Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

Facebook Live Screen Sharing, Facebook VR Updates, and New Facebook Ad Options

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social media researchWelcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media.

On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show with Michael Stelzner, we explore Facebook Live screen sharing and Facebook VR updates with Joel Comm, New Facebook ad options with Amanda Bond, and other breaking social media marketing news of the week!

Watch the Social Media Marketing Talk Show

If you’re new to the show, click on the green “Watch replay” button below and sign in or register to watch our latest episode from Friday, October 20, 2017. You can also listen to the show as an audio podcast, found on iTunes/Apple Podcast, Android, Google Play, Stitcher, and RSS.

For this week’s top stories, you’ll find timestamps below that allow you to fast-forward in the replay above.

Facebook Live Adds Built-In Screen Sharing Feature: Facebook rolled out an option for desktop users to share their screen directly on Facebook Live. The Next Web reports that this new feature can be found in the Live interface viewed on a Chrome browser, but doesn’t appear to be available for Firefox. This feature was first spotted by Matt Navarra. (4:09)

Facebook Unveiled Several New VR Products Ranging From Stand-Alone Headsets, the Oculus Dash, Oculus for Business, and More: Facebook unveiled several new Oculus products at the Oculus Connect Conference, starting with Oculus Go, a new stand-alone VR headset, and the Oculus Dash, a VR replacement for a computer screen. Facebook also announced new ways to implement VR as a sales and marketing tool with Oculus for Business and introduced new ways to share VR to the news feed. (10:00)

Facebook Previews Oculus Venues for Events and Concerts: Facebook previewed Oculus Venues, a new social VR product that will allow users to watch concerts, movies, TV shows, and sporting events “with up to 1,000 people” all around the world. Facebook shared that Oculus Venues is launching next year and more details about it will be provided “in the coming months.” (16:54)

Facebook Unveils 3D Posts in the News Feed: As part of the VR product and hardware announcements from the Oculus Connect Conference, Facebook previewed “a new type of News Feed post where users can grab, spin and interact with a 3D object to look at it from all angles” called 3D Posts. According to Facebook, this new media type gives users the ability to share content created inside VR with people who aren’t using a headset or create objects in Medium or Spaces’ marker drawing feature, and then share them to the news feed. TechCrunch reports that Facebook is also working on an API that allows third-party VR app developers to give users the option to share their creations to the news feed “down the line.” (17:58)

Facebook Tests Two New Custom Audience Options for Ad Targeting: Facebook appears to be testing two new ways to target ads to custom audiences that are most likely to respond. With “Dwell Time,” advertisers can “create a list of users who have spent time viewing your display adverts on Facebook or Instagram.” Link Sharing allows them to “create an audience based on people who have shared your content on Facebook” in the past. This feature was first spotted by Matt Navarra. (21:00)

Instagram Redesigns Call-to-Action Bar to Dynamically Mirror Ads: Instagram is currently updating the call-to-action bars on ads “to better blend in while still standing out.” Marketing Land reports that the horizontal bar along the bottom of a photo or video ad will no longer remain a solid blue color. Instead, it will dynamically change to complement the main color contained in the ad’s photo or video and is intended to “grab the user’s attention.” (29:16)

Facebook Officially Rolls Out Explore Feed on Desktop and Mobile: Facebook officially rolled out a new Explore Feed on mobile and desktop. Located in the Explore section on desktop and under the “More” menu on mobile, the Explore Feed helps “users discover more content across the social network, beyond posts from friends and Pages [they] already follow” and surfaces “recommended content it thinks you might find interesting, including posts, articles, photos, and videos from sources you haven’t followed yet.”

Facebook Expands Order Food Feature to All U.S. Users: Facebook began testing the take-out process from ordering to delivery entirely from within the main navigation of the site earlier this year. This past week, Facebook announced that the Order Food feature is now available “everywhere in the U.S. on iOS, Android, and desktop.” Rather than directly competing with established meal ordering services, Facebook is partnering with several industry leaders on this effort, including EatStreet, Delivery.com, DoorDash, and more.

Food Search
Posted by Facebook on Thursday, October 12, 2017

Facebook Tests Text-Only Disposable Profile Status Updates: Adweek reports that Facebook is currently testing temporary profile status updates that are limited to 101 characters and only feature text. A Facebook spokesperson stated that users will have the option “to set an expiration date for the status and choose whether or not it appears in News Feed or only on their profile.”

