Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media.
On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show, we explore Facebook rolling out Watch Party to all Facebook groups, Twitter’s new Ads Playbook, and other breaking social media news of the week!
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Facebook Watch Party Rolls Out to All Groups: Facebook began testing a new video experience called Watch Party in groups this past January. Watch Party allows Facebook group admins and moderators to select any public video hosted on Facebook (live or recorded) and share it with other members of the group. Group members can then watch at the same time and place and also add their own commentary to the experience.
This week, TechCrunch reports that Watch Party is rolling out to all Facebook groups with two new features. These include the ability for viewers to suggest videos and multiple co-hosts who can each add new videos to the queue. The article also notes that Facebook is testing support for Watch Party on pages, but “it’s not quite ready yet.”
Facebook Stories Features Tap to React Stickers: Facebook appears to be testing a new type of sticker that allows other users to “tap to react” to your Facebook stories. This possible new feature was discovered on Mari Smith‘s Facebook story and shared by Matt Navarra.
Facebook Stories now has tap to react stickers pic.twitter.com/MisBdtJ6mg
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) July 25, 2018
Workplace for Facebook Boosts Collaboration and Personalization Features: Facebook rolled out new features aimed at boosting team collaboration and driving greater personalization on its enterprise platform, Workplace for Facebook. These new features include Workplace profiles, which will call out team members’ birthdays and work anniversaries, share other personal details, and provide a one-click connection via Workplace chat. Workplace for Facebook will also offer a new directory search feature and admin control over Workplace people profiles such as what information is shared. (16:08)
Personalized profiles. Celebrations. And a powerful people directory. Find out how new Workplace Profiles are helping people turn companies into communities http://ow.ly/r2xx30l1Nzb
Posted by Workplace by Facebook on Thursday, July 19, 2018
Workplace for Facebook Acquires Redkix: Facebook acquired Redkix, an email startup that combines email, messaging, and calendar features into one app. Recode reports that Facebook made the purchase in hopes of building out its own communication features inside Workplace, the enterprise version of Facebook that it hopes will compete with Slack. (21:07)
Facebook has acquired Redkix to build better messaging features into its Slack competitor https://t.co/hFkQQWcYvi pic.twitter.com/rXRLD44hQY
— Recode (@Recode) July 26, 2018
Facebook Q2 2018 Quarterly Earnings: Facebook reports that its community now has “more than 2.5 billion people using at least one of our apps each month” which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger and emphasizes its continued investment in the safety and security of its platform. (22:03)
We just shared our community update and quarterly results. Our community now has more than 2.5 billion people using at…
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Twitter Released Ads Playbook for Brands and Agencies: Twitter Business produced a Playbook for Agencies for Q2 2018, which aims to share answers to the most frequently asked questions by agencies and their clients about how to run Twitter ads well, where Twitter fits into an overall client strategy, and more. (24:07)
Be your team’s expert on Twitter Ads.
— Twitter Business (@TwitterBusiness) July 23, 2018
Twitter Outlines New Developer Requirements to Protect Platform: Twitter states that its first responsibility is “to provide a place that supports the health of conversation on Twitter.” To prevent misuse of the platform, the company introduced several new requirements for Twitter API developers. New apps must now be created in the new app management portal on developer.twitter.com, which requires an approved developer account. Twitter is also applying new default app-level rate limits on POST endpoints for tweets, retweets, DMs, follows, and likes, and a new process for obtaining “high volume posting privileges.” (26:00)
As a developer platform, our first responsibility is our users: to provide a place that supports the health of conversation on Twitter.
To continue to prevent misuse of our platform, we are introducing a few new requirements for developers today.https://t.co/Es30MdsKEm
— Twitter API (@TwitterAPI) July 24, 2018
As part of today’s announcement, Twitter also shared that it has removed the platform access of more than 143,000 apps that violated its policies between April and June 2018, and is now giving users the option to “report a bad app” in the Help Center.
LinkedIn Adds Voice Messaging to LinkedIn Messaging: LinkedIn added the ability to record and send voice messages of up to 1 minute in LinkedIn Messaging on mobile. To record a message, you simply have to tap the microphone icon in the mobile messaging keyboard then hold and record a message. Voice messaging is rolling out now in the LinkedIn app on iOS and Android and will be available globally to all members in the next few weeks.
Instagram Alerts Users When Friends Are Online: Instagram is making it “easier to connect with friends on Instagram by showing you when they’re available to chat.” The company announced that a new green dot will appear next to profile pictures in various parts of the app such as the Direct inbox and the friend list when the user is active on Instagram.
Instagram notes that you’ll only see status updates for people who follow you or have connected with you in Direct. Users also have the option to disable this alert.
YouTube Tests Explore Feature on iOS: YouTube is testing a new Explore feature in the iOS app with expanded video recommendations and “topics and channels users probably wouldn’t ordinarily see” over the next few weeks. Variety notes that this test will affect only 1% of YouTube’s iOS app viewers and will be very similar to Instagram’s Explore tab, which has been successful in helping users to discover more videos and creators to expand their audiences.
.@YouTube to Test New ‘Explore’ Feature on iOS App With Expanded Video Recommendations https://t.co/KL3KgmUvAx
— Variety (@Variety) July 23, 2018
YouTube Releases VR App for the Samsung Gear VR Devices: YouTube is expanding its virtual reality app to Samsung Gear VR devices starting next week. YouTube is also rolling out new features that allow users to watch together and chat and releasing exclusive new content for YouTube VR.
Snap Inc. Launches Snapchat Storytellers Pilot Program: Snap Inc.’s new Snapchat Storytellers pilot program will connect businesses and brands to the app’s five most popular content makers and influencers, including Mplatco, Cyrene Q, and Shonduras. They’ll star in ads for Stories and Discover or provide creative direction to brands “with their expertise gleaned from gathering audiences of millions over the past few years in exchange for cash.” TechCrunch reports that top creators can often earn tens of thousands of dollars or more for deals with brands.
Snapchat “Storytellers” program pairs creators with advertisers https://t.co/ClVxvTI52f by @joshconstine pic.twitter.com/NoJybvbnXe
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) July 26, 2018
Snapchat Opens Private Ads Marketplace on Select Discover Channels: Snapchat will offer “100 cherry-picked brands across the UK, Australia, the USA, and Canada” unskippable ad placements against premium publishers’ TV-style show-like content found in the Discover section of the app. The Drum reports that these publishing partners include Hearst, Vice, BuzzFeed, NBC Universal, ESPN, and others and the ads will be available through Snapchat’s self-serve ad platform in August.
Snapchat Sunsets In-App Peer-to-Peer Payment Service, Snapcash: Snap Inc. is shutting down Snapcash, a relatively unknown and largely unused peer-to-peer payment service on Snapchat, by August 30. DigitalTrends reports that the Snapcash service has existed for the past 4 years, but because of “the rise of other payment apps like Venmo and its parent company PayPal, as well as bank-backed Zelle, and of course Square Cash, there were few folks who turned to Snapchat and Snapcash in order to pay their friends.”
Snapchat will shut down Snapcash, forfeiting to Venmo https://t.co/ZSC2Cf04dM by @joshconstine pic.twitter.com/rVsCJ6KY9W
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) July 22, 2018