Tag Archives: twitter

Social Media News - 17 April 2016

Here’s my take on the latest social media news focussing on new developments on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest.

You can also watch the recording of THE #SocialToday SHOW below where I give you my take on the latest social media news. Feel free to ask me questions by posting in the Comments. Friend or follow me to receive notifications so you can watch live.

Facebook - Facebook held their F8 conference this week and there were a number of interesting announcements.

Bots are coming! Facebook is keen to develop Messenger as a stand-alone platform complete with a new bot store. This will enable businesses to build their own chat bots. Bots are automated response tools within Messenger which can handle customer service queries. Watch the video below for examples:

Messenger at F8 from Facebook on Vimeo.

A great new feature on Messenger is the ability to send files from Dropbox. If Dropbox is installed on your mobile device, select the three dots then Dropbox to attach a file.

Ads are also coming to Messenger but messages from businesses can only be sent if a person has already engaged with them. People will have the option to block a

Say goodbye to passwords! Facebook Accounts will enable people to log into apps with just a mobile phone number, extending the familiar ‘login with Facebook’ functionality. Apps that enable logins with Accounts will ask you for your phone number. Once you’ve entered it, Facebook sends you a 6 digit code to confirm the number belongs to you. Enter the code and you’re now logged into the app, with no password to remember. Cool eh?

Last year Facebook rolled out video profile images and Facebook has now made it easier for developers to add a button to their camera app to upload a 7 second video. Expect to see the buttons on Instagram and Vine soon.

Last week I wrote about no less than 7 new features for Facebook Live and at F8 there was another exciting announcement. Any desktop app or camera will shortly be able to stream to Facebook Live. At the conference Mark Zuckerberg looked up nervously from the stage as he was live streamed by a drone. The first main stream camera called Livestream Meevo is now available for pre-order.

Talking of Facebook Live, media partners such as Buzzfeed are being paid by Facebook to broadcast videos, presumably to raise awareness of the service. Buzzzfeed’s live video of an exploding watermelon had 700,000 viewers at one point.

Facebook is launching ‘quote sharing’. Rather than screenshot or copy and paste text into a Facebook post, you can simply highlight it and share it. Facebook will paste the text into a new post in block quote format, and include a full preview of the original article. Developers will have access to a ‘share quote’ button and the feature will be available on Amazon’s Kindle shortly.

The popular Save feature whereby you can save posts for reading at a later time has now been extended to the whole web. If you’d like people to save content to Facebook from your website, you can find out more in this video:

Twitter - I spotted today that Twitter are displaying ‘Your tweet activity’ on the right hand side of the homepage. Have you spotted this?

Brands and businesses are increasing using Twitter for customer services following the axing of the 140 character limit on Direct Messages. Mystery shopper group BDRC Continental have announced a Top Ten and a Bottom Ten of UK companies using Twitter for customer services. The Top Ten is full of financial services companies with Nationwide @AskNationwide coming top. Retailers feature strongly among the worst brands for answering customer queries on Twitter. Fashion retailer French Connection @FCUK, which saw sales in 2015 fall 8% to £164.2m, comes bottom of the pile.

[RUMOUR] Twitter to launch fresh design for its Android App. A number of Twitter users have begun seeing a design that places Twitter’s four core areas (Feed, Moments, Notifications, and Direct Messages) as large tabs across the top of the screen. You can move between them either by tapping on the tab or by swiping side to side, making it much easier to navigate and explore than at present. The new design also makes useful areas like Highlights easier to access. Lets hope that Twitter rolls this out for all Android users.

Instagram - Instagram has expanded its Explore feature to include video channels. Soon you’ll find a personalized channel called ‘Videos You Might Like’ that curates videos from Instagram’s into a seamless viewing experience. As you scroll through the Explore grid, you’ll also see Featured channels with videos on specific topics.

Number of week - My number of the week is 39. The number of hours - 39 hours and 22 minutes to be precise - on average it takes French Connection to respond to customers on Twitter.

Social Media News - 10 April 2016

Here’s my take on the latest social media news focussing on new developments on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest.

Alternatively, watch the recording of THE #SocialToday SHOW below:

The social media landscape is fast shifting with changes happening every day and it can feel like a full time job to keep abreast of the latest trends and new features. So join me on THE #SocialToday SHOW every week to watch, ask and learn about the latest new features and how small business owners plus PR and marketing people can benefit -  just Follow me on Facebook.

