Category: Social Media Optimization (SMO)

Facebook Messenger Design Revamp – All You Need to Know About It

Those who use Facebook’s messenger service would support the fact that the application is riddled with features that one can easily do without. In an attempt to keep the layout cleaner, Facebook has launched a cleaner version of the messenger app.

The Messenger redesign didn’t happen overnight. The social media behemoth had given a sneak peek of this change in its annual F8 conference held in May 2018. The change tackles three key areas

–   Take out some of the unnecessary interface elements

–    Put more focus on commonly used features that users want to get to in quick time

–    Simplify the overall experience the user receives

In addition, it has now put an additional ‘dark’ option for variety in interface appearance.

While there was no official notification of how the sneak peek of May 2018 would transpire into the user devices till now, but now we see many reports coming in of users viewing the new display on the Messenger app. This shows that Facebook is rolling out the changes, starting with a handful of beta users.

Some of the changes reported are as below –

1 – Interface level

At the interface level, we found the new appearance to be a tad jaded. Though it looks fresh from FB point of view, if we compare it to revamped applications like Skype chat, we can see that a lot of companies have already done this keeping in mind that a lot of chat activity now happens on the limited screen real estate of the mobile.

2 – Looks

The new look does help users who prefer an uncluttered layout or work with just a handful of the multiple functions available. They have done away with unnecessary lines, thus making the entire layout seamless. This goes very well with Google material design emphasis. Though some may feel that the all-white outlook may hinder the overall appeal of the screens. A good point though is the availability of the ‘dark’ mode for chatting at night.

3 – Bottom bar

Some radical changes have occurred in the bottom bar. It now houses just three icons. The camera button is missing here. But if we look closely we will see that the camera icon is now shifted from the bottom bar to the top right space. Same is the case with the ‘New Chat’ icon.

The app surely looks a lot different from its previous avatar. It also syncs with the overall business philosophy of Facebook to simplify the user experience around the app. Initial responses from the beta launch too look encouraging. However, what will be the responses coming in after a full-fledged launch? That is a question only time can answer.

What are your thoughts about these changes done on the Facebook Messenger interface? What points would you like to keep and what features would you like to do away with from the new interface? Do write to us and let us know.

October 4, 2018
Facebook Unveils Smart AI- based Speaker Called Portal

Facebook has been trying to expand its consumer hardware segment beyond the Oculus. Towards this, it has launched a smart speaker called Portal. The two versions from Facebook would retail for a max of $400. The underlying voice architecture will be powered by Amazon Alexa and will be available in two different sizes. The product has been under development for quite some time at Facebook’s hallowed Building 8, the top-secret R&D centre that worked on drones, and brain- scanning technology among other innovations. It was supposed to be launched by June 2018 at the annual developer conference – the F8 Conference. However, the privacy backlash fueled by the Cambridge Analytical scandal prompted the social media giant to postpone the launch to October.

What does the product do?

As per unconfirmed reports, users will be able to speak to a range of ‘Facebook features’ that are currently growing in scope. Tech geeks are speculating its appearance to look like the Amazon Echo Show (a video screen above a speaker, with a camera perched on top) the camera will be helpful for facial recognition and video chatting needs. The large screen, speakers, and microphones will utilise Facebook’s face recognition tools which are capable of adding more context and relevance to its existing database of billion+ profiles. A user would recall this feature in action when they post a new pic, and FB recommends which friend’s face is in the photo in order to facilitate its tagging. The device’s integration with Amazon Alexa means that users can ask the device for the latest news, weather, sports, and play music and videos.

The importance of privacy

Privacy has been a hot point of concern at Facebook this year. Hence it is no surprise that the social media platform is taking steps to protect user privacy with this launch. The portal is believed to have a ‘privacy shutter’. This tool will cover the portal’s wide-angle video camera. With the help of AI algorithms, the portal will identify the people in the frame and follow them as they walk around a room. This option has been integrated into the device and is described as a ‘brand tax’ by FB employees. The reason for this is that it was developed late into product development stage in response to the worldwide backlash it received that not enough was being done to maintain the trust of its users.

