Twitter Updates You Need to Know About

Twitter has decided to switch off millions of accounts linked to SMS services. In fact, popular Twitter accounts with a million or more followers may see a drop of 8-10% in their total audience due to the ax of SMS service. 

Twitter announced the vulnerabilities linked to SMS and have since decided to purge the accounts altogether. The privacy concern is linked to a method of swapping SIM cards and even the company’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, was hacked via an SMS-connected system. 

SMS tweets are not commonly used by the majority of Twitter users, therefore the impact is expected to be minimal. However, the implications for users in developing countries may prove to be much larger as SMS service is far more prevalent in these regions

Searching for old comments of Twitter can be, well, impossible. Luckily, the platform has recognized this downfall and has implemented a listing specifically for ‘Retweets with Comments’ – on iOS at least. 

The newest listing feature no longer considers retweets with comments to be a unique tweet, which previously excluded comments from the total retweet count. Instead, listings now include two separate categories to make finding comments easier than ever before. 

Furthermore, the additional retweets added to the total tweet count may boost many users’ engagement status. If you’re an Android user, don’t worry! This listing feature is being tested on Android devices as well and should be rolled out before the end of the year. 

Don't Stop Social Media Marketing

Here are a few tips to keeping in touch with your customers during COVID19

 

People around the world are adjusting to the new normal of the impact on their business from COVID19. We are faced with social distancing, small business owners are closing their doors and large corporations as scrambling to reposition campaigns, adjust content to essential travel, first responders, PPE and anything they come up with new creative and changing day to day.  

While others are abandoning all marketing efforts during this time.  This is a mistake you can not afford to make.  If you use a social media company to run your social media marketing, yet you can't afford them during these troubled times, reach out to them and negotiate a temporary rate until business rebounds. 

Staying connected is now more important than ever, with people and businesses working from home, or remote offices, more of the population is on social media more than ever.  Frankly the population is relying on social media to stay in touch with friends, consume the news, and be entertained.  

In fact, Facebook and Instagram have seen a 48% increase in usage due to Covid-19, with views for Instagram Live and Facebook Live doubling in one week.

If your business is open but working hard to survive right now, like many retail stores, hotels and restaurants are, you’ll be wanting to share content with the goal of getting sales from social media.  But just because people are spending more time on social media doesn’t mean it’s business-as-usual.

Your followers are spending more time online than they ever have before, so it does present you with a unique opportunity to deepen your relationship with your audience and increase brand affinity.  But you also can’t just be running business-as-usual, or you risk coming across as tone-deaf to an audience with heightened anxiety and sensitivities.  And the hardest part? It feels like our world continues to change by the day (or hour).

But remember: this is brand new territory for all marketers (including us). No one is an expert in how to market your business on social media through a global pandemic.

So while we can’t offer you tried-and-tested strategies for marketing your business through this challenging time, we can give you some guiding principles to help you think through your posts and make decisions as the crisis evolves.

Ignoring Covid-19 or pretending like everything is normal can come across as inauthentic at best, and tone deaf at worst. Let your followers know that you’re listening and acknowledge our new normal.  

Even a simple “We are in this together" and "updates on your staff and business" 

can go a long way in showing your followers that you’re listening and caring.  

Let them know you also are experiencing hardships without coming off as "crying for help".  Take the approach that you are trying to stay open, operating and keeping your staff employed.  

Celebrity & business owner Kristin Cavallari did a good job of explaining why she was promoting a sale for her jewelry brand Uncommon James, by simply stating that she has 100 employees and will do everything she can to help them keep their jobs, which means promoting her sale on Instagram.

If you’re unable to market or sell your products during COVID state that and let them know your desired return to normal operations.  Focus on sharing content that aligns with your brand values instead, along the way updating your pages on staff, products, service and the latest news.  

Turn your Instagram into a valuable resource for your audience. Focus on engagement first, instead of driving traffic, by providing extra education through videos, carousel posts, or captions – instead of constantly asking to swipe up or click the link in your bio.

Adjust your hashtags during this time and stay current with trends and changes to social media platforms.  

These are un-tested times, stay safe, social distance but stay active on your pages. 

Changes Coming to Facebook Messenger

This year, Facebook announced a number of improvements to its Messenger service, as well as new, marketing features for business.

