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, video or you can listen to the Alexa Flash Briefing.
For those of you who missed last week's show with Phil Gerbyshak, Christian Karasiewicz and guest, Lisa Demmi, you can find it here.
We're also joined by this week's special guest, Marc Ensign.
Let's see what's new in social media this week with your hosts, Christian Karasiewicz and Phil Gerbyshak.
Watch This Week's Social Media Updates
Testing Facebook Augmented Reality Ads In Your News Feed
In Facebook news, they are testing augmented reality ads.
Why Facebook Augmented Reality Ads Matter For Your Business
Facebook is testing a new feature in your News Feed - augmented reality ads.
What these will do is allow you to try-on or test out products before buying them.
For example, you can see what you look like in a pair of glasses, a shade of lipstick, a hat, shoes, etc.
As a business, you stand to benefit from Facebook augmented reality ads because you can now capture a buyers attention on Facebook and entice them to buy your product right from your ad - no need to visit your website.
This seamless transaction makes it easier on you, the business owner, because if you craft a strong user experience with your product through your augmented reality ads, customers can shop right from Facebook and won't have to visit your website and try and figure out your shopping cart process.
To read more about Facebook augmented reality ads, click here.
Relaunching Apps For Facebook Groups
Also this week, Facebook quietly relaunched apps for Facebook Groups.
Why Apps For Facebook Groups Matter For Your Business
Would you like to add features to your Facebook Group? For example, maybe you want to have an email subscription box or incorporate content from your other social media channels into your Group?
Facebook is adding back in the ability to add apps to your Groups.
If you manage a Facebook Group and you've been using a serious of work-arounds, Facebook is letting developers tap back into their Groups API (through a review process).
You stand to benefit because once approved, you'll have new options that you can add to your Facebook Group to better customize it to your liking and build a deeper relationship with your members.
To read the announcement about apps in Facebook Groups, click here.
Adding the Instagram Questions Sticker In Stories
In Instagram news, you can now get feedback from your Instagram followers using the new Instagram questions sticker.
Why the Instagram Questions Sticker Matters For Your Business
Instagram is rolling out a questions sticker. This new feature will let your friends submit questions for you to answer.
This new feature is very easy to use, but can deliver powerful results for your business.
How to Add the Instagram Questions Sticker
First, launch Instagram Stories. From there, take a photo or video and then tap on the question sticker from the sticker tray.
You can then type out a question and arrange it.
Your followers can then tap on it to reply to it.
If you're a business, you may want to use this as a way to gather feedback from your followers, rather than have them fill out a survey.
This interactive feature for Instagram, when done right, can help you gather valuable insights for your business.
For example, you may want to talk about your website or which social media channels you're thinking about using and then include a question using the Instagram questions sticker to poll your audience. You now have instant feedback to help guide your business decisions.
To read the announcement about the Instagram questions sticker, click here.
Verified Instagram Accounts
Also in Instagram news, they are testing verified Instagram accounts.
These are the blue checkmarks you see on Facebook and Twitter.
Why Verified Instagram Accounts Matter For Your Business
Some Instagram users can now request account verification from the Instagram mobile app.
While account verification isn't a strong indicator that you're a social media influencer, a lot of people put stock in having a checkmark to show that they are verified.
If Instagram begins offering verified accounts, one good thing that could come out of it is to show that you're dealing with a real account instead of a fake one.
You can read more about verified Instagram accounts 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.
Let's Enhance
The first tool that we have discovered this week is called Let's Enhance (web).
Let's Enhance is a free tool that can take your low quality images and increase them to 4X their resolution without degrading the resolution.
As we upgrade our cameras, our photos don't get any better.
With Let's Enhance, they use machine learning to enhance your images and upscale them to bring out missing image details.
You can use Let's Enhance for free by following this link.
Try Let's EnhanceDesign Pickle
The second tool that we have for you this week is Design Pickle (web).
Design Pickle is a one-stop-shop to help you create images for your social media channels, blog, presentations, infographics and more.
Instead of hiring a graphic designer, Design Pickle is a monthly service where you can request unlimited designs and revisions for your graphics.
If you're not a designer and you simply want someone to help bring your vision to life, Design Pickle can help you with this (and save you time in the process).
In addition, you also get access to a host of royalty-free stock images to use in your designs.
We currently use them to create the blog images and show images for our weekly social media marketing talk show, Social Chatter.
Pricing starts at around $370 per month or less if you go with an annual plan.
You can try out Design Pickle risk-free using the following link.
Try Design PickleWrap-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.