Facebook - There are a whole host of great new features for Facebook Live. You’ll can now go Live in Facebook Groups and Events. In a Group you could broadcast about your shared interest and in an Event you could provide coverage of the Event to those that RSVP-ed but weren’t able to attend. I’ll be using Facebook Live in Events for THE #SocialToday SHOW and look forward to trying out Facebook Live in Groups for Laptop Friday.

The second new feature is the introduction of Live Reactions. During a Live broadcast viewers can express their feelings using animated Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry icons - the same reactions recently introduced into the News Feed.

The third new feature is recording and playback of Comments. People watching the replay will no longer miss Comments made during the Live broadcast.

The fourth new feature is Live Filters where one of fifth filters can be overlaid onto the video. Snapchat have a similar feature.

The fifth new feature allows viewers to invite their friends to join them whilst watching a Live video.

Sixthly (I did say there were a whole host of new features!) there’s a new dedicated place on mobile apps for Facebook Live where you can discover and search for videos. I don’t appear to have this yet on iPad in the UK but looking forward to using it soon. For broadcasters, it should mean lots more viewers. Popular Facebook Live videos will also be marked LIVE under Trending.

And finally, there a new Live Map on desktop where you can see who’s broadcasting across the world.

[RUMOUR] - Facebook have published 2 studies on their research blog - Do jobs run in families? and How strong and weak ties help you find a job. This is interesting given that Facebook are not currently in the recruitment business. Could it be that they are looking at taking on LinkedIn in this sector?

Facebook Messenger - Facebook have announced three new improvements to Messenger. Page user names will shortly be displayed beneath the Page name and customers will be able to find your business and contact you more easily using your user name. If your Page doesn’t yet have a user name, then now’s a good time to set one up. Secondly, customers can now contact you via Messenger link (m.me/username) or Messenger code (available from your Page’s inbox). Here’s my link m.me/intranetfuture my code is below. You can click the link or scan the code to start a conversation.

The third improvement named Messenger Greetings are customizable notes that appear in a new message thread before messages are sent by your business.

Twitter - Twitter have now made it easier to send a tweet via Direct Message with the addition of a Message button on all tweets. It should help to spark new conversations and develop existing ones.

Instagram - Instagram have doubled the length of time of videos you can upload from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.

Pinterest - It’s been a long time coming but having been launched in early 2014, Promoted Pins (Pinterest Ads) are being made available outside the US with the UK first in line. There’s no confirmed date yet but I would imagine it will be weeks rather than months before you’ll be able to promote your Pins.

Number of the week - My number of the week is 1 billion. Over one billion messages are sent between people and businesses on Facebook Messenger each month.

THE #SocialToday SHOW on Facebook Live will be broadcast at 8.45am on Tuesday. Follow me on Facebook and RSVP to the Event to ensure you don’t miss out!

Social Media News - 3 April 2016

A more concise than usual social media news roundup this week as I’m under the weather with the flu. As usual I focus on new developments on the key social networks.

You can keep up to date with the latest social media news by watching THE #SocialToday SHOW on Mondays on Facebook Live - just Follow me or send me a friend request.

You can watch, ask and learn about the latest new features with tips on how small business owners plus PR, marketing and social media people can benefit.

The latest THE #SocialToday SHOW video with my take on this week’s social media news which was broadcast on Monday 4 April can be viewed below:

Facebook - As mentioned in past Social Media News roundups , Facebook is keen to develop additional functionality for its Messenger app. The latest development is a tie up with KLM that allows you to receive booking confirmation, check-in notification, boarding pass and flight status updates via Messenger.

Twitter - Great to see an improvement for the visually impaired with Twitter adding the ability to add descriptions or ‘alt text’ to images. I would recommend using this feature as not only does it help the visually impaired but you can enhance your image for sighted users too. You can enable the features on Android and iOS apps by checking the compose image descriptions option under accessibility settings. Everytime you add an image to a tweet, each thumbnail in the composer will have an ‘Add description’ button.

Over the last two years, advertisers have used Twitter’s website tag to measure website conversions across multiple devices and platforms. They’ve also used the website tag to improve their ad targeting — creating tailored audiences based on meaningful signals of intent, such as a previous website visit or a view of a product page.

Twitter has introduced a new universal website tag for advertisers which makes it easier for advertisers to track website conversions and manage tailored audience campaigns. This makes it easier to use Twitter Ads to reach people who have visited your website or a certain page on your website.

Pinterest - Pinterest have introduced How To pins which provide steps below the Pin image. You can click or tap on any of the steps to get the full instructions and a list of supplies. See an example from Sofeminine UK below.

Number of the week - My number of the week is 200 million. Periscope have announced that 200 million broadcasts have been created in its first year.

