picfy is an app that lets you post full size photos and videos to Instagram without cropping.
Previously, whenever you would upload a photo or video natively to Instagram, it would get cropped.
With Picfy, you can also add filters and stickers to your photos before sharing them.
Picfy is available for free from the link below.
Download PicfyPixlr
The second tool that we have for you this week is called Pixlr (web).
Social media has evolved to where you need a way to create beautiful graphics to go with the content you are creating.
Most small to medium business owners though don't want to spend thousands of dollars on tools such as Adobe Photoshop.
This week, we have discovered an Adobe Photoshop alternative in Pixlr.
With Pixlr, you get the power of Adobe Photoshop without the high cost.
As a business owner, you'll get the flexibility to grow as the needs of your business do as well.
Pixlr is available through your web browser - they also have a free photo editing app as well.
Pixlr is available for free from the link below.
Try PixlrWrap-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 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.
