Tag Archive for: Social Media Marketing

Pinterest expanded its online shopping capabilities this week to make it easier to find and buy products across the platform. The updates to three core parts of its commerce marketing services make its tools more accessible and provide real-time tracking of what’s in stock with which retailers.

Shop What’s In Stock

Users can now shop in-stock fashion or home decor products in multiple ways across the platform.

The most notable change is a new “Shop” tab which will appear on search and on boards to help filter in-stock products from retailers. The tab will also help filter based on price and brands available from retailers.

When it appears on boards, the Shop tab will highlight products from or inspired by the Pins saved within users’ home decor or fashion boards.

Visual Search

Pinterest is integrating its visual search functionality with shoppable Pins to make it easier to find products directly from your feed.

Style Guides

Home decor style guides are now findable using Pinterest’s search tools. These are curated collections based around specific styles such as “mid-century” or “farmhouse” and appear at the top of search results for queries like “living room ideas.”

Facebook is making some key changes to improve uploading and publishing videos on the platform, such as increasing the number of videos you can upload at one time and introducing a new way to manage multiple videos at the same time.

The new features include:

  • An update to Facebook’s bulk uploader
  • Updating how playlists are organized
  • New ‘bulk actions’ features
  • Introducing the “Series” feature to organize content into episodes

Check out the details of each new feature and update below:

Updating the Bulk Uploader

Facebook is making it easier to upload multiple videos at once by allowing you to upload up to 50 videos to one page at the same time.

Even better, you can manage details of videos as they are uploading, including editing the title, description, tags, and scheduled post time.

Additionally, the company is introducing new ways to schedule your videos by letting you choose to publish your videos at regular intervals rather than at a specific time. For example, you can automatically set your videos to publish once a day or once a week once they have been uploaded.

Improved Bulk Actions

The social network is introducing more actions that you can make to multiple videos at a time. The new available bulk actions include:

  • In-stream ads
  • Rights manager for RM Lite and RM Pro
  • Bulk Scheduling
  • Secondary edit features:
    • Add tags
    • Add custom labels
    • Add video to playlist/series
    • Auto captions
    • Audience Restrictions (only available at the time of upload)

These bulk actions will help save time and improve workflow by making changes to several videos at once.

Updates to Playlists

Facebook’s video playlists are being updated to make it easier to manage and organize related videos without having to start a new page.

The newly updated playlists provide a few key benefits such as:

  • Organization: Playlists are a simple, flexible way to organize your topical or thematic content
  • Discovery: In addition, playlists now have new discovery benefits:
    • Playlists increase your videos’ distribution through related content recommendations, helping you reach and and grow loyal audiences
    • Viewers can click to open playlists from posts in News Feed, when videos are uploaded into a playlist
    • Playlists are showcased prominently on your Page
    • When viewers open a playlist from your Page or a News Feed post, it will playback in the order you dictate
    • Playlists have a unique URL you can share with your audience on or off Facebook
  • User flow: When clicking on your playlists from your Page, the News Feed unit, or Videos tab, viewers are taken to a list of your playlist content, allowing them to browse and choose a video to start watching.

Facebook Series

Facebook is creating an entirely new feature similar to playlists which allows users to discover video content across multiple channels.

As the company explains, series offer all the benefits of creating a playlist while also providing the following unique perks:

  • Series episodes can appear in the continue watching unit in the series Page.
  • Users can continue watching a series within Facebook Watch.
  • Users can navigate between seasons and episodes. They can also continue watching where they left off at any time.

Playlists and Series can both be created and managed from Creator Studio.

“A series provides a viewer flow, feature set, and brand aesthetic that is best suited to support episodic content, whether a cooking show in which each episode can be independently viewed, or a drama that is best viewed chronologically, due to a narrative arc across episodes.”

The Videos Tab

To house the new Series and help centralize Facebook’s video content, the company is also launching a new tab available for all pages.

The tab collects your playlists and series, while also allowing users to follow your Page to be notified about your latest videos as they’re published.

Facebook is launching a mobile app version of its Creator Studio which helps users monitor and manage their page and content on the go.

While the iOS and Android apps will allow you to keep better in touch with your content while out of the office, the mobile version is still intended to be a companion to the more comprehensive desktop version.

As the company says in its announcement:

“The app is an evolution of and mobile complement to Creator Studio, the desktop hub dedicated to helping creators and publishers manage their content, track performance, and connect meaningfully with their audiences on Facebook. The new experience offers the same actionable insights and meaningful engagement metrics, all from the ease of a mobile device.”

