To all of our marketing professionals out there, we have some news for you….
Social media is a massive asset to your organization and keeping up with it is a must!
Being able to properly utilize the platforms your potential and current consumers are on is the key to successful digital marketing. Although you may have noticed, these platforms are constantly updating their algorithms, layouts, and basic functions.
You probably find yourself asking “When did this happen?”, “What am I supposed to do now?”, and “Will my current strategy still work?”.
For those of you finding themselves asking these questions on a weekly basis, we have just the thing! Below are the newest and most relevant updates in the social media world this week. We’ve also included some helpful tips and takeaways so you leave knowing exactly how these will impact your business.
1.’Meaningful’ Community Focus via Facebook
Facebook hit quite the milestone this week with finally acquiring 2 billion active users. So chances are, your potential customer is on the platform. Which is why Facebook’s new mission to build meaningful community comes at the perfect time to not only reach your ideal customer but build a relationship with them that lasts.
They have already tailored their algorithms to weed out “fake news” and help increase positive interactions on the platform. This ‘meaningful community’ has a similar idea. With several new features added to Facebook groups, group admins will have more power to manage members and content.
Within groups, new administrative tools have been released that will give admins access to real-time metrics, membership request filtering, removed member clean-up, scheduled posts, and group-to-group linking– features they didn’t have before.
Takeaway for your business: Two of the most exciting features within this round of updates are the real-time metrics and the ability to schedule posts.
One of the biggest complaints from Facebook group admins was in the inability to access any metrics regarding group activity. Now, users will have metrics on page growth and post engagement with the new ‘Group Insights’. This will help to know popular times to post, what some of the most popular posts have been, and the who the top contributors are to the group.
The scheduling feature is nothing new to Facebook, but it is new to groups. The lack of scheduling ability has been one of the biggest frustrations for admins and its addition is giving group leaders a big sigh of relief everywhere. Now, with the new group metric, you can schedule posts for the most popular times in bulk and not have to worry about logging in multiple times a day.
These are features that will enhance the way you use Facebook for your business and make it more user-friendly, accessible, and increase engagement.
2. Customer Geofilters via Snapchat App
Here Snapchat goes again making our life easier. Now, users can create promotional geo-filters filters straight from the app rather than on the website. Now, users will be able to create and submit a filter from anywhere they take their mobile phones.
Takeaway fro your business: This update simply makes life easier. Snapchat says that this feature is mostly for personal use of the app and that businesses should still use the web studio feature if they want to get the most out of custom filters. Still, if you are ever in a crunch for time or have limited access to your desktop, this makes for a great solution.
3. Discover v1.1 via Facebook Messenger
This is an update to the previous version of the Discover feature dropped by Facebook back in April and makes it easier and quicker to find the perfect messenger bot for you. Now, by simply tapping the ‘Discover’ icon in your messenger app you can search bots by category, trending bots, and ‘featured’ bots, which are the top bots Facebook recommends.
Takeaway for Your Business:
Messenger bots have taken off quite a bit since they first launched. Many attest that the use of bots can dramatically help your business, not only in saving time but in giving your followers the immediate response they have come to expect in this quick digital age.
Setting up an interactive bot that’s right for you can have a big impact on your business. This intuitive update will help in the selection of your bot and save browse time.
4. LinkedIn Search via LinkedIn
This new search feature is going to change the way users tailor their profiles, as well as help employers find the right candidates. With the new Search Appearances feature, users can now see exactly what types of people are looking at your profile and what skills they are interested in.
Takeaway for Your Business: There is no “perfect” way to select an employee, people have been studying the hiring process for decades now and have yet to perfect the process.
There are countless of variables that you can not account for when selecting an employee, but this could make online hiring a little bit easier.
When you are searching for potential candidates, it is overwhelming to get through all of the profiles out there, but if you can search more specifically based on a tailored profile it would make it easier.
5. “M” Feature via Facebook Messenger
Facebook has created a community within its Messenger app, almost diversifying it completely away from Facebook itself. To add to the games, bots, video chats, they are adding an AI assistant to help you navigate the countless features of this app.
With the addition of the “M” button on the text board inside Messenger, a virtual assistant pops up in a conversation when it senses a user needs help with something. For example, if the topic of going to a certain location comes up in conversation, this virtual assistant will pop us with the Uber or Lyft apps to help users get a ride. Talk about a helpful assistant right?
Takeaway for Your Business: AI is taking over the social media world and enhancing the way businesses interact with users on each platform.
This update could potentially help you with partnerships and general interactions with your customers. The automated assistant will help with suggested responses (in Spanish and English), location sharing, setting reminders, starting polls, and much more.
Social Media Tool of the Week:
This week we are featuring a tool that everyone should have in their arsenal no matter how grammatically correct you think you are. Grammarly is browser extension that helps with checking spelling, sentence structure, and puncuation.
The tool picks up a range of communication suggestions from poor use of vocabulary to simple spelling errors. Because the tool is a browser extension, it proofreads all web based writing. This way mistakes don’t make it online.
The ability to use this program for any type of writing whether it be for Facebook, Twitter, blog posts, Tumblr, or an email is why it has been mentioned in our blog post today. As marketers, we know the importance of accurate copy!
Have an update we didn’t cover? Make sure to leave it in the comments below! As always thank for reading. We will see you next week with even more social media updates!
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