The Weekly Digest #22 : The Best Of Social Media
On the program today : Twitter launches its app on new devices, Facebook Messenger enhances Bots for advertisers, Instagram improves Call to Actions buttons for ads and lets you Hide Inappropriate Comments, Snapchat introduces new Ads Targeting options for advertisers and Twitter improves Customer Service.
Twitter arrives on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One
Twitter is diversifying the way you can experience live streaming with new media. They announced the launch off a Twitter App that will be usable on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Xbox One. On these apps will be available live streaming videos from partners like the NBA, the NFL with Thursday Night Football games, Bloomberg and more. Other content like top tweets, as well as top global Vines or Periscopes will be available, as reported by Prnewswire. Anyone who has these selected devices won’t need to have a Twitter account or a pay TV subscription to see those contents. They will be able to access the live streaming along with the live tweets directly.
Speaking about that, the social network officially started their live stream experience yesterday night with the NFL. The match between the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills was the first event showcased live on Twitter, out of the 10 game package signed with the NFL for their for Thursday Night Football games. The new feature received a warm welcome from the audience and we can’t wait to discover what the other partners have to bring.
Facebook Messenger adds features to Bots
Facebook Messenger made a few announcements for the Messenger Platform 1.2 regarding Bots.
- Brands will have the possibility to post ads to promote their Bots on News Feeds to encourage users to come interact with them through Messenger, thanks to call to action buttons.
- An “enhanced mobile website in Messenger will allow people to seamlessly enjoy and interact with a business’ mobile website within Messenger.”
- Businesses can now sell their products directly in messages. Users can go through the whole purchase process without having to leave the conversation with the Bot. For the moment this update is only available in Beta, in the United States for a few developers but businesses can apply here.
- A welcome screen will now appear on Bots to give more information to users about response time, the category of the associated Page and what they can except from the Bot.
- They are now able to easily share any message with the regular share message as well as sharing bots with their friends.
Instagram lets you Hide Inappropriate Comments
Comments are a way for people to freely express themselves about regular users’ or brands’ publications. However, some can have a tendency to go too far — especially when it comes to famous individuals or companies — and the comments deletion process can be complicated when you receive hundreds of them. The new feature Instagram added allows any user to Hide Comments that are often reported as inappropriate. They can also custom it with their own keywords, enter the emojis or specific words they don’t want to see in the comments posted on their publications.
Snapchat introduces new Ads Targeting options
These 3 new features called Snap Audience Match, Snapchat Lifestyle Categories and Lookalikes will help advertisers to target audiences in order to show their ads to people who could show an interested in them. Snap Audience Match will enable advertisers to reach already existing customers thanks to their email address. The Lookalikes feature will enable them to reach people who are similar to their customers — just like Custom Audiences on Facebook or Actalike Audiences on Pinterest. Lastly, Snapchat Lifestyle Categories — the feature we presented you a few weeks ago — is meant to target Snapchat users depending on their interests on the social network.
Twitter improves Customer Service for businesses
Twitter is improving the way users can connect with businesses that offer Customer Service through their Twitter account. Businesses will be able to clearly inform if their account provides support. When users search for account, a “provides support” indication will be displayed above the profile name in the search tab. An option will display on the profile the hours when the Customer Service is open so that users can more precise idea of when they can expect an answer. Finally the message button to send DMs will be more visible. Businesses will be able to receive messages from anyone — wether users follow their account or not.
Instagram adds new call to actions for ads
Instagram announced new features to enhance the visibility of ads on the platform and encourage users to take action. The first improvement is the Ad Highlighting. “To guide people to take an action, the call to action button will be highlighted when people show interest on or around an ad — like resting on the ad for four seconds or tapping on the profile name”. Additionally, Call to Action Buttons will be added in comments. Now, when users go to the comments section of an ad, the CTA button will stay at the bottom of the page, to encourage users to take action and get more information. More context will be added to CTA buttons. When Instagram detects “additional information from an ad like price, destination URL or app store rating, we’ll automatically add it to the call to action button”. Lastly they will change the way Video Links are displayed. Every time a user clicks on the video ad to unmute it, the destination URL will be added below, while the video continues to play.
