Social media updates – what happened in September 2019?

Each month, atom42’s resident Social Media Specialist, Nick Munday, will be rounding up the most noteworthy and interesting changes from the world of social media, and providing some food for thought with suggested reading.

Facebook updates September 2019

Facebook publish guide to ‘Build a Strong Brand’

This looks at key branding elements and modern data-gathering techniques, including insight from a range of successful brands and tips for marketers. [source]

Facebook release Creator Studio Playbook

Creator Studio allows social media marketers to easily manage video content across multiple pages, as well as schedule posts for Instagram and IGTV directly from a desktop.

Facebook describe the tool as “your secret weapon” while this article is “your handy user guide,” advising how to monitor insights for audience, track video engagement and monetisation and more. [source]

New in-app Shopping Ads tested for Facebook and Instagram

These new ads aim to streamline the path to purchasing products. With the new Dynamic Ad, Facebook users would be able to order an advertised product direct from the News Feed ad itself with the ‘Checkout on Facebook’ option.

On Instagram, they’re testing a feature which would enable brands to turn their organic posts into paid promotions through Ads Manager. Both options will enable users to stay on the subsequent apps for longer. [source]

Google social updates September 2019

Google add new Video Campaign options, including YouTube home screen ads

These new options allow for “a simpler, more efficient way for marketers to achieve their brand awareness goals with YouTube,” according to Google. Instead of requiring separate campaigns for 6-second bumper ads and skippable or non-skippable in-stream ads, now multiple video creatives can be uploaded into a single campaign.

Most notably, they’ve introduced TrueView ads on the YouTube home screen and added the YouTube Masthead ad on TV screens (targeting users on the YouTube app on smart TVs). Both are aimed at advertisers hoping to drive high value conversions. [source]

Google Photos launch ‘Memories’, similar to Stories

Google has a history of trying to imitate social media platforms, with Google+ supposed to rival Facebook and Allo (no, me neither) designed to replicate Messenger just two examples. They’ve recently added Stories for YouTube too.

Now they’ve created ‘Memories’ for Google Photos: “While you might recognize this stories format from social media, these memories are your personal media, privately presented to you so you can sit back and enjoy some of your best moments.”

So this new feature isn’t designed to share with the public, but you can publish specific Memories to other apps.[source]

Snapchat update September 2019

Snapchat expand ad length limits

Instead of the 10-second cap, advertisers will be able to deliver videos up to three minutes long, which will still be skippable.

Snapchat first started showing adverts in 2014. In the second quarter of 2019, they generated $388 million in ad sales, a 48% increase year-on-year.
[source]

Reading

• What Instagram and Facebook’s Algorithm Changes Might Mean for Marketers
• 1/3 of Instagram users have bought directly from an ad, study finds
• Voter manipulation on social media now a global problem, report finds