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Just over three months into 2019 and already, we have seen significant changes across social media platforms.
Snapchat is testing new ‘snap map’ tools, Instagram is rolling out a ‘Checkout’ option, Twitter released a ‘darker’ dark mode in response to users criticisms, Facebook Ad Relevance Score is switching from one metric to three and above all – the Queen published her first Instagram post.
Instagram is trialling the ‘checkout’ option in the US – let’s hope all users will have access to it soon
Picture this – you’re browsing through Instagram as you probably do every day. You come across an item you want to buy and instead of being directed to the website, you can simply purchase your item through the in-app shopping feature which enables users to checkout within the app. Instagram has been edging toward eCommerce for some time now and has achieved just this.
Before we all get too excited, this new feature is currently only available in the US, whilst Instagram is in the initial trial phase. But let’s hope if the trial is successful, the checkout option will be available to all users.
As far as new features go within Instagram, this one, in particular, will be massive for businesses. Over the last couple of years, Instagram has blossomed and grown hugely and for businesses around the world. Instagram is a fantastic platform for marketing to increase brand awareness, traffic and increased sales. Through using stories and ads, posting content and blogs, tracking real-time metrics and adding company information, all of these amazing tools connect businesses to users everywhere. I can imagine brands will be extremely keen to start using the checkout feature as soon as they can.
Ad Relevance Score is moving from its one current metric and is now going to be measured by three new dimensions
As you might already know Facebook continuously updates it’s ad metrics in order to benefit businesses, help generate better results and improve performance. Back in March, Social Media Today released an article about Facebook’s changes to its ad relevance score and a further six changes to ad metrics.
First, let’s gain some background here – in 2015 Facebook released its own version of Google Ads Quality Score and came up with an ad relevance score. To break this down; ad relevance score is a metric used to determine the quality of your ad, which will lower your costs and show your ads more frequently. If only it was that easy, right? Of course, in an ideal world, you would want Facebook to tell you why your ad is bad and not showing or what makes an ad good enough to be shown. Anyway, getting back to the point – ad relevance score was introduced and is measured on expected positive and negative feedback by its targeted audience.
However, Facebook has now said that this one metric doesn’t provide enough data and insight, so instead, they are introducing three new metrics:
- Quality Ranking – the comparison between your ad’s quality compared to other ads competing for the same target audience
- Engagement Rate Ranking – the comparison between your ad’s expected engagement rate ranking (which predicts the likelihood that a person will click, react to or leave a comment on an ad) to other ads competing for the same target audience.
- Conversion Rate Ranking – the comparison between your ad’s expected conversion rate ranking to other ads with the same optimisation goal competing for the same target audience
These new metrics are going to be put in place to measure your ads relevance score by providing more specific data to each element and overall, guide businesses who advertise on Facebook to have a better understanding of campaign performance.
Furthermore, Facebook has announced they are removing six current metrics used within Facebook advertising and replacing these with more detailed and actionable data:
- Offers Saved and Cost Per Offers Saved – these two metrics are being replaced (but still covered) by ‘Post Saves’ which will measure the total number of times your ad has been saved by a user to revisit at a later date
- Messaging Replies and Cost Per Messaging Replies – these two metrics are being updated with ‘New Messaging Connections’ which measures the number of messaging conversations that started with users who have never contacted your business before. Secondly, ‘Messaging Conversations Started’ which measures the number of re-engaged conversations through Facebook Messenger after a seven day period of inactivity
- Mobile App Purchase ROAS and Web Purchase ROAS – previously Facebook measured its ROAS by specific channels; mobile, web or on-facebook. Now as Facebook leads into a more omnichannel content strategy, which is a multichannel approach to provide its users with a user-friendly and seamless shopping experience. Facebook has now decided to measure ROAS under one purchase ROAS metric
Again, these new metrics are replacing current metrics to provide more detailed and actionable data for marketers and most importantly, provide beneficial data as to how users are interacting with ads. In theory, these new metrics will support businesses to continuously report on campaign performance and improve better results.
Twitter introduces new camera features
Users love using Instagram Stories in their daily lives to interact with their followers – whether they take a photo of what they are having for lunch that day or snap a selfie of themselves on a train, it’s a fun tool to bring content to life. For businesses, Stories go even further as you can interact with loyal followers and leave your content there for 24 hours for new followers to discover.
