Tag: instagram updates

Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google Display Ad’s parallel tracking, Twitter’s new desktop experience, Snapchat’s Netflix-Like Homepage and More…

Logicserve Digital brings to you a curated round-up of important digital marketing updates this week. For further queries, you can write to us at newsbulletin@logicserve.com

1. Parallel tracking for Google display ads: Mandatory as of July 31

Google extended parallel tracking to display campaigns. Parallel tracking will soon be the standard method for handling third-party click measurement. It will be coming to video ads later this year. [Source: Marketing Land]

2. Twitter Announces Full Rollout of the Platform’s New Desktop Experience

Twitter has announced that it’s now rolling out the updated experience to all users. The new Twitter for desktop includes a range of updated features including direct messages all in one place, make twitter yours, more of what’s happening and more. [Source: Social Media Today]

3. Snapchat Testing Netflix-Like Homepage for Shows Featuring Stars, Influencers

Snapchat is testing a new feature to let users binge-watch original content on its app. The short original clips are integrated into the ‘Discover’ section of Snapchat, but the company is now planning to let users swipe over from the Discover page into a dedicated ‘Shows’ section. [Source: Gadgets 360]

4. Google closes Chrome Incognito Mode loophole to improve privacy

Google is beefing up Chrome’s Incognito Mode. The company confirmed that it is closing an API-related loophole that made it possible to detect when people were privately browsing in Chrome. [Source: Marketing Land]

5. Instagram will now warn users close to having their account banned

Instagram is strengthening its moderation policies today and adding a new alert that will warn people who violate rules when their account is close to being deleted. The alert will show users a history of the posts, comments, and stories that Instagram has had to remove from their account, as well as why they were removed. [Source: THE VERGE]

6. Heard from Google, the biggest trends impacting PPC are privacy and automation

Google is working on ways that they can continue to deliver relevant ads while using the least amount of user data. As privacy concerns mount, and search engines take it more seriously, advertisers will find it more challenging to bring their data about what drives their business into the engines. [Source: Search Engine Land]

7. Twitter launches the ‘Hide Replies’ feature, in hopes of civilizing conversations

Twitter is beginning its test of a change to its service with the launch of a new “Hide Replies” feature. The feature provides transparency because hidden replies are still available for viewing to anyone who wish to see them. Twitter’s goal with the feature is to encourage more civil conversation on its platform. [Source: Tech Crunch]

8. 5% of Google My Business Listing Views Result in a Customer Action

A new study of 45,000 local businesses reveals how customers are finding and interacting with Google My Business listings. The study states that an average business is found over 1000 times per month and conversion rate is 5% for Google My Business listing. [Source: Search Engine Journal]

9. Twitter Announces New ‘LiveCut’ Video Editing and Publishing Tool, Which Will Replace SnappyTV

Twitter has announced the end of its SnappyTV live video editing tool, and the addition of LiveCut, it’s replacement option, which is fully integrated into Twitter’s Media Studio. [Source: Social Media Today]

10. Google may be testing shareable search results snippets

Google is testing the search results snippets with new search buttons, including the ability to share a search result snippet with everyone. If you’re in this Google test, the three icons will be noticeable, one to share, one to open the cache page and one to open the result in a new window. [Source: Search Engine Land]

July 19, 2019
Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google’s new search console, Facebook Messenger’s new features, Bing ads’ rebranding and More…

1. Google Introduces Three New Search Console Reports

Google is bringing three new reports to Search Console which are all related to structured data. New enhancement reports for the ‘Sitelinks searchbox’ and ‘Logo’ structured data join existing reports on Recipe, Event, Job Posting, and others. [Source: Search Engine Journal]

2. Facebook Messenger to get new lead gen templates, appointment booking

Messenger is rolling out two new features for businesses: lead generation templates and an appointment booking interface that will integrate with calendar platforms. [Source: Marketing Land]

3. Bing Ads rebrands as Microsoft Advertising

First there was Microsoft adCenter. Then there was Bing Ads. Now there is Microsoft Advertising. The rebrand emphasizes a focus on personalization and AI. [Source: Search Engine Land]

