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.
On this week's episode of Social Chatter, your weekly social media marketing talk show, we explore Instagram video chat, Boomerang and selfie mode for Facebook Messenger, Twitter Sparkle, Nizo, Kontentino and more with Christian Karasiewicz.
If you like, you can watch or listen to Social Chatter on our blog, YouTube or the Alexa Flash Briefing.
For those of you who missed last week's show, you can find it here.
Let's see what's new in social media this week with your hosts, Christian Karasiewicz and Phil Gerbyshak.
Social Media News Updates
Add Friends To Instagram Video Chat In Direct
In Instagram news, they are rolling out the ability to add more friends to Instagram video chat.
With this new feature, you can add new friends to an ongoing video chat in Instagram Direct.
To add more people to your Instagram video chat using a swipe gesture, watch this short video to learn how to add more people to your Instagram video chat.
Now you can add people to an ongoing video chat in Direct. Just swipe up while you're chatting to add more friends and keep the conversation going. pic.twitter.com/is1Zyqjrr3
— Instagram (@instagram) December 17, 2018
Why Adding More People To Instagram Video Chat In Direct Matters For Your Business
Instagram is quickly becoming the primary social media platform where users spend their time.
By adding the ability to bring more people into your Instagram video chat in Instagram Direct, you can use this as an opportunity to have a video chat with your customers in real-time. If you have people who have the same questions, you can quickly start an Instagram video chat to address their issues over live video.
To get the new Instagram video chat for Direct, update your app from your devices App Store.
You can read more about the video chat feature from Instagram here.
Twitter Sparkle, A Chronological Timeline
In Twitter news, they are rolling out Twitter Sparkle, a feature to help you sort your Twitter feed chronologically.
Once you update your Twitter app from your devices App Store, you should see a sparkle icon in the upper right corner.
When you tap this, you will see your Twitter feed sorted in a chronological order and you will see tweets as they come into your feed, not just what is popular.
Over time, Twitter sparkle should recognize your pattern of using Twitter and automatically adjust.
If it doesn't, you can go into Settings > Privacy > Content Preferences and change this to "show me the best tweets."
Why Twitter Sparkle Matters For Your Business
It's good to see that Twitter is finally allowing you the ability to control how you see your Twitter timeline - chronologically or what is popular.
If you want to quickly see what is going on, you may want to turn Twitter Sparkle off to see popular tweets. This way you don't miss any breaking news from your followers.
When you want to see tweets come in as they're happening, turn Twitter Sparkle on. This way you don't miss any important tweets from the people you are following on Twitter.
To read more on Twitter Sparkle, click here.
Snapchat Launches Lens Challenge
In Snapchat news, they are launching the Snapchat Lens Challenge, a new feature they are hoping to use to drive engagement on the Snapchat app.
With the Snapchat Lens Challenge, users can opt-in to join a lens challenge and create a snap that is themed to a song, dance, holiday, event, etc.
How To Access The Snapchat Lens Challenge
- Launch the Snapchat app
- Go to the Lens Explore section
- Perform the Lens Challenge
- Send the snap to the challenge you are joining
Why The Snapchat Lens Challenge Matters For Your Business
If your customers are on Snapchat, you may want to create your own Snapchat Lens Challenge in order to get users to engage with you on Snapchat.
This can be a great way to get your followers to talk more about your business to their friends (and get them to join your challenge).
Overall, we're not entirely sold on how important the Snapchat Lens Challenge will be.
Snapchat obviously wants more people to use the platform - they've been losing users in droves.
By adding a challenge, it can bring people back to the platform in order to participate (and also see what their followers are up to).
You can read more about the Lens Challenge here.
Facebook Messenger Adds Boomerang, Selfie Mode, AR Stickers
In Facebook news, they are adding boomerang, selfie mode and more to Facebook Messenger.
These new camera features should help make Messenger more sticky and keep users engaged.
For example, Boomerang can be used to create looping videos to share on Messenger (it was originally an Instagram app).
The selfie mode feature will automatically blur out the background. You can also use augmented reality (AI) to place Messenger stickers in your photos and videos.
To get these new camera effects for Messenger, be sure you've updated your app to the latest version in your devices App Store.
