by Fronetics | Nov 29, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Current Events, Marketing, Social Media
Also in social media news November 2017: Snapchat opens conversation tracking “Snap Pixels,” Facebook links Messenger to your News Feed Ads, and Instagram Stories hits 300 million daily active users.
The holidays have everyone thinking about shopping and meal planning, but social media is staying focused on expanding and improving. There’s been a big push by the most popular sites to introduce users to new content. And businesses are seeing increased options for getting in front of potential customers.
Here’s your social media news for November 2017.
Facebook Rolls Out Its Self-Discovery “Explore Feed”
Facebook has officially rolled out its new Explore Feed, which will help users discover more content across the social media network. Explore will recommend content that it thinks you might find interesting, including posts, articles, photos and videos from users and Pages that you don’t currently follow.
“We’ve heard from people that they want an easy way to explore relevant content from Pages they haven’t connected with yet,” says Facebook in a statement on their website. Businesses should be optimistic about the potential for users interested in content like theirs to find their pages through the new Explore Feed.
On mobile, the Explore Feed is accessible via the “More” menu in the bottom navigation section, while it’s housed along the left sidebar within the “Explore” section on desktop.
Instagram Stories Expands to Your Camera Roll
Instagram Stories now allows users to upload any photos and videos from their cameras. In the past, Instagram limited Stories to photos and videos taken in real time to give viewers “glimpses” into a user’s day. The social media network felt this update offers more flexibility and creative choices to its users.
Twitter Launches Self-Serve Advertising
Twitter has officially rolled out its self-serve advertising subscription to the public. Twitter’s Promote Mode will automatically amplify a business’s tweets to reach the best audience and grow followers. Promote Mode was designed with the goal of letting small businesses and personal brands more easily run ad campaigns on Twitter’s platform by automating them, for the price of $99 per month.
Facebook Messenger Makes Sponsored Messages Available to Businesses
Facebook announced that in the next few months advertisers will be able to send promotions to customers who have previously communicated with the brand directly through Messenger. “When it comes to communicating with a brand, 54.4% of U.S. social media users said they preferred messaging channels, including Messenger, over email, phone and online chat,” writes Facebook on its website. Facebook’s goal is to create a more personalized experience for customers by having promotions come through Messenger, instead of on a generic post.
Facebook Rolls Out News Feed Ads that Link to Messenger
With Facebook’s new messaging platform, businesses and developers can take the customer experience to a new level by creating news feed ads that directly open to Messenger conversations. According to Facebook, this new ad format “combines the powerful audience targeting and selection capabilities of ads on News Feed” with “the identity and canonical nature of Messenger conversations” and is available to all Facebook advertisers.
Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status Hit 300 Million Daily Active Users
Up over 50 million daily active users since June, Facebook reports that Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status have reached 300 million daily active users. These numbers are almost double SnapChat’s daily active users, once again showing the increasing popularity of Facebook and its counterparts.
Facebook Rolls Out Facebook Polls with Photos
Always wanted to know what people think about your brand and your competitors? Now creating polls to get the answers is easier than ever. Facebook officially launched Facebook Polls with the option to add pictures or GIFs. Businesses will be able to track polls about their products or services, as well as the feedback. “Facebook Polls will provide an easy way to spur conversation, gather opinions or organize plans.”
SnapChat Opens Conversation Tracking “Snap Pixel” to Marketers
SnapChat recently introduced Snap Pixel, a conversation tracking tool that allows brands to measure the effectiveness of video snap ads on their site traffic. Marketing Land reports that the new Snap Pixel will soon be available to all advertisers as a measurement tool and for retargeting purposes by the end of the year.
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by Fronetics | Aug 29, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Current Events, Marketing, Social Media
When it comes to social media news in August 2017, the words of Kanye West, “stronger, better, faster, stronger,” have never been truer.
August has seen a continued push to get more information to more people in real time. Pinterest is introducing mobile ads. YouTube is adding sharing and chat features to the app. Google is developing new software to rival Snapchat. And, of course, the social media giant Facebook is always working on new improvements to dominate its competitors.
Facebook Tests Custom Audiences Based on Interactions with Event Pages
Brands will soon have the ability to create custom audience groups based on visitors’ interactions with the brand’s event pages. Facebook has confirmed that brands will be able to choose custom audiences made up of users who responded to any event on their pages or to specific events, and they will also be able to include users who RSVPed as going, interested, or both. Though only in its testing phase, these initial companies have been able to create audience groups based on interactions within the past 180 days.