4. Is Facebook Working on Launching an Exclusive Creator Studio for Instagram?

Facebook is working on releasing a brand-new ‘Creator Studio’ app exclusively for Instagram users. Social media industry consultants & commentators are waiting to see what this exclusive studio creator has to offer. [Source: Logicserve Digital]

5. Instagram officially tests hiding Like counts

Instagram will now hide Like counts from posts as part of an experiment. If rolled out, the change would refocus Instagram on self-expression instead of being a popularity contest. [Source: Tech Crunch]

6. Shopify adds new Facebook, Snapchat ad buying options from the e-commerce platform

Shopify is giving Facebook and Snapchat advertisers new ways to purchase ads through its e-commerce platform. Shopify is also launching new integrations with Snapchat, making it possible for clients to create Story Ads campaigns via a Snapchat Ads App from Shopify. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]

7. Quora, Pinterest ads pixel integrations now available in Google Tag Manager

Pinterest and Quora are now approved Google Tag Manager vendors, making it easy for marketers to manage their Pinterest and Quora Pixels via Google’s platform. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]

8. Facebook F8 2019: New Tools for Messenger and WhatsApp

Facebook has announced new features for its messaging tool which is where, according to Facebook, social interactions are increasingly headed. These includes Messenger Desktop App, Limiting Your Messenger Content to Close Friends Only, etc. [Source: Social Media Today]

9. Google launches new video series: SEO Mythbusting

Google is launching a new video series on its Webmaster YouTube channel, called “SEO Mythbusting.” The video series will feature Martin Splitt from the Google Webmaster Trends Team, who will speak with developers and SEOs on common misconceptions. [Source: Search Engine Land]

10. Microsoft launches a drag-and-drop machine learning tool

Microsoft announced three new services that all aim to simplify the process of machine learning. These range from a new interface for a tool that completely automates the process of creating models, to new no-code visual interface for building, training and deploying models, all the way to hosted Jupyter-style notebooks for advanced users. [Source: Tech Crunch]

May 3, 2019
Is Facebook Working on Launching an Exclusive Creator Studio for Instagram?

Recent reports state that Facebook is working on releasing a brand-new ‘Creator Studio’ app exclusively for Instagram users. Social media analysts speculate that this new dashboard is likely to be similar to the Facebook Creator Studio app, which was released globally in August of last year.

Facebook’s Creator Studio was launched along with the much-anticipated feature “Watch.” The interface of the Creator Studio is divided into three sections. In the center tab, you can find a list of the posts that you have published. You can search for a particular post using keywords.

On the right side of the UI, you can find insights about posts that you have published in the last seven days, along with other information like – scheduled posts, number of posts published, drafts created in the last 28 days, etc. The left panel allows you to access Creator Studio using various views.

Images via Matt Navarra on Twitter

Social media industry consultant and commentator, Matt Navarra, recently tweeted an image of the Creator Studio’s Dashboard. Looking at the image, it looks like the new Instagram Creator Studio will be housed as a tab within Facebook’s Creator Studio dashboard. Note the toggle button for Instagram and Facebook are at the centre of the screen on top.

What will the Instagram Creator Studio Offer?

The dashboard will enable Instagram users to track and monitor several analytic metrics like – the activity status of their followers and their demographics – age, gender, etc. Additionally, the dashboard will also make it easy to monitor engagement stats of users. When the feature is rolled out, Instagram users will be able to access various metrics including – time periods when your audience is most active, engagement stats and other relevant demographic info.

What will be the Impact of this Change to Users?

It’s true that all these details are already available to Instagram Business users. However, the new Creator Studio for Instagram will make all the required details quickly accessible via a handy desktop app. Another major benefit of this new Creator Studio is that Instagram business account holders will be able to utilize a joint asset library for both their Facebook and Instagram accounts.

When will the Creator Studio for Instagram be Available?

Right now, it looks like this feature is being tested, so it’s not available for all Insta users. However, since this is a handy feature for Instagram creators, social media commentators believe that the app will be released globally soon.

Once it’s made available, it will be a part of the Facebook Creator Dashboard, and you can easily access the Instagram Creator Studio app, by using the toggle button on top. However, to access this feature, you would have to have a connected Instagram account to your Facebook page.

