Here’s a recap of this week’s must-know social media updates:
Instagram Launches Instagram Stories – August 2, 2016
Instagram and Snapchat Stories are very similar. Just like with Snapchat Stories, Instagram users can post photo and video slideshows with drawings, text, emojis and/or filters, that disappear in 24 hours. But brands must observe these two key differences:
- Unlike Snapchat Stories, Instagram Stories appear horizontally on top of the Instagram news feed. Only four stories fit the screen, though users can scroll sideways for more.
- Snapchat stories appear vertically in reverse-chronological order. Therefore, brands and personal accounts don’t have to compete to appear on top of the feed, brands just need to time their content wisely to get seen by more users. Instagram stories, on the other hand, use data from Facebook and Instagram to prioritize stories based on the likelihood that users will be interested in that particular content. In order to earn their spot on top, marketers must constantly publish valuable content on both their Facebook and Instagram channels.
Here are some of their other differences and similarities.
Who will win in the battle for stories?! #Snapchat vs #Instagramhttps://t.co/qKcn8SbxsS
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) August 5, 2016
Snapchat Launches Geostickers – August 2, 2016
Geostickers are location based and are only available to users that enable location services. These special stickers can be added to snaps or chats and are currently only available in Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Washington DC, Honolulu, London, Sydney, São Paulo, Paris, and Riyadh.
There’s not a lot of information on Snapchat’s plans for Geostickers, but perhaps they will add this to their suite of advertising tools, just like they currently offer Sponsored Geofilters. This will also help Snapchat collect even more data on their users’ locations which will potentially help marketers target users even more precisely.
More on Geostickers and their marketing potential.
Twitter Rolls Out Instant Unlock Cards – August 4, 2016
Twitter extended its conversational ads, which launched in January and include beautiful images, call-to-action buttons, and customizable hashtags, with the addition of an Instant Unlock Card. This card incentivizes users to tweet out the campaign’s hashtag to gain access to exclusive content. According to Twitter, “during the beta, brands saw an average 34% earned media rate,” though some may argue whether this is truly “earned” media or legitimized clickbait.
Now Available! Engage w/ customers using Conversational Ads & the new Instant Unlock Card. https://t.co/NoRREule5Z pic.twitter.com/aFlMvgtbh8
— Marketing (@Marketing) August 4, 2016
Facebook is Fighting to Reduce Clickbait in Feed – August 4, 2016
Speaking of clickbait, Facebook is stepping up its two-year ongoing battle against clickbait posts. According to their announcement, the News Feed algorithm is scanning headlines for two key points: “(1) if the headline withholds information required to understand what the content of the article is; and (2) if the headline exaggerates the article to create misleading expectations for the reader.”
Pages or domains that continuously post clickbait headlines will appear lower in the News Feed, so marketers, beware of the long term effects on your page’s ranking. However, in general, marketers should be focusing on creating great, valuable content with clear, authentic headlines that users will value.
LinkedIn Is Experimenting with Videos – August 2, 2016
LinkedIn is introducing 30-second videos from LinkedIn Influencers. These videos will appear directly in users’ feeds, and they can comment and respond to comments from other members.
The ability to post native videos is currently only available to Influencers, but it may open the path for more video publishing features for all members.
For now, the best way to share videos on LinkedIn is by sharing YouTube video links. The videos auto-play without sound in the news feed.
Every Platform Wants a Piece of Rio
The Olympic games are here!
Facebook, Twitter, and Google have been promoting the various ways their platforms can be used to follow the Olympic buzz:
- Look Up: Countdown to Rio 2016 Begins on Facebook and Instagram
- Follow the Rio 2016 @Olympics on Twitter, Vine, and Periscope
- Let Google be your guide to Rio de Janeiro
It’s easy to want to jump into the excitement of the Olympic games. But brands need to be very careful about how they discuss the games on social networks. For a brief overview of some Olympics “Don’ts” for brands, take a look at this post by the Search Engine Journal.
Twitter Is Accepting Nominations for It’s First Annual Twitter Awards – August 1, 2016
If you ran a pretty cool campaign between August 1, 2015 and July 26, 2016 that featured Twitter and Twitter Ads at its core, don’t be shy and submit your entry here.
Facebook Launches a New Layout for Pages – August 4, 2016
And finally, have you seen the new Facebook Pages layout? Are you a fan?
Let us know if you enjoyed these updates and please share any other must-know updates with us in our social platforms.
