Social Media Updates
Things change quickly in the digital world – but don’t worry, we are here to keep you up to date with what’s new! Here are some of the changes we’ve noticed or read about recently.
Social Media Updates July 2019
Facebook Updates
Page Transparency
We noticed that Facebook has removed the Info and Ads section on business pages and added a new Page Transparency section. The Page Transparency summary shows the Page History (when it was created, whether it has been changed and if it has been merged with another page) and Ads From This Page, which links to the new Ad Library. The Ad Library shows you the active ads of a business page.
Removal of Page Info sections
Facebook is going to be removing some sections of the Page Info on business pages as of 1st August 2019. These will include: Mission, Company Overview, Biography, Affiliation and Personal Interests. Now is therefore a good time to check what you have in the Page Info section of your business page.
Instagram Updates
Branded content ads
At the beginning of this month Instagram announced that you can now promote branded content as ads. So if you’re working with an influencer you will now be able to promote their organic branded posts as ads through your account. The ads will have ‘Paid partnership with’ beside the brand name in the feed and in Stories (for transparency). Creating ads from influencers’ branded content allows businesses to “reach targeted audiences beyond the people who follow the brand and creator accounts“.
Quiz sticker
As of May you can now add a quiz sticker to your Instagram Stories. This is another way to encourage interaction with your Stories. You ask your audience a question and then give at least two possible answers (you select the right answer). Alongside the poll and question stickers, it’s another way to increase engagement.
Stop Motion
It isn’t available yet, but it was recently announced that Instagram is working on a new stop motion camera feature for Stories that will be coming soon. Stop motion videos are a fun way to showcase products and this will be another way to create engaging Stories on Instagram. At the moment it is said to be only 10 frames.
LinkedIn Updates
If you use LinkedIn you’ll notice that you can now choose different reactions for a post: like, celebrate, love, insightful and curious.
LinkedIn has also announced that they are rolling out new features for page admins, such as new call to action buttons and custom CTA Analytics. As well as the ‘follow’ option there will now be five new call to actions: contact us, register, learn more, sign up and visit website. There is also a new Communities Hashtags feature which allows you to associate your page with relevant hashtags.
Google My Business Updates
There are new features coming soon to Google My Business (which we’ve written about in more detail in a separate post). The new features include welcome offers for new followers, short names and URLs, cover photos and photo displays, and logos. There is also a new Marketing Kit website where you can create social posts and posters from your Google reviews.
