Your friendly social media marketing support team here with platform updates from Facebook and Instagram from the past 30 days. Some may be of interest to you, others may not. But a concise dose of in-the-know is always good. So that’s why we’re showing up today.
- At the beginning of the month, Facebook launched a new function. It allows Page Managers to send customized campaign and marketing emails straight from the backend of Facebook. To use this feature, Page Managers have to manually upload contacts to their business accounts. This is essentially an attempt at replicating CRM systems, with Facebook, Instagram and email marketing now all under one Facebook Hub.
- Instagram creators can now make money from their video content! For the first time since IGTV launched in 2018, Instagram creators can earn an income directly from the platform through IG’s new monetization incentive. The platform will be rolling out ads on IGTV in an effort to support creators. This is a long awaited update for creators who have not been able to earn a penny from Instagram video so far, which has definitely affected IGTV’s overall popularity with top accounts. Popular creators will now have incentive to post better content, and more regularly, which is great for both creators and fans. And in our opinion, maybe brands that want to collaborate with creators but don’t have a very big budget!
- As a part of the platform’s monetization effort for creators, Instagram announced new revenue options for IG Live. In addition to introducing ads to IGTV, Instagram is adding digital badges to IG Live streamings which essentially lets viewers donate money directly to creators. So when your favorite account goes live, you now have the option to add a digital banner to your comment, making it more noticeable to broadcast accounts. These new monetization efforts are going to make Instagram a way more competitive playing field for top creators.
- Users might be able to access more frequent and fast Instagram Stories. Users across the US have reported recently that when logging on to Instagram instead of seeing one row of story bubbles from friend and creator accounts at the top of their feed, they now see two. Stories are currently on track to overtake the news feed as the primary surface for social media engagement. No word yet on when or if this will be an update for all users.
- Facebook launches a new app called CatchUp. The new app will show which of your friends are online and available for a phone call while also showing you in-progress chats that you can join. It’s pretty much an audio only version of Messenger Rooms.
- Facebook News will now be rolled out to all users in the US. First announced in October of 2019, this new feature will have its own section within Facebook mobile and desktop. Although regular news stories will still appear in-feed. Within Facebook News users can control which publications and news sources show up in their portal, allowing for customizations based on interest, regions, and so on. However, Facebook does make the initial call on which publications users have access to from within the portal.
- Sometimes the smallest changes make the largest impact. Facebook just added a simple toggle that will enable users to switch between personal and business accounts faster and easier. You can already manage your business messages through the backend of Facebook Manager and Creator Studio. But this new update will make it much easier to quickly view and respond to incoming messages. And I’ve gotta say, I already love it.
That’s it for now.
In your corner,
Kate