Facebook Messenger Updates:

Messenger Desktop App will be enhanced, collaboration tools for marketing and group conversations.

The desktop messenger allows groups to have video calls, share on tasks or multitask while messaging at the same time.

We will also see increased speed, especially in the mobile environment, but also because it is 70MB smaller than the old Messenger platform.

This makes it easier for people with low storage on their devices to find space to house the app.

Your will be able to create close friends groups, avoiding mixing business with your close friends. It’s unclear what the official name for this feature will be, but the focus is to help Facebook users have a clear separation in business and friends.

The app will also allow a business to communicate with a direct group of specific customers or audience segment targeted for specific advertisement.

Group video enhancements will be within the new app, allowing group sharing of videos for viewers. This will also be a addition to the live streaming platform on Facebook.

The added benefit of being able to watch videos together will be effective for business groups to make quick decision and collaborate as a team on marketing ideas, or edits.

Currently you can only have 6 people in a video chat on messenger, with the new app you will be able to have 50 people in chats, great for large teams and webinars.

Facebook is slowly rolling out the appointment booking features to different business types. Stay tuned for your opportunity!

Conclusions on the New Facebook Messenger Features
Facebook is putting a lot of focus on privacy here and enhancing connections between “closest friends” versus the entire cyber web.

On the surface, this may feel troubling to businesses and create a sense that they are going to be left out of the most important activities that Facebook and Messenger users are taking part in.

Facebook Automated Ads.

This week, Facebook announced its new plan to help small businesses meet their Facebook and Instagram advertising goals.

They recognize that small businesses can lack time and resources to advertise on social media, so they have created a new tool to make this process easier on them: Facebook Automated Ads.

"We know small business owners are strapped for time, which is why we're committed to building tools that save you time and enable you to focus on the parts of your business you love. Today, we're making it easier for you to manage and promote your business across our platforms through tools such as Automated Ads, appointments and new video editing tools." 
-Facebook Business

To create Automated Ads:

Go to your Facebook Page.

Select Promote. You can find it in the bottom-left corner of your Page.
Select Get Custom Automated Ads.
Select Get Started.

Give us details about your business and customers by answering the questions that appear in the quiz.

Select Next after each question until you reach the Choose Your Plan section. We'll provide a recommended plan, but you may also see an alternative option. Select the plan you'd prefer.


Fill in the details of your Automated Ads, including:
Ad Creative: Provide an image, headline and text for your ad. We may suggest some of these details with information from your Page. You can create up to 6 versions of your ad. Note: Depending on your plan, you may also be able to select a call-to-action button, provide a URL or create a form to request leads.
Audience: Choose a recommended audience or create a new audience based on specific traits.

We may also provide an automatic audience option that is customized to your business. Facebook creates and improves your automatic audience from a combination of details, like people near your business location or people who have interests related to your Page.

Daily Budget: We'll recommend a budget most likely to get you results based on your plan, but you can also provide a custom budget.

Payment Method: Review your payment method. If you need to, you can change or update your payment method.

Note: Automated Ads run continuously to learn what performs better for your plan. You won't be able to set an end date, but you can pause or delete your Automated Ads at any time.

When you're done, select Promote.

Facebook Ad Mistakes To Avoid

It is important for marketers to set up and use Facebook advertising correctly.

As organic reach on Facebook continues to rapidly decline and ad impressions continue to increase , the competition is steep for marketers to keep up by ensuring ads are engaging and relevant. 

Unless you have a virtually unlimited advertising budget, your Facebook ad dollars shouldn’t be spent on qualitative goals like brand awareness or vanity metrics such as Facebook likes. Instead, your primary aim should be conversions. Ideally, your Facebook ad would catch the attention of just the right person, ready to buy, who immediately clicks through to your site and purchases your product. 

Your target audience scrolls through their Facebook feed rapidly. You must capture their attention, and you only have a fraction of a second to do so. Disrupt their feed with eye-catching creative so you can share your message. Keep a pulse on what ad styles are trending on Facebook and monitor competitor ads as well as ads outside of your industry for inspiration. However, beware, saturation is real. Fashion trends fade, and so do creative styles, so continue to try new things. Avoid turning off your potential customers with the same old same old.  

