Welcome to this week's episode of Social Chatter, your weekly social media marketing talk show 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, Jennifer Watson from The Weather Channel.
Watch This Week's Social Media Updates
Instagram Introduces Face Filters, Hashtag Stickers and Rewind
In Instagram news, they have added face filters along with creative tools, rewind and hashtag stickers.
Why Instagram Face Filters, Hashtag Stickers and Rewind Matter
While Instagram continues to "borrow" features from Snapchat, we're excited about the impact these new tools can have for businesses.
Let's take a look at each of the features.
Instagram Face Filters
One new feature from Instagram are face filters.
With Instagram face filters, you can turn a boring selfie into a fun and entertaining one.
Right now, there are eight face filters available.
Some examples include math equations, furry koala ears, various characters and more.
To try out the new face filters in Instagram, open the camera in your Instagram app and tap on the face icon.
One other nice feature with Instagram's face filters are that they also work with Boomerang (iOS).
Rewind for Instagram
Another new creative tool for Instagram is "rewind."
With rewind, you can make your Instagram videos play in reverse.
Rewind is a new camera format next to "boomerang" and "hands-free."
Hashtag Stickers
Also announced are hashtag stickers.
Hashtag stickers are a way to add more context to your story.
To apply hashtag stickers to your photo or video, tap the sticker icon in the top right of your screen.
From there, you can customize the hashtag and add it to your story.
If a customer is watching your Instagram Story and you have used a hashtag sticker, they can tap the sticker or text to bring up the hashtag page and explore related Instagram posts.
Eraser Brush
One last addition to Instagram this week is a new eraser brush.
With the eraser brush, you can take a photo or video and fill the screen with color by selecting the drawing tool and tapping and holding on the screen to fill it with color.
From there, you can use the eraser brush to reveal parts of your photo or video underneath it.
Here is a video introducing these new Instagram features.
You can read the announcement about these new creative Instagram tools here.
Pinterest Uses Image Recognition to Improve Ad Targeting
In Pinterest news, they will use image recognition to make your Promoted Pins more effective.
Why Image Recognition In Pinterest Promoted Pins and Lens Matters
Google uses search data, Amazon relies on purchase data, and Facebook uses social data to return results.
Pinterest is using photo data.
What is particularly exciting about this move from Pinterest is that they are using visual discovery.
"When a potential customer spots a table they like the looks of on Pinterest, visual discovery helps us recognize the style, textures and shapes that make it unique. We can identify it as a "rectangular, mid-century modern dining table," and show similar products that match the look and feel."
According to Pinterest, it will work the same for your ads as well.
"We help people find your ads in the very same way, connecting people to products they like the looks of, but don't quite have the vocabulary to describe. As a result, your ads feel more relevant, and they can reach audiences you may not have considered before. And it all happens automatically. You don't have to do a thing."
We're excited about Pinterest image recognition to improve ad targeting.
As a business owner, this is great news for you.
We've all been in that situation before where we wanted to know who made something, but couldn't find it online.
Now, instead of wasting hours of your valuable time, you can simply open Pinterest and use Lens to find what it is you or were looking for.
Great move, Pinterest!
To read the announcement about Pinterest's image recognition for ad targeting, go here.
Twitter Premium Video Content
In Twitter news, they are rolling out premium video content.
Why Twitter Premium Video Content Matters
Here is a breakdown on the new video content coming to Twitter.
According to Twitter, "this presents new opportunities for brands to reach passionate and engaged audiences by sponsoring premium video content at scale."
This announcement, coupled with the one about Biz Stone returning to Twitter, and things are starting to look up for Twitter.
To read more about the Twitter announcement, click here.
New Lenses and Geofilters for Snapchat
In Snapchat news, they are rolling out World Lenses, Audience Lenses and Smart Geofilters.
Why New Lenses and Geofilters for Snapchat Matter
In an effort to differentiate itself from Facebook, Snapchat is expanding its ads offering.
Currently, 1 in 3 daily users play with Snapchat's Lenses.
Here is more information about the new lenses and geofilters.
World Lenses
World Lenses are an extension of Sponsored Lens.
With World Lenses, advertisers can create content that goes beyond the face such as 2D or 3D objects, interactive content, and other items.
Currently, there are four types of World Lenses.
- 2D film characters or products in the photo
- 3D filme characters or products in a photo
- Action-based lenses, for when you look at or tap AR objects to trigger something (vomiting rainbow, crying, etc)
- Environmental lenses for adding floating lights or ambiance
Audience Lenses
With Snapchat Audience Lenses, advertisers can buy a guaranteed number of impressions for a specific audience.