Although the Creator Studio app does not provide the full suite of features available in the desktop version, it does include some of the most popular and informative tools for page managers, such as:

Facebook Creator Studio Insights

  • Rich Insights: Data and engagement metrics about how content is performing, like “1 Minute Views” and “Avg. Minutes Viewed”

Facebook Creator Studio Content Management

  • Post-Uploading Edits and Fixes: Ability to edit video titles and descriptions, delete and expire posts, publish drafted posts and reschedule scheduled posts, enabling easy content adjustments

Facebook Creator Studio Messaging

  • Connect with Audiences: Reach fans and followers in real-time, from anywhere with the ability to read and respond to Facebook messages and comments using Inbox directly in the app

Facebook Creator Studio Manage Multiple Pages

  • Multi-Account Support: Manage multiple Pages on Facebook and toggle between them from the same app in the same session–no need to log out of one to log into another to access multiple Pages
  • Notifications: Immediate in-app notifications for key milestones

The most obvious omission is the ability to upload content or create new posts. At the moment, the Creator Studio app only allows you to manage or edit content that has already been posted or scheduled.

LinkedIn is launching three new features for users aimed at encouraging the community to engage more and form deeper connections with followers.

The new features are part of an initiative to bring new updates to LinkedIn’s 50 million organizations using the site to reach customers, prospects, employees, and potential collaborators.

To start of 2020, the site is making it possible for users to invite others to follow their page, stream using LinkedIn Live, and post to their page in new ways.

Invite New Followers

One of the hardest parts of getting a social metwork page off the ground is gaining new followers. Now, LinkedIn is giving page managers the ability to invite users who share a first-degree level of connection to your page.

Users can also choose to entirely opt out of these invites if they prefer to not receive invitations to follow pages.

LinkedIn Live Integration

LinkedIn is also working to better integrate their streaming platform by allowing pages to broadcast live streams.

In the past, live streaming was strictly only available to personal profiles on the site.

This could prove to be a boon for pages on the site, as the company says live streams generate up to 7 times more reactions and 24 times more comments compared to typical video posts.

To get access to live streaming on your brand’s page, page managers can apply on the LinkedIn Live website.

Post as a Page or Member

When posting new content, users can now select a conveniently located switch on the homepage to choose between posting as yourself or an organization you represent.

Previously, the only way to post as your page required you to visit your organization’s page and post directly from that page. Now, users can easily post to their preferred page from one place.

You can see what the new features look like in action in the video from LinkedIn below:

Instagram is cracking down on influencers and brands publishing content relating to a few controversial topics.

While the company has had policies restricting branded content related to vaping, tobacco products, and weapons, the company is introducing a new policy which will more vigorously enforce these restrictions.

 

The ramp up of enforcement will come over the coming weeks, giving brands and influencers a small amount of time to plan their future marketing efforts.

Instagram also says it will be enacting more rules related to branded content promoting alcohol and diet supplements in the coming year.

Details on the initiative are limited, but the company says it is building new tools to help enforce age-based content restrictions which will help creators ensure adult content is not seen by minors.

While the site may be restricting a few types of branded content, the company says its overall goal is to help creators grow and connect more with their audiences.

As the policy announcement concludes:

“Creators on Instagram are a vital part of our community, and we will be investing even more resources in 2020 to help them build their businesses on Instagram.”

Facebook’s dominance of the internet continues, as reports say the company owns 4 of the 5 most downloaded apps in the world this year.

App Annie’s year-end report shows that Facebook helped drive a worldwide record for app downloads with 120 billion apps downloaded between iOS and Android in 2019 – a 5% year-over-year increase.

According to App Annie’s data, the top 5 app downloads of the year are:

  1. Facebook Messenger
  2. Facebook
  3. WhatsApp Messenger
  4. TikTok
  5. Instagram

10 Top Downloaded Apps in 2019

TikTok is the only app in the top 5 not owned by Facebook.

Breakout Apps

In addition to the top app downloads over the past year, App Annie also detailed the top “breakout apps” which showed the largest growth in downloads between 2018 and 2019. While most are still relative unknowns, they could potentially be chart-toppers in the near future.

  1. Likee
  2. Noizz
  3. Helo
  4. Hago
  5. YouTube Music

Top 10 Breakout Apps of 2019

Based on the its current estimations, App Annie believes 2020 is posed to be even more lucrative for app downloads and consumer spend. Excluding games, the report predicts spending to reach more than $30 billion in the coming year.

