LS Staging

Tag: Social Media Optimisation

  • Facebook making small yet impactful changes to its platforms

    Facebook making small yet impactful changes to its platforms

    Facebook is making small yet definite changes as per the shifting business landscape and evolving customer preferences. These changes are visible across a multitude of applications like the Facebook site itself, Messenger, as well as Instagram.

    Today, we will look at some exciting updates happening on Facebook front.

    1. Stricter ad quality control

    Advertisers who used to get away with low ad quality in the past are going to find it difficult to continue with such ads. Facebook has enforced stricter policies around the quality and disruptive nature of the content served on ads. This page shows a list of do’s and don’ts for using ads that link to external landing pages or have deceptive ads. Advertisers who used to have a high ratio of ads versus the content displayed are also penalised.

    2. Messenger visual updates

    It has been reported that the Messenger application has gone through minor updates to its interface. In addition to stickers, gifs, and emojis, users can now also add ‘effects’ to their new message being composed on the interface. Currently, it is unclear how the ‘effects’ tab will actually work, but some days down the line, we can expect some tinkering to be done by the users and updates shared online about the same.

    3. Instagram Quick Reaction now available to all

    Facebook had rolled out the ‘Reactions’ feature to allow Facebook users to share your response to the content being shown in their feed. Some time back the same feature debuted on Instagram as ‘Quick Reactions’ and was made available for beta testing. It seems that now the feature has been rolled out to all users as of this week.

    4. Stories get a new look

    Facebook has taken a slew of steps in the past to ensure that the Stories section continues gaining traction among users. Even this month there was a small visual update. The People tab in the Messenger is now revamped to display a two-line presentation for each of the users shown in that tab. It will now mimic the current layout followed by the Chat tab inside the Messenger.

    5. Facebook job tools

    The social media giant has also rolled out an improved version of the Facebook Job tools. This helps employers to better find temp and seasonal hires for the upcoming rush Holiday season in the US. This will help them manage job applications and get a higher volume of response to job ads

    6. Facebook Archive Report

    US Facebook users who are interested in politics and issues of national importance now get their own central repository in the form of the Facebook Archive Report, a publicly available database. This will help them find information like the total number of ads and their advertising costs.

    These are some of the changes that are going to have a definite impact on the way users interact with the brand. It will also make life easier for advertisers who wish to promote their business online.

  • Facebook introduces improved Analytics Capabilities for its Pages and further expands it for Instagram

    Facebook introduces improved Analytics Capabilities for its Pages and further expands it for Instagram

    Facebook has launched a beta version to bolster its own site analytics capabilities. It has also rolled out Instagram analytics for marketers to test their ad efficacy. The phase-wise rollout will span many weeks and would be visible on the Facebook analytics dashboard.

    Let’s take a look at what are the new features introduced with these two updates.

    1 – Advanced analytics (Facebook Pages)

    The current analytics concentrated on individual posts that were seen or acted upon by the users. However, the new features seek to go beyond post-level analytics and dig deeper into insights. The beta phase analytics page is designed to provide a broader level of data into KPIs including the different actions taken by users on the page.

    Some of these actions consist of Post Impression, Page follow/unfollow, Page like/unlike, among others. By capturing these valuable events, marketers get a complete picture of what users did after they landed on the particular page. This empowers the page admin and allows decision makers to get richer insights.

    The admins can now utilise the new analytics and blend it with the already existing data on the dashboard to carry out a lot of actions. These include the ability to build new audience segments, monitor the conversions happening from the page, and track the path followed in the buyer journey. The blend of new analytics with the existing dashboard can also help compare audience demographics by factors like activity and channel.

    2 – Instagram analytics

    Instagram analytics is a more significant improvement over the existing Instagram Insights. This gives a broader picture of how the users interact with a brand. Want to see how the new Instagram analytics is a step ahead of the existing analytics/insight reporting? Check out these two new instances that show the immense value add made by Instagram account analytics

    • The marketers can track far more number of metrics needed to gauge the efficacy of the Instagram ad campaign. Some of the essential KPIs tracked include retention rates and lifetime value (LTV). Users who interact with your brand ads and content will be a part of the analytics reports.
    • The admins will also be able to build new audience segments to target them better. Admins can also check out the overlap among users who have utilised various channels to interact with Instagram. These may include app installs, social media visits, or website visits.