The smaller screen variant will cost almost $300 while the bigger screen variant will retail for $400. Presumably, a lot of thought has gone into the product’s development. While the stated objective for ‘Portal’ remains to enable voice chat and video playback along with listening music, there is a bigger story to it. The device’s launch will also seek to fulfil another objective – i.e. elevating the falling customer trust on the social media giant. To what extent the device can assuage the depreciation of trust in the minds of users, only time will tell.

September 27, 2018
Facebook’s Canvas Ads Gets a New Name and Updates
Facebook had rolled out the ‘Canvas Ads’ feature in 2016 within the platform to help businesses advertise their product offerings in an eye-catching manner. When activated, the section became a mini-site in itself with product listings displayed on the entire screen. With more and more purchasing decisions happening on the mobile currently, businesses find Canvas a viable channel within Facebook to get a creative outlet to display their brand online. It did help marketers compellingly tell brand stories, but Facebook thinks that the name itself doesn’t convey the gist of what the page does.

To tackle this, it has now announced that it will be renaming the ‘Canvas Ads’ page to ‘Instant Experiences’, which is exactly what the social media platform does. The upgrade also consists of a few other back-end refinements in order to improve performance and page load speeds. Additionally, users now get to add in their contact details easily.

What has changed?

Here is a peek into the different changes brought about in the new ‘Instant Experiences’
- Instant Storefront: allows businesses to display retail products in a grid format.
- Instant Lookbook: prompts businesses to showcase their products in the context of a lifestyle image.
- Instant Customer Acquisition: allows businesses to showcase the products and integrate a clear call to action for the user to carry out an action after seeing the ad.
- Instant Storytelling: makes great use of graphics and video to let viewers know your brand better and connect with it.
- Instant Form: allows people to quickly share their contact information for enquiries.
Of these, the Instant Forms is a welcome addition. It helps users to leave behind an email or phone number so that the business can get back to you with a sales call.

What’s in store for marketers?

Marketers who want to track customer journey from initial view of the immersive ads right up to the conversion can now do so easily. This way they know when and how to re-engage with prospects. This is primarily driven by Facebook Pixel and third-party pixels into the campaign. If you are using Facebook Pixel on the website, it will automatically be integrated with the ‘Instant Experiences’ section as well. This tweak is expected to add substantial value to the marketing performance measurement function.

It is indeed a refreshing change from the older interface provided by Canvas Ads. While the front end for “Instant Experiences” doesn’t undergo a radical transformation, there is a marked improvement in how the users respond to the interface. Especially with the Instant Forms options, the engagement part toward the buyer journey becomes easy to accomplish. For brands who haven’t tried out Canvas Ads in its previous avatar, the new “Instant Experiences” can be a great starting point to create Facebook ads and make an impact in front of Facebook users.

Do write to us and let us know how your experience with the ‘Immersive Experiences’ ad display section within the social media platform was? We would love to hear from you.
September 14, 2018
Twitter Rolls Out Live Audio-Only Broadcast Feature for iOS

Microblogging site Twitter has added exciting capabilities to the Twitter and Periscope platforms. It has been testing audio-only broadcast facility via the Periscope platform for a few weeks now. As a culmination of these efforts in the beta testing phase, the company announced this week that the audio-only feature is going live for all iOS users that utilise the Twitter platform and its live streaming app, Periscope.

How to access this feature?

The audio-only live streaming has an effective interface. Using the facility is simple and provides an elevated user experience. After the update, users can go to the ‘compose’ screen on the Twitter app and tap the ‘Go Live’ button. This opens up a regular live-streaming window. You will see a small microphone icon. This can be turned on to choose audio-only streaming. To turn it off, you need to tap the microphone icon again.

Why the need for the change?

Today the trend shows a very low response to audio-only live streaming. Even the popular video live streaming of content on Periscope has declined sharply in recent times. A primary reason for this is that public attention has shifted from viral moments, towards professionally generated content on other platforms like YouTube or Facebook.