The genius of Facebook advertising is the ability to be highly targeted in reaching your ideal customer. Don’t miss the mark when it comes to the design of your ad creative. Target too broad of an audience and your message may fall flat. If you have multiple markets you’re targeting, consider segmenting your audience and creating separate creative for each.

Also keep in mind that what works best on Instagram, for instance, likely won’t be what’s best for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Google. Your audience uses each of these platforms in very different ways and you cannot approach them, in the same way, expecting to get the same results.

Don’t be afraid to step outside of the norm. Your body of creative work can vary wildly without diluting your brand identity. You can maintain certain constants between ads such as your brand color or logo while still experimenting with tone, motion and design. Just remember to tie everything back to your testable, quantifiable goal and optimize for conversions. The only rule: never run a Facebook ads campaign without an active test, if at all possible. While tracking these variations can quickly become overwhelming, working with an agency or utilizing marketing automation software can simplify the process and achieve accurate results more efficiently than any one person.

Twitter Updates In

Twitter

Limiting the number of accounts users can follow to fight platform manipulation

Follow, unfollow, follow, unfollow. Who does that? Spammers. So we’re changing the number of accounts you can follow each day from 1,000 to 400. Don’t worry, you’ll be just fine.

Twitter has already taken some steps to prevent follow churn by banning several social media apps which enable it from the platform. Now they are going even further and limiting the number of users one can follow to 400 a day. 

As it says in the official tweet, this is done in order to fight spammers who often use manipulative tactics to gain more followers: they mass-follow people, wait till they follow in response, and then unfollow them. Or worse, they keep following and unfollowing so you get spammed with notifications. 

However, some people still think that 400 people a day is still too many. I wonder if there will be more actions and stricter limits to fight spamming in the future. 

Google+ Will Officially Shut Down on April 2

The end is finally in sight for Google’s ill-fated social media venture Google+.

The company announced this week that Google+ will officially shut down April 2, 2019 -  after Google initially announced it would end the service back in fall.

On April 2nd, your Google+ account and any Google+ pages you created will be shut down and we will begin deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts. Photos and videos from Google+ in your Album Archive and your Google+ pages will also be deleted. 

Click Here to Download Your Content. 

Google acknowledged the main reason it’s shutting the social arm down, noting its low usage in a blog post announcing the end date. That, coupled with the struggle to live up to expectations and security concerns, has made Google+ simply not worth keeping around.

Google did not directly address the security concerns in its post, but a security flaw left nearly 500,000 users data exposed to third-party app developers. After that was fixed, another issue was found, which led to an earlier shut down date in April. Now, Google has revealed its full timeline to wind down the service.

The change means all Google+ accounts and pages will be deleted. Anyone with photos or other content they’d like to save on their account should download and save those files prior to the shutdown. Photos and videos will be backed up to Google Photos. However, any other posts or content on Google+ pages will be gone.

As early as February 28th, you will no longer be able to create new Google+ profiles, pages, communities or events. See the full FAQ for more details and updates leading up to the shutdown.

If you’re a Google+ Community owner or moderator, you may download and save your data for your Google+ Community. Starting early March 2019, additional data will be available for download, including author, body, and photos for every community post in a public community. 

If you sign in to sites and apps using the Google+ Sign-in button, these buttons will stop working in the coming weeks but in some cases may be replaced by a Google Sign-in button. You’ll still be able to sign in with your Google Account wherever you see Google Sign-in buttons. 

If you’ve used Google+ for comments on your own or other sites, this feature will be removed from Blogger by February 4th and other sites by March 7th. All your Google+ comments on all sites will be deleted starting April 2, 2019. 

If you’re a G Suite customer, Google+ for your G Suite account should remain active. Contact your G Suite administrator for more details. You can also expect a new look and new features soon. 

If you're a developer using Google+ APIs or Google+ Sign-in, click here to see how this will impact you.

From all of us on the Google+ team, thank you for making Google+ such a special place. We are grateful for the talented group of artists, community builders, and thought leaders who made Google+ their home. It would not have been the same without your passion and dedication.

To Learn More Click Here

All social networks are not equal.

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are social media standards – but what about other platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, or YouTube – is it necessary to have an account on all of these too? 

