Instagram Direct Streamlined: This Week in Social Media

Author: Grace Duffy / Source: socialmediaexaminer.com Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay u

Author: Grace Duffy / Source: socialmediaexaminer.com

Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news.

To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.

What’s New This Week

Instagram Rolls Out Redesigned Direct: Instagram launched a new Instagram Direct that makes it “fast and easy to turn any conversation into a visual conversation with photos and videos.” All texts, uploads, and reshares sent in Direct will now appear in the same thread with disappearing photos and videos, which allows users to “seamlessly go back and forth with [their] friends.” Disappearing images and videos will be highlighted in blue in the inbox, where they can be viewed and replayed once. The new Direct is now rolling out to all iOS and Android users with the updated versions of the Instagram app.

Snapchat Releases New Location-Based Ad Product: Snapchat released Snap to Store, “a new location-based product that lets businesses see whether people go to stores after seeing [their] advertisements.” With this new ad product, advertisers can access a dashboard that shows “the number of people who go to a store within one week of seeing one of Snap’s vertical-oriented mobile ads.” The dashboard also reveals the number of Snapchat users who visited a specific retail location, their demographic information such as age, gender, and region, and which Snapchat lens or geofilter they used. Adweek reports that Snap plans to integrate more interest categories such as music, sports, or “department store shopper” for grouping users in the near future.

Snap advertisers can now see if their ads increase foot traffic: https://t.co/e587y2z56X pic.twitter.com/59qX1MZvuX

Facebook Adds Call-to-Action Units to Instant Articles: Facebook rolled out a new feature that allows all publishers to add Page Like and Email Sign-Up call-to-action units to their Instant Articles. Along with providing “a simple, self-serve creation flow” for setting up these new call-to-action units directly from a Page, Facebook also offers access to performance insights and opportunities to help “identify and develop new call-to-action units” in the future.

Facebook will continue to collaborate with partners to discover for more opportunities to “extend the business value of Instant Articles.” It is currently testing other call-to-action units such as the ability to sign up for a free trial to a publisher’s digital subscription or install a mobile app from within an Instant Article.

New Open-Source Social Platform, Mastodon, Competes with Twitter: Mastodon is a new, open-source social media platform that launched six months ago and is “growing like crazy” such that new sign-ups had to be shut down “until [the] quality of service can be assured for existing users.” The Verge reports that Mastodon has a similar look and feel of Twitter’s original chronological and public timelines, but with some “key differences.” For example, Mastodon posts can have up to 500 characters rather than being limited to only 140 and users have the option to make individual posts private. The Verge also offers a beginner’s guide that offers “everything you need to know” about Mastodon’s new service.

Mastodon is a new, free, open-source social media platform that launched six months ago and is growing like crazy. — Mastodon is a new, open-source “Twitter clone” that launched six months ago and is growing like crazy.

Our Take on Top News This Week

In this week’s show from Friday, April 14, 2017, Erik Fisher and guests discuss the top news in social media. Topics include updates to Instagram (2:14), call-to-action units in Facebook Instant Articles (20:40), and new tools and functionality for Facebook Messenger (33:39). Subscribe to future shows here.

More News to Note

Twitter Introduces Custom Hearts for Periscope Videos: Twitter now offers advertisers “an immersive and personalized way to integrate their campaigns into video via Custom Hearts on live and on-demand Periscope video.” With Custom Hearts, marketers have a unique and tailored way “to visually and natively amplify their campaigns… [and] add more branding to their Periscope Broadcasts.” According to Twitter, “Custom Hearts can be used alone or combined with pre-roll ads in brand sponsorships of broadcasts.”

Introducing Custom Hearts: a New Way to Amplify Your Campaign through Live Video https://t.co/Wcw4gy3UuI

LinkedIn Introduces Smarter Messaging Experience on Desktop: LinkedIn is rolling out “an even smarter messaging experience with the ability to message a connection from wherever you may be on LinkedIn, along with suggestions that can help connect you to a new job.” The new messaging experience offers a seamless way to contact another member “from anywhere on the LinkedIn desktop experience” and “relevant suggestions within messaging on the Jobs and Company pages to help [users] start a conversation.” LinkedIn has also made it easier to respond with quick replies like “Thanks” and “I’ll get back to you.”

Google Makes Fashion Image Searches More Like Pinterest: Google introduced two new features called “Style Ideas” and “Similar Items” to the Google app for Android and mobile web for fashion image searches. Much like Pinterest’s visual search technology, Google’s new style ideas surfaces “a grid of inspirational lifestyle images and outfits that showcase how the product can be worn in real life.” In addition, Google also provides mobile shoppers with “an expanded carousel for ‘similar items’ while searching for apparel products… right from Image Search.” Both of these new Image Search features are available globally but are currently limited to apparel and accessory searches on the mobile browsers and the Android Google Search App. However, Google plans to expand this technology to more platforms and product categories in the coming year.