THE #SocialToday SHOW will be broadcast weekly from now on on Mondays rather than daily, so do tune in to Facebook Live to watch, ask and learn - just Follow me or send me a friend request.

Social Media News - 20 March 2016

You can keep up to date with the latest social media news and developments by watching THE #SocialToday SHOW every Monday on Facebook Live - just Follow me. The social media landscape is fast shifting with changes happening every day and it can feel like a full time job to keep abreast of the latest trends and new features. So watch, ask and learn about the latest new features with tips on how you and your business can benefit.

You can watch THE #SocialToday SHOW video with my take on this week’s social media news or continue reading…or do both!

Facebook - Facebook have rolled out photo frames enabling users to show their support for a country, cause, vents or movie by placing a frame around their profile photo. You can add a frame here - add profile photo frame.

Twitter - Twitter have made the move many long time users including myself have feared, with personalised timelines now the default. So if your timeline has been looking a bit odd over the past week, that’s probably the explanation. However, you can revert to the original reverse chronological (ie latest tweets first) approach by going to Settings and unchecking ‘Timeline: Show me the best tweets first’.

There’s now a Windows 10 app for Twitter and you can get it here - download now. A nice touch this week with the introduction of seemless login for TweetDeck. If you’re logged into a Twitter.com or are using a Twitter login on a website, you won’t need to login to TweetDeck seperately.

Talking of TweetDeck, from 15 April TweetDeck for Windows will be no more but the web interface - you can access at https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/ - offers a better experience so this news shouldn’t be a blow for anyone. I do wonder when Twitter will add a new feature or improve TweetDeck as it’s basically been the same since it acquired it in 2011.

Instagram - Using algorithms to determine the feed was flavour of the month with Instagram as well as Twitter adopting this approach. The new style timeline will be “based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting, and the timeliness of the post.” However, unlike Twitter it’s not possible to revert to the reverse chronological approach.

LinkedIn - LinkedIn share price has been struggling lately and fell to 50% of its 2016 last Wednesday after analysts at Morgan Stanley warned that the professional networking site “isn’t likely to be as big of a platform as we previously thought”.

Gwen Stefani had become the first-ever singer-songwriter LinkedIn Influencer. She follows 500+ fellow celebs like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey and Ariann who are paid to publish special blog posts on LinkedIn.

Pinterest [RUMOUR] - It’s rumoured that Pinterest are testing video ads with a select band of US users. Although Pinterest launched ads in May 2015 in the US, surprisingly they have yet to be launched in the UK but surely it won’t be much longer?

WhatsApp - WhatsApp has made it possible for for users to share documents as part of a new update for iOS and Android apps. On Android, users who tap the paper-clip icon for attachments will see a Document button, while on iOS users who tap the upload icon will see the option to Share Document. Handy for quickly and easily sharing documents.

THE #SocialToday SHOW on Facebook Live video will return on Tuesday with a top social media tip so Follow me on Facebook and do tune in then.

Social Media News – 14 March 2016

Keep up to date with the latest social media news by watching THE #SocialToday SHOW every Monday. The social media landscape is fast shifting with changes happening every day and it can feel like a full time job to keep abreast of the latest trends and new features. So watch, ask and learn about the latest new features with tips on how you can benefit.

Here’s today’s show on Facebook Live:

Today was ‘double trouble’ as it marked my first experience with Facebook Live (watch above). I used it to broadcast THE #SocialToday SHOW having done the same show on Periscope as usual earlier. The two both have their advantages with Facebook Live seeming to be a little more immediate plus my audience was bigger than usual with about 100 viewers. I’m busy tomorrow (Tuesday 15 March) but will use Facebook Live for THE #SocialToday SHOW on Wednesday 16 March, so do tune in then.

Social Media News - 7 March 2016

I’m busy working with clients today so my social media news roundup is in the form of a blog post today rather than THE #SocialToday SHOW.

The social media landscape is fast shifting with changes happening every day and it can feel like a full time job to keep abreast of the latest trends and new features. So to help you keep up to date, below you’ll find the latest new features with tips on how you can benefit from them.

Virtual reality - Regular readers and viewers of THE #SocialToday SHOW will know what I’m excited about the potential of Virtual Reality (VR) and social media. So it was interesting to note that despite us being in the very early stages of VR 39% want to watch movies with VR and 38% want to play games - learn more. Source: Touchstone Research. I’ll be taking delivery of my Samsung Gear VR this week so will let you know how I get on.