So, while Twitter had launched a broadcast facility within the app almost two years back, the public response to it has been tepid. Periscope had evidently lost substantial ground to Facebook and YouTube as far as live streaming of content is concerned. As a part of Twitter’s response to bring Periscope to the forefront again, it has re-oriented its focus on the live podcast and audio-only content that viewers can listen (but not see).

Who would find this feature useful?

Via the new feature, users can easily and quickly broadcast audio content on groups and individual walls. They can use the chatroom and other Periscope facilities at once. The app pitches in by designing a sound wave file that syncs with the audio being transmitted by the live sender. Even though the video is the go-to medium for generating, consuming, and sharing, Twitter hopes to do something different by going for audio-only content creation.

This option can prove to be extremely useful in cases where the internet bandwidth is poor and hence video files may take a lot of time to be streamed live. In order to improve the experience in such problematic areas, it will be a smart move to go for audio-only content when doing live streaming. It can be useful in reporting live from areas that don’t have a good internet connection. It can also prove to be useful for someone who wants to be just heard (and not seen as is the case with live video streaming).

The new update is now available for iOS users.

Did you get a chance to use the audio-only broadcast feature? What are your views on this new feature? Do write to us and leave your comments in the box below.

September 12, 2018
Twitter is Working on a New ‘Replies’ Layout to Boost Engagement
Twitter is reportedly testing a new way of interacting on the microblogging platform. It is experimenting with ways to update how interactions work on the site in order to make it feel more conversational and generate a better level of engagement.

How do the updates look like?

Speaking on the occasion, Twitter’s team presented some snapshots of how the new updates work in ‘reply threading’ and a status indicator to depict whether you are available currently to chat on Twitter.

The snapshots display the replies to be indented and shaded differently. It also shows a green dot coming up on the profile picture in case the users are online and available to converse. To summarise here are the changes –
- Indented responses to individual tweets. This makes it easy to understand which tweet carries which reply when the user is scrolling on the screen
- Shading to denote the different forms of tweets. So your own tweet would be indicated in blue and the original tweeter’s post would be marked in a purple shade
- Green dots to denote an online user who is available to chat. This would be conducive to the engagement inside the platform and generate a better degree of interaction.
What is the audience response?

There has been a mixed response to the new ‘replies’ layout and colour. Some have praised the new update and mentioned that it does indeed help in improving the engagement factor on the plain vanilla layout they are accustomed to seeing on Twitter. Others have not been very encouraging in their critique of these updates. They feel that the design looks cluttered and doesn’t leave much white space on the limited real estate presented by the mobile screen.

Twitter had invited suggestions from users to improve engagement and spark off interactions. Here are some updates that users want to see –
- Enable better usage of the screen space by keeping the original post pinned on the top
- Keep replies collapsible to make optimum use of the screen space
- Determining the number of replies that can be shown in a chain to a post
- Add timestamps just like what is seen on other platforms like Whatsapp
- Add an indicator that the tweeter is ‘typing…’ Similar to what is seen on Whatsapp. This will help the tweeter to confirm that the person is online and is in the process of responding
How will the update boost engagement?

The changes are made intending to propel engagement further and keep the users hooked to the site for longer. So if the user knows that there is a response coming in from an online user, the tendency would be to wait a while to see the response and engage ahead.

While the changes look promising, it is imperative that it consults with users first and get their buy-in to ensure that the outcomes are as per what they expected.

Let us know your views on these changes made to the Twitter interface.
September 5, 2018
2-Factor Authentication for Page Managers Unveiled by Facebook

With an aim to expand the existing transparency levels, Facebook has been reported to bring forth modifications in the authentication and authorisation procedures for users managing large Facebook pages. This new authorisation procedure will allow the users to publish posts on the pages with enhanced transparency and authority.

Background about the authorisation procedure

The enhanced approval procedure is set to provide the users with a boost in audience reach and at the same time allow them to secure their accounts with aid from a “two-factor authorisation” procedure. The enhanced process will also require the users to authenticate their primary country location.

