This week there’s big news coming from Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram! Be sure to read this week’s Friday Four to catch up on all these important changes.
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Are you using Snapchat to reach your target audience? If you're not already, this week's Friday Four should convince you! Read all all about new updates and features coming to Snapchat, all of which make your life easier.
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It was a big week for Facebook! Between the introduction of Facebook shops, a new way to sell products, and more testing of a potential loyalty program, a lot is changing. Instagram, too, updated shopping capabilities in more than one way.
Let’s jump in ⬇️.
The Launch of Facebook Shops
The introduction of Facebook Shops came this week, and it’s one of the many ways social media platforms are trying their best to help small businesses during these unusual times. The new feature is simply an updated version of what was formerly the “Facebook Page Shop.”
This newer version will allow retailers to upload their product catalogs directly to their Facebook page, and users can stay on the Facebook app or website to browse these catalogs and purchase items. It’s not yet clear how many users have access to the feature, though Facebook stated that it would be fully rolled out over the coming months.
Instagram Launches Shops; Shopping Capability from Explore Tab
Similar to Facebook Shops, Instagram’s new feature Instagram Shops will allow users to browse and purchase products on the app. The feature will allow businesses to feature product catalogs in their entirety for the first time on the platform, as they were previously only able to feature one item at a time.
The new feature can be accessed either directly via the profile of the business, where there’s a new section made for showcasing their catalog, or on the explore page. Products and businesses will be featured on the explore page, though there isn’t yet any information regarding how the app selects which businesses will appear for users.
Just as Facebook’s feature, Instagram Shops is being released in a phased manner and should be fully rolled out by the end of the summer.
Facebook Introducing Selling Capabilities on Live Video
As part of the company’s effort to make shopping a seamless, in-app experience, Facebook is testing a new feature called Live Shopping. Currently, however, the feature is only available to select businesses on Facebook.
If rolled out, the feature would give users the ability to tag products from their catalogs, which the aforementioned Facebook Shop would allow them to upload, before streaming. Then, during their live video, viewers will be able to see and access the links to their products while simultaneously watching the stream.
Facebook Facilitating Connection of Loyalty Programs to Profiles
In an extension of what Facebook has been doing with businesses like Sephora, the platform will be allowing select businesses to have customers seamlessly connect their Facebook accounts to loyalty member programs. This new connection feature, while still being tested, would give businesses the ability to manage loyalty programs via Facebook Shops.
The first round of this program was launched in March, but this week’s new extension of the program is helping small businesses get involved. As of now, there are no further details about whether the program will be officially rolled out or to whom it would apply.
Did you enjoy today's content? Leave a comment below, and check back every Friday for the latest in social media!
The Growing Importance of Video in 2020
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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!
Social Media Friday Four
Happy Friday! We’re ushering in fall with the four newest pieces of social media news you need to know from this past week.
Instagram is testing a new standalone-shopping app (which we’re psyched about TBH), Microsoft is redesigning Skype once again in an effort to keep up with its competitors, Twitter has hinted at a couple new features coming to the platform to make it more “conversational,” and Snapchat is now analyzing people’s emotions based on their selfies.
Instagram Is Reportedly Developing A Standalone-Shopping App
Is Instagram coming after Amazon? It seems that way! Looks like the highly visual social media platform is taking on the e-commerce giant with its new standalone app, which is focused on shopping. It is rumored to be called “IG Shopping.”
The proposed app would allow users to buy products directly from the retailers that they follow on Instagram, and since Amazon has already shown how third-party sellers can generate online revenue it’s a no-brainer! Instagram began testing a shopping feature in 2016 that allowed retailers to tag products in photos, which rolled out more broadly in 2017, but it’s unclear when this new app might launch.
Let’s hope this new app makes it to market, because we think this could be great for retailers and consumers alike!
Microsoft Is Redesigning Skype Once Again And Killing Its Snapchat-Like Feature
Microsoft’s Skype is getting a makeover, and is pulling away from its Snapchat-like feature “Highlights.” The video-communication platform wants to make it a bit easier for users to navigate and find contacts, and has removed its “Highlights” feature similar to that of Snapchat’s “Story,” as users didn’t seem to be readily using the function to document their day with photos and videos.
With the rapid rise of competitors such as Facebook’s WhatsApp and Apple’s FaceTime, Skype has struggled to retain dominance in the video-communication space. A statement from Peter Skillman, director of design for Skype and Outlook reads, “This past year we explored some design changes and heard from customers that we overcomplicated some of our core scenarios. Calling became harder to execute and 'Highlights' didn't resonate with a majority of users."
Fingers crossed that this re-design takes off, unlike the many before it.
Twitter Hints At New Threaded Conversations And Who’s Online Features
In an effort to make things more “conversational” on the platform, Twitter is considering the addition of two new features in the form of threaded conversations and status indicators. Sara Haider, Twitter’s director of product management, shared a couple screenshots last Friday showcasing these “rough” changes, which we re-tweeted by Twitter chief Jack Dorsey (Endorsement?? We think so!).
