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, video or you can listen to the Alexa Flash Briefing.
For those of you who missed last week's show with Phil Gerbyshak, Christian Karasiewicz and guest, Andrew Grill, you can find it here.
We're also joined by this week's special guest, Jenn Herman.
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
Sharing Feed Posts to Instagram Stories
In Instagram news, you can now share feed posts to Instagram Stories.
Previously, if you wanted to share posts to your Instagram Stories, you had to take a screenshot and upload it. Now, you won't have to.
Instagram is making it easy to share a feed post directly to your Stories.
To do this, simply tap on the paper airplane button on a post. It will now let you create a story. From there, it will create a sticker with a custom background that you can adjust.
When you share a feed post to Instagram Stories, you will also see the original poster's username.
As an Instagram user, you will only be able to share posts from public accounts. You can also choose to enable or disable sharing your posts to Stories from the settings menu.
As a business, if you haven't started using Instagram Stories because you struggle with creating content for your feed and for Stories, now you can start taking your existing posts and repurpose them in your Stories until you get to the point where you need to create content for both.
To read more about sharing feed posts to Instagram Stories, click here.
Instagram Emoji Sliders
Instagram is adding the emoji slider sticker. This will make it easy for you to ask questions with emotional context.
Why Instagram Emoji Sliders Matter For Your Business
Here is what emoji sliders look like on Instagram.
Your followers can then drag the emoji to the left or right (it will animate based on your decision).
As a business, if you're already using emojis in your marketing, Instagram emoji stickers are the next step to engage your audience in a more intimate level beyond boring surveys.
To read more about Instagram emoji sliders, click here.
Instagram Testing New Features - Muting Followers, Stories Calendar and More
Also in Instagram news, they are testing a host of new features to include the ability to mute Instagram users, slow-motion for Stories, a calendar for Instagram Stories, Stories reactions and tagging Facebook friends in posts.
Why an Instagram Stories Calendar, Muting Followers and More Matter For Your Business
Here's a breakdown on what each of these new Instagram features that they are currently testing.
Mute Instagram Users
Instagram is testing the ability to mute a users post. If your feed is full of posts from the same user, you'll be able to mute them. They won't know that they have been muted and you'll still be able to stay connected.
Instagram improved their mute feature in addition:
1. You can go to someone's profile that you follow and mute their posts or stories or both. You don't have to wait for their posts to appear anymore
2. The mute status will be indicated on their profile and you can undo it pic.twitter.com/tikVy6wCUq
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) May 12, 2018
Slow-motion for Instagram Stories
Instagram is testing a new slow-mo feature.
These features may soon be coming to Instagram:
- Mute button for (annoying) profiles
- Video calling
- Slow-Mo for Stories
- Calendar view for Stories Archive(Via: @wongmjane) pic.twitter.com/pIRR6NRLvC
— Joel Franco (@OfficialJoelF) April 28, 2018
This should give you some additional ways to tell your followers what is going on via Stories.
A Calendar For Instagram Stories
Instagram is also testing a calendar feature for Instagram Stories.
NEW? Instagram Stories Archive - Calendar view
h/t @wongmjane pic.twitter.com/D8AoD7UWhJ
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) April 27, 2018
This new calendar should help you go back and see when you posted to Stories. As a business, you may want to set a goal for yourself to post a certain day of the week. A Stories calendar should help assist you in sticking to your goal.
Instagram Stories Reactions
Instagram is possibly borrowing reactions from Facebook.
Instagram is testing Story "Reactions". It works kinda like the existing Facebook Stories Reaction pic.twitter.com/z2tAg8BcP2
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) April 27, 2018
While Instagram reactions don't apply directly to business, you'll at least be able to look into targeting users with specific actions via Instagram Ads, which could help you learn about and fix issues you learn about via reactions at your company or with your products.
Tagging Facebook Friends On Instagram
Another interesting feature that Instagram is testing is the ability to tag your Facebook friends in an Instagram post.
NEW: Instagram is testing letting you tag Facebook friends in posts
h/t @wongmjane pic.twitter.com/NaXZWqMzN1
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) April 28, 2018
As a business, if this feature is ever launched, you can use it to bring your Facebook connections over to your Instagram channel (if they aren't already there).
Instagram Video Calling
One last feature Instagram is testing is video calling.
NEW screenshots of Instagram's incoming video call feature in action
h/t @wongmjane pic.twitter.com/EqtbnB4V8p
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) April 27, 2018
Video calling is already available in Direct. Will we see it as a normal Instagram feature? If the way it is implemented in Facebook is any indication (it's in Messenger), it is highly likely that it will stay in Direct.
To read more about each of these new Instagram features, click here.
New Facebook Live Video Tools For Publishers
In Facebook news, they are rolling out a number of Facebook live video tools for publishers to include persistent stream keys, crossposting and live rewind.
Why New Facebook Live Video Tools Matter For Your Business
Here's a look at what each of these new live video tools do.
Persistent Stream Keys
The first update to live video is the use of persistent stream keys.
According to Facebook, "if you're a publisher or creator that goes live regularly, you now only need to send one stream key to production teams, and because a Page's stream key is permanent, it can be sent in advance of a shoot — making it easier to collaborate across teams and locations for live productions. Broadcasters can also save time by using the same stream key every time they start a new Live video."