May 3, 2019
Instagram Denies Rumors Claiming That Posts Reach Only 7% Of Followers

If you are an avid user of Instagram, then you would have come across posts and memes stating that the popular photo-sharing social network is restricting the visibility of posts.

Image via Instagram

A large number of Instagram users, especially business account holders, have been complaining of late that Instagram has made some tweaks to its algorithm, that limit post visibility. While some users like the above say that their posts reach only 7% of their followers, others say posts are shown only to 15% of their followers.

To counteract this change, Insta users have been posting images with the words above and asking their followers to like or comment on this post, which they believe will increase future post visibility.

Instagram has been quick to point out that it hasn’t specifically made any changes to its algorithm that limits post visibility. Instagram in a series of tweets from its official Twitter handle clarified the issue.

Image via Twitter

The official statement from Instagram clarifies that there have been no changes to the algorithm powering the Insta feed recently. Instagram acknowledges that what shows up in a user’s feed is personalised. This means, posts don’t appear chronologically but are based on how a particular user engages with his/her feed.

Posts from accounts that you interact – like or comment – regularly appear at the top. Additionally, post order also depends on other factors like how frequently you use Instagram, the timeliness of posts, the number of people you follow and so on.

Instagram states that if you keep scrolling, you can see posts from all user accounts that you are following.

Even after Instagram released this statement, sceptics have been pointing out that the social media network doesn’t deny the “7% view limit” rumour outrightly.

As Instagram clarifies in this thread – what a user sees in his/her feed is highly personalised and depends on several factors.

For instance, let’s assume that you follow 200 user and business accounts on Insta. You regularly comment and like posts from only 20 of these user accounts. Then, every time you log into the Instagram app, you are likely to see posts from these 20 user accounts at the top of your Insta feed.

Let’s assume, that each of these 20 accounts post multiple times a day and average around 2-3 posts per day. And, if you scroll through your feed only for a couple of minutes each time you check the app, then you are likely to see only the posts from your favourite accounts.

That doesn’t mean, the other posts are hidden from you. You can continue scrolling below, to find posts from other accounts that you follow.

As you can see, Instagram doesn’t limit content. Instead, the algorithm works in such a way to show you your preferred posts first so that you keep coming back to the app often.

Social media experts claim that the rumour is not unbiased. However, the fault doesn’t lie with Instagram. For instance, if you have a business profile on Instagram with 100 followers, then only a handful of them are likely to be active followers. Your posts are expected to show up in the feeds of these active followers at the top. Whereas for the rest of your followers, your posts are likely to be buried in the feed deep down.

This is the reason for this rumour asking users to like and comment on the post. Now, with Instagram clarifying that there are no changes to feed ranking recently, users need not worry that the popular photo-sharing site is creating a conspiracy to limit your post views.

February 1, 2019
Schedule Videos to Your Business Profiles with this New Feature from Instagram
Are you a social media manager or an influencer? Now, you can add video scheduling to your social media management apps, thanks to this latest tweak to Instagram’s API.

Instagram finally launches one of the most anticipated features by business Instagram account managers and social media influencers. The popular photo-sharing social media network updated the Instagram Graph API to facilitate video posts scheduling.

Earlier the Instagram API allowed scheduling of only single-image posts and even third-party tools couldn’t schedule multi-image posts and videos. With the introduction of this feature, you can now use social media management apps to schedule your video posts, eliminating the need to log into the app frequently.

Avoid the “Manual” Smartphone Workaround

Before the availability of this feature, it was common for social media managers and influencers to set a mobile alert to remind them, it’s time to post on Instagram. As social media managers and business Instagram account owners, you would know that videos and images have to be posted at specific times to increase engagement rates.

With the scheduling feature, now you can use third-party content publishing tools to schedule your videos, just like your single-image posts. Most of the popular scheduling tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, Social Report, and others are part of this video scheduling API.

Video Scheduling Limited Only to Business Instagram Accounts

Just like photo scheduling, video scheduling is available only to business Instagram accounts.If you are an influencer, you can easily migrate from a personal Instagram account to a business account. All you need is a corresponding Facebook page to link your business account.

