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.
As a reminder, 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, Leslie Gustafson.
Watch This Week's Social Media Updates
Public Facebook Stories
In Facebook news, Facebook is making Stories public.
Why Public Facebook Stories Matter For Your Business
Would you like to share more of your day with others you don't yet know on Facebook?
With public Stories, you'll be able to "allow your Followers to see your story, in addition to your friends."
This should help you broaden your audience and reach more people who might be interested in what you are sharing, but you'e not connected with yet.
For now, public Facebook Stories only work on Facebook Profiles.
Hopefully Facebook expands this feature to work with Pages in the future.
To make a Facebook Story public, tap on the "add to Story," button from the Facebook mobile app.
When viewing your Facebook Stories, tap on the … button.
From there, select "edit story settings," and change your privacy from "friends to public."
As a business, public Facebook Stories could be very useful if you are friends with a lot of your customers.
If they are not seeing many of your Facebook Page updates, you could include them in your Facebook Stories and encourage them to view them each day.
By making some of your Facebook Stories public, you'll also have the opportunity to create engaging Stories that get picked up by others you aren't connected with.
To read more public Facebook Stories, go here.
Share Facebook Events In Messenger
Facebook is also rolling out the ability to share Facebook Events in Messenger.
Why Sharing Facebook Events In Messenger Matters For Your Business
If you're creating Facebook Events for your Facebook Page, buried at the bottom is an option to share your event in Messenger.
This is what the share in Messenger option looks like.
Here, you can use Facebook Messenger to invite your friend to your upcoming event.
If you're a business and you're connected with a lot of the people you meet when networking on Facebook, you can send them a personalized message about your next event.
For example, maybe you met someone and told them you would invite them to your next event.
If you're connected on Facebook, you can send them an invite.
They'll receive the following message in Messenger.
From there, the person can respond to the Facebook event invitation.
When they do, their friends will also see that they are going to an event and can sign-up for the event as well.
To share a Facebook event, publish a new event on your Facebook Page.
Scroll down to the bottom and look for the "share in Messenger" option.
Faster Loading Websites In Your Facebook News Feed
Also this week, Facebook announced they're making changes to the content in your News Feed.
In an effort to improve your News Feed experience, Facebook is going to start "to show you stories that will load quickly on mobile and fewer stories that might take longer to load."
Why Faster Loading Stories In News Feed Matters For Your Business
This is a particularly interesting update from Facebook.
While Facebook says that "Pages won't see a significant change to their distribution in News Feed," we're suspect.
This update suggests that Facebook is catering to larger businesses who will have enough staff and resources to optimize their content and website properly.
If you're a small business, chances are, your website will experience a decrease in the News Feed.
This is because most small businesses are building their websites on using shared hosting services, which cost just a few dollars a month.
Most of these sites also leverage the WordPress plugin system to add functionality, rather than code their site properly.
Ultimately, using a slow hosting provider and loading your site down with too many WordPress plugins can lead to a very slow website and decrease in exposure in Facebook's News Feed.
The only way to then get your content back in the News Feed is to of course, pay for Facebook Ads.
As a business, your website is an important asset.
At the same time, it takes a lot of time and money to keep a site running optimally.
Only time will tell if this change to News Feed ultimately affects the exposure your website gets in News Feed.
In the meantime, if you're using a shared website host, we recommend switching to WP Engine or upgrade to a dedicated host on Bluehost for your hosting services.
They specialize in WordPress.
Also, if you have a lot of WordPress plugins installed on your site, see which ones you are no longer using and deactivate them and remove them.
Also consider replacing some of the plugins by coding some of the features into your site.
This can help to minimize the number of plugins you're relying on.
Also be sure to check out Facebook's recommendations for Publishers.
To see the announcement from Facebook about changes to stories in your News Feed, click here.
Add Notes to Facebook Page Invitations
Also in Facebook news, you can now add notes when you send someone a Facebook Page invite.
This is what that looks like.
Why Adding Notes to Facebook Page Invitations Matters For Your Business
Previously, if you wanted to invite someone to like your Facebook Page, you had to share the Page with them and send them a private message.
Now, you can invite someone to like your Facebook Page and include a personal note with it.
What's great about this feature is that there is also a Facebook Messenger component to it.
By simply checking a box, you can send your Facebook Page invite directly to them through Facebook Messenger.
As a business, you're probably finding it more and more difficult to get in front of your audience.
By adding the ability to send a personal note and to send a Facebook Page invite to Messenger, this makes it easier to reach people without having to battle for space in the news feed.
If you plan on sending out a bunch of Page invites, be sure you're selective about who you send them to.
Getting an unsolicited pop-up message might be a turn-off to some customers, so use this selectively to invite your friends to like your Facebook Page.
Here is how to send a personal note when inviting someone to like your Facebook Page.
Twitter Tests $99 Automatic Tweet Promotion
In Twitter news, they are running a new beta program to help automate your Twitter ads.
Why Automatic Twitter Ads Matter For Your Business
Twitter is running a beta program to help you automate your Twitter Ads.
According to Twitter, "we've developed a way for you to grow your following and have your Tweets reach more people without creating ads or managing campaigns."
Effectively, you can sign-up for their beta program.
For $99 per month (the first month is free), Twitter will automatically promote some of your tweet automatically.
You'll also get a bi-weekly report that "details the consistent follower and engagement growth you earn by being in the program."
Here is the announcement that we received.
If you're a business who uses Twitter religiously, this is a great deal, considering all you have to do is tweet.
No Twitter Ads specialists to hire.
Our only caution right now is that Twitter is having a difficult time growing their user base and this seems like a way to prop up the company for now.
If you're interested in trying out the automatic Twitter Ads program from Twitter, remember, you get 30 days for free until they charge you $99.
There also isn't a contract, so you can cancel anytime.
To join the automatic Twitter Ads beta program, you can sign-up for it 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.
Mobile Web Recorder
The first tool that we have discovered this week is called Mobile Web Recorder (iOS).
Have you ever wanted to record a video of your mobile device for a client or customer?
Maybe they needed help finding a section on your blog or Facebook Page?
With mobile web recorder, you can record and narrate your videos and then share them on your social media channels or have your customer service team share them with customers right from your mobile device.
If you're looking for a more advanced screen recording tool, we use Screenflow, which isn't mobile, but let's you record your mobile device as well as your desktop in high-quality video.
Mobile Web Recorder is a quick way to record your mobile device's screen.
You can download it from the link below $2.
Download Mobile Web RecorderInstagrids Pro
The second tool that we have for you this week is called Instagrids Pro (iOS).
Instagrids Pro is a mobile app for Instagram that you can use to take large or panoramic photos and break them up into a number of square pictures.
With Instagrids Pro, you can give your Instagram content a more creative look in seconds!
Here is an example.
Instagrids is available in the app store for $3.99.
You can download it from the link below.
Download Instagrids ProWrap-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.
