Welcome to this week's episode of Social Chatter where we cover the latest social media news from this past week.
Each episode of Social Chatter is available as a blog post or video.
Let's see what's new in social media this week with your hosts, Christian Karasiewicz and Nick Rishwain.
We're also joined by special guest, Jessika Phillips from NOW Marketing Group.
Watch This Week's Social Media Updates
LinkedIn Desktop
In LinkedIn news, they are rolling out changes to LinkedIn Desktop.
Here is a video that goes over the LinkedIn desktop redesign.
Why LinkedIn Desktop Changes Matter
This is big announcement.
Not only is LinkedIn eliminating clutter (it was extremely busy before).
They have condensed the navigation menu to the following so that it is easier to find things.
- Home (Your Feed)
- Messaging
- Jobs
- Notifications
- Me
- My Network
- Search
Some other major changes revolve around messaging.
Because they are decluttering LinkedIn, your normal feed will become more important as a communication tool (think Facebook news feed).
They have also added the ability to chat from the LinkedIn home screen (think Facebook Messenger).
One last important update is the addition of chatbots.
These are essentially a feature that will suggest people you can chat with.
They can also offer up suggestions to help you break the ice with someone you don't know much about.
Overall, it appears LinkedIn's goal is to get people to spend more time on LinkedIn.
By decluttering the site, this should be a good start and will put the responsibility on the user to keep coming back, as long as their connections are also active on LinkedIn Desktop.
You can read the announcement about LinkedIn Desktop here.
Facebook Offers Post Type
In Facebook news, you can now create Facebook offers from your Facebook Page.
This is what you will see when you go to create an offer on your Facebook Page.
Why Offers On Facebook Pages Matter
Facebook offers have been around for a while.
With this new update for Facebook Pages though, you now have a new post type to choose from - one that will stand out from the news feed.
Here are the settings that you have when creating your Facebook offer.
One thing you will notice is that you can create offers using photos and videos.
There are also specific offers for online or in-store promotions and you can choose different offer types.
For example, you can create an offer for percent off, amount off, BOGO or a free offer.
With Facebook adding the ability to shop from a Facebook Page, offers makes a lot of sense.
If you're looking to drive people back to your website, Facebook offers would be a good feature to test on your Facebook Page to see how your audience responds.
Remember, just because you give away an offer, it doesn't have to be paid.
You could drive someone back to your website to claim a free offer, which could be a download in exchange for an email address.
Experiment with different offer types on your Page to see which ones work best.
Facebook Stories
Another update this week from Facebook is that they are working on Facebook Stories.
Facebook Stories is identical to Instagram Stories and Snapchat Stories.
This is what Facebook Stories looks like.
Why Facebook Stories Matter
With Facebook Stories, you can add photos and videos to your "story."
Your friends would then be able to see what you shared.
Like Instagram Stories and Snapchat Stories, these would expire after 24 hours.
Once this starts rolling out to more countries (right now it is only in Ireland), Facebook Stories should help keep people on Facebook for a long time, seeing how stories expire after 24 hours.
To read more about Stories, take a look at this article.
Facebook Updates Trending Topics
This week, Facebook announced updates to Facebook trending topics.
The trending area shows people popular topics that are being discussed on Facebook, but they might not see in their news feed.
Here are the changes coming to trending topics.
- Trending topics will now feature a publisher headline below each topic name
- An improved system to determine what is trending
- Everyone in the same region will see the same topics
Why Updates to Facebook Trending Topics Matters
Two changes you will notice on Facebook trending topics are the addition of a headline and a source.
The headline Facebook displays is being automatically selected based on engagement around an article on Facebook, engagement with the publisher and whether other articles are linking to it.
One other update to trending topics is that if you are in the same region as someone else, you will both see trends from your area.
This update should help encourage users to pay more attention to the sources where the content is coming from.
For example, if I see one source is always appearing in the trending topics section, over time, I should be able to trust that that organization's content is something to share.
To read the announcement about updates to Facebook's trending topics, take a look at this article.
Facebook Privacy Basics
Also this week, Facebook launched new privacy basics.
The purpose of Facebook privacy basics is to make it easier for people to control their information on Facebook a lot easier.
Facebook Privacy Basics Matter
Whenever someone has an issue with their Facebook account, a lot of times, they don't know where to go for help.
With the new privacy basics, Facebook is giving you 32 interactive guides.
These guides will share tips and tools to help you with doing things such as securing your Facebook account, understanding who can see your posts and knowing what your Facebook account looks like to other users (such as your boss or co-workers).
You can access the Facebook privacy basics here.
You can also go here to read the announcement about Facebook privacy basics.
Tools
In addition to sharing the latest in social media news from this past week, we also highlighted some great tools and apps to check out.
Blendle
The first tool we have for you this week is called Blendle (web).
Do you subscribe to online publications such as The Wall Street Journal, digital or print magazines or newspapers?
As you know, it can be expensive to subscribe to each of these services.
With Blendle, instead of paying a subscription fee or being bombarded with ads, you only pay for the articles you want to read.
For example, some of the articles were $0.35. Others were $0.19 and so on.
The benefit to using Blendle is that you only pay for the content that you want to read.
This way you can reduce the number of subscriptions you are paying for and only read the content that you are interested in.
If you would like to try Blendle, sign-up using the link below.
Blendle is also currently giving out credit when you sign-up to try their service.
Try BlendleYeay
The next tool we wanted to share with you is called Yeay (iOS).
Would you like an easy way to buy and sell items?
Yeay "mixes videos of fashion, accessories, jewelry and tech from sellers around the globe."
With Yeay, you shoot a short video, upload it and share it through their app.
What makes it different from traditional retail channels is that buyers create a video to showcase a product.
You then get to interact with the product before you buy it.
This is an interesting concept and offers a great way to buy and sell products using video with people around the globe.
Yeay is a free app. You can download it from the link below.
Download YeayPanols for Instagram
The last tool we wanted to share this week is called Panols for Instagram (iOS).
Do you take a lot of panoramic photos?
Panols is a neat app.
With Panols, you can take your panoramic photos and add them to Instagram's three grid layout to showcase your panoramic photos on your channel.
You can download Panols for Instagram from the link below.
Download PanolsWrap-up
That's it for this week's episode of Social Chatter.
Be sure to tune-in to our next episode of Social Chatter 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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