by Welcome 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, we explore the latest way Instagram is connecting brands with influencers on the platform and upcoming Instagram Stories features with Jenn Herman. We also cover the new Pinterest Trends tool with Jennifer Priest.
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Listen to the replay of this week’s show below. You can also hear the show as an audio podcast on iTunes/Apple Podcast, Android, Google Play, Stitcher, and RSS.
Watch the replay of this week’s show below.
About Our Special Guests
- Jenn Herman is an Instagram-loving writer, speaker, and social media consultant. You can learn more from her at her site, Jenn’s Trends.
- Jennifer Priest specializes in hashtags and Pinterest SEO. She’s the owner and chief strategist at Smart Creative Social.
Use the timestamps below to fast-forward to our top stories in the replay above.
- 7:51 Instagram Begins Testing Facebook Brand Collabs Manager
- 15:44 Instagram Rolls Out New Layout Option for Stories
- 18:19 Instagram Starts Testing New Stories Format Called “Reels”
- 23:13 Instagram Tests “Shoutout” Feature for Posts and Stories
- 27:50 Instagram Experiments With Possible New “Photo Booth” Feature
- 31:25 Instagram Stories Claims Almost 10% of All Facebook Inc. Ad Spending
- 37:39 Pinterest Introducing Pinterest Trends Tool to U.S. Audience
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Instagram Begins Testing Facebook Brand Collabs Manager: Instagram is testing Facebook’s branded content partnerships tool, Brand Collabs Manager, with a select group of U.S. creators. The Instagram creators in the test group will be able to “share their content, details about their audiences, and first-party insights” with brands, as well as discover new potential partners who “will resonate with their audience.”
Additionally, Instagram is updating its branded content policies “to include clearer rules for the paid promotion of certain goods and services such as vaping, tobacco, alcohol and diet supplements.” These new policies can be reviewed on Instagram’s Help Center.
As mentioned on the show, you can reference Jenn Herman’s article, Creating Branded Content on Instagram: What Marketers Need to Know, to learn how to set up, create, and analyze branded content posts on Instagram.
Instagram Rolls Out New Layout Option for Stories: Instagram introduced a new Layout feature that allows users to capture and share multiple images within an individual story.
Strike a pose. And another pose. And then another. 📸
With Layout, you can now capture and share multiple photos in your story — a new, creative way to express yourself. Check it out! pic.twitter.com/j02aYOjsoO
— Instagram (@instagram) December 17, 2019
With the new Layout option, Instagram stories can include two to six photos in a grid-based collage. Layout is available to all users globally in the Stories camera.
Instagram Starts Testing New Stories Format Called “Reels”: Variety reports that “Instagram is looking to harness the power and popularity of lip-syncing apps like TikTok” in Stories by introducing its own music video tool. This new Stories mode, Reels, is currently being tested on both iOS and Android devices in Brazil as part of an initial experimental phase.
Instagram Starts Testing New Stories Format Dubbed ‘Reels’ in Brazil https://t.co/sRTOlSbYkK
— Variety (@Variety) November 12, 2019
Instagram Tests “Shoutout” Feature for Posts and Stories: Instagram appears to be testing a new Stories feature that combines “throwbacks” with good wishes. Screenshots provided by social media industry commentator and consultant Matt Navarra show that users can send birthday wishes, thanks, or anniversary greetings, customize background colors, and @mention other users in their shoutouts. Then they can share the images as a feed post or story.
New! Instagram has a new ‘Shoutouts’ feature for Stories
h/t @aj_malakai pic.twitter.com/wbMDtmd9w5
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) December 10, 2019
Instagram Experiments With Possible New “Photo Booth” Feature: Instagram is reportedly working on a new Stories camera option called Poses that will stitch a series of up to four photos snapped in succession into a mini stop-motion video for feed posts and stories. This possible new feature was discovered and shared by tech researcher Jane Manchun Wong.
Instagram is working on “Poses”, a new Story Camera mode that takes four pictures (one per three seconds) and stitch them together into a stop-motion story
This is similar to Photo Booths pic.twitter.com/sTiGQn2oCm
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) December 11, 2019
Instagram hasn’t commented on nor confirmed when a full launch of either the Shoutout or Poses Stories add-ons can be expected.
Instagram Stories Claims Almost 10% of All Facebook Inc. Ad Spending: Bloomberg reports that “Instagram’s Stories are now making significant contributions to Facebook Inc., drawing almost 10% of all ad spending on the company’s properties at the end of the third quarter.” This finding is based on a study by Socialbakers.
Instagram’s Stories are making significant contributions to Facebook, drawing almost 10% of all ad spending https://t.co/SKtcxJ86kz pic.twitter.com/zt1qApK1Dw
— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) December 10, 2019
This same study reveals that advertiser spending on Instagram Stories jumped almost 70% from the prior year. While Facebook doesn’t disclose how much ad revenue specifically comes from Stories, the company does share that the number of people using Stories continues to climb.
Pinterest Introducing Pinterest Trends Tool to U.S. Audience: Pinterest is starting to roll out a new tool called Pinterest Trends, which allows users to view the top U.S. search terms and topics on the platform in the past 12 months. The idea is to give marketers “better understand[ing of] how content performs on Pinterest” and “allow them to allocate budgets to campaigns during various planning stages.”
Coming soon: Access to all the top searches on Pinterest 📱📌 https://t.co/RsAdYSbsX5
— Pinterest Business (@pinterestbiz) December 12, 2019
Along with debuting the Pinterest Trends tool, the company also shared the Pinterest 100, an extensive annual report that reveals the top emerging trends to try in the year ahead. The research shares what people around the world will want to see in the coming year.
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