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, Erika Heald, you can find it here.
We're also joined by this week's special guest, Jessica Dewell.
Watch This Week's Social Media Updates
Facebook Instant Articles Builder
In Facebook news, they are rolling out a tool called Facebook Instant Articles Builder to “help publishers convert their articles more easily to Instant Articles.”
Why Facebook Instant Articles Builder Matters For Your Business
Facebook Instant Articles Builder is a new tool “ to generate Instant Articles from their existing mobile site without the need to write any code.”
Using a point and click tool, you can quickly build Instant Articles for Facebook using pre-built templates.
To begin optimizing your content with the Facebook Instant Articles Builder, click here.
Facebook Stories Add Audio, Archiving, Saved Clips
Also this week, Facebook Stories added a host of new features that include audio, archiving and saved clips.
Why Updates to Facebook Stories Matter For Your Business
Facebook is encouraging users to create more Stories. To do this, they are rolling out a number of updates that include audio, archiving and saving clips.
These new features make it easy for your business to record audio with a custom background, save Stories and archive Stories privately for later.
As a business, these can be especially useful because they let you go beyond just sharing photos and videos. Instead, you can create audio for your Stories depending on the type of business you run.
Because you can archive your Stories now, you'll be able to have a back-up to look at later and see how you've grown in using Facebook Stories.
To read more about Facebook Instant Articles Builder, click here.
Facebook Ads With Political Content
This week, Facebook announced changes to Facebook Ads with political content “to help prevent abuse, especially during elections.”
Why Facebook Ads With Political Content Matter For Your Business
Facebook wants to prevent abuse during elections. As a result, they are making the following changes for running political ads on Facebook.
- Starting today, all election-related and issue ads on Facebook and Instagram in the US must be clearly labeled – including a “Paid for by” disclosure from the advertiser at the top of the ad. This will help ensure that you can see who is paying for the ad – which is especially important when the Page name doesn’t match the name of the company or person funding the ad.
- When you click on the label, you’ll be taken to an archive with more information. For example, the campaign budget associated with an individual ad and how many people saw it – including their age, location and gender.
- That same archive can be reached by anyone in the world at facebook.com/politicalcontentads. People visiting the archive can see and search ads with political or issue content an advertiser has run in the US for up to seven years.
- Advertisers wanting to run ads with political content in the US will need to verify their identity and location.
As a business, while you may not be running Facebook Ads that focus on political content, they can impact your ability to run Facebook Ads. For example, there could be much tighter regulation as a result, if Facebook doesn’t take the necessary steps to reduce Facebook Ads affecting election results.
This could then impact your businesses ability to run Facebook Ads to get your content in front of customers.
To read more about political content on Facebook, click here.
How Facebook Is Fighting Fake News
Also this week, Facebook announced initiatives related to reducing the spread of fake news. These include the Facing Facts short film, news literacy campaigns and measuring misinformation through academic commission.
Why Fighting Fake News Matters For Your Business
There’s no question that fake news is becoming a problem. Anyone can practically make an article with slick marketing and imagery and promote it on Facebook and drive traffic to help to get it to go viral.
Unfortunately, this can cause issues because the majority of the public is then spreading what they thought was real news, but turned out to be fake.
In an effort to reduce the spread of fake news, Facebook is rolling out campaigns along with a short film called “Facing Facts,” that shows their fight against spreading misinformation.
As a business, you may be guilty of spreading fake news unknowingly. By taking the time to learn about Facebook’s news literacy campaign and more, you can better prepare yourself to share correct information (and make your Facebook News Feed a better experience).
You can read more about Facebook’s efforts to reduce fake news click here.
Snapchat Accelerator Program
In Snapchat news, they are launching an accelerator program to invest in the next big media business.
Why A Snapchat Accelerator Program Matters For Your Business
Every business is becoming a media company. Snapchat wants to help by investing in startups or creators to build media projects for mobile devices.
They’re planning on investing $150,000 into 10 creators or startups in the fall.
In exchange for funding, Snapchat will take a small percentage of equity - think of it like Shark Tank, where they invest in your business and you give them something in return for their help.
If your business is into building media projects and you’re interested, keep an eye out in the fall when Snapchat plans to begin rolling out this program.
To read more about the Snapchat Accelerator program click here.
Snapchat Lenses That React to Sound
Also this week, Snapchat launched lenses that react to sound.
Why Snapchat Lenses That React to Sound Matter For Your Business
Snapchat already offers a host of lenses you can use in your marketing. Now, they are expanding them to react to sound.
The first lens is an animal face that reacts to the sounds it picks up from your microphone. Here’s a look at it.
Trying out the first @Snapchat Lens with sound reaction, seems pretty neat! pic.twitter.com/aBHnRBKjny
— Jake Krol (@Jake31Krol) May 29, 2018
While you may not use an animal lens in your business, it’s interesting to look at the possibilities that exist as they add more lenses that react to sound.
You can read more about new Snapchat lenses that react to sound here.
Instagram Carousel Video Ads Now Available
In Instagram news, all advertisers can now create Instagram carousel video ads.
Why Instagram Carousel Video Ads Matter For Your Business
Instagram now lets all advertisers create video carousel ads (capped at 60 seconds).
You can combine up to five photos and videos to help your business produce an interactive and immersive Instagram Ad to engage your customers.
To create Instagram video carousel ads, login to Facebook Ads Manager and choose the video carousel option for Instagram.
You can read more about new Instagram video carousel ads 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.
Obscura 2
The first tool that we have discovered this week is called Obscura 2 (iOS).
While your smartphone has a built-in camera, what if you could add more professional features and improve your photographs?
Obscura 2 is a professional camera app. It adds RAW support, live photo, the ability to add portrait mode effects to your photographs and more.
You’re essentially getting the power of a DSLR camera on your mobile phone. This way you can take better photographs of your products to use in your marketing, at conferences and events and other areas.
Obscura 2 is available for $4.99. You can download it from the link below.
Download Obscura 2Discoverly
The second tool that we have for you this week is Discoverly (web).
Discoverly is a Google Chrome browser extension that makes it easy for you to see social media information about a user while browsing.
For example, say you’re in your email Inbox and want to see more about a user and connect with them on their social media channels? Instead of opening new tabs, you can quickly access this information right from your current browser tab and make the connection with them.
Overall, Discoverly can save you a lot of time and help you find the right social media profiles you’re looking for.
Discoverly is a free download. You can install it in Google Chrome from the link below.
Try DiscoverlyWrap-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.
