All About Social — Digital Roundup | # 25
Updates from Facebook, Uber, and Instagram take the stage in this weeks Digital Roundup.
Facebook and Fake News
In an attempt to crack down on “fake news” Facebook has removed the ability to edit titles, images, and copy to preview links you pull into a post.
For example, if you pull your companies latest blog post into a Facebook post to share it, you can no longer swap out the picture with a new one, or edit anything about the preview link. To avoid company pages altering titles to attract more clicks (click bait titles) or change images to make them more appealing even if they don’t have to do with the content—no users (business or personal) can edit preview links moving forward.
This affects businesses in particular because it takes away the control you once had over your own posts. Marketing your own material becomes a bit trickier. However, you can set up what Facebook will pull in for the title, image, and description for each page using OG tags. To do this you’ll have to have your developer add code to your site. Keep in mind that this may not directly effect SEO results, it will still improve your web presence!
Go “Instagram Live” Together
Over the next few months, Instagram will slowly be rolling out the ability to go Live with friends. This is a game changer for companies and influencers if used to its full potential.
Soon going Live with another influencer or company could exponentially grow engagement rates and follower counts. The ability to combine two huge audiences opens doors to a new way to market ideas and products. Having multiple influencers discuss a product or businesses going Live with a celebrity means you don’t need to travel to that person and can get a natural more human feel while promoting something or sparking interest about a topic.
Eliminating the “Fat Finger” Problem
Facebook is trying to get rid of the “fat finger” problem they’re seeing where people accidentally hit an ad and then backtrack to the page they were originally on.
Facebook is trying to create an environment for the user — a place where you won’t get switched to a new page for accidentally hitting an ad, as well as a place where advertisers don’t get billed for uninterested clicks. Many advertisers are so interested in low CPC’s (cost per click) that they don’t keep track of how much business is actually coming from those clicks.
Good news Marketers and Business owners: Facebook will no longer charge you if someone backtracks within two seconds. This shows Facebook that it was an accidental click and there wasn’t the intention of looking at what the advertiser has to offer. This also helps you have more accurate results and not just see a high number of clicks with a low number of conversions. Facebook is also setting new requirements within ad formatting, so ad clicks are slower to register a click and send them to a new page. Lastly, the third way is by adding “gross impressions” so advertisers can see how many people saw their ads, including bots (which don’t show up on the bill).
With these new changes put in place, Facebook is hoping to engage users in a better experience both on the user and business side.
Watch
Facebook has decided to jump on the video bandwagon and is creating “Watch”—a place to watch videos that will be called, wait for it, “Shows”.
The purpose is to allow users to enjoy the shows/content they love with their friends and watch together through Facebook. They will have a “watchlist” feature so you can always stay up to date on your live or pre-recorded episodes.
The only issue they’re running into is that many networks have already signed with Twitter, YouTube, or Snapchat who each previously announced almost identical services trying to create a place that users could find curated content to their interests. There are a few shows in the works, and yes—they will all eventually have ad breaks.
Uber Chat
Ever wanted to message your Uber driver? Soon you can.
Uber is in the process of rolling out an in-app chat feature so you can message your driver about your exact pick up location, roadblocks that may make it difficult to get to you, or just to say hey.
The new feature will be found on the bottom of the Uber feed—the button will say “contact”… easy enough. The idea is to cut down on the the amount of information being shared, no phone numbers have to be exchanged, it’s all through the app. The feature will read your text aloud to the driver so they can stay focused, and have “read receipts” so you know they saw your text if they’re unable to answer. Messaging rolls out very soon so keep an eye on your Uber app!
That’s all for this week’s digital roundup. Be sure to catch up on last week’s if you haven’t yet, and we’ll have more for you next time!
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