    What do these updates mean?

    These updates denote Facebook’s attempt to help the marketers track their ad campaigns better. The social media giant also wants advertisers to use native tools within the analytics ecosystem in order to measure the value provided by the ads served on the social media platform. With 80% of Instagram users following a brand, it is the perfect time for Facebook to integrate high-performance analytics on the platform.

    It will be some time before we see how the new features on Facebook analytics and Instagram analytics shape up the campaign efficacy of marketers. But the new additions do look to be a step in the right direction.

  • Facebook Unveils New Ad Attribution System

    Facebook Unveils New Ad Attribution System

    The Ads Manager section for Facebook Business helps marketers to determine the right efficacy and right source of ad views. If a user takes action on an ad, it becomes difficult to understand which point of source is responsible for the action taken. Be it impressions or link clicks; it is important to know which parts of the advertising displayed in Facebook actually drive the expected outcomes from the ad.

    In order to improve its efficacy, the social media giant has now launched a new Attribution Dashboard. Re-christened simply as Facebook Attribution, the new ad measurement tool aims to provide more insights to ensure precise attribution for better ROI on marketing campaigns.

    What is new?

    For marketers who wish to optimise their ads, the new Facebook Attribution tool can provide some effective ways to measure the performance.  Facebook enables smarter decision making with the help of insights delivered in exciting ways. For instance, it helps you gauge the efficacy of each element of the Facebook presence. When used with Pixel Data (an analytics tool that helps marketers in retargeting), the tool can provide accurate data about how each of these elements is working in influencing your digital business revenue.

    Marketers can also detect the exact source which is driving the conversion. This helps them provide a more concrete connection between the ad viewed and the outcomes achieved. They will also be highly interested in the concept of data-driven attribution modeling. This lets them track, monitor, and measure the approximate impact of your marketing campaigns across multiple social media sites like Instagram, Audience Network, and of course, Facebook.

    What does it mean for marketers?

    Measuring ROI from social media campaigns has been tricky most of the times, especially when there can be multiple attributions to an action undertaken by a social media user. It is difficult to correlate which action translates to what kind of concrete action away from the digital landscape. So if you are looking for social media attribution for an in-store conversion, it is highly complex if not entirely impossible. In this scenario, it will be safe to say that Facebook Attribution can be of help in tracking how social media drives specific outcomes for businesses.

    For marketers, there is still a long way to go in terms of harnessing best results from the new reports and analytics presented by the Facebook Attribution tool. It is suggested to do some playing around with the tool to understand it in depth before assessing how useful it is for your specific use case in marketing and advertising.

    Facebook attribution comes in extremely handy for social ROI proof. So marketers can better look at the data points that impact the outcomes from specific ad campaigns. There is still a long way to go before it can accurately correlate online triggers to offline actions. But the fact remains that as compared to its earlier avatar, Facebook Attribution does provide much better clarity on the impacting factors around Facebook advertising.

  • Facebook Renames Camera Effects to ‘Spark AR’

    Facebook Renames Camera Effects to ‘Spark AR’

    Looking at the growing influence of AR in every sphere of life and business, Facebook is coming up with new ways to reignite the efficacy of its existing applications. Towards this, it has now renamed its Camera Effects to ‘Spark AR’.

    The social media giant has teased this application at its annual F8 conference in April 2017. This week saw the full-fledged application upgrade to bring in the futuristic capabilities provided by immersive AR experiences.

    What are the changes we can expect?

    Facebook is no longer content with animations, masks, and playful effects delivered by the Camera Effects app. To expand to the wider AR domain, the renaming will be the first of many updates that the app will see in the coming few weeks. Even the community name has been updated from AR Studio to Spark AR Studio.

    Additionally, it has brought Spark AR to be used on other platforms like Instagram as well.

    Spark AR and Instagram

    Facebook’s think-tank endeavours to extend the usage of the app features beyond its own platform. Hence, it now provides the Spark AR’s content sharing ability to other platforms like Instagram as well. This way, Spark AR on Instagram will now go mainstream and not remain in the hands of the elite few like Kylie Jenner, NBA, or Gucci.

    Participants in a wider beta testing will be able to utilise Spark AR Studio in order to devise and deploy interactive AR based experiences and share these on Instream to their users. Developers can use this link for submitting their applications for beta testing.

    Why the name change matters?