The nested, color-coded conversation threads are similar to Reddit’s and Facebook’s threads, as responses to responses are indented. The online status indicator is just as it sounds, and shows other users when you’re on the platform and ready to respond with a green dot, similar to that on Facebook and Instagram.
Personally, we’re fine with the new threaded conversations (no harm done there!), but not pleased with the online status indicator functionality. In today’s day there is far too much bullying and online trolling, and TBH we really don’t need another way for users to be barraged and targeted as soon as they’re “active.”
Let’s see what happens!
Snapchat Figured Out How To Analyze People's Selfies To Score Their Emotions
And we’ve reached a new level of creepy! Sentiment word analysis is one thing, but monitoring people’s emotions at events via their selfies is a whole other ballgame.
Snap has come up with a patented way to monitor exactly how people are feeling at events such as concerts and speaking engagements. The patent for this technology was originally filed in April, 2015, and it could use facial recognition through selfies on Snapchat, in addition to taking cues from messaging, to score people’s emotions.
Snapchat toyed with using a ranking system to score precisely how a human might feel across a complex range of emotions. The diagram from Snap’s patent documents shows an example model of human emotions in a sort of floral pattern. The patent filing suggests that Snap could charge event coordinators a fee to gauge the crowd’s overall emotion and sentiment.
There seems to be a payment model for everything these days! Just because Snap has the technology to monitor a crowd’s emotions, however, doesn’t mean it will actually be used. We’ll see!
Did you enjoy today's content? Leave a comment below, and check back every Friday for the latest in social media!
Social Media Friday Four
Happy Friday! We wanted to provide you with some great social media content as you head into your long Labor Day Weekend, and are sharing four of the newest social media updates from this week.
Snapchat is now enabling musical GIF sharing, Facebook is testing a new “things in common” label in an effort to connect more people on the platform, Instagram is now allowing users to apply for verification, and Facebook Watch has launched worldwide. Let’s jump in ⬇️.
Snapchat Now Lets You Send Musical GIFs
Snapchat has integrated with music GIF provider, TuneMoji, enabling musical GIF sharing via Snap story or within chat. Snapchat’s new developer kit, Snap Kit, which was launched in June, is what enables TuneMoji’s integration into Snapchat. TuneMoji has a searchable database of GIFs, much like Giphy, with the capability of searching by words, phrases, or emoji.
The annoying piece at the moment, however, is that while TuneMoji GIFs can be shared via Snapchat, they can’t be shared within Snapchat itself. These musical GIFs must be pushed to Snapchat from within the TuneMoji app. Hopefully a closer integration will be coming soon, but in the meantime we’ll enjoy the added element of fun with GIFs!
Facebook Tests “Things in Common” Label to Try to Connect Non-Friends
Unsurprisingly, Facebook wants people to consistently discover things they have in common with the rest of the Facebook community, with whom they are net yet familiar. The company is testing a new label, called “things in common,” that people will see when commenting on posts among non-friends.
So, how will this work? While reading through public conversations on the platform, label boxes will appear above someone’s name (with whom you are not friends) who has something in common with you, i.e. you both went to the same college, or you both work at the same company. There are many other types of labels; such as if you’re both part of the same Facebook Group, or are from the same town, but are not friends on Facebook.
The idea of this “things in common” label is to spark connections with people whom you might otherwise pass over. Currently this is just a test in the U.S., and will obviously only be able to see information that people have made public.
You Can Now Apply to be Verified on Instagram
This is the best news we’ve heard all week! Instagram is now allowing more people to apply for verification on the platform, in addition to more security improvements. Users with large followings will be able to fill out a request form in hopes of becoming verified by Instagram.
To apply, you’ll simply go to your profile, navigate to settings, and tap “request verification.” You can then fill in your account name, full name, and a legal or business I.D. You will receive a notification from Instagram on your verification status, although the review process time frame has not been determined.
We always wondered how accounts were verified in the past, but this new update will provide some clarity and a clearer path to verification.
Facebook Watch is Launching Worldwide
In support of Facebook’s goal to “…provide publishers and creators with the tools they need to build a business on Facebook,” they are launching Facebook Watch worldwide. Facebook Watch is the social media giant’s hub for original video content, and direct competitor to YouTube.
We were surprised to learn that the Watch tab touts over 50 million monthly viewers who watch at least 1-minute of video, since it’s not something we normally use, but it makes complete sense given video’s popularity among social media users. Watch also hosts participatory viewing experiences like Watch Parties, Premiers, and HQ Trivia competitor, Confetti.
The key to Facebook’s success will be in “fostering an active, engaged community and sharing longer content that viewers seek out and regularly come back to.” We hope this brings them the success they need right now!
Did you enjoy today's content? Leave a comment below, and check back every Friday for the latest in social media!