New Features for Instagram Stories: 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 up to date with social media,
here are some of the news items that caught our attention.

What’s New This Week

Instagram
Adds Boomerang, Mention Tags, and Links to Instagram
Stories: Instagram introduced two new tools “to help
you make your story even more fun, Boomerang and mentions,” and
announced that it’s starting “to test links inside some stories.”
Boomerang, which “lets you turn everyday moments into something fun
and unexpected,” can be selected as an additional format option
under the Record button. Boomerang records and stitches together “a
burst of photos into a mini video that plays forward and backward.”
Users can also tag and mention people in stories just as they do in
Instagram captions and comments. These updates for Instagram
Stories are available as part of Instagram version 9.7 available
for iOS in the Apple App Store. It’s also available on Android and
Windows.

In addition to introducing Boomerang and mention tags to
Stories, Instagram also announced that it’s starting “to test links
inside some Stories,” but only on verified accounts at the moment.
Businesses and celebrities can add links to their stories that make
it easy to “learn more” or “see more” with a swipe up to view the
link right inside the app.

LinkedIn Opens Sponsored InMail to All Marketers:
LinkedIn announced that sponsored InMail is now available to all
marketers through LinkedIn Campaign Manager. According to LinkedIn,
Sponsored InMail allows you to “engage your target audiences in a
personalized, direct and meaningful way.” It can be used to
personalize outreach prospects, drive conversions with
mobile-optimized features, and reach other LinkedIn members when
they’re “most engaged” and active on LinkedIn. This tool is
available to all marketers with a LinkedIn Campaign
Manager account.

Facebook Opens Sponsored Messages on Messenger: As
part of a larger Messenger update “designed to provide visibility
into optimal entry points, enhance existing conversations and
enable you to build better overall experiences,” Facebook made
sponsored messages within Messenger generally available to all
advertisers. According to Facebook, “sponsored messages give
businesses the ability to send targeted updates, information about
promotions, reminders and other relevant messages.” All Facebook
advertisers can now reach people through sponsored posts and ads in
the news feed and direct them to a conversation in Messenger.

Periscope Introduces New Ways to Connect With
Audiences: Periscope rolled out “three new ways to
connect with your audiences and the communities on Periscope – with
Superfans, groups, and logging into Periscope.tv.” The new
Superfans feature allows broadcasters to identify and target the
top 10 “most engaged” members of their audience. Building on this
information, broadcasters can now create groups where they can
“broadcast to and share videos with more granular sets of people”
such as friends, superfans, or a community built around specific
interests. The Superfans and Groups features are available on the
Periscope app for Android and iOS and on the web.

Periscope
recently updated Periscope.tv with an “easier way to search,
browse suggested and highlighted channels” and has just rolled out
“a more complete web experience” that allows users to send hearts
in any live video on Periscope.tv.

Our Take on Top News This Week

In this week’s show from Friday, November 11, 2016, Michael
Stelzner and guests discuss the top news in social media. Topics
include updates to Snapchat (03:00), Boomerang, mention tags and
URLs being added to Instagram Stories (20:00), and new comment
moderation tools and HDR video support for YouTube creators
(32:15). Subscribe to future shows here.

More News to Note

Snapchat
Adds New World Lenses, Rewind Capabilities, and Support for
Spectacles: With its recent updates for iOS and
Android, Snapchat introduced World Lenses. Similar to Snapchat’s
Selfie Lenses, the new World Lenses change your background and
surroundings. According to TechCrunch, “some World Lenses will
actually animate your face too and can have different effects
depending on if you use your front- or rear-facing camera.”
Snapchat also added the ability to rewind individual snaps and
entire stories with just one swipe.

Along with this update, Snap Inc. also released new features and
support for Spectacles.
Business Insider reports that Snapchat users can now pair
Spectacles with their Snapchat account by scanning a code in the
app, but notes that Spectacles support is currently only available
for “Android devices running Android 4.3 and above and the iPhone 5
and above.”

Snapchat copies Instagram Story rewinds, adds augmented
background lenses https://t.co/bnK4p9pJT7 pic.twitter.com/a4bSlXkRy6

YouTube Adds HDR Video Support: YouTube added support
for high dynamic range (HDR) videos on YouTube. According to
YouTube, “HDR videos have higher contrast, revealing precise,
detailed shadows and stunning highlights with more clarity than
ever… Simply put, HDR unlocks the most spectacular image quality
[it has] ever streamed.” In addition to being able to upload HDR
videos to the site, YouTube also added the ability to “watch
YouTube videos in HDR on supported devices, such as HDR TVs with
the new Chromecast Ultra, and…

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