Google Developing Rival to Snapchat Discover Feature
Back in 2016, Snapchat introduced ‘Discover,’ which allowed users to view news in the form of Snapchat Stories. At the time, this new technology allowed social media to combine news and television in short videos. Now Google wants a piece of the action. Google is working to allow publishers the ability to create media-oriented content. “The new publisher technology, called ‘Stamp,’ represents an escalation in the competition between tech platforms for publisher partnerships and access to media content, which they need to drive user engagement,” writes Erik Sass for Media Post.
Pinterest Rolls Out Mobile Video Ads to All Advertisers
Initially introduced a year ago to a limited amount of Pinterest advertisers, now all advertisers will have the ability to create mobile video ads. Using auto-play, the new type of promoted videos will begin playing as soon as users scroll across a brand’s feed and will also auto-play in Pinterest’s search results. Jenny Chiu, head of partnerships at Pinterest, said in a blog post, “Your Promoted Video sparks into action the moment a Pinner scrolls across it in their feed — no need to hit play. They can just sit back and watch your video unfold. And unlike on other platforms, where ads interrupt people as they’re trying to enjoy posts from friends, on Pinterest, people are actually looking for videos that inspire them to give ideas a try.”
Twitter Tests New Feature that Allows Brands to Automate Their Promotional Tweets
Twitter is in the initial testing of having brands pay ($99) to have their tweets automatically promoted on its app. Brands can tweet as they normally would, and the social network will automatically promote some of those tweets, but brands cannot customize which tweets are promoted. Twitter will create bi-weekly reports that will include information on audience insights, user growth and new user engagement. Companies were able to sign up on Twitter’s homepage to try to land a spot in the beta testing, which is now completely full. Stay tuned to see if Twitter rolls out this new feature to all users.
LinkedIn Rolls Out Quick Access to Samsung Users
LinkedIn and Samsung have teamed up to create the ultimate user experience. Now Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ owners can have access to LinkedIn’s content and calendar experience. Using Bixby, Samsung’s digital assistant, users can easily access LinkedIn’s Trending Storylines that include top news stories and scheduling details through My Schedule notifications.
YouTube Adds Chat and Sharing Features to Mobile App
YouTube has been working on ways to make sharing videos easier than ever. With the newest app features, users can share videos directly through the mobile app, as well as chat with other viewers in real time. YouTube announced on its blog, “Not only can you share and receive videos in the app, you can also chat about them right on YouTube, reply with another video, invite others to the conversation, and more. We think it’ll make sharing easier, faster and more fun on your phone. And if you want to continue sharing videos through other apps, you can still do that too.”
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by Fronetics | Jul 27, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Current Events, Marketing, Social Media
In July’s social media news, platforms saw a rise in daily active users and broke records in more than one category.
Once thought to be a passing trend, social media is nowhere near slowing down in terms of growth. Next Web reported that India has taken over as the largest audience of Facebook, beating out the U.S. with over 241 million active users. Active users in India are up 27% in the past six months, twice the rate of U.S. users.
But the social media news doesn’t stop there. Facebook and Instagram are topping charts with their active users. LinkedIn and Google are boosting job opportunities through new features and search capabilities. And social media monitoring platforms are adding video to their repertoire.
Here’s a look at this month’s social media news.
Facebook reaches over 2 billion monthly active users around the world
India isn’t the only country boosting Facebook user numbers. The social media giant just celebrated having “2 billion people connecting and building communities on Facebook every month.” The company thanked its users with a personalized video and Mark Zuckerberg’s promise to take the global connection and use it to create a “more open and connected” world.
Instagram Stories reaches 250 million daily active users and adds live video replay
Instagram Stories continues to take over the ‘stories’ arena with 250 million active daily users. Snapchat, which founded the stories format, is falling far behind with only 161 million active daily users. Instagram Stories was unveiled last August and has experienced remarkable growth and success thanks to support from its sister company, Facebook. The social media platform has also introduced its newest feature, a share button with the ability to replay live videos for up to 24 hours.
Facebook tests custom audiences based on engagement with Instagram Business Profiles
Adweek reports that “Facebook is testing the ability for brands to create custom audiences based on engagement with Instagram business profiles.” This new type of filtering could allow brands to create engagement audiences, people who have previously engaged with your content on Instagram. Filters could include all interactions, users that have commented on a post, or any activity within a certain time frame. Though only in the testing stages, these custom audiences could help brands create specific messaging for targeted audiences based on their interactions with a brand’s Instagram page.
