Check out our round-up of the biggest changes in social media and digital marketing from the last month. Let us do the work for you, we gather the updates, you reap the benefit of having all of them in one place!
We read all of the latest social media news so you don’t have to.
As a value add for our All Access Pass Members, we provide a monthly call where in 30 minutes we share the biggest changes in social media and importantly how they impact your social media strategy and 30 minutes of open Q&A where we answer questions from our members!
The top news in social media that we covered this month includes:
- Facebook is testing real-time status comments. Users will now be able to see if someone is typing a comment by the display of an ellipsis similar to what is seen on Messenger. Facebook feels that this will increase engagement. The goal is to keep you aware of the status of the conversation, and whether the other person intends to reply.
- Facebook is testing a search option to find local services with reviews! Sounds a lot like something we know….Yelp. This is Facebook’s way of helping you to find businesses around you along with ratings and recommendations on where to go. This will make it easier for customers to find you but it also makes it even more imperative to make sure that the business’ contact information on Facebook is up to date and that reviews are being monitored to make sure they are responded to accordingly.
- Facebook releases two new features to their page plugin: Messages and Events. These features allows people the ability to message your business and view events from your website. This is great because it allows you to keep people on your site longer which is the goal…to drive people to your site.
- Facebook tests live video and collages: Could this be Facebook’s response to Periscope and Meerkat? From your status update you will have the ability to live stream video that you would like to share and include a description. During the broadcast, you’ll be able to see engagement and at the end of your broadcast, the video will be saved on your timeline. There is also an option for users to subscribe so that they are notified the next time you live stream. If you’re not ready to dive into Periscope, Meerkat or other live streaming apps, maybe consider testing out this new feature to see what you can share and the type of engagement you receive.
- Twitter updates the appearance of photos. Photos in the timeline will no longer be cropped; this will allow users to experience the pictures in the way that they were meant to be seen. Once again, social networks are realizing the importance of visual content and how it engages with users more than anything else.
- Twitter shares with businesses, the most effective ways to write your Twitter Ad copy. They discuss 7 short and easy tips to increase engagement through your ad. If you’re running an ad, might as well hear from the network on how to get that ad to generate conversions.
- Twitter…beginning to base tweet order off of quality rather than time posted. In their attempt to show you the most relevant and most important things happening, this may mean deviating from the norm of displaying tweets in chronological order. This further supports the importance of having killer content. Make sure you’re creating content that will interest your audience. This may mean a different approach on different networks.
- Facebook Ad Manager allows you to create your Instagram Ad! If you’re already running Facebook Ads through Ads Manager then you’ll have no problem creating Instagram ads.
- Instagram Example – Look at this cool way of bringing attention to a link on Instagram. As you probably know. You can’t link FROM an Instagram update. Look how this blogger adds an emoji adds attention to her link (even if it isn’t a live link).
YouTube
- YouTube announced a new tab in the YouTube app that delivers the top trending videos directly to Android, iOS and desktop devices. “It’s the best way to catch the videos, creators, and trends that people watch, share, and talk about each and every day.”
Other Social Media Mentions
- Periscope Named App Store Best of 2015 by Apple-calling it “probably the most successful app of the year”
Looking ahead to Digital Marketing in 2016
- Parse.ly shared an end-of-year survey to understand the state of the digital media industry in 2015 and discovered what challenges are expected in 2016. While digital publishers are confident in the overall success of the industry, 46% of respondents report having profited primarily through traditional advertising in 2015. This percentage is expected to drop in 2016 as efforts shift towards a combination of streams. This Report/Survey says Monetization will be Digital Media’s Biggest Challenge in 2016
