Welcome to this week's episode of Social Chatter, the longest running social media marketing talk show where we cover the latest social media news from this past week.
As a reminder, each episode of Social Chatter is available as a blog post or video.
For those of you who missed last week's show with Phil Gerbyshak, Christian Karasiewicz and guest, Kelly Loubet-Singh, you can find it here.
We're also joined by this week's special guest, Dorien Morin-van Dam.
Let's see what's new in social media this week with your hosts, Christian Karasiewicz and Phil Gerbyshak.
Watch This Week's Social Media Updates
Improving Pinterest Business Profiles
In Pinterest news, they are adding a dynamic cover image, along with stats to show monthly viewers, along with a dedicated following tab for Pinterest business profiles.
Why Enhancements to Pinterest Business Profiles Matter For Your Business
One of the first updates to Pinterest business profiles is a new dynamic cover image.
This new cover image on your Pinterest account will let you show your latest Pins, pick a specific board to spotlight, or focus on your recent Pinterest activity.
This way, people who are new to your channel, along with your existing followers, can always see what is new on your channel.
Next, Pinterest is going to start to show you monthly viewers. You'll be able to identify the total number of people who saw your Pins in the last 30 days.
As a business, you'll be able to better track how much effort you should put into your Pinterest channel. You'll also be able to see your influence and how far it goes on Pinterest.
A third enhancement to Pinterest business profiles is a new "following tab."
This new tab will "lets your followers see your latest Pins, in the order you save them."
As a business, if Pinterest is a channel you plan to use because on the number of monthly viewers you have, you'll want to be sure you are regularly pinning new content so that you become a trusted resource for your followers.
These updates to Pinterest business profiles will begin rolling out over the next few months.
To read the announcement about new Pinterest business profile updates click here.
Facebook Creators Can Monetize Video Content
Facebook is rolling out a number of updates for Facebook Creators.
These include "preview" trailers for Facebook Watch. They will run in your News Feed and then send viewers to Watch to view the full episode.
Facebook is also going to start to include pre-roll video ads in search results and timelines for Pages.
For example, if someone is searching for a show, they may see pre-roll when they go to select an episode they want to watch.
One additional new feature is called "pre-publish brand safety."
This new feature will let creators submit videos before they publish them to determine if it is eligible for monetization.
Why Updates For Facebook Creators Matter For Your Business
There's no question, you're going to see more ads. As a business, if you are creating a show and publishing it regularly, you stand to be able to monetize your video content.
In order to take advantage of these new updates, be prepared for ads - there's no getting around them at the moment.
If you plan to create your own show, be sure you have the right live video tools and start creating a strategy for your own show that your customers and followers can tune-in to regularly. For example, we created Social Chatter, which we publish every week.
Your business may want to consider a monthly or weekly show to start to tap into video and the opportunities for monetization.
To read more about new tools for creators to monetize their videos, click here.
A New Facebook Appeals Process
Facebook is updating their community standards. These are guidelines to help moderators decide what does and does not belong on Facebook.
The internal document, which is 27 pages, is broken down into six sections - violence and criminal behavior, safety, objectionable content, integrity and authenticity, respecting intellectual property, content-related requests.
In addition to a length community standards document, they're also improving the appeals process.
This will allow you to appeal content that was made so that you can have it reversed and re-published if it is found not to violate community standards.
Why A New Facebook Appeals Process Matters For Your Business
This is a good move by Facebook and a win-win for you as a business owner.
Previously, you may have reported content to Facebook that clearly violated their community standards, but it was returned saying it didn't or you had content that was removed with no explanation. Now, you'll at least have a way to have it re-published (maybe it was done in error because it fell into a gray area).
Overall, now that they have an updated, more detailed set of guidelines and a better appeals process, the biggest improvement is that you'll feel like you're being heard.
To read more about this new appeals process, click here.
Facebook Platform Product Changes
This week, Facebook updated their platform and how it works for developers. These changes though don't just impact developers, they impact you as a user as well.
For example, Facebook is changing the Instagram Graph API.
"Effective today, name and biography from comments on your own media will be removed; you will continue to receive username and comment text."
What this means is you won't see this information in third-party tools you use.
In addition, they are making the following changes to the Live API.
"On August 1st, 2018, the Live API publish_actions permission, which allows an app to publish on behalf of its Users, will be reserved for approved partners. A new permission model that allows apps to publish Videos to their User's Groups and Timeline will be created instead."
This may affect the third-party tools you use for broadcasting to Facebook Live such as Wirecast and OBS.
Another changes is happening to the Places Graph.
"Effective today, the /photos?type=tagged endpoint, which returns photos a Place was tagged in, will no longer be available."
Why Facebook Platform Product Changes Matter For Your Business
On the surface these may seem like just technical changes. If you use third-party apps for scheduling, going live, etc, you may need to revise whatever process you use to manage your social media channels, as they may be impacted by these upcoming changes.
To read more about these platform changes on Facebook, click here.
Snapchat Adds Stories To the Discover Page
Snapchat is also testing out a redesign for Stories in order to get you to view more Snap Stories.
To do this, they are adding Snapchat Stories to the Discover Page as seen here.
Why Snapchat Stories On the Discover Page Matters For Your Business
Out of sight, out of mind. That's the feeling we have about Stories on any social media platform.