In the meantime, here's a look at Boomerang and Selfie mode in Facebook Messenger.
Why Boomerang, Selfie Mode And More For Facebook Messenger Matter For Your Business
Facebook wants to make the Messenger platform a place that users spend a lot of their time (if they aren't doing that in the News Feed or in Stories).
They are banking on adding camera effects that their users may already be familiar with from platforms such as Instagram.
One other useful feature we think should help pave the way into augmented reality for Facebook are AR stickers in Messenger.
What these will do is allow you to add stickers to your photos and videos with the help of augmented reality.
By starting small with new camera effects, Facebook can begin to condition its users to get used to AR on Facebook.
We're particularly excited about the possibilities of using augmented reality to place objects into a space where they weren't. How about you? What do you think about these new camera features for Facebook Messenger? Let us know in the comments below.
In the meantime, you can read the announcement from Facebook here.
Facebook Watch Updates
Also in Facebook news, they are preparing for a number of enhancements to Facebook Watch/
With over 400 million monthly Facebook Watch users and some 75 million daily users viewing at least one minute of video, Facebook is rolling out Watch Party to bring people together to watch and discuss video.
To do this, Facebook plans to roll out brand collabs manager, a tool to bring more brands together.
In addition, Facebook is working on more original Facebook Live shows, which they're calling Originals.
Why Enhancements To Facebook Watch Matter For Your Business
Facebook wants to make it easier for your business to drive people to watch your videos.
They are working on improving the experience, but that's where you as a business owner come in.
You could have the slickest production, but if your show is missing the mark with viewers, they likely won't tune in.
As Facebook looks to simplify delivering videos to users, it's up to you to look at what others are doing with their Facebook Live or Facebook Watch content and then improve your show - this way you can tap into the enhancements Facebook is making to Facebook Watch to bring viewers in.
We would suggest starting small with your Facebook video content.
First, make sure you have the right Facebook live video tools. This way your show looks its best.
Next, begin looking at the shows you watch. Why do you tune-in to them regularly? Breakdown your show and write a script - every show follows a script.
For example, our weekly social media marketing talk show, Social Chatter, has an intro, parts of the show where we cover topics for a few minutes, tool time, a wrap-up, as well as a specific time that we work to stick to.
If your show doesn't have structure, now is a good time to look into adding it to your Facebook video content.
While Facebook is working on making these new enhancements to Facebook Watch, you can take a look at their announcement here. This way you can begin to improve your own show.
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.
Nizo
The first tool that we have discovered this week is Nizo (iOS).
Would you like professional video editing or the ability to add color grading to your videos to give them a distinct style?
With Nizo, you'll get access to all of these tools and more on your mobile device.
This way you can edit your video content from anywhere.
One other thing we really like about Nizo is that it's just $4.99. Normally, you would have to spend hundreds of dollars to have professional editing and color grading.
You can download Nizo from the link below.
Use Nizo and your iOS device to create cinmematic videosKontentino
The second tool that we have for you this week is Kontentino (web).
Kontentino is a social media tool that solves a number of major issues when trying to schedule and plan out your social media content.
For starters, it can be frustrating when trying to schedule your posts, to know what the content will look like on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and more.
Kontentino can give you a live preview of your social media posts. These don't just include regular Facebook posts. Rather, you can preview Facebook Carousel posts, schedule Facebook 360 photos, Instagram posts, Instagram Stories, Pinterest, LinkedIn and more,
This way you get an accurate preview what the content will look like once it is published - no more posting, previewing and then deleting.
A second problem that Kontentino solves is the ability to get client approvals for social media posts.
One of the frustrating things about working with clients is to send screenshots that don't reflect the content when it goes live on your social media channels.
With Kontentino, you can manage client approvals with ease using a convenient calendar feature.
No more sending PDF or Word documents. Instead, clients can see what their social media posts will look like and provide feedback if any corrections need to be made.
Overall, Kontentino can not only save time with planning out social media updates, but also with scheduling, as well as the approval process.
You can try Kontentino free for 30 days using the following link. Prices then start at around $11.
Try KontentinoWrap-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.
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