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 with Phil Gerbyshak, you can watch the replay here.
Let's see what's new in social media this week with your host, Christian Karasiewicz.
Watch This Week's Social Media Updates
Snapchat @-Tagging
In Snapchat news, they are testing @-tagging.
Why Snapchat @-Tagging Matters For Your Business
Snapchat is testing @-tagging, which is the ability to let users, brands and influencers build out their followers on the platform.
Previously, Snapchat didn't allow you to tag someone in a Story. Now, when you type text on a photo or video, you can @-tag users.
You can then swipe up from the bottom to see the account along with their bitmoji and the ability to follow that account.
Instagram Stories doesn't offer this functionality (yet).
For now, this is a major win for businesses (if it gets released).
You can read more on Snapchat @-tagging here.
Snapchat Creator Boost For AR Lenses
This week, Snapchat is adding creator boost to build out the AR lens community in the carousel within the app.
Why Snapchat Creator Boost For AR Lenses Matter For Your Business
For the longest time, Snapchat neglected its users. Fortunately, they've started to make a series of updates to change that.
One of those was the ability to embed snap maps on third-party websites.
Now, they're going to start allowing what they call "creator boosts," which are select artists to have their lenses shown in Snapchat.
While it is currently limited to select Snapchat users, this should be a big hit among Snapchat users. They already provide Lens Studio for building your own augmented reality experiences.
Now you'll be able to have your work featured in the carousel, which could lead to future opportunities (from brands).
As a business, Snapchat creator boost can be useful if you can get your lens into the hands of other Snapchat users.
It is also an opportunity to show off your skills, as we inch closer towards augmented reality.
You can read more on Snapchat creator boost here.
YouTube Search-Based Video Ad Targeting
In YouTube news, they are rolling out search-based video ad targeting.
Why YouTube Search-Based Video Ad Targeting Matters For Your Business
YouTube is rolling out search-based video ad targeting.
What this does is it combines traditional ad buys with digital ones.
As a result, if someone is listening to music channels, people who were watching those channels cold also be targeted, resulting in improved ad targeting.
For business owners, if you're currently spending money on television ads, you'll want to consider trying out YouTube's new search-based video ad targeting to reach customers online and off-line. Overall, this is a smart move by YouTube to push into combining older, traditional means of advertising with digital.
You can read more about search-based ad targeting here.
YouTube Information Cues From Wikipedia to Conspiracy Videos
Also in YouTube news, they are adding information cues for conspiracy videos.
Why YouTube Information Cues On Conspiracy Videos Matters For Your Business
YouTube is adding information cues to prevent alternative perspectives on conspiracy videos.
This was mentioned at SXSW.
"These will appear as text boxes that can prevent alternative perspectives on subjects including chemtrails and the supposedly fake Moon landing, both of which were used as examples to show how this would work in practice during the panel. The info pop-up appears below the video but above the title and description, giving it a certain amount of prominence in the interface."
As YouTube attempts to clean-up their platform, they have to find a way to still allow users to upload content, since that is what they are primarily built upon.
At the same time, YouTube needs to be able to have this controlled so that they can continue to also grow the platform further.
By introducing YouTube information cues, the pop-up will show a link below the video and help direct users to alternative information on a controversial topic.
As a business, you want YouTube to continue to allow user-generated content. This is a next step towards policing content that typically has a lot of conspiracy theorists discussing it.
You can read more about YouTube adding Wikipedia links on conspiracy videos here.
Disappearing Facebook Messenger Messages
In Facebook news, they are working on a new design along with disappearing photos and videos.
Why Disappearing Facebook Messenger Photos and Videos Matters For Your Business
Facebook already allows Pages to have posts disappear after a certain date. Why not have Facebook Messenger content expire as well?
In an effort to improve Facebook Messenger and possibly copy Snapchat yet again, Facebook is testing a way to have Messenger photos and videos disappear or be permanent in a conversation.
As a business, you could use disappearing photos and videos in Messenger for contests (to keep customers connected with your business). You may even want to venture into offering coupons or discount codes that you mention in a video that you send that expire. This way you encourage customers to take advantage of a real limited-time offer.
In addition to this feature, Facebook is also rumored to be adding the ability for Facebook Pages to be able to make calls from Messenger.
You can learn more about disappearing Facebook Messenger photos and videos, here.
Twitter Wins Soccer Live Streaming Deal
In Twitter news, they have won the live streaming deal over Facebook for Major League Soccer.
Why Major League Soccer On Twitter Matters For Your Business
Twitter recently beat out Facebook for a three-year streaming deal for Major League Soccer.
This means that Twitter will get access to live matches, along with other soccer programming, highlights and more.
Overall, this is a big win for Twitter, as they hope to compete with Facebook and Amazon who have access to NFL Football, the Golden Globes' red carpet and more.
While we don't watch a lot of television or sports (we haven't gotten used to watching it on Twitter or other social media channels), we do primarily find ourselves going to Twitter when we want to see highlights.
If you look at the bigger picture, television hasn't moved into social media - you have some sports that have.
This is a good move by Twitter, as more people watch Soccer globally than they watch American Football.
As a business, if you have a lot of customers who watch Soccer (and maybe you also sell equipment and apparel), you can use this to share this content with your followers or hopefully bring in new ones.
You might also consider borrowing some of the ways they are using live streaming when creating content for your channel to share.
In the meantime, Goal! for Twitter here!
To read the announcement about Twitter getting the Major League Soccer deal, 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.
Pippa
The first tool that we have discovered this week is called Pippa (iOS).
Pippa is an all-in-one podcasting tool. It can host your podcast, provide analytics, give you a marketplace to monetize your podcast and help make it easy to syndicate your podcast to your social media channels.
As a business owner, you may not have time to upload your podcast, gather analytics, and transcribe your podcast.
Fortunately, Pippa offers all of this (even on their free plan).
With Pippa, you can quickly syndicate your podcast in less time, while continuing to grow your business instead of relying on a host of different podcasting tools.
You can start using Pippa for free to upload 5 new podcast episodes. From there, prices start at $12 per month for unlimited episodes.
Pippa offers a free plan. You also get a 14-day trial using the link below.
Try PippaAsk Lisa
The second tool that we have for you this week is called Ask Lisa (iOS).
When you share photos on Instagram, do you just post and pray that people will like it?
If you rely on this tactic, that is a poor Instagram strategy to rely on.
Fortunately, tools are getting smarter thanks to the use of artificial intelligence.
This week, we've discovered the Instagram tool, Ask Lisa, a mobile app that uses artificial intelligence to predict which of the photos you plan to share on Instagram will generate the most likes.
Simply upload the photos you want to post on Instagram. From there, Lisa will analyze them and make a recommendation.
With the help of Ask Lisa, you can use data to determine which photos to share on your Instagram channel rather than guessing.
Ask Lisa is available as a free download. You can download it from the link below.
Download Ask LisaWrap-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.
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