    Earlier, the Facebook Camera Effects was available solely on one platform, i.e. on Facebook itself. Hence the name at that time made sense. Also, its scope of offerings was limited to minor animations and masks to be used by individual users in their chats, messages, or posts. Both these aspects about the application underwent a radical change since the first teaser about the new upgrade was shown at the 2017 F8 conference. As a part of the latest updates, the application delivers value not just for the Facebook site. It has greatly expanded its scope to allow Instagram users as well. Hence in its new avatar, ‘Facebook Camera Effects’ wouldn’t do justice to the broader role the app has now taken on. Thus the name change makes sense.

    There is one more reason why the name change would be apt. All individual components that are a part of the ‘Facebook Camera Effects’ ecosystem too will now have a common name to depict its association with this ecosystem. Hence, the existing ‘AR Studio’ too is now rechristened to ‘Spark AR Studio’.

    Interestingly, there is a third reason that justifies the name change which is equally imperative. Facebook is looking to bring in the immense business value provided by the AR domain. But tying it up with the existing ‘Facebook Camera Effects’ wouldn’t have given users an idea about the extended immersive capabilities now possible with the app. Hence, the new name ‘Spark AR’ seems to fit in nicely with the new possibilities presented by the application.

    Read all about the official announcement from FB here.

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

    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.

  • Facebook’s Canvas Ads Gets a New Name and Updates

    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.

  • Twitter Rolls Out Live Audio-Only Broadcast Feature for iOS

    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.

  • Twitter is Working on a New ‘Replies’ Layout to Boost Engagement

    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.

  • Facebook removes the option for auto posting tweets and retweets from Twitter

    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.

  • Snapchat ups the ante by launching a new program that pairs brands with platform influencers

    Snapchat ups the ante by launching a new program that pairs brands with platform influencers

    Being one of the major social media platforms in the game, Snapchat aims to leave no stone unturned. In an attempt to generate more revenue than it already is, Snapchat turns its focus towards platform influencers. The image-oriented app is now working to bridge the gap between them and the influencers after a brief period of ignoring the platform’s most prominent content creators.

    In order to make this bridge happen, Snap inc. has launched a new program. This program is called Snapchat Storytellers and comes across as sweet music to influencers’ ears. This is an attempt to connect brands to Snapchat influencers, which leads to productive and brand-oriented content creation.

    This pilot attempt will introduce brands to a select list of Snapchat’s most known content makers. This includes personalities like Mplatco, Shonduras and even Cyrene Q.

    Snapchat gets a competitive edge

    This definitely is a brilliant move played by Snapchat. Brands are increasingly turning to social media platforms, knowing that this is where a majority of their target audience resides. The easiest way to connect with your audiences is to reach out to them via social media connections. And while making a name for your brand on social media would require a whole different set of people and a lot of resources, merging up with pre-existing social media personalities and making collaborative content is a win-win for everyone – that is the content creator, the brand, and of course, Snapchat.

    Influencer marketing, as it is called, is a trending marketing strategy used by brands these days. And when you weigh the pros it gets to your brand; it clearly seems to be a viable and feasible option.

    Why influencer marketing matters?

    Companies are opting for influencer marketing and reaping benefits like never before. Quite efficiently so, they get to use the expertise of creators who already know the platform in and out. Moreover, they also know how to build an audience and how to garner their attention. They are experts when it comes to using tools efficiently. They are also well versed with the possible outcomes of posts that go out. One could go as far as to call these social media influencers as contractual social media consultants a company reaches out to, only for a brief period of time, to perhaps push content across effectively.

    How can Snapchat add value?

    Snapchat being a relatively tricky, but immensely popular platform, companies rather not waste time figuring out moving about or navigating through the app to find ways to push content out. The onus of finding ways to present fresh content to audiences through influencers seems like a sure-fire method to ensure your content performs well, which is essentially all that a marketing team would desire.

    Snapchat has been on the trail for brand-creator collaboration for quite a while now. Snap inc, in February, gave access to famous content creators on its app to get an analytical and in-depth summary of their posts. They also held the company’s first ever “Creator’s summit” back in May this year.

    While the program is still taking baby steps, the expansion of it is small. However, the potential it holds is immense. Businesses now have a chance to reach out to newer audiences effectively, by tapping onto prolific content creators who make engaging content consistently.

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