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 increasing verification, Facebook fake news trustworthiness scores, things in common on Facebook and more with Christian Karasiewicz, Phil Gerbyshak and guest, Jessika Phillips.
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.
Watch This Week's Social Media Updates
About This Instagram Account
In Instagram news, they are rolling out a feature called about this account for greater transparency on Instagram.
Why About This Account For Instagram Matters For Your Business
Instagram is rolling out a host of new tools for greater transparency on the platform.
These include about this account, increased access to Instagram verification, third-party authentication and more.
About This Instagram Account
About this account on Instagram is a tool to help you see more about Instagram users.
This new Instagram tool will help you see when someone joined Instagram, their location, ads they are running, whether they changed their username, accounts that share followers (so you can identify duplicate accounts) and more.
From the Instagram app, you can submit a request for verification.
"To access the verification request form, go to your profile, tap the menu icon, select "Settings" at the bottom and then choose "Request Verification." You will need to provide your account username, your full name and a copy of your legal or business identification. This information will not be shared publicly."
While verification can help broaden the reach of your account significantly (because it shows you're trusted), submitting a request to be verified does not guarantee that you will be approved.
To request Instagram verification, update your Instagram app from your devices app store and then look under your account and then under Options > Request Verification.
Third-Party Authentication Apps
Instagram is also rolling out support for third-party support for Authenticator Apps.
These are apps that require that you enter a pin number in order to access your account.
They are only sent to the device you are using.
Overall, these are safety measures to help protect your Instagram account.
To read more about these new Instagram tools for keeping your account safe, click here.
Your Facebook Trustworthiness Score
Facebook is rolling out a trustworthiness score in hopes of reducing the amount of inaccurate, fake content being reported to them.
Why A Facebook Trustworthiness Score Matters For Your Business
While fake news is a problem, reporting news that isn't fake just because you don't like it or want to hurt your competitors is as well.
Now, when you report content to Facebook as fake news, they send it to a third-party company to review it.
If they review content that was reported as fake and it turns out to be true, it hurts your overall trustworthiness score (ranked 0 to 1). As a result, it could affect your placement of content on Facebook and future flagging of your content.
While you cannot see your trustworthiness score, know that it exists and that Facebook is keeping tabs on you and the content you share and report to them.
If you are someone who regularly reports content that is accurate, as fake, know that it can hurt you as well as your business and your ability to get seen.
Reporting your competitors is also something you want to avoid. If they are doing something that violates Facebook's terms of service, reporting them would make sense. If they are doing something better than your business and you just don't like them because of it, reporting it isn't right.
You can read more about your Facebook trustworthiness score here.
YouTube Digital Wellbeing
In YouTube news, they want to take care of your YouTube digital wellbeing.
Why YouTube Digital Wellbeing Matters For Your Business
YouTube is rolling out several new tools to help improve your digital wellbeing.
These include time watched on YouTube, changes to YouTube notifications and do not disturb for YouTube.
Here is how these will help you.
Time Watched On YouTube
You'll now be able to see how much time you've spent on YouTube, as well as a daily average.
In addition, you can choose to have YouTube remind you when to take a break.
This way you can take the necessary steps to reduce how much time you spend watching YouTube videos.
Disable YouTube Notifications
In addition, another culprit of your digital wellbeing are notifications.
YouTube also wants to help with this by allowing you to choose whether to receive all notifications one per day, or a digest. You can set these within your settings menu.
YouTube Do Not Disturb
Another feature YouTube is rolling out to improve your overall wellbeing is do not disturb,
This will make it easy for you to disable YouTube updates so that you begin to take a break.
For example, you may want to set your do not disturb mode on YouTube for when you're sleeping or if you're trying to get work done or study for a test.
If you're a business and you have deadlines or have a project you've been meaning to work on, but keep getting distracted, consider turning on these new features to not only improve your digital wellbeing, but also to help you finish tasks and move your business forward.
To get these new updates, update your YouTube app from your devices app store.
To read more about improving your YouTube wellbeing, click here.
Facebook Testing Things In Common Feature
Also in Facebook news, feature called things in common to help you improve your connections.
Why Things In Common For Facebook Matters For Your Business
Facebook is testing a new feature called "things in common," which is a label applied to some of your comments.
When you read a conversation on Facebook, they will highlight things you have in common with a non-friend in the comments.
For example, if you both live in the same location or attended the same University, Facebook will highlight this.
Overall, this can be a powerful feature for both personal and business relationships. For example, you can identify people who live near you that you do not know to connect with. As a business owner, it may help you begin to put a name with a face and identify people who may be good brand advocates for your business.
You can read more about things in common on Facebook 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.
Otter Voice Notes
The first tool that we have discovered this week is Otter Voice Notes (iOS).
Otter Voice Notes is a smart note-taking app. What makes it unique is that it automatically transcribes up to 600 minutes for free. You can then quickly search your notes to find the ones you want to share.
Together, Otter Voice Notes syncs your audio, text and images together, to help make your day more productive.
Otter Voice Notes is available as a freemium app. If you need more transcription, prices start at $9.99 per month.
Download Otter Voice NotesTextExpander
The second tool that we have for you this week is TextExpander (iOS). _
How would you like to save time in your business?
TextExpander is a typing tool. You can use it to set up automated responses, quickly fill out an email address, or even list our links to your social media channels using just a few keystrokes.
As a business, you probably fill out the same forms all of the time, when responding to customers. What if you would cutdown on the number of keystrokes you have to type?
For example, you could set up a keyboard shortcut with TextExpander that lists out all of your social media channels, complete with links.
The great thing is that these keyboard shortcuts sync across desktop and mobile. This way they are always at your fingertips.
You can try TextExpander for free. Pricing then starts at just $3.33 per month.
Download TextExpanderWrap-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.