CrowdTangle adds video views to metrics
CrowdTangle, a social media monitoring platform for brands, has just added video views to its metrics for Facebook and Instagram. With video’s increasing popularity, the company felt it was important to offer its clients a way to measure how their videos are performing. “Publishers can now easily track emerging new trends and best practices on Facebook and Instagram, as well as discover great videos and video creators, see overall video views across their industry, and benchmark themselves against competitors,” CrowdTangle says.
LinkedIn creates new search to boost job opportunities
LinkedIn has created new search capabilities that make it easier for users to uncover new jobs and other professional opportunities. The new search also allows users to see the companies and job titles of the people who found them in a search, identifying opportunities that align with the user’s resume. Available on your phone or desktop computer, these new features make searching jobs and hiring managers that much more accessible.
Google launches Google for Jobs
Partnering with the biggest job searching sites — like LinkedIn, Monster and CareerBuilder — Google just introduced a new initiative to allow users to find job opportunities directly through a Google search. The new search update also allows users to receive email alerts of new employment postings in real time. “When Google for Jobs launches, it will act as kind of a mega job-search engine that will let you sort through multiple career sites in one go,” says Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
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by Fronetics | Jul 20, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
Recent surveys show video platforms are the next big focus for marketers in terms of content distribution channels.
Social media marketing can seem a bit like keeping up with the Joneses. Which content distribution channels are your competitors using? Where are they getting the most engagement? How often are they posting and when?
We’re big advocates of social benchmarking against your competitors. But, just as much, we are always thinking ahead, trying to figure out where the industry is going next. It’s important to get ahead of the trends so that you can be right there leading the pack.
The State of Inbound has been tracking global marketing and sales trends for the last eight years, with a particular focus on inbound marketing. (Content marketing is a form of inbound marketing.) The 2017 survey included more than 6,300 professionals at from 141 countries, so it offers a very comprehensive view of current trends in content marketing.
One part of the survey of particular interest involves which distribution channels marketers are planning to invest in next. It gives us an idea of where companies will be putting their time and money in terms of social media marketing. Let’s take a look at the results.
Content distribution channel investment
The more than 6,300 marketing professionals surveyed answered the following question: “What content distribution channels do you plan to add to your marketing efforts in the next 12 months?” The chart below shows responses from 2016 and 2017 surveys for comparison.
Source: State of Inbound 2017
Marketers will maintain or increase their investment on YouTube and Facebook video — focus on the latter jumping a significant 7% over 2016. Interest in Instagram and messaging apps has also grown significantly over the last year, while marketers’ investment in podcasts, Snapchat, and Slack has decreased.
I also want to note quickly that investment in Medium has remained steady at 8%. I plan to write more about Medium as an opportunity for supply chain and logistics businesses in the near future, so stay tuned!
Misaligned priorities
Another noteworthy aspect of this survey question is how respondents at various levels of the corporate ladder answered. Do the people who set company goals have the same priorities as those tasked with social media management and content distribution on a daily basis? Of course not! Take a look.
Source: State of Inbound 2017
Broken down by respondents’ roles, the data shows a division in the priorities of C-level executives versus individual contributors. Executives show a higher preference to expand to new channels of distribution such as messaging apps. The individual contributors responsible for the day-to-day oversight, however, offer a more conservative approach, favoring more tried-and-true distribution channels.
It is also interesting to note that individual contributors consider Facebook video a top priority slightly over YouTube, while executives, directors, and managers uniformly prefer YouTube.
Our takeaway: Video, video video
Across the board, companies are turning their content distribution focus to video platforms, and the supply chain should be, too. If you haven’t heard me say it before, I’ll tell you now: Yes, video can work for the supply chain.
Why? In a nutshell, YouTube reaches more adults ages 18-34 in the U.S. than any cable network. Users browse the platform for entertainment purposes, but also for tips, information, and ideas. And anywhere people are seeking solutions, businesses should be providing answers.
Live video, too, is a trend that is not going away anytime soon. According to the 2017 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 61% of marketers plan on using live video services such as Facebook Live and Periscope, and 69% want to learn more about live video.
Live video helps businesses promote transparency, good communication, and relatability. It’s something that will do your business a world of good in the supply chain and logistics industries.
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by Fronetics | May 25, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
In this month’s social media news, Facebook cracks down on misleading content, while Snapchat and Pinterest appeal to advertisers.
If you sense that the competition between social media networks for users and advertisers is heating up, you’re not alone. This month, Facebook continues its quest to cut down on the sharing of false information and misleading content while launching better lead-tracking tools for ads. Twitter moves to protect user privacy by updating its terms and conditions. And exciting new technology launches at Google, Pinterest, and Snapchat.