Video Guidelines for Instagram:

Instagram is pretty strict with the specifications for videos that you can post on the platform, using this scheduling feature. Here’s what Instagram lists regarding specifications for the videos to be scheduled:
- Format – MP4 or MOV
- Audio Codec – AAC, mono or stereo, 48Khz sample rate maximum
- Video Codec – H264 or HEVC, closed GOP, progressive scan, 4:2:0 subsampling
- Frame Rates – 23 to 60 frames per second
- Picture Size – 1920 (maximum horizontal pixels), maximum aspect ratio –16/9, minimum aspect ratio – 4/5
- Duration – minimum: 3 seconds, maximum: 60 seconds
- File Size – Maximum: 100 MB
Your third-party scheduling tool will ensure that these limitations are implemented.

Which Social Media Management Tools support Video Scheduling?

While video scheduling has been one of the most requested updates from Instagram, it’s a surprise that Instagram made no formal announcements regarding this change to its API. Generally, Instagram announces new features and updates via its business blog. However, this API tweak was simply added to the features page during the end of December last year, without any formal announcements.

Currently, Social Report, one of the popular social media management tools has implemented this feature. With that said, one can expect popular social media management tools like Buffer, Hootsuite and others to adapt to this change quickly.

How will the New Feature Impact Users?

Video scheduling was one of the most anticipated updates. This has the potential to change the social media game for business users and social media marketing houses. Instead of having to manually log into the app to post videos at odd hours or over the weekends, automatic scheduling takes care of it all.

With video scheduling available, social media managers expect multi-image scheduling to follow suit.
January 17, 2019
Facebook and Instagram introduce some interesting updates to their ‘Stories’ feature

Facebook has been rolling out a slew of new features and graphics support in order to improve the level of engagement and social connect between users of the social media site. Its latest update has made a few changes to the ‘Stickers’ option on Facebook and ‘Stories’ option in Instagram.

Changes on Facebook Site

Facebook runs a ‘Stickers’ program that picks artists and develops sticker packs. These stickers convey a range of emotions in a refreshingly different way – a key reason for the program’s success among the site’s users. Last week, the site went ahead and added a few more stickers to enhance the stickers’ efficacy in promoting collaboration among the users.

With these new stickers, Facebook allows users to add in name, weather, and location. With the name sticker, you can tag friends and communicate in an interactive and refreshingly unique way on Facebook. These options are already present on Instagram Stories. But for those who are present only on Facebook (and not Instagram), it is certainly a new addition that users would want to try out. Even for other users, the new stickers provide more options to Facebook Stories. It gives them better reasons to try it out on Facebook and thus, improve distribution and engagement

On the anvil are other updates that take a cue from Instagram. Some examples include polls for Facebook Stories, which would be similar to the ones we see on Instagram Stories. For many users, there is a lot of content on the News Feed view but hardly any content present in the Stories module.

For B2B marketers, this is digital whitespace can be utilised for brand marketing. This sounds interesting especially considering that the Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, himself stated that more emphasis would be given to Stories and it would be as mainstream as News Feed is today.

Changes on Instagram Site

On the Instagram site, there are reports of Instagram Stories mentions now coming up in user notifications. This provides a lot of visibility value to the in-stories tagging option. Users will now be better notified of the mentions. This, in turn, could improve the functionality of the feature. As an outcome, B2B marketers may utilise this functionality for a better level of engagement and improved connection facilities.

There has been another noteworthy update to Instagram Stories. Images and videos that are presented in square or landscape layout will be rendered into full – screen view in Stories. With this, advertisers can easily reach people across Instagram and Facebook. In the mobile view, this will mean three key updates –

1. The whitespace will be filed with an appropriate background colour

2. The text in the post will be added in Stories text below the image or video

3. The destination URL will be integrated with a ‘Swipe Up’ facility.

The aim is to cross utilise the Facebook ads in Instagram as well. As a result, marketers need not re-calibrate the Facebook image or video layout when they want to use it in Instagram Stories.

What do you think of the new updates to Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories? Do write to us with your views in the comments below.

April 5, 2018
How Can Instagram Add Value To Your Business?

If you are an enterprise and are thinking of switching to an Instagram business profile, now is the right time. With Instagram being slammed for its ever-changing algorithms, the image-sharing social media giant is doing its best to create a lucrative channel for business owners to market their products and services on Instagram.