The modified structure oriented with the authentication process has been reported to be initially launched in the US and shall be available to businesses across the globe later. It can be speculated that Facebook is aiming to expand the system in time broadly.

How it affects the users?

Facebook hasn’t put forth any requisites concerning how a page shall be qualified, whether it is to be depicted as a large page or not. However, the page managers or admins do need to go through this current authorisation method as a form of mandatory regulation. The managers are expected to receive the notice for the enhanced authorisation procedure at the top of their respective news feed. From the notification, they can get started with the authorisation procedure and thus initiate the process.

The page banner associated with the authorisation process will be visible to the users as long as they do not engage in the completion of the procedure. Once all of the steps associated with the “Page Publishing Authorisation” have been completed, the banner shall automatically disappear. It has been further reported that if the user does not engage in the authorisation method within the stipulated timeline, they shall lose the authority of posting on their pages any further.

Why the need for this move?

This step by Facebook has been initiated to ensure that organisations and individuals do not make use of the social media platforms to mislead people into forged identity and services through their movements. Regarding the interference and public manipulation recorded in the 2016 US presidential election campaigns, Facebook caught the sighting of such organisations and entities that made productive use of their platform to engage in influencing the voters through the unsolicited content published across such pages.

Facebook has also reported the fact that these modifications shall be soon introduced to other platforms like Instagram, which is set to enhance the spectrum for both of the platforms owned by the organisation. It is also expected that this procedure will not affect smaller organisations, ones that do not have a huge following or a humongous social media impact, but this procedure is undoubtedly enticing in terms of being a future process.

This enhancement can be somewhat sighted as a little menace to the people that already own big pages. They have to go through the authorisation procedure right from the beginning once again, and this could be a hassle. However, because this will enable them to post content more transparently and in a more accountable manner, this minute hassle is undoubtedly a minimal price to pay.

August 23, 2018
Facebook removes the option for auto posting tweets and retweets from Twitter

Popular social media platform Facebook announced that it had deprecated its Publish action feature from its API. This feature earlier made it possible for apps to publish posts on Facebook as the logged-in user.

In an estimate provided by Facebook itself, approximately 60,000 apps logged onto the social media site would be impacted. And this includes Twitter too.

Twitter on learning that it would no longer be able to allow users to auto-post across Facebook, happened to take it rather gracefully. They tweeted out their take on this as: “We’ve learned that Tweets and Retweets will no longer automatically post to connected Facebook accounts due to a recent Facebook update. Don’t worry; you have other ways to share a tweet.”

Impact on end users

It means that a Twitter user, who had connected their Twitter account to a Facebook account that automatically shared their tweets and retweets on Facebook, will no longer be able to do that. This feature had come in handy to Twitter accounts that have a considerable amount of influence and would like to reach out to the audiences across Facebook also. All they had to do is fill in the tweet and schedule it for a certain day and time, and let Facebook do the rest. The next thing this Twitter account holder would see is their tweet has been shared on Facebook by itself, without having to do it manually.

This helped users to share tweets on Facebook at times when they thought or knew they would not be available. Content flow across Facebook could not be disrupted, courtesy this feature. The digital marketing industry found this feature to be a boon and was driving endless social media campaigns on the shoulders of this feature.

Clarification from Facebook

Confirmation came in on behalf of Facebook regarding the scrapping of this cross-platform auto-posting feature through their spokesperson who said that this update was a result of Facebook’s decision to deprecate the Publish actions permissions feature. They also acknowledge the impact it had on Twitter. According to Facebook, anyone who wants to have a Twitter account automatically posting out content on Facebook should not be disheartened just yet. There are Facebook share dialogs for web, iOS, and Android.

This update, however, did come in with a fair share of forewarning. Facebook first announced that it was deprecating Publish actions permissions in April this year. The social media company, with a recent controversial history, said that a few categories of developers with apps that had longer product life cycles were given extensions so that they had more time to update their software.