Here’s the latest social media news for the supply chain.
Facebook reduces links to low-quality web pages and misleading ads
After months refining its News Feed algorithm and ads, Facebook announced another update to weed out false information and spam in a blog post: “We reviewed hundreds of thousands of web pages linked from Facebook to identify those that contain little substantive content and have a large number of disruptive, shocking or malicious ads. We then used artificial intelligence to understand whether new web pages shared on Facebook have similar characteristics. So if we determine a post might link to these types of low-quality web pages, it may show up lower in people’s feeds and may not be eligible to be an ad. This way people can see fewer misleading posts and more informative posts.”
As changes roll out gradually in the coming months, publishers with high-quality landing page experiences might notice an increase in traffic, while those with negative experiences will see a decline. Businesses looking to improve their web experiences can read the full Facebook Business post and visit the Help Center for tips.
See also:
Twitter updates opt-out process
Twitter is helping users weed out irrelevant personalized ads and protect their privacy. The Twitter website tag will now “rely on the Digital Advertising Alliance’s consumer choice tool and other ways to opt-out described here.” Site owners must update the privacy policy to notify their users of this new opt-out process.
Google unveils Google Lens
Google’s latest product, Google Lens, will leverage computer vision and AI technology to enable smartphone cameras to not only see, but to understand what it’s seeing to help users. For example, if you take a photo of the login information on the sticker on your router, the lens will identify the action by offering to connect you to the Wi-Fi, using the photo of the network name and password.
Snapchat reaches 166 million daily active users, rolls out limitless snaps, adds ad lenses and geofilters
In its first quarterly earnings report since going public in March, Snap Inc. announced that its daily active user (DAUs) base grew to 166 million in Q1 2017. Additionally, the Snapchat app released four new creative tools:
- Infinity timer setting: This option eliminates the 10-second time limit and allows your videos to play as long as you like. The snap then erases when closed.
- Looping: Users can choose to have their photos or videos loop indefinitely until viewers close the snap.
- Magic eraser: Users can select and remove objects from snaps.
- Emoji drawings: Users can now draw with emojis using the pen tool.
Ad partners also have three new creative tools at their disposal:
- World Lenses are an extension on Snapchat’s Sponsored Lens, which already let advertisers turn users’ selfies into ads. Sponsored World Lenses allow advertisers to create content for the rest of the photo beyond the face, like floating 2-D or 3-D objects.
- Audience Lenses let advertisers buy a guaranteed number of Lens impressions for a specific audience. This includes those that are targeted by demographics like age and gender, as well as those identified as falling in one of Snapchat’s Lifestyle categories.
- Smart Geofilters automatically add location information or other real-time information to a nationwide or chain Geofilter. This ad type allows users to activate branded overlays that appear when they swipe left or right on the camera.
Pinterest applies visual search technology to ads
Pinterest announced that it’s now leveraging the technology behind its newly released visual discovery tools — Shop the Look, Instant Ideas and Lens beta — to make Promoted Pins even more effective. Machine learning allows the platform to identify what is most relevant to a user based on the images s/he pins. For example, if the user pins images of blue, formal, A-line dresses, Pinterest will begin to show similar images in that user’s feed. The same technology will now be applied to ad content. “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.”
Not sure how to use Pinterest’s advertising tools? Check out these 4 free webinars for businesses.
Facebook enables targeting to users who have saved posts, adds offline conversion solution for lead ads
Facebook page admins can now see the number of saves for each page post, then “create custom audiences of people who have saved [their] posts and retarget them with different content.”
Additionally, Facebook is now allowing businesses to connect their CRM, point of sale, or even their call-center systems to their Facebook ad campaigns to help advertisers monitor which of their lead ads drive those business results. This is huge for advertisers who have been trying to attribute conversions from lead ads based on offline activity.
Ellen, Ludacris, Katy Perry and more to star on YouTube’s exclusive new shows
YouTube announced plans to launch seven new “star-studded” shows, exclusively premiering on the video platform “beginning later this year.” Stars include Kevin Hart, Rhett and Link, Ellen DeGeneres, Katy Perry, the Slow Mo Guys, Demi Lovato, and Ludacris. The shows will be fully ad-supported and thus free to watch.
Facebook releases “Latest Conversations” feature
Facebook’s new Latest Conversations feature shows timely topics that many members across the network are discussing in its search results. It appears in its own section of the search results and includes a running count of how many people are talking about the topic at the moment. This feature is currently only available on the mobile app.
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