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Welcome to our weekly edition of what's hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.
What's New This Week?
Facebook Brings New Call-to-Action Buttons to Pages: “Designed to bring a business's most important objective to the forefront of its Facebook presence, call-to-action buttons link to any destination on or off Facebook that aligns with a business's goals.”
LinkedIn Rolls Out Redesigned Homepage: Now it's “even easier for you to quickly manage and benefit from your experience on LinkedIn.”
Instagram Adds Five New Filters: These new filters are “inspired by the photography, art, fashion and design of the global Instagram community.”
Facebook Adds Auto-Enhance on Photos Uploaded via iOS: “You can use the auto-enhance filter on iOS now. Check the settings to control the strength or turn it on and off.”
Google Launches Video Analytics Page in AdWords for Video: This revamp will “offer more YouTube Analytics-style performance metrics right in AWV, bringing a greater focus on video creative to campaign management and optimization.”
Facebook Updates Rooms: “A new way to discover and join many of these communities via the Explore feature.”
Skype Announces Translator Preview Program: “The preview program will kick off with two spoken languages, Spanish and English, and 40+ instant messaging languages will be available to Skype customers who have signed up via the Skype Translator sign-up page and are using Windows 8.1 on the desktop or device.”
Here are a few social media tools worth checking out:
Compose: “A simple little app that lets you send email without being overwhelmed by what's in your inbox.”
Nideo: A video hosting, management and analytics platform.
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EyeEm 5.0: This app “contains everything you need to make your photos look the way you want.”
Here are some interesting studies to note:
Quarterly Facebook Network Study, Q3 2014: A new Simply Measured study analyzed how the world's top brands interact and drive engagement on Facebook each day. The study finds that Facebook adoption is nearly 100% for the Interbrand Top 100 Global Brands. Ninety-one percent of the companies post an average of once per week or more on Facebook. Sixty-five percent post five times a week or more. Forty-one percent post once a day. Photos account for 77% of all post engagement for top brands and is the most successful content type. The study also provides more insights into successful tactics for hashtags, content and industry-specific engagement rates.
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GET THE DETAILSStrongView's 2015 Marketing Trends Survey:Â StrongView 2015 Marketing Trends Survey reveals that business leaders are generally optimistic about the direction their marketing budgets will take next year. Fifty-four percent expect their budgets to grow in 2015 (up from 46% in last year's survey) and one-third of those forecast at least a 10% growth. Digital marketing channels, particularly email and social media marketing, top the list of planned budget increases, while traditional channels are set for budget reductions.
Report: Top brands find much more engagement on Instagram than Twitter: A new report by Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer Socialbakers looked at the social media profiles of the top 25 most engaging brands and found more engagement happening on Instagram (3.31%) versus Twitter (0.07%). While Twitter is great for news and real-time buzz, Instagram is bigger, and according to their newest data, driving more interactions and engagement within communities.
Online-Offline Integration Among Digital Marketers' Top Priorities for the Year Ahead: Marin Software's newest survey, fielded among more than 300 marketers in the UK and US, found that digital marketers' biggest priorities in 2015 are cross-channel digital marketing (50%), better integration of online and offline marketing efforts (46%) and better integration of digital marketing disciplines (44%). In terms of the online-offline divide, the study reveals that 53% of those surveyed feel they ought to shift more of their offline budget to support digital efforts like social media. Thirty-one percent feel they have the right balance between offline and digital spending.
Forrester Predictions 2015: Which technology and business trends will drive customer engagement and growth in 2015? Forrester compiled 40 reports predicting the trends that will impact your business in the coming year and help you anticipate change and optimize strategy.
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