With more people using Instagram Stories every day it was inevitable other platforms would join in with the Stories journey and Twitter has nearly done just that. On 14th March, Twitter launched a new camera tool which allows users to swipe left from their timeline and have direct access to their camera – here you can choose between the ‘capture’ and ‘live’ mode.
Capture allows users to take a still image or looping video, from here you can add your text in the box ‘what’s happening’, add a location and of course include a hashtag. Once you are happy, users can tweet their image directly to their timeline. Alternatively, you can switch to using the live feature and share live footage of an event, a moment or whatever it may be.
Reference: Twitter
Twitter hasn’t introduced stickers or filter tools just yet, (that’s not to say they never will) and there isn’t a specific stories bar where your photos will stick, so content created via the camera is displayed in the ‘what’s happening’ section of the explore tab when linked to events. The new tool allows immediate attention like a story and you’ll clearly be able to differentiate between the tweet composer as media captured with the Twitter camera will have larger overlaid text, with a colour of your choice at the bottom of the image or video.
The enhanced feature is a great tool to connect with your current followers and engage with new ones – by tweeting a photo in real time, perhaps a moment in the office? Include your company with a hashtag and guide people directly to your site.
Snapchat
Snapchat has officially hosted its first ever summit and has announced new & upcoming tools being rolled out across the Snapchat platform very soon
Snapchat is well known for targeting young adults and teenagers of ages between 18-24 and has become one of the most popular social media platforms within the US. Like all social landscapes, Snapchat is continuously developing new ideas, designs, features and new ways to stay in competition with its rival platforms Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and even Pinterest.
On the 4th April Snapchat held its first ever partner summit for which Snap CEO Evan Spiegel had a huge platform to discuss it’s up and coming new tools and believe me, they sound really exciting!
Reference: Social Media Today
AR Studio
Almost four years ago, Snapchat introduced Lenses as its newest feature which now has over 400,000 Lenses to choose from – featuring selfie modes, voice changers, custom lenses, personalised filters and so much more. Lenses are introduced through Snapchat second official app Lens Studio (used for Mac and Windows), a design app which offers fun and exciting templates such as taking a selfie and giving yourself bunny ears.
Snapchat is taking Lenses even further and are introducing ‘creator profiles’ which are Lenses able to incorporate hand movements, body movements, paper head and pet tracking.
Even more exciting, Snapchat has rolled out ‘Landmarkers’, which enables users to take a photo of a famous landmark and combine lenses on top of said landmark. A new way to reimagine the way we see these famous buildings and monuments with a fresh and fun perspective. At the moment users will be able to take photos of Buckingham Palace, The Eiffel Tower, The Flat Iron Building in New York, Capitol Building in Washington and the Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.
Reference: The Verge
Social Media Today reported that Landmarkers has been in development for years and was first established back in 2015. So four years later and this new feature is only just being rolled out, I hope it will be a refreshing way to put a spin on these famous landmarks as we all know and love and turn the everyday tourist photo into a creative piece.
Discover
Discover is another tool within Snapchat designed to present ‘Snap Shows’, which are short 3-5 minutes TV-like video programmes which are approved by Snapchat partners. Over the past year, users watching Snap Shows have tripled in volume and now moving forward, CEO Evan Spiegel announced a new daily show from BuzzFeed will be happening.
Snapgames
Right from the Chat Bar, you can launch Snap Games allowing you to play games directly with your friends within the Snapchat app. At the Summit, Evan Spiegel announced six new games which are already available to play now;
- Bitmoji Party
- Tiny Royale
- Snake Squad
- C.A.T.S Drift Race
- Zombie Rescue Squad
- Alphabear Hustle
Snapchat is centred around engagement and with the current tools and new features being introduced, this platform is great for businesses who want to advertise through digital marketing. Brands who are looking to increase their social media presence, build brand awareness, interact with customers, build loyalty and provide content for their customers to interact with – Snapchat is one you should consider.
This is a brief insight into just four major changes social media platforms have introduced in 2019. I’m sure we will continue to see changes and updates as the year goes on, but if you would like to learn more about these changes and how you can benefit from using them within your business through digital marketing – please contact the team on the details below.
