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 a business page redesign on mobile with Andrea Vahl, Facebook bringing mentorship to Facebook groups, and other breaking social media marketing news of the week!
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For this week’s top stories, you’ll find timestamps below that allow you to fast-forward in the replay above.
Facebook Redesigns Business Pages, Events, and More on Mobile: Facebook redesigned the pages of more than 80 million businesses to make it “easier for people to interact with local businesses and find what they need most.” It’s updating pages to make Recommendations about businesses including text, photos, and tags more prominent. Facebook is also rolling out enhanced features to show menus, book appointments, and other actions; expanding Events and job applications features; and rolling out Stories to all pages. (4:01)
Users can now browse a Local section of the Facebook app and a stand-alone Facebook Local app for businesses around you, see what places are most recommended, and check out which events your friends are attending.
Facebook Brings Mentorship to Facebook Groups: Last year, Facebook piloted a new Mentorship and Support program that matches people in existing Facebook groups to share one-on-one, guided support. This week, Facebook announced that Mentorship is available to people within select groups focused on parenting and professional and personal development. (21:00)
LinkedIn Highlights Career Histories in Experience Section on Profiles: LinkedIn will now automatically group consecutive positions within the same organization in the experience section of profiles. This new design feature is starting to roll out on desktop and mobile in the U.S. this week and will be available globally to all members in the coming weeks.
Pinterest Expands Promoted Video at Max. Width to All Brands: Pinterest began testing Promoted Video at max. width with select brands in May 2018. This week, Pinterest announced that Promoted Video at max. width is now available for all Pinterest advertisers. Pinterest notes that “videos at standard width are the same size as all other Pins on Pinterest and videos at maximum width are approximately 4x bigger, spanning across Pinterest’s iconic two-column grid.” This new video format option is available through Pinterest Ads Manager and Pinterest Marketing Partners.
Facebook Messenger Adds Video Chat to AR Games: Facebook Messenger added multiplayer video chat with up to six people to two AR games, “Don’t Smile” and “Asteroids Attack,” and plans to roll out this feature to more games “in the coming weeks and months.” Video Chat AR Games is available globally with the latest version of Messenger.
Posted by Messenger on Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Facebook Replaces Share Button With Messenger Button: Facebook appears to be running a test that replaces the Share feature with a new button that prompts users to share a news feed post on Messenger. This new format shifts Facebook sharing from open, public posts to private conversations and could significantly impact engagement on the platform if it’s more broadly rolled out. This experimental feature was shared by Matt Navarra.
Facebook is testing replacing the Share button with a Message button pic.twitter.com/UsB3EB9GJO
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) August 3, 2018
Snapchat User Count Drops by Three Million in Q2 2018: Earlier this week, Snap Inc. released Q2 2018 Financial Results and shared that Snapchat’s user base fell by three million daily active users. The company predicted that the recent app redesign would disrupt usage, with some people typically counted among Snapchat’s daily users opening the app less frequently. However, co-founder Evan Spiegel stated that “the company has been working to improve Snapchat based on user feedback” and it’s “eager to make more progress on the tremendous opportunity we now have to show more of the right content to the right people.”
Snapchat’s average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by 34% to $1.40 for the quarter, from $1.05 in Q2 2017. The company also announced that it now has 100 million monthly active users in the U.S. and Canada.
Amazon Launches Alexa SDK for Auto: VentureBeat reports that Amazon released an open source Alexa Automotive Core (AAC) SDK, or Auto SDK, to help automakers integrate Alexa voice control into cars and their infotainment systems, screens often used for navigation, media, or climate control.
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