Social Media Changes
It’s only the beginning of 2018 and so many things have changed in the world of social media already! Are you struggling to keep up to date with them? We’ve created a quick round-up of the most important ones you should know about this month:
1. Facebook Adverts
- Choose where to place your Ads:
Have you included Facebook advertising in your 2018 social media marketing strategy? If you have, you may already be aware of this new feature. Facebook is now allowing you to select where you want to place your advert, including a variety of different placements from Instagram Stories, Facebook Messenger Home and Facebook Suggested videos. One important point to note with this, is that if you select Instagram Stories, Facebook doesn’t allow you to put your advert anywhere else. However, this is a great way to get your content shown on the Instagram Stories feature – something that has really taken off in the past few months.
- Different Languages
Are you an international brand with one profile on Facebook? Or are you a brand that attracts a wide range of customers that communicate across different languages? If so, this new feature may make your life much easier when creating ads. Facebook now allows you to create adverts in different languages in a few simple clicks. Rather than creating numerous adverts in different languages, you can create up to 6 different language versions which are automatically optimised through your campaign budget to deliver your ads to the right people at the right time.
2. Activate recently asked question prompts
We know how difficult it can be to answer Facebook messages in a reasonable amount of time with the 24/7 expectation of customers, Facebook has tried to solve this problem by creating automated response messages allowing Business Page users to send a response as soon as someone direct messages them, stating that they aim to get back to them within a given time. But now, Facebook allows Business Page Owners to use a Messenger bot to initiate automated conversations with customers when they click onto the Facebook Messenger conversation. The bot can include menus and keywords to guide customers through the conversation depending on what question and response they click on. The tool also allows you as your business, tell customers how to buy tickets, see a menu, set an appointment, get directions or ask a common question, meaning they may receive their answer without you having to spend time responding to them at all! This is a great tool to utilise when you aren’t able to monitor your Facebook Inbox regularly and is a good addition to your customer service.
3. Follow Hashtags on Instagram
Hashtags are used on Instagram all the time, these allow your content to be discovered by other Instagram users in the hope to gain more followers and likes on your platform and reach a wider audience of people interested in your specific key search terms. Instagram now not only lets you follow your friends and businesses on Instagram, but also ‘follow’ hashtags. Rather than having to search for a specific hashtag on your discovery page, Instagram will pick and choose some of the key posts from that hashtag and pop them in your news feed. This is a great feature to think about if you are a business and what hashtags you may want to appear in, you should then use these hashtags in your posts. Or another way to utilise the feature is to create a hashtag that is personalised to your business, encouraging customers to follow your hashtag in the hope that they see your content often.
4. Introducing Stories Archive
You may have noticed that some Instagram pages now have their stories displayed underneath their Bio on their profile, and they aren’t just lasting 24 hours. Instagram now allows you to ‘archive’ your stories to your profile so they can be viewed on there for as long as you want. This is a great way for brands to showcase certain stories or achievements that have happened to them on their profile. This is another perfect way to ‘highlight’ your key events or messages within your business.
5. Hootsuite – Instagram Feature
Do you use Hootsuite for your social media scheduling? If you do, you will be aware that although you can schedule posts to Instagram, you still have to manually push them out. But within this process, you are now able to click whether you want to post it to your Instagram Profile or your Story section, again, emphasising that Instagram stories are on the rise and that you should be considering them within your social media strategy.
Do you need support with your social media strategy? We offer training, management or consultancy help to get your marketing to where it needs to be, have a look at our services here. Get in touch today to see how we can help: email us on info@pickandmixms.co.uk or call us for a chat on 01904 863511.