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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 Launches Campaign Planner for Facebook and Instagram: Facebook rolled out Campaign Planner, “a standalone tool for media planners to draft, compare and share media plans using reach and frequency buying across Facebook and Instagram.” Facebook's new Campaign Planner is available to anyone with access to a Business Manager account. Simply complete and submit the Campaign Planner Access Request Form to Facebook and wait to be approved.
Twitter Adds Periscope Account Links to Web Profiles: Periscope and Twitter both announced that Periscope users can now link their Periscope accounts to their Twitter web profiles, “making it easier for followers to discover and watch your live videos.” Periscope offers a quick tutorial on how to link your Periscope account to your Twitter profile in a tweet. The Next Web reports that “when you go live on Periscope the link to your profile switches to a flashing indicator that links immediately to your current broadcast, so all your followers can join in.” This new feature is available to all Twitter and Periscope users now.
You can now link Periscope to your Twitter web profile, making it easier for followers to discover and watch your live videos! pic.twitter.com/WlIt9PkPuT
— Periscope (@periscopeco) October 4, 2016
LinkedIn Introduces B2B Product and Service Reviews to the News Feed: LinkedIn announced “strategic partnerships” with three online review sites, G2 Crowd, IT Central Station, and TrustRadius, that will allow “reviewers to showcase their unique skill sets, knowledge and expertise with B2B products and services and, likewise, enable brands to promote their customers' ratings and reviews by spurring meaningful conversations with their LinkedIn followers.” These “detailed reviews of B2B products and services [are] now a part of the newly searchable LinkedIn newsfeed” and can be found by using the hashtag #B2Breviews. With this update, users can easily “discover what users are saying about brands… [and] foster improved, enriched and transparent discussions.”
YouTube Adds Paid Promotion Disclosure Text for Influencer Videos: YouTube launched “a new, optional video feature that adds visible text on the video for the first few seconds a viewer watches, informing viewers of a paid promotion.” Content creators can retroactively “add this text disclosure to any existing video without losing their view count or other video metrics” or include it in future campaigns. Its purpose is to provide marketers with an “easy-to-use notification” that helps them comply with disclosure rules and regulations mandated by regional legal entities such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States, Committee on Advertising Practices (CAP) in the UK, and the Direction GĂ©nĂ©rale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la RĂ©pression des Fraudes (DGCCRF) in France.
Shopify Direct Sales Feature Integrates With Facebook Messenger: Shopify announced a new integration with Facebook Messenger that allows customers “to browse and buy products in Messenger – all while chatting with [brands] in real-time.” To enable this feature, customers simply start a conversation with a retailer or brand in Messenger and then tap a Shop Now button to view the product catalog and make purchases, all without leaving the chat app. According to the Shopify blog, “the Messenger sales channel is free for Shopify merchants and available today in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.”
Facebook Messenger Rolls Out End-to-End Encryption to All Users: Facebook finished rolling out Secret Conversation “to all 900 million Facebook Messenger users in the past few weeks.” This new security feature encrypts conversations from end to end and enables users to set timers that control how long messages remain visible to both the sender and the recipient. Facebook Messenger began beta testing encryption services earlier this year. Messenger users can now protect their conversations from being monitored by hackers, government agencies, or Facebook itself. However, they're required to manually opt into this service for each individual conversation to be protected.
Our Take on Top News This Week
In this week's show from Friday, October 7, 2016, Michael Stelzner and guests discuss the top news in social media. Topics include new product updates and releases from Google, Periscope.tv, and Facebook Marketplace. Subscribe to future shows here.
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More News to Note
LinkedIn Adds New Feature for Job Hunters: LinkedIn released Open Candidates, “a new feature that makes it easier to connect with your dream job by privately signaling to recruiters that you're open to new job opportunities.” Job hunters can now easily identify the roles they're interested in pursuing and be found “by the hundreds of thousands of recruiters who use LinkedIn to find great professional talent.” As an added bonus,  LinkedIn “will hide the Open Candidates signal from recruiters at your company or affiliated company recruiters,” so you can search discreetly without your current employer being aware. Open Candidates is currently available in the U.S., UK, Canada, and Australia on the desktop and mobile web and will be rolling out globally soon.
Facebook Updates Instant Articles and Offers: With the release of Graph API v2.8, Facebook now allows publishers to separate instant articles placement from Facebook Audience Network and offers the flexibility “to enable or disable showing ads in Instant Articles.” Facebook also redesigned offer ads and native offers “to make it easier for people to claim offers on mobile and redeem those offers across devices (mobile, desktop) and in-store.” More details on targeting specs and other resources can be found on the Facebook Ad news blog.
Facebook Introduces Marketplace: Facebook reports that more than 450 million people visit buy-and-sell groups on Facebook each month. “To help people make more of these connections, [Facebook is] introducing Marketplace, a convenient destination to discover, buy and sell items with people in your community.” Marketplace makes it “easy to find new things you'll love, and find a new home for the things you're ready to part with” with search features that filter results by location, category, or price and the ability to message sellers directly to negotiate price, payment, and pick-up. Facebook Marketplace is gradually rolling out to all users over 18 years old in the U.S., UK, Australia, and New Zealand and can be accessed through the Facebook app for iPhone and Android. Additional countries and the desktop version will available “in the coming months.”
Facebook Releases Messenger Lite for Android: Facebook launched a slimmed-down, stand-alone version of its popular Messenger app for Android. Messenger Lite “offers the core features of Messenger for markets with slower than average internet speeds and a prevalence of basic Android smartphones.” This new product was “built to give people a great Messenger experience, no matter what technology they use or have access to.” Users can quickly and easily send photos, messages, and links to anyone in the world using Messenger or Messenger Lite. Facebook announced that Messenger Lite is rolling out to people in Kenya, Tunisia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela, and will be available in more countries “in the coming months.”
Upcoming Social Media News Worth Following
Facebook Messenger Tests Snapchat Stories-Like Feature: VentureBeat reports that users are starting to “see elements of Snap's stories feature pop up in [Facebook's] Messenger service.” This new feature, called Messenger Day, allows users to create ephemeral stories that last for 24 hours, offers privacy controls, and gives the ability to specify who can see your latest messages. Facebook confirms that it's running a “small test” in Poland, but has shared no other details beyond that.
Some Interesting Studies to Note
2016 Adobe Digital Marketing Survey: For the past seven years, Adobe has surveyed hundreds of marketers worldwide to learn how their companies are maturing digitally. The latest findings from this ongoing study are summarized in a new guide called Four Essential Elements for Digital Maturity, which offers “a holistic approach to mature digital marketing.”
Best Times to Post on Social Media + Cheat Sheet for 75 Industries: TrackMaven analyzed more than 17.5 million social media posts by 17,737 brands to determine the best days of the week and the best times of day to post on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. This new report also offers a further breakdown of the best day of the week and time of day to post for 75 industries.
Twitter Customer Service Report: Twitter and Applied Marketing Science conducted a research study on the potential revenue benefit to businesses that respond to their customers via Twitter. The findings reveal that customers who reach out to and receive a response from a business are willing to spend 3% to 20% more on an average-priced item from that business in the future, depending on the industry. In addition, customers are 44% more likely to share their experiences both online and offline after receiving a response from a business on Twitter and are 30% more likely to recommend the business to someone else.
What do you think of Facebook's new Campaign Planner tool? Have you been looking for an easier way to disclose paid promotions on YouTube? Please share your comments below.
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