social media advertising Tag

Instagram Update Brings Instagram Stories to The Explore Tab

In a recent update, Instagram added their Instagram stories to the Explore tab within their app. The Explore tab allows users to see a variety of different types of stories and posts that relate to their interests, but don’t necessarily come from people they are following. Instagram released an update that created Instagram stories back in August. Adding these stories to the Explore tab will help to make them more prevalent on the site.

The goal of adding Instagram stories to the Explore tab was to boost engagement and accessibility for users on Instagram. With this tab to work with, users will be able to see stories related to their interests and through this process discover more people that they may want to follow. This is a great way for Instagram users to find accounts that are posting what they are most interested in. The update has already gone out globally among all of the iOS users. To start seeing these stores in the Explore tab, Android users have to update to Instagram version 9.5.0 or above.

There are mixed reviews on this particular update, which is no surprise since many Instagram users were already not too happy with the addition of Instagram stories. While having these posts show up in the Explore tab could help users to gain more followers, many people are annoyed since there are stories from random accounts on their page. Those who follow only a select group of people often don’t want to be seeing these new accounts popping up all of the time.

Most people recognize that this further update to Instagram is just one more way for it to compete with Snapchat. Adding the Instagram stories which are very similar to Snapchat stories to the Explore tab just makes these stories even more prevalent within the Instagram community. Further updates are likely to come out as these different apps continue to compete.

Facebook Updates Action Buttons and Adds Recommendations For Businesses

In a recent update, Facebook made a couple of changes to help make it easier for businesses and their customers to interact without even leaving Facebook. The main parts of the update focused on adding new action buttons that make it easy for customers to place orders, get quotes, and even buy tickets to events without ever leaving the Facebook app. In addition to this, Facebook has added a recommendations feature that will make it easier for people to get recommendations from their friends.

Facebook’s new action buttons make it easy for customers to interact with businesses through Facebook. The Start Order, Buy Tickets, See Showtimes, and Book Now buttons make it easy for customers to make purchases and set up appointments right away through their Facebook app. Other buttons link in with messaging allowing customers to easily get quotes and request bookings through a business Facebook page. All of these buttons make it easy for customers to connect directly to the businesses, performers, and restaurants that interest them.

On top of this, there is a new recommendations feature designed to make it simple for Facebook users to get recommendations from their friends. This feature is focused specifically on allowing users to ask friends for recommendations within certain areas for restaurants, hair stylists, and much more. The feature makes it so that recommendations are then plotted on a map with links to the business page. Users can then visit these pages and use the action buttons to make a booking, buy tickets to an event, or order food to be delivered to their door.

With these new features as a big part of Facebook, many business owners will want to make sure that their business pages have features like these enabled. To do this simply update the call-to-action button on your business page. This can either link to third party apps that can then take orders or schedule appointments with these customers or link to messaging so that customers can contact your business directly. Setting up these buttons is key to building a great relationship with your customers through Facebook.

Facebook’s Voter Registration Reminder Proved the Importance of Social Media

At the end of September, Facebook proved that social media is not just a great place to talk about politics, it is a great way to change the political climate. Facebook launched a brief campaign that encouraged people to register to vote by popping up a special message saying, “Are you registered to vote? Register now to make sure you have a voice in the election.” They then offered a link to online voter registration so that people could register freely. We have just seen what the results of this campaign were.

During the time that Facebook had this message up on their site, a huge number of people ended up registering to vote. Many of the people who registered were within the age 17-25 demographic and the 26-35. This means that many young voters have now been registered who may not have registered otherwise. Among the states that saw the most results were California, Minnesota, and Indiana.

The number of people who registered to vote during the four-day period that Facebook’s message was up for is incredible, showing just how social media sites can have an influence on people. Facebook says that their reason for posting the message was to try and get better voter turnouts than we saw in the last presidential election. Their specific goal was to get many younger people to vote in this election so that they can have a say in the political climate of their world.

While many people are talking about how wonderful it is that Facebook has been able to create such a large number of people registering to vote, others worry that this isn’t something that companies should be able to do. Some people are concerned that by influencing young people and telling them to vote, Facebook can have actually made a change to what candidates may be favored as well.  Some are pointing to this as a problem with a profitable company and social media site being an influence within the political sphere.

Twitter Makes Change to 140 Character Limit At Last

After their announcement about changes to character limits in May, Twitter users were left wondering when this was happening. Finally, some different changes were launched today. While the 140-character limit is still in effect, Twitter has gotten rid of many of the different items that used to count against it. The limit will no longer count videos, images, gifs, polls, and quotes, allowing users to have more free characters to use when Tweeting.

