Social media updates – What happened in October 2019
Our Social Media Specialist Nick rounds up the latest news and suggested reading from the world of social media.
Instagram have been busy over the past month, launching a new messaging app “for close friends” named ‘Threads‘, creating a new ‘Restrict‘ mode to limit bullying and removing the ‘Following‘ tab in the Activity feed.
Instagram updates October 2019
Instagram launch ads in Explore tab
Businesses are now able to reach people using ads in the Instagram Explore tab, giving “advertisers an opportunity to extend their campaign to additional audiences and be part of what’s culturally relevant and trending”.
Ads do not show up in the Explore grid itself, but clicking on the small media leads to the Explore feed or Explore Video experience, depending on the ad type. Over 200m users visit the tab every day day, with 50% of Instagram accounts using it every month. [source]
Reminders for product launches being tested on Instagram Shopping
As part of their plan to simplify users’ payment journeys, Instagram are testing Reminders for Product Launches. When viewing a product launch sticker in Stories or a product launch tag in feed, users can set reminders for the launch date, preview product details and buy a product as soon it’s available without leaving Instagram. On the release date, they’ll then receive a notification. [source]
Instagram provide tips on how to sell your products
Instagram Shopping allows users to buy directly from the app, and the social platform have released a series of tips and techniques about how to create a buzz around new launches and sell products. [source]
Facebook updates October 2019
Facebook roll out Multiple Text Optimisation for ad copy variations
Facebook are adding added a new option which enables advertisers to include multiple text variations for the primary text, headline and description in ads.
Similar to Google’s Responsive Ads, Multiple Text Optimisation means Facebook’s system will test the different variants and generate the best results. This is likely to require more ad spend, but the machine learning could lead to better results for businesses. [source]
Facebook is changing how it calculates organic impressions
Due to a change in how impressions are calculated, Facebook pages are likely to see a decrease in organic impressions.
Changes will affect the time frame in which organic impressions from the same person are measured. This is more in-line with how ad impressions are calculated, meaning brands will be able to make more accurate comparisons between organic and paid. [source]
Facebook’s ad sales climb 28% in Q3
Despite all of the scrutiny they’re facing after the Cambridge Analytica scandal and concerns about public trust, Facebook’s advertising revenue increased by 28% to $17.4 billion in Q3. [source]
Twitter updates October 2019
Twitter testing a new option to ‘stream’ tweets in real-time
The ‘Stream Tweets’ option would mean a user’s timeline would be updated automatically as new tweets happen: “You’ll see new Tweets as they are shared when you’re at the top of the timeline”. This function would enable a real-time, live mode instead of seeing the Twitter algorithm-defined feed. [source]
Twitter considering ephemeral Tweets and selected audiences
Speaking on a recent podcast, Twitter’s head of product Kayvon Beykpour revealed that they’re considering how to introduce auto-deleting tweets, after the success of ephemeral content on Instagram Stories and Snapchat. [source]
Snapchat update October 2019
Snapchat introduce Dynamic Ads
Snapchat has launched a new ‘Dynamic Ads’ option, enabling advertisers to have ads created for them based on their uploaded product catalog. The system then displays the products to relevant audiences as it sees fit. [source]