These include targeting by demographics such as age and gender.
They can also fall into Snapchat's Lifestyle Categories.
Some brands currently using these are Red Bull, MTV and L'Oreal Paris.
Smart Geofilters
Snapchat Smart Geofilters allow users to activate branded overlays that appear when someone swipes left or right on the camera.
Some 80 percent of users have used a Geofilter at a restaurant.
66 percent of users use them at the mall.
50 percent are using them at the gym.
What makes this a Smart Geofilter is that they automatically add location information or real-time information to a nationwide or chain Geofilter.
Some examples of Snapchat Smart Geofilters include adding a college name, airport, state, city or neighborhood.
As a business, these present fascinating use cases - provided your audience is on Snapchat.
You can read more about new Snapchat lenses and geofilters in this announcement.
Offline Conversion Data for Facebook Lead Ads
In Facebook news, Facebook launched an offline conversion solution.
Why Facebook's Offline Conversion Data for Facebook Lead Ads Matters
With this new solution from Facebook, you will be able to automatically connect with CRMs and other systems to upload the outcome of leads generated by Facebook campaigns into ads manager.
By adding this, advertisers will be able to track conversion activity throughout the sales cycle and then map it back to specific campaigns and Facebook Lead Ads.
Some additional tidbits of information that will be useful for advertisers are that you can create Lookalike Audiences of Lead Ads using Facebook Custom Audiences and then retarget customers with upsets or new products or ads based on where they are at in the funnel.
To start using Facebook's Offline Conversion solution, here is what you will need.
- Facebook Business Manager
- A Facebook app
- A business manager system user and access token generated for that system user
- An offline event set
To connect your CRM with the Facebook Offline Conversion solution, there are three ways.
- Use Facebook's native offline event manager and upload the outcome of your leads.
- Use Marketo or Salesforce (they have built-in connections
- Use Leadsbridge
- Use Zapier
- Build into Facebook's Offline Conversion API
If you have additional questions, you can read more about getting started with offline conversion data in the Facebook announcement.
Search Facebook Profiles
Also in Facebook news, you can now search posts on a Facebook Profile.
Why Searching Facebook Profile Posts Matter
Previously, if you needed to find an old post on Facebook, you had to comb through your timeline.
Fortunately, Facebook is now making this a lot easier for for your Facebook Profile.
Here is a video on how to search for posts within your Facebook Profile.
While you can only search within a profile, if you share a lot of your Facebook Page posts, you can now quickly find them by searching your profile.
YouTube Live for Everyone
In YouTube news, they are testing YouTube Live with users minus the previous channel requirements.
Why YouTube Live for Everyone Matters
When YouTube first rolled out YouTube Live, it was only available to channels with 10,000 or more subscribers.
Then they dropped the requirement down to 1,000 subscribers.
Now they are relaxing those requirements for some users, meaning anyone can now start using YouTube Live.
This is great news for business owners who also want to grow their presence on YouTube.
If you're first starting out, having even 1,000 subscribers can be an obstacle to build your channel.
At the same time, we think it gives businesses a challenge to stick with growing their channel.
To get started with YouTube Live, you'll want to have a strategy in-place.
If you don't yet have one, we can help.
In the meantime, here is a video showing you how to use YouTube Live from your mobile device.
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.
Everypost
The first tool we have for you this week is called Everypost (iOS | Android).
If you're like most business owners, you use a host of tools to manage your social media channels.
For example, you use Feedly to curate content from your favorite websites.
When you find something you like, you use Pocket to save it for later and then Hootsuite to share it with your audience.
For those of you looking to simplify your channel management, Everypost can help.
With Everypost, you can curate content from YouTube and Flickr, collaborate with other team members, and schedule and publish new updates to your favorite social media channels.
You can download Everypost from the link below.
Download EverypostLevee
The next tool we wanted to share with you is called Levee (web).
Would you like to restrict your Facebook Live videos?
This way you're only broadcasting your live video content to a very targeted audience.
With Levee, you can restrict viewership to just the countries you specify. It even works with popular live streaming tools such as Wirecast (PC | Mac).
Another thing we really like about Levee is that it is very easy to setup.
With just a few clicks, you can begin running Facebook Live videos targeted at viewers in a specific country.
Currently, Levee is the only application that allows you to create Facebook Live videos using country-based targeting.
To start using Levee with your Facebook Live videos to reach more of your target audience, visit the following link.
Try LeveeWrap-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 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.
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