Some of the ways that this will effect Twitter users will be in the different ways they’ll be able to use Twitter. Users will now be able to provide context in replies since the quotes won’t count against you. They will also be able to add more visual pieces into Tweets in general. One of many users favorite changes is that they will no longer have to use a period prior to mentioning a name if they want that Tweet to go out to all of their followers.

With these many great benefits, it may come as a surprise that not all users are that excited about the changes. Many users have been pushing for these updates for a long while and are now looking for further updates. There are also some complaints that this won’t really make too much of a difference. These different elements didn’t take up too many characters before, so the lift on these counting toward Tweet length isn’t really that substantial of an increase. Many users are looking for more characters that they can use to express larger ideas.

While Twitter is probably making these changes to try and save its depleted user base, many are saying that this update is just too little too late. Such a small update is unlikely to be something that draws new users since those who weren’t interested in using Twitter before likely won’t be effected by this difference. Those who left already won’t be likely to come back just because of this change either. Twitter will just have to wait and see how these changes really end up effecting the number of Twitter users.

Twitter Updates Features to Attract Businesses

As Twitter continues to fight to stay prevalent among other types of social media, it has been working on some new changes that will make it so that businesses can find new uses for the platform. Since many businesses already use Twitter, Twitter has been working on building different features that can make it so that these businesses will be able to communicate and work with their customers while using this social media platform.

In their new update, Twitter has added a few new features that can make it so that businesses can more easily use their Twitter accounts as a place where customers can come for customer support. They have added a customer service tag that businesses can add to their account to designate which account (if they have multiple) is the one that provides support. They have also made the message button on business pages larger so that people can easily find this button. In addition to these other changes, they have added an area where businesses can show support hours and time zones so that people know when a good time to contact them is.

Twitter has seen more and more companies offering support through social media so this is really the next step to make it so that businesses will be able to use Twitter in a much better way. The goal of the new changes is to make it so that Twitter is a good social media site for businesses to give support from. With many businesses doing this and customers looking for new ways to get support, this may be the best way for Twitter to encourage people to keep their accounts or to make new ones.

For large businesses that may already have multiple accounts on Twitter, the new features will be perfect for directing customers to the right account to send questions to. Those smaller businesses, will be given new ways to interact with their customers and by listing service hours they can set specific times to employ someone to answer these messages. With the new updates to business Twitter accounts, businesses will yet another avenue to communicate with customers.

Twitter Makes Changes to Direct Messaging

In a recent move, Twitter released an update for their direct messaging application. The new changes to this particular feature of the website include adding typing indicators, read receipts, and also content previews beneath links that are sent over this messaging program. Many of these changes are ones that put this messaging program on a similar level to others used by different social media sites.

As part of the new changes to their direct messaging, Twitter has implemented read receipts. These make it so that users are able to see when the person who receives the message has looked at it. In addition to this, Twitter also has added typing indicators which are small boxes that pop up to let you know when the other person is typing. This can help you to avoid typing at the same time. These different features are all part of Facebook messaging already so there is nothing especially innovative about them.

Many people don’t really like having it so that the other person can tell if they have read a message. Luckily, Twitter has a solution for this. Users that don’t want to have read receipts sent to other users they are talking to can turn off this feature in the settings of the Twitter application. If they turn off read receipts, they will then be unable to see when people have read their messages in addition to other people not being able to see when they have read theirs’.

Twitter is continuing to add different features as they are struggling to compete with different social media sites. Many users are complaining that while Twitter continues to add updates, these are not the updates that Twitter users have been asking for. One update that Twitter users would like to see is a lift on the limit of how many direct messages can be sent in one day. For now, it looks like Twitter isn’t interested in making these user requested changes.

Twitter Adds a New Night Mode That is Easier On the Eyes

After several smaller applications have released versions of their apps that are better for those using them at night, Twitter has decided to also jump on board with a new night mode. Their night mode features a darker color scheme perfect for using during the night. While the update was initially only available to Android users, it has been extended to iOS as well.

The purpose of this new mode is to help those who use the Twitter application in the night. There have been many studies over the last few years to show that a blaring white phone screen can damage vision and cause the natural sleep rhythms of the body to become confused. As a response to this problem, Twitter has joined other applications in adding a special night mode to their app. This will allow users to switch from their standard display to a darker one that is better for those tweeting in the evening or late at night.

For now, Twitter’s night mode has to be toggled on and off by hand, but there are hopes that this will eventually change so that Twitter’s display will change as it gets to a certain time in the evening. In the app on Android and iOS, users will be able to change what mode they are in by changing their Twitter settings. It is easy to access the areas where you can turn the screen from one mode to the other.