With the recent update in effect, which disallows users to share tweets and push out content in any other form on Facebook automatically, apps have not only lost the ability to share content freely, but a lot of apps have lost access to its API platform. This all is Facebook’s additional effort to clean up the site’s landscape, and to safeguard user’s data and privacy controls.

August 9, 2018
Facebook Overturns Its Ban on Cryptocurrency Ads

In a significant development last week, social media giant Facebook announced a partial reversal of the ban on cryptocurrency advertising. The ban, in place, since January this year, had impacted various cryptocurrency companies, third-party apps, and advertisers across the globe. Now, after analysing the ways in which ad malpractices might be perpetrated, it has arrived at a decision about keeping the ads promoting cryptocurrency itself.

In this update, advertisers wishing to promote cryptocurrency ads will first need to submit the application. Their business and ads will be assessed against public information and trading information. This will help Facebook decide if the ad is legit and allowable under their ‘selective’ ad display policy. Yes, you read that right. Not all ads on cryptocurrencies will be allowed. Only the ones that pass the Facebook ad scrutiny will be allowed.

Which ads are not allowed?

The ban will still be applicable to those who deal in initial coin offerings or ICOs. It also bars companies that deal in binary options. Both these forms of businesses are considered extremely risky, and hence they still carry the ban. Out of the scope of the ban are ads for cryptocurrencies themselves and related content.

A background on the ban

In January this year, Facebook had banned ads for binary options, initial coin offerings, and for cryptocurrency. It deemed these financial products as misleading and fraught with risks. Keeping up with its endeavours for prioritising users’ ROI over its own earnings, it had imposed a blanket ban on all ads promoting cryptocurrency. The ban covered ads running on Facebook, as well as Facebook-owned Instagram. It also spanned the Audience Network ad network of third-party sites and apps.

The ban was carried out to allow the company time to decide how advertisers may use fraudulent or unethical ways to promote their cryptocurrency business via the actual currency, ICOs, and binary options.

The last few months have given the team valuable insights on how to refine the policy for the best user experience. Their emphasis on safe advertising prevents risks and deceptive advertising practices. As an outcome, this month onwards, advertisers promoting cryptocurrencies are off the ‘banned’ list. This is applicable as long as they are pre-vetted by the social media network through the Facebook application process.

What is the future like?

Facebook continues to dwell on its policies. It might not be a surprise if in the future there are further announcements diluting the ban upon meeting certain pre-requisites. The spokesperson clearly states that they will listen to feedback in order to gauge how well the policy works. They will continue monitoring the policy update. This will help them determine if any tweaks or changes are needed.

Interestingly many are tying up this policy change to the fact that Facebook is reportedly doing R&D on its own cryptocurrency to drive trade between Facebook users. Many believe that this move is intended to make its foray into cryptocurrency smoother without the hassles of conflicts.

What is your view on the partial ban reversal carried out by Facebook? Do write to us and let us know your views in the comments below.

July 6, 2018
Pinterest Adds Fifth Specialty to its Pinterest Marketing Partners Program
Pinterest has been making multiple moves to enable better ad serving and higher ROI from its social media platform. Taking one more step towards this aspect, the platform added a new specialty within its PMP (Pinterest Marketing Partners) program. Right now there are five specialties that marketers can choose from:
1. Advertising
2. Content Marketing
3. Audiences
4. Measurement
5. The newly launched ‘Creative’ specialty
In addition, it has taken its tally of total PMPs within all specialties to 51. There are two new ones added this week
1. Hootsuite (for content marketing PMP)
2. Smartly (for advertising PMP)
The following “Creative PMPs” are now supported in Pinterest
1. The Online Studio
2. Popular Pays
3. QuickFrame
4. Social Native
5. Shutterstock Custom
6. Vidsy
7. Vidmob
The main aim of the new specialty is simple. It uses these applications to create stunning Pins that aid in the brand recall value and customer engagement objectives of a company. These partners can be leveraged to create pins that stand out from the crowd and attract higher visibility which in turn, improves the ROI from the social media platform.