Facebook Tests New Resume Feature: Facebook confirmed it’s currently testing a dedicated Work Histories feature that allows users to list their professional experience and education along with their contact details, image, and other work-related details. Then Facebook showcases this information in “a single, professional-looking package… away from personal photos, status updates, and other Facebook posts people might not wish to share with recruiters and the wider world.”

Facebook Shows What You Have in Common With Mutual Friends: Earlier this year, Facebook began experimenting with a new feature that highlights the details you have in common with your friends’ friends. When a user clicks on a friend’s profile on desktop and scrolls down to their friends, a small box with a blue icon appears underneath the list along with a prompt to “see what you have in common with” that individual’s friends. A full-screen window pops up and highlights basic public details you share with each person such as other mutual friends, hometown, employers, groups, and more, with respect to their individual privacy setting.

Facebook is currently experimenting with a new feature that highlights the details you have in common with mutual friends.

Facebook is currently experimenting with a new feature that highlights the details you have in common with mutual friends.

Facebook Allows Users to “Create a Set” for Personal Posts: It appears that Facebook now allows users to select a destination for their posts, links, videos, and more on their personal timeline, with the option to “create a set” around certain friends or topics.

Facebook appears to allow users to select a custom destination for post, links, videos, and more on their personal timeline. 

Facebook appears to allow users to select a custom destination for posts, links, videos, and more on their personal timeline.

Facebook Updates User Interface for Watching Videos: Facebook appears to have given videos on the desktop a more Watch-like feel with separate tabs for “up next” videos and another for sharing comments. This is a feature that rolled out on Facebook Watch when it was debuted in August and now appears to be available to more Facebook videos.

Facebook appears to have given videos on the desktop a more Watch-like feel with separate tabs for

Facebook appears to have given videos on the desktop a more Watch-like feel with separate tabs for “up next” videos and another for sharing comments.

Facebook Acquires Anonymous Teen Compliment App, tbh: Facebook announced plans to acquire new polling startup, tbh. The app lets users anonymously answer kind and positive multiple-choice questions about friends who see the poll results in the form of a compliment. TechCrunch reports that Facebook will allow tbh “to operate somewhat independently with its own brand” and “[continue] to grow their app with Facebook’s cash, engineering, anti-spam, moderation and localization resources.”

WhatsApp Rolls Out Live Location-Sharing Feature: WhatsApp rolled out a new simple, secure way to share your live location in real time with family or friends. With this new feature, WhatsApp users will have full control over whom they share this information with and for how long. The new feature is available on both Android and iPhone and will be rolling out in the app “in the coming weeks.”

WhatsApp now features live location sharing for family and friends.

WhatsApp now features live location sharing for family and friends.

Twitter Introduces Video Website Cards: Twitter rolled out the video website card, a new ad format “that combines the power of video with the ability to drive users back to a site to learn more or take action in the moment” and is expected to create more personalized interactions between brands and users. Video website cards feature a customizable headline, a web page preview, and the ability to work “across a variety of brand objectives” such as video views, website clicks, or awareness. Twitter announced that video website cards are available now to all advertisers globally.

Pinterest Expands Search Ads to All Businesses and Adds Autotargeting Feature: Pinterest announced that it’s expanding search ads to “businesses of all sizes” through the Pinterest Ads Manager, its self-serve ad-buying tool. The company is also adding autotargeting for search. Powered by the Taste Graph, the new autotargeting feature “supplements your keyword strategy by automatically targeting relevant searches” and includes more than 5,000 interests to choose from.

LinkedIn Extends Autoplay Video Ads to Mobile for Select Advertisers: LinkedIn is beginning to experiment with autoplay video ads on mobile among a select test group of marketers. LinkedIn claims that video performs “20 times” better than other posts, which makes it the “highest performing content type” on the platform. With this in mind, the company hopes to eventually make video ads available to all advertisers long-term.

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About the Author, Grace Duffy

Grace Duffy, serves on the Editorial Staff at Social Media Examiner as News Producer. She is a social media strategist, marketer and content creator with a passion for connecting people through technology.

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