There is some speculation that this change in Twitter and in other applications may be foreshadowing some of the features of the future iPhone 7. Some wonder if Apple will use this phone as their chance to roll out a new screen that will have the ability to more easily display darker colors without using as much battery life. Of course, for that information, we’ll have to wait for news from Apple.

Instagram Launches a New Events Channel for Video

In the increasingly competitive world of social media, Instagram is working to compete with other social media sites. In a brand new update, they have added an events channel that is going to be used to display videos of recent events and events that are happening at the moment. This will allow users to view videos of events happening all over the world in something close to real time. This section of Instagram will be sorted based on what is recent, popular, and relevant to your own likes.

One of the initial criticisms for this new part of Instagram is that it is obviously a copy of Snapchat’s live stories. The features are awfully similar, so it is clear that Instagram is probably following a similar idea to Snapchat’s feature. Many users of Instagram are becoming frustrated about this since they don’t want these different changes. As Instagram is adapting, people are becoming more frustrated about the changes since the social media site is so different from how it was when they joined.

Some benefits of the new channel include allowing users to connect with Instagram users that they might not be able to see otherwise. They’ll also be able to enjoy big events that they might not get to experience because they are too far away or too expensive for a specific Instagram user. This is similar to the way that Snapchat’s live stories work, but seems to have a more targeted purpose.

In addition to the major update, Instagram has also made a few small updates that will help with the filming of videos in general. They have a few small updates including one that allows for zooming in and out while recording video and one that will allow iPhone users to use both cameras on their phone and switch between the two. All of these updates just show that Instagram is making great strides into the video aspect of social media.

Twitter Makes Changes for the 2016 Olympics

In light of the 2016 Olympics, Twitter has been working on some new updates that are being made specifically so that users can easily follow the Olympic games and stay on top of the news that matters to them. Much like with the democratic and republican national conventions this will mean having special emoji. Twitter’s goal is to make changes that will improve the overall experience that users have while the Olympics is going on.

To start with, Twitter has added some corresponding flag emoji that will go with specific hashtags that Twitter users use while they are tweeting. This means that if people type a hashtag such as #USA then an American flag will be added to the hashtag as well. For the Refugee Olympic Athletes, they will be using a world held in two hands instead. These emoji will help to add a visual aspect to these tweets.

So that Twitter users will be able to follow the Olympics much more easily, Twitter is going to be adding a special place under Twitter Moments where users can easily follow along with what is being tweeted about the games. There are different accounts that can be followed in addition to recap moments that will make it easy for users to find medal counts, event results, and other important information. Users will be able to follow moments based on their favorite events and their own country.

Twitter owned applications including Periscope will also be on board to make it so that Twitter users are able to follow the Olympics better. Twitter Amplify will be offering many video highlights and Periscope will have an Olympics channel that will cover a wide range of content that will be related to the Olympics as a whole. These will be great places for Twitter users to watch content and get videos from their favorite events and athletes.

By adding these different features to Twitter, the social media site is helping to encourage users to engage in the conversation as this world wide event goes on. The different aspects of their updates are meant to make talking about the Olympics easier and more fun to do. Twitter’s obvious goal is to have people talking about the Olympics and going to Twitter to find the information about the Olympics that they are interested in.

New Snapchat Update Pairs with Bitmoji to Create Personalized Emoji

After acquiring a company called Bitstrips early this year, Snapchat has finally announced something new that users will be able to do as a result. In a new update, Snapchat made it so that users will be able to create personalized emoji that look like them on Bitstrips’ Bitmoji app and link them into Snapchat. The new update had many Snapchat users rushing to download the Bitmoji app to start using these new emoji.

With the ability to link these two apps comes a range of ways that Snapchat users will be able to use their customized emoji. The emoji will be made in the Bitmoji app, but once they are created, Snapchat users will be able to use them in Snapchat for videos, photos, and even for the in app chat with their friends. This will allow users to express themselves in new and interesting ways through the app.

It may take a bit for a user to link Snapchat and Bitmoji together, but once they figure out how to link the two together, they will stay linked so that users don’t have to worry about that complication. Snapchat users will be able to enjoy making all kinds of different emoji in Bitmoji after creating an avatar that looks similar to them. These emoji will then take on relevant applications within Snapchat. In addition to this, the new update also added some changes to how users could send video by allowing users to create face paint and then film themselves with it on in the video.

After the new update was announced, there were so many users that wanted to install the Bitmoji app and link the two together that Snapchat servers ended up crashing entirely. The social media site greatly underestimated the interest in their new connection to this app and were not planning for so many people to try to connect these two apps. Both are now working well again so users will be able to try customizing emoji for themselves.