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!
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The top news in social media that we covered this month includes:
Relevancy and Effectiveness now Play into Facebook Ads – Facebook has optimized their advertising platform to be sure that ads are relevant to users and driving business results. Facebook now says there are three factors at play to determine if your ad is displayed (and at what price) – 1) The bid amount and objective 2) The probability of driving the action and 3) The relevance of the ad. This means you need to pay more attention to the quality of your ad and simply boosting posts or aiming for clicks without a well-defined ad may not work.
Share DropBox Files in Messenger –Facebook is investing big-time in messenger – you can now easily share dropbox files with the latest integration.
Video Chat Heads in Messenger – You don’t have to watch video streams full-screen any more – check out smaller video “chat heads” that don’t dominate your screen while chatting.
Facebook Live Opens up API –Live can now be streamed from drones, cameras and more – making this a very robust tool.
KLM Uses Facebook Messenger for Real Time Updates and Service – Messenger apps are the new frontier in social media marketing allowing for businesses to connect with customers in real time. KLM announced an integration with Facebook Messenger where users can get their flight info and more directly in Messenger. Look for more opportunities to incorporate messaging in your strategy.
Facebook Live Launches for Groups and Events and Includes New Features – Facebook is investing BIG in Live streaming and now has more features to make live streams interactive and engaging. Invite friends, replay comments and use filters – just a few ways that Live is getting an upgrade.
Facebook Instant Articles are Now Open to All – You can enable instant articles to grow your reach on Facebook. The downside is that visitors won’t visit your website – but they can access your content more quickly.
Facebook Carousel Content – How to harness the carousel to make your content stand out. Check out this resource on how to use more images to make your posts and ads stand out.
Instagram
Rolls out 60 Second Videos – Instagram rolls out 60 second videos (increasing the length from 15 seconds). This may create new opportunities for marketers to use Video on Instagram to share their story without worrying about the time limit.
Instagram Video Explore Channels – Instagram created a video explore channel where you can search for and explore videos. This further demonstrates their focus on video as a strategy.
Pinterest Launches How-To Pins – How-To Pins could be a way to increase your exposure on Pinterest. The downside is that they are pulling the “How-To” details into Pinterest which may result in fewer clicks to your website. This is great for exposure of your business but may reduce traffic.
YouTube
Google Builds YouTube Connect – Google is competing with Periscope and Facebook Live with their new connect for YouTube. This brings livestreaming into YouTube and may make Google a major player in the live video space.
Snapchat
Chat 2.0 – SnapChat launches Chat 2.0 which allows people to connect with audio and live video. This makes SnapChat even more interactive while continuing to provide the privacy that users love.