Welcome to this week’s episode of Social Chatter where we cover the latest social media news from this past week.
Each episode of Social Chatter is available as a blog post or video.
Let’s see what’s cooking in social media this week with your host, Christian Karasiewicz and special guest, Nick Rishwain!
Watch This Week’s Social Media Updates
Facebook Messenger Chatbots and Payments
This week, Facebook began rolling out new features for Messenger.
These include chatbots and the ability to accept payments from Messenger.
We’re really excited about these new features as it should be a seamless way for businesses using a Facebook Page to use Messenger to complete the sale.
Here is a short video on how this feature would work.
You can read more about Messenger chatbots and payments here.
Facebook Live Coming to the Desktop
In more Facebook news, they have begun testing Facebook Live video from the desktop.
This is very exciting because now you don’t have to use expensive software (some were $500) to be able to broadcast from your desktop.
Here is a sneak peek on how it works.
LinkedIn Announces Conversion Tracking
#LinkedIn announces native conversion tracking for sponsored content, text ads. https://t.co/uDaBW0dpre #socialmedia pic.twitter.com/LDtmzXmOCj
— Social Chefs (@socialchefs) September 13, 2016
This week, LinkedIn rolled out native conversion tracking.
For anyone who has tried to use LinkedIn’s advertising and analytics, you know how difficult it was to gather anything from the success of your campaigns.
With the new conversion tracking on LinkedIn, you get "a set of capabilities built directly into LinkedIn Campaign Manager that lets you easily measure how many leads, sign-ups, content downloads, purchases, and other specific results you’re getting from your Sponsored Content and Text Ads campaigns."
This is fantastic news for businesses looking to advertise on LinkedIn who needed data to back-up their advertising with their boss.
"With conversion tracking, you can understand more about the specific ads and even the unique LinkedIn audiences that are driving your campaign conversions -- including the seniority, industry, job function, and company size of the people you’re converting to leads."
Here is a short video on using the new conversion tracking from LinkedIn.
To get started with the new LinkedIn conversion tracking, login to LinkedIn Campaign Manager and click on “conversion tracking” to get started.
YouTube Launches YouTube Community
This week, YouTube announced YouTube Community.
YouTube Community “gives you a new, simple way to engage with your viewers and express yourself beyond video. Now you can do things like text, live videos, images, animated GIFs and more, giving you easier, lightweight ways to engage with your fans more often in between uploads, in real time. Viewers will be able to see your posts in the Subscriptions feed on their phones. They can also opt into getting a notification anytime you post.” (Source).
We’re particularly excited about YouTube Community and see this being a natural extension of YouTube.
For people who have a built-in audience on YouTube, while this is another network to manage, it lets you engage more with your subscribers and hopefully bring in new ones.
You are still doing to have people using the Facebook Live Video, so you will want to develop a presence in both places._
If you would like to check out our YouTube channel, we would love to have you as a subscriber. We have also been developing a strong following on Facebook as well so feel free to connect with us in either place and let us know what you think about our video content.
Instagram Comment Filtering
In Instagram news, they have added a comment filtering option.
This new feature - found under Options > Comments, will let you automatically hide inappropriate comments.
You can also take things a step further by adding to a custom keyword list to block comments that the “hide inappropriate comments” filter doesn’t pick-up.
Here is what the comments section looks like.
Canva Gets More Funding
In design news this week, one of our favorite tools, Canva has received more funding.
This is great news if you are a Canva user because it means they will be around for a while.
If you’re new to Canva, we suggest checking out their tool because not only is it free, but if you need to purchase stock images, they are a low-cost option.
For those of you already using Canva, don’t forget they offer a number of keyboard shortcuts that can save your business hours of time.
Low cost and a time-saving tool. Sounds like the perfect combination if you’re looking to build your business on a budget.
Take a moment to congratulate Canva and share the following post.
Twitter Live Video Notifications
One last piece of social media news this week comes from Twitter.
Did you miss an influencer or business on Twitter when they were on a live video session?
Now you don’t have to because Twitter has added a notifications button.
You can get notified when someone you follow “only tweets with live video.”
There are also options to disable Twitter notifications for a specific user or you can choose to get notified about all of their tweets.
Here is a short video showing you how to access this new feature from the Twitter mobile app (iOS | Android)
Don't miss a live moment! Turn on notifications to join in when someone you follow shares live video on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/dddk81GuCH
— Twitter (@twitter) September 12, 2016
Remember, you want to be selective about who you choose to get notified about.
If you turn on notifications for too many Twitter accounts at once, it can make it hard to keep up.
Start out by turning on notifications for accounts you definitely want to see and then add and remove as needed until you have the right balance.
Tools
In addition to sharing the latest in social media news from this past week, we also highlighted some great tools and apps to check out.
TES Teach
The first tool we wanted to share this week is TES Teach.
TES Teach is an app that let’s you create digital lessons in less than give minutes.
While TES Teach (Desktop | iOS | Chrome) is primarily for educators, you can use it to create interactive lessons, projects, presentations and more!
They even have a way to let you monitor student understanding with quizzes and discussions, which could come in handy depending on how you use it to test your students/customers.
TES Teach is a free application that can be a valuable tool to train customers and employees.
Download TES TeachMarco Polo Video
The next tool we wanted to share with you is called Marco Polo Video.
Marco Polo Video (iOS | Android) is a messaging app, that is similar to Facebook Messenger in that you can have text and video conversations.
It is unique in that you don’t have to be a Facebook user in order to use it.
If you have been against joining a social network, you might want to consider Marco Polo video to help you stay-in-touch with friends and family who have also avoided joining sites like Facebook.
Download Marco PoloPundit
The last tool we wanted to share this week is a free app called Pundit.
Pundit (iOS) is an app for creating bite-sized talkshows on your favorite topics.
If you have been looking to use audio to build your platform and don’t yet want to create your own podcasting, Pundit is a great place to start.
With Pundit, you can start your own talkshow from your mobile device and then drive your existing audience to listen to your show.
Because you are using a third-party platform, you can also tap into Pundit’s audience to bring in new listeners who might not yet be a customer of yours or know who you are.
Download PunditWrap-up
That’s it for this week’s episode of Social Chatter.
Be sure to tune-in to our next episode on Social Chatter to find out what’s new in social media!
If you have any questions about anything mentioned this week, share them with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or in the comments below.
