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 new in social media this week with your hosts, Christian Karasiewicz and Nick Rishwain.
We're also joined by this week's special guest, Ross Quintana.
Watch This Week's Social Media Updates
Facebook Rewards with QR Codes
In Facebook news, they are testing out rewards for offline shoppers.
Facebook Rewards for Offline Shoppers Matter
Facebook is testing a new feature called Facebook rewards.
You can access them from the Facebook mobile app (iOS | Android)
With Facebook rewards, Facebook is looking to let people collect rewards when they make a purchase at a participating store.
While the allure of Facebook rewards are discounts and more, we think there is a more longterm play here being Facebook Ads.
Currently, a lot of brick-and-mortar businesses are going out of business because customers are going online.
Now imagine if Facebook were able to collect data on purchases customers made at physical stores.
Stores could run Facebook Ads to do outreach to new or existing customers to stay top-of-mind.
For businesses with a physical brick-and-mortar store, they could conceivably offer discounts, coupons or Facebook Ads targeted at customers passing by their stores.
While this feature is currently being tested with a limited number of users, you can check if you have it by launching the Facebook mobile app and looking under the "more" menu.
From there, look for "rewards."
Overall, we hope Facebook decides to roll out rewards to other users.
Despite a lot of brick-and-mortar businesses closing their stores, this is an untapped market that Facebook Ads could help.
In the meantime, you can read more about Facebook rewards here.
Twitter Teams Up With Bloomberg, Others on Live-Streaming Deals
In Twitter news, they have partnered with Bloomberg and others for streaming news.
Why Twitter Streaming News Matters
Twitter is still trying to figure out which direction to head.
This time, they're looking at streaming news with companies such as Bloomberg.
Twitter plans to offer streaming news just for Twitter, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
According to Justin Smith from Bloomberg, "It is going to be focused on the most important news for an intelligent audience around the globe and it's going to be broader in focus than our existing network."
They plan to have the streaming news channel operational by this fall.
Anthony Noto, Twitter's CFO, made a very interesting comment in regards to cord cutters.
"We really think we can reach audiences that are not paying for TV and are watching television on the go and we think Bloomberg is the perfect partner for us to start with."
Overall, we really like this idea.
One of the challenges with being a cord cutter is that it makes it difficult to get the latest news without having to go to a lot of different resources.
If Twitter's streaming news service were to catch on, we could see this becoming a viable option for Twitter to continue growing its user base and become an everyday destination as more and more people cut the cord on expensive and overpriced cable services.
To read more about Twitter's live-streaming deals, take a look at this article.
Snapchat Viewability Score
In Snapchat news, they are rolling out a viewability score for advertisers.
Why a Snapchat Viewability Score Matters
According to AdWeek, "Snapchat isn't going as far as letting the Media Rating Council independently audit its ad clients' campaigns six weeks after the ANA called for all major digital platforms to do so."
As a result, we have Snapchat viewability scores.
Select advertisers are getting a viewability score that is validated by Moat, to meet the guidelines of the Media Rating Council.
The goal of viewability scores is to help decide "whether videos warrant chargeable impressions."
This is great news if you've ever wondered if your ads were actually seen.
There are benefits and drawbacks to each. Which way would you prefer?
Let us know in the comments below.
In the meantime, you can read the announcement about Snapchat view ability for advertisers here.
Snapchat Ads Max Reach
Also in Snapchat news this week, they are rolling out snap ads max reach.
Why Snap Ads Max Reach Matters
Similar to Instagram Marquee and Twitter First View, snap ads max reach "guarantees that a brand's ad will be served to everyone in the US who is shown a Snap Ad on a given day"
What this means is that "anyone who watches a friend's or celebrity's Story, views one of Snapchat's curated Our Stories or checks out a publisher's Discover channel (also known as a "Publisher Story") will see the brand's ad one of the times that Snapchat attaches an ad to one of those Stories on that day."
This is a big departure from offerings by Instagram and Twitter, which aren't as accurate.
To buy snap ads max reach ads, you will have to go through the Snapchat sales team.
You can read more about max reach ads here.
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.
Missing Lettr
The first tool we have for you this week is called Missing Lettr (web).
Do you have evergreen content on your blog that you want to keep sharing throughout the year?
A lot of times, we can get busy with other things and forget to re-share our content.
With Missing Lettr, you can add your blog posts and it will automatically create a campaign for your post along with images, sample messages and recommended hashtags.
All you simply need to do is review the posts that it has created and in just a few minutes, you'll have a campaign created for the entire year.
You can try Missing Lettr out for 14-days from the link below.
Try Missing LettrCommand Analytics and Stats for Instagram
The next tool we wanted to share with you is called Command Analytics and Stats for Instagram (web).
If you want to measure the success of your business on Instagram, you'll need to setup an Instagram business profile.
Even then, you won't get complete metrics on the success of your Instagram channel.
If you use Command analytics though, you'll be able to track and measure a lot more on Instagram.
Here are some of the items you can measure on Instagram.
- Followers
- Likes
- Research competitors
- See top hashtags used by competitors
- 15+ metrics with hourly stats
- Identify the best times to post on Instagram
- And much more
Command analytics and stats for Instagram is a powerful tool that every business should use.
You get access to a lot of data about your business to help you make decisions on how your channel is doing.
Command analytics and stats for Instagram is available as a freemium app.
Download Command Analytics and Stats for InstagramWrap-up
That's it for this week's show!
To watch next week's s 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.
Hey Guys, I had a great time cracking open these news stories with you. I think there are tons of insights in the video that people can use to position themselves for what is next. I appreciate you having me on as a guest and will watch for comments and I’m happy to answer any further questions on the topics as well here in the comment section. Thanks again!
Thanks again for being our guest on #SocialChatter, @RossQuintana:disqus.