Snapchat may also agree thanks to a new update they are testing where Snapchat Stories from your friends are being added to the Discover page.
If you think about it, Instagram puts Stories at the top when you load the app. Facebook is testing them in the sidebar of your news feed. It's only logical for Snapchat to follow suit.
We think that by adding Stories from friends, Snapchat can get you to check out more of your friends content. At the same time, you'll be able to view content from publishers, celebrities, subscriptions and more.
Overall, this is a good test to see what works and what doesn't to get people to view Stories on Snapchat.
To read more about changes to Snapchat Stories click here.
Smug Acquires Flickr
In photo-sharing news, Smugmug has acquired Flickr.
Why Smugmug Acquiring Flickr Matters For Your Business
While we haven't used Flickr for years, it is important to have a quality community of photographers to be able to go to for ideas or to purchase photographs to use in your marketing.
By acquiring Flickr, Smugmug hopes to revitalize Flickr. As a business owner, this should be good news for you. This is because you'll always need creative work to use in your marketing.
Most of the photographs we see are stock-photos, which over time, you begin to see everyone using.
By developing a place to go to see the best photographs, you'll also get introduced to novice as well as professional photographers who you can look into partnering with.
You can learn more about these upcoming YouTube monetization tools here.
Downloading Your Instagram Data
In Instagram news, Instagram is going to let you finally download your data.
Why Downloading Your Instagram Data Matters For Your Business
It's about time. Instagram is going to let you begin to finally download your data.
While Facebook has had this feature since 2010, Instagram's tool has been missing (until now).
Instagram hasn't given a definitive timetable when the tool will arrive, but they say "you'll soon be able to download a copy of what you've shared on Instagram, including your photos, videos and messages."
You can read the announcement here.
Introducing Instagram Design
Instagram is launching a new channel to help you learn more about design and craft.
Why Instagram Design Matters For Your Business
Instagram is introducing a new channel, @Design to help you learn more about design and craft at Instagram.
This new channel from Instagram, will "go behind the scenes with emerging designers and creators at home, in their studios, and at global festivals to learn about their craft."
Not only will you learn about design, but also problem-solving, team critiques and more.
As a business, you may want to follow @Design and start learning from them. https://www.instagram.com/design/
You'll be able to pick-up design tips as well as learn what others do - you may need their services at some point.
You can read more Instagram @Design here.
Download Your Data With Instagram Export
In Instagram news, you can now download your Instagram data using the Instagram Export tool.
Why The Instagram Export Tool Matters For Your Business
Instagram is offering a "data download" tool.
This new Instagram export tool will let you export your photos, videos, archives Stories, profile information, comments, messages and more. This way you have a backup.
As a business, this is important because you may lose access to your account, need to quickly reference a photo or video or simply want to protect your information.
Right now, you can only download your data from Instagram on a desktop. Soon, they'll make this option available for iOS and Android.
If you would like to use the Instagram export tool, cick here to get started. The process is self-explanatory once you login to your account.
Upload Multiple Photos and Videos to Instagram Stories
Also this week, Instagram rolled out improvements to Stories uploads. These include being able to upload multiple photos and videos to your story at once.
Instagram is also making it easier for you to add the location sticker to a photo or video. The location sticker will now suggest places nearby why your content was captured. This way you don't have to try and remember the location.
Why Uploading Multiple Photos and Videos to Instagram Stories Matters For Your Business
As a business, your time is valuable. By adding the ability to upload multiple photos and videos to your Instagram Stories at once, you can save yourself a lot of time.
This way you can share an update with your followers, and use the extra time either engaging with them or working on growing other areas of your business.
To get this new feature on your Instagram channel, update your Android app (starting today). They're working on rolling this out to iOS users in the coming weeks.
You can read more about improvements to Instagram Stories uploads here.
Tools
In addition to sharing the latest news from this past week, we also highlighted some great social media tools and apps for you to check out.
Heepsy
The first tool that we have discovered this week is called Heepsy (web).
How do you identify whether someone is an influencer on Instagram or not?
You can spend hours looking through Instagram channels and still not be sure you're hiring the right person to work with your business.
Fortunately, Heepsy can help with that. Simply enter in the location, categories, as well as their audience size and engagement ratios and you can quickly find quality Instagram influencers in seconds.
As a business, you can't always rely on word-of-mouth (a lot of people recommend their friends). Heepsy can help take the guesswork out of identifying the right influencers to work with.
You can sign-up for Heepsy for free using the following link. If you want to add category and location filters, you will need to move up to their starter pack, which runs $29 per month.
Find Instagram influencers for your business
Unfold
The second tool that we have for you this week is called Unfold (iOS).
Unfold is a tool to make it easy for you to create beautiful and engaging Stories. You get access to a number of minimalist and elegant templates. You can then customize them to fit the stories that you want to tell.
As a business, if you're simply just opening your camera and going live, that won't cut it. You should be using the tools at your disposal to improve how your stories content looks for your customers. This way they get the best experience from you.
Unfold is a freemium app. You can download additional frames and more, starting at $0.99. To begin creating better quality Stories, download Unfold from the link below.
Download UnfoldWrap-up
That's it for this week's show!
To watch next week's episode of Social Chatter, your weekly social media marketing talk show, tune-in here to find out what's new in social media!
If you have any questions about of the social media news or tools that were mentioned this week, please share them with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or in the comments below.