Facebook - Facebook Live videos will be given more priority in the News Feed whilst they are Live. Available in the US and to some users in the UK, Facebook Live is a new way of making a status update and is Facebook’s equivalent of Twitter’s Periscope. Facebook state that 3x as many people watch a Facebook Live video compared with the recording - learn more. Live streaming video is going to be huge and if you haven’t done so already, you should start to consider how you can use it as part of your Marketing and PR mix.

Facebook has launched the Your Business Story video tool which allows you to create a great video telling the story of your business, complete with soundtrack in around 5 minutes - create your video.

Here’s mine:

*Rumour* - It looks like you’ll soon be able to invite people to your Facebook Events via email as Facebook is testing this feature. Handy.

*Rumour* - Publishers will soon be able to publish content via Facebook Messenger. Look out for an announcement at the Facebook F8 Developers Conference in April.

LinkedIn - LinkedIn have boosted the accuracy of targeting for advertisers by launching Account Targeting which they describe as ‘a new way to run effective account-based marketing campaigns on our platform’. Sounds good, although having read their ‘How does it work’ section here, I’m not much wiser!

Twitter - In a bit of a coup for Twitter, Apple has chosen the 4th largest social network to launch it’s very first official social network account - follow @AppleSupport for ‘tips, tricks and helpful information when you need it most”. Pro-tip: Best not tweet them pics of your new Samsung Galaxy S7.

Instagram - Plenty of Instagram uses have encouraged their followers to join them on other social networking by including an ‘add me’ link to other social profiles. But not any more. Instagram say: “We’ve removed the ability to include ‘add me’ links on Instagram profile pages. Other types of links are still allowed.”

Meerkat - It was THE Live Streaming app of choice in early 2015 but with the arrival of Periscope and Facebook Live, Meerkat has now abandoned it’s live video streaming service and is focussing on setting up a video based social network.

My number of the week - My number of the week is 3 million. This is the number of businesses who actively advertise on Facebook.

Social Media News - 29 Feb 2016

The social media landscape is fast shifting with changes happening literally every day and it can feel like a full time job to keep abreast of the latest trends and new features. So to help you keep up to date, every Monday at 8.45am GMT on THE #SocialToday SHOW I provide my take on the latest changes and explain how you can benefit from them.

Watch my roundup of the previous week’s social media news and the latest social networking features as broadcast on Monday 29 February.

You can watch THE #SocialToday SHOW every weekday at 8.45am on Periscope or Twitter. If you miss the live show you can watch the recording on Katch, where you can find all my past shows.

Social Media News Roundup - 15 December 2015

Here’s a summary of my social media news roundup on yesterday’s #SocialToday show (view below) on Periscope plus some extra news.

You can watch my show at 8.45am every day during the week for more social media news, tips, comments and examples.

Facebook Messenger on Pages response time - you can now manually set your ‘average response time’ for replying to messages received via your Page. For example, if you’re average response rate is ‘wthing an hour’ you could set your displayed time to ‘Typically replies in a few hours’ in order to set expectations. Go to Messaging under Settings to do this.

Facebook Messenger on Pages auto-message - for first time visitors you can now add a message that is sent to them automatically when they message your Page. Go to Messaging under Settings to do this.

Use Facebook offline - following on from offline Sharing and Liking, Facebook have now enabled offline Comments. So if you have no internet service and Comment on a Post, your Comment will be posted as soon as internet access is available. This feature is available on iOS and Android apps. Facebook are also testing the display of News Feed items when you’re offline that you haven’t yet seen.

Facebook for Work - Facebook’s enterprise product has now finished its trial period and being rolled out to a number of companies including Royal Bank Of Scotland and its 100,000 employees. Facebook for Work takes all the good Facebook functionality - News Feed, Messenger and Groups and packages it up for use in the office.

No more photo cropping on Twitter - Twitter has now stopped cropping photos and has improved the layout when multiple photos are uploaded with a tweet.

Twitter Ads to be displayed to non-logged in users - Twitter are experimenting with showing Ads to users who aren’t logged in. This would give more opportunities to businesses and provide an extra revenue stream for Twitter.

Twitter launch Moments in UK - Twitter have launched what they describe as their ‘most important feature ever’ in the UK. Moments are stories (with plenty of photos and videos) curated by editors based in the UK in partnership with media partners such as Sky News and Buzzfeed. It should prove popular for those wishing to keep up to speed with live sporting events and breaking news. Twitter will generate revenue by allowing commercial partners to produce Promoted Moments.

Trending on YouTube - There is a new tab sitting the middle of Home and Subscriptions which displays popular videos.

If you have any thoughts on any of these news items, please post in the Comments below.