Pinterest is launching a new tool called Pinterest Trends which will help you see what the hottest search terms have been over the past 12 months, along with info showing when the search terms peaked.

As the company announced, the new feature is in beta, but began rolling out earlier this week.

How Trends Can Help Your Marketing

Marketers and brands have been relying on Google Trends for years to track what the most popular search terms over time, especially surrounding seasonal events. Although Pinterest’s version of this feature doesn’t seek to reinvent the wheel, it does provide another set of compelling data which could be particularly useful for businesses in the fields Pinterest tends to cater to – such as cooking, decorating, fashion, and self-care.

As Pinterest continues to grow into one of the most dominant social platforms available, insights like this will be useful for brands looking to plan their campaigns ahead of time.

The company said as much when describing their goals with the tool:

“Pinterest Trends will help brands get deeper insights into planning behaviors on the platform, and allow  them to allocate budgets to campaigns during various planning stages. It will also validate assumptions about emerging trends, refine search queries with the aid of auto-complete suggestions, and help advertisers find a list of keywords to include or avoid while planning media campaigns.”

For example, the company says that Tastemade and Albertsons were given early access to the tool and have both used the data to create successful boards and campaigns on the site.

Chatbots are becoming a mainstay of everyday commerce, helping customers quickly connect with brands of all types and sizes and facilitate online sales.

According to a new study from Intercom, the automated messaging bots are also helping businesses save considerable amounts of money, with business leaders saving an average of $300,000 in 2019. However, the findings also reveal a disconnect between shoppers’ preferences and chatbot prevalence.

Notably the study found that 74% of customers surveyed expect to encounter chatbots on a website, though more than 85% of customers still prefer speaking with a human.

Although shoppers may not prefer chatbots, there are plenty of signs to suggest the bots are a uniquely powerful tool for driving sales. One prediction from Juniper Networks estimates the tool will drive more than $110 billion in retail sales by 2023.

The reason is that having a human available to respond to questions isn’t always feasible. Brands may not have the budget to have a receptionist or social media manager available at all times.

These bots help fill a needed gap in customer service, marketing, and sales simultaneously – leading to higher sell-through rates according to the Intercom study.

“Chatbots increased sales by an average of 67%, with 26% of all sales starting through a chatbot interaction,” the study found.

Instagram will start testing the removal of “Like” counts in the US as early as this week, the company’s CEO announced recently.

 

The company has already been testing eliminating the “Like” counts from view for users in Canada, Brazil, Japan, and Australia. However, this is the first time they will be testing the concept for American users.

Notably, in these tests, Instagram has not totally removed the presence of Likes or the ability to view your total likes. Instead, the site has hidden the total number of Likes from other users viewing a person’s post on desktop or viewing a person’s profile. This makes it so that only account owners can view the number of Likes a post receives.

If Instagram proceeds to remove Likes entirely from public view, it could have a significant impact to how users interact with content and how online success is measured.

For instance, influencers and marketers will likely stop relying on Likes as a measure of their posts success. Instead, they might shift to other, deeper engagement metrics such as clicks, comments, or shares.

For now, Instagram is just testing removing likes. Given that they have slowly been expanding this feature around the world, however, it seems likely that the platform is seriously considering hiding your Likes from public view for good.

The holiday season may still feel like it is far in the distance, but most studies show consumers start their holiday shopping in November – if not earlier. That means now is the time to start preparing your holiday marketing efforts.

To help, Facebook is releasing a wave of new tools aimed at assisting businesses with their holiday marketing. 

Customizable Story Templates

Facebook is releasing a number of customizable templates for ads in Facebook Stories, Instagram, and Messenger. 

The templates are simple, visually pleasing ways to showcase products and brands throughout the shopping season, with customizable backgrounds, music, and CTAs. 

These templates will be available this week.

Improvements to Instagram Direct and Messenger

Closer to the Holiday season, Facebook says it will be bringing a number of new features to Instagram Direct to improve communication between businesses and customers.

As the company says in the announcement:

“From fulfilling orders to keeping up with customer requests, we know staying on top of customer communications is important, so we also created new messaging tools like labels, search and folders to help businesses stay organized.”

Within the coming weeks, Facebook will also be launching an ‘instant replies’ which lets businesses create custom automatic responses for when they are not immediately available. 

These “away” messages can be useful for days when your business is closed or when no one will be available to respond to messages for a prolonged period of time. 

Along with these improvements, Facebook is also introducing a new ‘saved replies’ feature which will allow you to respond to common questions with pre-written responses.