Not to mention using the new features released on existing platforms like Facebook Live and Twitter Moments. Social Media statistics are constantly changing, it can be overwhelming, especially if you’re a one-man (or woman) show. 

It’s important, that you figure out who you’re trying to reach on social media and where your customers can be found. Once you determine the best one or two platforms, stay consistent and master your marketing strategy there first. Then you can widen your efforts to other social networks.  

Facebook & Facebook Live

79% of internet users (68% of all U.S. adults ranging from 18-65+) use Facebook
Facebook is still the most popular social media platform – so having a page here is highly recommended

Facebook, like most other platforms, has become more visual-driven, so incorporate imagery and video when possible. Try using the Facebook Live feature for events to reach potential students who may be unable to attend or are out of the area. You can also use Facebook Live for a Q&A session with your admissions team or show off your campus on a video tour.

Facebook Video has become a vital aspect of Facebooks offerings. Videos will autoplay, though most times users will not hear the audio along with your video. Clever marketers will use this to their advantage, and we have seen a resurgence of “silent movies”, videos that communicate visually.

Twitter

36% of internet users use Twitter, with the largest percentage being between 18-29

11% of American adults get their news on Twitter

With a 280-character limit, Twitter is great sharing short snippets of information about your school, upcoming events, photos from previous events or even linking to articles/blogs on your website.

Again, incorporate imagery when possible and keep an eye on trending hashtags to gain more visibility (but only use them if they actually relate to your school or an event you’re holding – there have been many Twitter disasters with misused hashtags).

Twitter can be great for interaction with your followers, allowing for quick messages or callouts, and has a shorter-lived message lifecycle.

LinkedIn

Most of us consider LinkedIn to be focused on only companies or businesses – but that’s not true. Schools, colleges and universities can also create a page for their alumni to link their education history to and as another resource for potential students looking to learn about your school.
Consider creating an alumni group to encourage community and involvement of past students, as well as an additional way to keep them informed of events and fundraising opportunities.

YouTube

YouTube has been around for quite a while, but a lot of schools and businesses still aren’t utilizing this powerful network, even though YouTube “reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year olds than any cable network in the U.S.” 
Try using YouTube for video tours of your campus, event highlights, recruitment videos, student and alumni videos, you can even upload your Snapchat stories as a video reel. With the rise of video, there are endless possibilities and you can link posts on other platforms to your videos on YouTube.
YouTube videos are great for cross-promotion. Embed a link to them on your Facebook feed or at the top of your Linkedin profile.
Snapchat

The newest player in the game, and possibly the hardest to envision a use for – but 78% of Snapchat users are under 24, which is a large part of one of your target audiences.

Snapchat is based on images or videos that only last for 10 seconds, and can be added as a “story” for your school. These stories can be downloaded as one video that you can then use for other platforms such as YouTube and Instagram.
Snapchat does offer advertisement opportunities – but let’s start small for now. One use of this channel would be to have students “take-over” for a day and show a day in the life at your school.

Try highlighting all aspects of your school; academics, arts, music, athletics, campus life, even different clubs and organizations.
Instagram & Instagram Stories

32% of internet users use Instagram but the majority of these users are between the ages of 18-29. If you’re trying to reach this age group, utilizing this platform could help.

Instagram is almost entirely visual-based but this doesn’t mean you need to hire a professional photographer just to use this platform. You can easily edit any photo taken on your smartphone (just try not to use the Lo-Fi filter for every picture!).
One way to encourage user engagement is to ask followers to submit or tag your school’s account in their photos and videos of your campus or events and repost these images.


Planning is important. Posting randomly or sporadically are not characteristics of a successful social media strategy. Of course, it’s okay to post occasionally when the mood hits you and you have something interesting to share. Yet, such spontaneous posts should be additions to a regular posting schedule. 

Consistency will heighten anticipation for your content, interest in your brand, and overall engagement. To make sure you see those benefits, you may even use a scheduling tool. That way, regularity is easier to achieve and time is also saved.

You can also learn much from companies like yours that are struggling in this area. Using your expanding knowledge of social media best practices and what you learn from your strongest rivals, you can pinpoint what not to do. You don’t have to go the trial and error route. Let competitors try and err for you!