With this development, companies can spruce up their branding efforts by getting access to numerous copywriters, videographers, graphic designers, and content creators. In turn, they can build brand engagement solutions on Pinterest that achieves the twin goal of better insight generation along with high degree of creativity in the ads served to its target market.

What does it mean for PMP partners?

Regarding the choice of PMP partners chosen for ‘Creative’, Pinterest believes that these partners know which creative medium works best for the target users of this platform. They also know how to add an extra layer of ‘authentic’ when brands connect with their users on Pinterest.

For the PMP partners, this update comes as a positive sign for them. Pinterest is a visual discovery medium and it makes total sense for creative agencies to sign up on its PMP platform. This way, they can harness their creative talent to drive engagement and ad performance on the image content platform. The PMPs will give advertisers access to as many as 10,000 creative content creators, and this will be sure to boost the brand stickiness on the platform.

Why the need for another PMP category?

It is estimated that nearly 90 per cent of weekly Pinterest regulars (at least one pin on their wall) use the platform for making purchase decisions. Additionally, as much as 78 per cent of users find the content on the platform useful. This signals a world of opportunity for marketers to leverage. Hence it might explain the addition of the ‘Creative’ category to its list of existing PMPs. Also, this is one of the last remaining categories needed by advertisers to make their branding messages truly resonate with the users on the platform.

How are you going to utilise the Creative PMP for your Pinterest marketing campaign? Do write to us and let us know your views.
June 20, 2018
Facebook rolls out 3D posts and here’s all you need to know about it

Facebook has emerged as one of the leading platforms for effective business marketing today. This popular social media platform gives ample reasons to promote, popularise, and sell your brand. That’s not all; content consumption and user experiences have got new connotations with FB’s recent developments. The platform has always come up with innovative ideas when it comes to introducing new marketing concepts.

Even a few years back, users couldn’t imagine the emergence of immersive, real-life, and three-dimensional promotional approaches. However, FB seems to have made a paradigm shift with some of the notable discoveries in this regard.

Introducing 3D posts

With FB rolling out features like text-oriented status updates, relatable videos, memes, FB Live, and FB Immersive Canvas, the arrival of something more significant was much awaited.

Here’s the good news for users, FB followers, fanatics, social media enthusiasts, and brand owners. The platform has added a new member to its suite of immersive features, and that’s known as FB 3D posts. If you wish to take interactions to an entirely new level, this particular feature will give you ample opportunities to do so.

Things to know

Before you start working with the feature or develop an acquaintance with it, knowing about its functionalities and features will be crucial. With the arrival of 3D posts, individuals can view a product and interact with it from all the sides. Users can start interacting with the product in ‘Facebook News Feed’ by clicking and dragging the image.

Quite naturally, some of the well-known and market-leading brands are leveraging this particular feature to the tee. Since they are figuring out ways and means to make their content attractive as well as appealing to target consumers, 3D posts can be highly beneficial to them.

Identifying the functionalities

The emergence and introduction of this latest innovation took place on 20th February, when FB announced its support for 3D posts through the industry-specific glTF 2.0 format. It is this particular format that enhances functionality thus allowing artists to create high-quality three-dimensional posts with advanced textures, lighting, and unique rendering.

One can also share their 3D posts through graph API. Developers can integrate the 3D sharing feature into an application, thus helping individuals share captivating, immersive, and realistic posts with a single click.

The marketing point of view

Whether it’s a bunch of snapshots clicked with a camera or a product for the target audiences, this particular feature rolled out by FB will bring everything to life. Sharing immersive experiences has become easier, and quite a few business marketers are striving hard to make the most of it.

We are living in a world where AR and VR have become integral parts of one’s life. People are always looking for realistic experiences and there’s no denying that they are thirsty for immersive viewing. With 3D posts, marketers and product developers have the chance to present their items in a never-seen-before way. Quite naturally, that will accelerate their bottom lines and take the venture ahead of the growth curve.

June 15, 2018

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