The Social Media Friday Four is back, and it’s time to go through what’s new in the social world!
Facebook users now have the capability to delete messages in Messenger, Instagram has added new e-commerce features to the platform, LinkedIn has unveiled its new and improved “LinkedIn Pages”, and Snapchat has released its Creative Partners Program.
Let’s jump in ⬇️.
Facebook’s New “Unsend” Feature
Have you ever sent a message you didn’t mean to send? Or a picture? Or a made a typo that you wish you could fix? Well, Facebook has been listening to customer feedback, and has implemented an update, which will allow users to delete messages that they’ve sent in Messenger - woohoo!
Upon review of the deletion process on their app, Facebook’s VP of Messenger shared that most message deletion attempts were legitimate and due to mistakes made or content that wasn’t meant to be sent in the first place. The global rollout of this feature has already begun, and many users are already seeing the new update.
With “unsend,” users will have up to 10 minutes to delete a sent message, and once removed messages will be erased from the chat. When a message is removed, a “tombstone” placeholder will appear stating, “user removed a message”. The message recipient will be able to see the “tombstone,” and will be enabled to report the content removal if they feel that the message was sent maliciously in order to combat online bullying.
Let’s hope the feature is as helpful as it sounds, as this could be a huge help to those of us who don’t always proofread our content before hitting send!
Instagram Is Building Out its E-Commerce Features
E-Commerce businesses rejoice! Instagram is building out its shopping features even further with the announcement of three new product updates. Did you ever wish you could buy something straight from a video you were watching? Save items to a “shopping collection” for later? More easily shop from business profiles? You’ll soon be able to do all three.
Have you ever used a shopping aggregate tool that saves all your favorite items (usually on sale!) all in one place? These tools are GREAT because you can browse and bookmark all your favorite items, then revisit them all in one place once you’re ready to compare and make purchases. Well, now you won’t need to leave Instagram to do this!
We also love Instagram’s shoppable posts, which are now being integrated into videos! It’s the worst when you see something you love and want to buy while watching a video, but then need to stop the video, open a new window, and search for that item online. Thankfully, soon enough you’ll be able to click right on items within a video, and make a purchase.
And if Instagram wasn’t making this whole shopping season easy enough for us, business profiles are also getting a slight redesign so that their shoppable posts will be organized under a new “shop” button and organized into one area.
Instagram’s new features will provide users a more fully formed shopping experience where they’ll never have to leave the platform... just in time for the holidays this year!
New and Improved LinkedIn Pages
“LinkedIn Pages” was just rebuilt from the ground up, and we’re excited because this business network hasn’t always been the most intuitive platform to use. But, thankfully with this rebuild, LinkedIn has just gotten MUCH easier for both small and large companies alike to engage in constructive conversations with employees, customers, and followers within the community.
Pages were originally created to make connecting organically with other organizations simple and to make it easier for users to build lasting connections with one another. But, the platform didn’t quite hit the mark in terms of ease-of-use. One of the best things? Community management for admins will now be significantly easier!
Admins will be able to post updates and respond to comments through Pages, listen and respond to conversations surrounding their brand or relevant topics, and share documents, like PowerPoint presentations, Word Documents and PDFs to tell richer and more compelling brand stories. There’s also a new Hootsuite API integration, and a Crunchbase partnership that brings in funding insights and key investors on the professional social network.
LinkedIn spokesperson said, “We believe that individuals make up a business, but it’s the community that brings them all together.” Hopefully the new improvements to Pages will make our lives easier, but only time will tell!
Snapchat Launches Creative Partner’s Project to Team Up with Brands
Just when you thought that Snapchat was done improving upon augmented reality, they step up their game!
The company introduced its Lens Creative Partners program on Monday, offering brands a way to find certified AR Lens creators. With more than ⅓ of its 186 million daily users interacting with AR Lenses, it’s no wonder they’re casting an even wider net.
Almost a year ago, Snap Inc. launched Lens Studios, allowing anyone on the platform to create AR Face Lenses. Now Snapchat is offering companies, both small and large, connections to AR content creators who will be able to help develop AR filters for their brands. According to Snapchat, they have selected the first 30 creators, that were put through an extensive Snapchat development course in order to learn about ad policies and buy models before starting AR creation.
For now there are only 30 Snapchat creators for companies, but in the next few months they are looking to add more than 100 creators. According to Snap, Nielsen Catalina measured 22 campaigns from different consumer-packaged-goods brands, and found that the AR Lenses used led to an average sales increase of 10%, along with increased ad awareness and brand life.
Snapchat’s AR camera features are a cornerstone of the app, so it’s only natural that they would expand the program. We’re really looking forward to having even MORE options coming through!
Did you enjoy today's content? Leave a comment below, and check back every Friday for the latest in social media!
