August has been an interesting and lively month in the world of social media.
Facebook, in particular, has been very busy.
This flurry of activity may be, at least in part, due to less than great quarter two results, which caused Facebook shares to drop by 24%.
Instagram’s advertising has climbed unabated and LinkedIn has surprised with its most recent milestones.
WhatsApp and Snapchat have added to their platforms.
And while Pinterest has quietly made enhancements to their product, YouTube is in troubled water again.
Lastly, two important anniversaries slipped by, one for Twitter and the other for Instagram.
Make Videos from Images with the New Facebook Function
Facebook has just announced that it will release a whole new set of tools to help advertisers add motion to their images.
Create to Convert gives users the ability to create videos from still images.
There are a number of tools in the kit:
- A video creation kit for transforming images to videos, optimized for mobile devices. The kit contains four templates for ease of use.
- Animation changes images to video
- Video cropping reduces videos to recommended Facebook video specifications.
Earlier in the month, Facebook had announced its Create to Convert approach to video ads.
Their studies show that 69% of the brands that used these methods experienced improvements in advertising response.
On average the conversion rate was 17% higher.
Upgrades and More in the Pipeline at Facebook
With an eye to boosting its lagging following, Facebook is upgrading its business pages to support the 80 million businesses and 1.6 billion followers using Facebook.
It seems that Facebook may soon have its own voice recognition software, and they’ve called it Aloha.
TechCrunch reports that the social media company has recently filed patents for the technology.
This may create new opportunities for savvy marketers in the future.
On a different note, Facebook will also remove nearly 5,000 targeting options from its advertising platforms.
They are doing this in the interests of non-discrimination.
In theory, advertisers could have used these demographics to exclude a portion of the audience, effectively discriminating against minority and other groups.
Instagram’s Advertising Just Keeps Growing
This month Instagram marked the second anniversary of the launch of Instagram Stories, and what a success story it has been!
Instagram Stories now attracts more than 400 million users every day.
The growth in advertising at Instagram shows no sign of slowing down. At the end of quarter two, the year on year increase had reached 177%.
Instagram is always on the lookout for new ways to engage people.
Right now, they are testing changes to their recommended posts, ensuring that followers receive the most relevant recommendations first.
LinkedIn Enhances Sales Navigator
LinkedIn has added new functionality to its Sales Navigator for the benefit of sales teams that use this platform.
The enhancements will assist in acquiring new business and expanding current customer engagement.
New enhancements include:
- Integration with Office 365
- A quicker, simpler search experience
- Lead pages for mobile devices
- Pipeline deal management
- Adobe Sign has joined up the newest SNAP integrator.
LinkedIn now reaches 575 million users with the largest markets in the United States, China, and India.
With year on year advertising growth of 212%, LinkedIn is the only social media platform to beat Instagram in the advertising growth stakes.
WhatsApp to Launch Pay to Use Tools
WhatsApp will soon launch pay to use advertising for customer service focused ads.
On this platform, brands can engage directly with the users on their mobile devices.
Advertisers will be charged only for the ads that reach their audience and will only allow non-sales content.
Advertisers who respond to customer queries within 24 hours will not have to pay for the service, but a late response will cost.
This is intended to create better engagement between businesses and their customers.
Advertisers will be allowed to add a “click to chat” icon on their advertisement or their website so that interested customers can quickly message them.
WhatsApp will ensure that all messages are encrypted and users can block businesses if they wish.
Snapchat’s Musical GIFS
TuneMoji and Snapchat have joined forces to give users a brand new social media experience.
GIFS that include a snippet of music are now available to users that have both Snapchat and TuneMoji downloaded onto their mobile devices.
Users can now add musical GIFS to their stories or chats.
Pinterest is Making Pins More Relevant
Pinterest has been making changes to the algorithms used to organize Pins.
The new arrangement will ensure that pinners receive recommendations that more accurately reflect their tastes.
For the brands that use Pinterest, this is good news.
Proportionately, Pinterest drives more shopping decisions than any social media platform.
In a recent survey of Pinners, Pinterest found that 72% were inspired to shop when browsing through Pins even when they were not looking to buy anything and 70% discover new products on Pinterest.
Mars Bar Suspends YouTube Advertising
Citing brand damage, Mars Bar has recently discontinued their marketing contract with YouTube.
This is because an advertisement for their product, Starburst Sweets, was shown before a music video featuring drill music.
They cited that this type of music promotes gang violence in London.
It is estimated that this has cost YouTube around £5 million in lost revenue.
The incident has led other brands to reconsider their advertising contracts with YouTube as well.
This is not the first time that YouTube has found themselves in hot water for the placement of advertisements before controversial videos.
The Anniversary of the Hashtag
On the 23 August 2007, the hashtag was first used on Twitter.
Fast forward 11 years and 125 million hashtags are shared every day.
Today, hashtags are leading social, political and humanitarian revolutions.
Who’d have imagined it?
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