Social Media News Roundup - 7 December 2015

Here’s a summary of my social media news roundup on this morning’s #SocialToday show on Periscope plus some extra news.

You can watch my show at 8.45am every day during the week for more social media news, tips, comments and examples.

Facebook launch Periscope rival - Facebook are trialling a Live Video service which could become a big rival to Twitter’s Periscope. Previously, only available to high profile people it’s now being rolled out to regular users in the US.

Add Messenger and Events to your website - You can now add Facebook Messenger functionality to your website allowing customers to message with questions or customer service queries without having to visit your Facebook Page. Similarly, guests can indicate they’re attending an Facebook Event direct from your website.

Facebook News Feed change - Facebook is trialling a system where is puts different posts/videos in front of you and asks which you want to see or don’t want to see in your News Feed. If you don’t like a particular post of video, there’ll then show up less or not at all in your News Feed.

Facebook for Work - Facebook’s enterprise product is gaining ground. As part of a trial it’s now been adopted by Royal Bank Of Scotland. Facebook for Work takes all the good Facebook functionality - News Feed, Messenger and Groups and takes it to the workplace.

LinkedIn revamp mobile apps - LinkedIn have launched new mobile apps for Android and iOS. Having used them both for a few days, they are definite improvements on the past versions - easier to use, somewhat Facebookesque and it’s fast. However, I’m disappointed by the lack of search options which can be an issue when you’re researching someone on the road before a network meeting or conference.

Buy your dinner through Foursquare - Here in the UK it can be frustrating to wait for latest Facebook and Twitter features such as the ‘buy button’ so it’s great that we can take advantage of Foursquare’s buy button and purchase food from Hungryhouse take aways across the UK.

Repost on Instagram - If you’ve wanted to repost on Instagram and couldn’t find the button, that’s because there isn’t one. But by using an app like Repost you can. There are a number of apps that do the same thing but this works the best out of those that I’ve tried.

If you have any thoughts on any of these news items, please post in the Comments below.

Latest Social Media News Snippets

Welcome to the latest social media news snippets where I help you keep up to date with the latest changes in social media and improvements to social network functionality. Here are some developments that have caught my attention with some social media tips on how you can take advantage and use to promote your business.

Facebook adds new video features - You can now choose a video to make it display more prominently on your Page. Once ‘featured’ it is displayed under the About section on the left of your Page and more prominently in the video section. You can also create playlists which is a handy feature if you have a number of videos and you wish to categorise them in the same way that you can do on YouTube and Vimeo. Thirdly, you can add a call to action button at the end of your video to direct people to your website. For an example, see the Marks and Spencer Facebook Page which makes great use of video and these 3 new features.

Siri, Cortana and now M -  Facebook has announced its own digital personal assistant called M which you’ll be able to find soon in Messenger. The service is aimed at making peoples’ lives easier, with M being able to buy items, deliver gifts and pick up your dry cleaning. The difference between M and other similar services is that as well as using artificial intelligence, people known as M Trainers, are employed to take calls and book reservations, organise dry cleaning collections and pick and so on. But you won’t know whether you’re dealing with a human or artificial intelligence. Businesses will certainly want to get in on the act and be recommended and used by the service. One to watch.

Twitter improves DMs further - Direct Messaging has been improved once again. Following the option that allows you to message people even they are not following you and the addition of group messaging, Twitter has now removed the 140 character limit on DMs. This opens up all sorts of possibilities and will allow Twitter to be an even more effective customer services channel.

LinkedIn cuts down on emails - Have you noticed less emails from LinkedIn? The professionals’ network has cut down the number of emails by 40%. For those getting many invitations to connect, they now receive a single weekly digest in place of individual emails.  Plus, if you subscribe to several LinkedIn Groups, they are aggregating the updates from those groups into a single email. A sensible move. If you want to fine tune the emails you receive go to Privacy and Settings/Communications/Set the frequency of emails.

Instagram adds search to website - Instagram is very much about mobile but the lack of a search function at instagram.com was a strange omission. This has now been rectified and the new search allows web users to seek out users’ accounts, and to find photos via hashtags and general terms. Handy for when you’re on desktop rather than your smartphone or tablet.the desktop rather than fiddling with your phone.

Periscope - As predicted in my previous Social Media News Snippets, it looks like live streaming app Periscope is going to be huge. Having launched in March, it already has 10 million registered users with nearly 2m daily active users watching 40 years of video per day on their tablets and smartphones. The mobile app enables anyone to broadcast live video via their smartphone or tablet to fellow Periscope and Twitter users.