If you're a business owner, you won't have to go through a lengthy checklist to get your live video running.
Facebook Live Video Crossposting
A second update to Facebook Live video tools is live crossposting.
This feature will let Pages publish a single Facebook Live broadcast across multiple Pages as an original post.
This feature is particularly useful because you won't have to start the live broadcast on one Page and then share it to others. You'll be able to go live across all of the Pages through your Pages Publisher Tools.
Live Video Rewind
The last update to Facebook Live video tools is the ability to rewind live video.
You'll be able to use live rewind to go back and watch moments during a Facebook Live video broadcast.
Live rewind is currently being tested. The other two features are available now.
To read more about each of these new Facebook Live video tools, click here.
Facebook Avatars
Also this week, Facebook began testing Facebook avatars in the Android app.
Facebook emojis are a new way to express yourself. Chances are, they will be similar to your bitmojis that you've created and have you in various poses (that you can use in different posts).
We also expect them to come to Facebook VR avatars, which were announced at Facebook's F8 conference in 2018.
For now, you may want to experiment with using bitmojis or creating your own there. This way, when Facebook rolls out Facebook avatars, you'll be ready!
To read more about avatars for Facebook, click here.
Matching Up to LinkedIn Jobs
In LinkedIn news, they are making it easier for see how you match LinkedIn jobs.
Why Matching LinkedIn Jobs Matters For Your Business
Have you ever applied for a job because you thought you matched all of the qualifications that the business listed?
A lot of times, it can be confusing because you meet some, but not all of the job requirements.
LinkedIn wants to make it easier for you to apply for jobs and for employers to find people with the right qualifications by introducing a new job matching feature on LinkedIn.
"When you view a job on LinkedIn, look toward the right-hand side of the page to find How You Match."
LinkedIn will provide you with a checklist to see how your education level, skills, years of experience, current job title and more match with the job requirements.
If you're a LinkedIn Premium member, you can see how you rank with other applicants, along with what percentile you meet.
One other update LinkedIn is adding to LinkedIn jobs is a 1-click application, which works on desktop and mobile so that you can quickly apply for a job using your LinkedIn Profile information.
Of course, you'll want to keep your skills updated, as well as your LinkedIn Profile. This way when a job you're interested in shows up, you can quickly apply for it.
As a business owner, if you're looking to hire someone, you should consider posting jobs to your LinkedIn company page.
By improving how you match for LinkedIn jobs, it will also help businesses who post jobs on LinkedIn to improve the quality of the applications they review so that they get the best candidates for a job.
To read more about matching up to LinkedIn jobs, click here.
Secret Twitter Encrypted Direct Messages
In Twitter news, they have a secret feature in their Android app code that allows for encrypted direct messages.
Why Encrypted Twitter Direct Messages Matter For Your Business
One of the biggest problems with using Twitter for customer service is that you can't always protect direct messages sent by users.
Fortunately, it looks like Twitter is working on encrypted direct messages.
Within the settings menu for some Android users is a "secret text message" option.
When enabled, this would allow you to encrypt your direct messages.
As a business, this could be especially useful because you would be able to have messages that can help protect you from governments, hackers and more on Twitter.
For Twitter, implementing encrypted DMs would help them compete with WhatsApp, Telegram, and even Facebook Messenger, which has their own secret messages feature.
To read more about Twitter encrypted direct messages click here.
Klout Shutting Down
After a number of years, Klout, a $200 million website, is finally shutting down.
Why Klout Shutting Down Matters For Your Business
Klout used to be a tool businesses and marketers used to measure how important you were on social media.
Over time, people began to disregard the information that Klout provided - a lot of it was either inaccurate or easily faked.
As a business, the good news is you'll have one less tool to use. At the same time, you'll now need to do more of your own research to determine whether someone is influential on social media.
Overall, we don't see this as a bad thing. We haven't used Klout for a number of years. Instead, we are looking at social media channels and the engagement that a channel generates as a main point for identifying whether they are influential on social media (along with a few other factors).
You can read more about Klout shutting down, 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.
LSI Graph
The first tool that we have discovered this week is called LSI Graph (web).
When you create content for your blog, it is essential that you optimize your content for search. This way Google knows that your content is about.
Unfortunately, it can be challenging to come up with the right keywords - there are simply too many combinations.
With LSI Graph, you can put in your target keywords. It will generate LSI keywords - these are words to help strengthen your keywords and get your content ranked.
You can search 3X per day on LSI Graph for free. You can provide an email address to increase the number of LSI Graph searches.
Try LSI GraphAgorapulse
The second tool that we have for you this week is Agorapulse (iOS).
Agorapulse is a powerful social media management tool for your business.
You can use it to help manage your Facebook Page, including Messenger conversations, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and more!
What makes Agorapulse unique is that you can create different queues for your social media content. For example, you can have one for evergreen content, another for promoting your products and services, and queue for curated content. You can then quickly setup a schedule and have Agorapulse pull your content from each queue. This way you never run out of content to share with your followers.
We switched to Agorapulse and have never been happier. It makes managing our social media channels easier and we don't have to rely on using too many tools to stay on-top of conversation.
You can try Agorapulse for free from the link below. After your trial ends, pricing starts at around $60 per month, which is worth it for the amount of time it will save you managing your social media channels.
Try AgorapulseWrap-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.