Statistics have shown that over 25 million businesses have switched to Instagram business accounts. It is an excellent feature because now businesses can promote their accounts and add links to their web pages through their posts and stories. Profile users have access to their insights and promoted posts.

Listed below are a few features that may convince you to make the switch:

– Insights: One of the most sought-after features of Instagram’s business accounts, ‘Insights’ gives you detailed information on profile visitors, follower information, when they are active on Instagram as well as their location. This feature helps the account manager gauge his target audience and helps him to get in touch with the visitors, thus converting a user into a customer.

– Polls within Stories: Businesses can incorporate a greater level of user interaction with the help of polls integrated within the Stories module. It lets you ask questions to followers and get instant feedback.

– Instagram ads: Instagram allows you to put up advertisements and your website links in your posts. This makes it easier for your target audience to access your webpage rather than having them find it themselves.

– Promoted posts: Once you’ve made the switch, the app allows you to promote your posts. This means that, for a small amount, you can increase the reach of your ad/posts to people other than your followers.

– Contact: The Instagram business profile allows businesses to add all their contact information on their profile thus making it easier for users to get in touch with them and inquire about their business.

– Links on stories: Instagram Stories now allow you to add the link of your business website in the stories. So once users view the profile, they can just swipe up and automatically get redirected to your business website.

– Community connections: Instagram now allows you to follow hashtags. So if other businesses or individuals are tagged under the same hashtag, they would be likely to have the same interests and preferences. This allows your business to be in the right community and thus have a better potential for conversion.

– Image optimisation: Instead of the regular box images, Instagram now allows you to optimise the dimension of the image as per your references. So if you have a super sharp image that blows viewers’ minds away, you can add it here and see it make a difference to your brand.

Instagram is definitely adding a ton of features to ensure that it turns out to be a viable social media channel for businesses. Which one of the above is your favourite business feature on Instagram? Do write to us and let us know.

March 29, 2018
All You need to know about Instagram‘s ‘New Posts’ Button

A typical social media feed automatically updates new posts and pushes down the older ones below. The same was the case with Instagram. However, the brains behind the hugely popular social media platform are now testing a new update method for newsfeed. In order to put more power in the hands of the user, they are planning to add a ‘New Posts’ button to the user’s feeds.

How does it work?

The ‘New Posts’ button is intended to keep the user to the current feeds view till the user taps on this button. Once he/ she taps it, the view will move to the top of new posts added by their network. Another social media platform where something similar is happening is LinkedIn.

By tapping the button, Instagram users will be brought to the top of the feed. This, in turn, will allow you to view more of timely posts that are fresh. This will override the algorithm based automatic feed update. The algorithmic update was performing poorly by pushing up very old posts and irrelevant updates (from a chronological point of view) and hence lowering the overall user experience that Instagram users were facing.

Why the need for this new move?

Along with the ‘New Posts’ button, the photo-sharing app promises users to see more of chronological posts. If you recall, the platform has been slammed for pushing up chronologically outdated posts when its algorithm-based post update was in force.

This is why this update holds so much significance – it will help users get fresh content and overcome the limitation posed by algorithmic feed (of showing older feeds). According to the company blog – “With these new changes, your feed will feel more fresh, and you won’t miss the moments you care about.”

What does it mean for users?

Right now there is no clear indication of how the new move will work out from users’ point of view. The current algorithmic view introduced in 2016 was notorious for not allowing users to view new posts and pictures. Before the introduction of algorithmic updates, the feeds view was based solely on date and timestamp, thus allowing users to view newer posts on top and push down the older posts.

The new update does seek to address a few challenges such as :

1. Timely updates, allowing users to see posts when they are actually relevant. Imagine getting a ‘Merry Christmas’ greeting on December 28th! This is a problem that the new move seeks to address.

2. Limited time sales and events too used to get missed because of the algorithmic updates. The ‘New Posts’ button will allow users to see such events and offers when they are actually in force.

What the future holds?

While Instagram has offered a slew of new features like ‘Stories’ in the recent past, the fact remains that algorithmic feed was a major gripe with many users. Oly time will tell if the users remain satisfied with these ‘New Posts’ button or not. Do share your views on this change and if the ‘New Posts’ button is working as per your expectations and showing up more relevant feeds?

March 28, 2018

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