Facebook have released a Christmas marketing guide and planner
It seems wrong to talk about Christmas and the holiday season in July but to avoid a last-minute panic it’s a good idea to start planning your festive marketing now.
This week Facebook released their Christmas marketing guide. It’s packed with tips for getting started with your marketing.
They’ve identified some key trends:
- People will continue to want to shop online or use click and collect services
- Self Gifting has been a growing trend and will continue into Christmas
- Christmas is the time when people will buy from businesses they’ve never bought from before
- Big sales days will continue to be popular as people feel the pinch. Not just Black Friday and Cyber Monday but days like Singles Day 11/11 popular in Asia.
https://go.fb.com/rs/267-PVB-941/images/Holidays%20Marketing%20Guide.pdf
Instagram Reels – The TikTok Rip Off Being Tested In China
What would you do if the social network you used the most disappeared?
What would you do if one of your competitors disappeared overnight?
This week India banned TikTok along with over 30 other Chinese owned apps. This is part of an ongoing battle India is having with China.
Within days of the ban, Instagram stepped in bringing the test of their TikTok clone ‘Reels’ to India.
Reels will be part of Instagram just like IGTV and allows users to create 15-second multi-clip videos with music or audio clip soundtracks.
We know that Instagram’s theft of stories worked for them but is Instagram becoming the ‘uncool’ network? Outside India will users be encouraged to use it?
Instagram is experimenting with a shop tab
Instagram wants to help you sell.
They are testing a new shop tab that will replace the heart icon on your home page.
When clicked users will be able to see items for sale from the businesses they follow and search via category.
The heart will still appear on your profile and will move to the top next to DMs on the home screen.
Is this Instagram taking a swipe at Pinterest that we know has been becoming THE e-commerce platform?
You can now pin Instagram comments
Do you get a lot of comments on Instagram? No me neither.
If you are lucky enough to get multiple comments on posts you will now be able to pin up to 3 to the top of your comment thread.
You could use this to pin comments that spark more conversation. Pin positive feedback or if you were running a competition you could pin winners.
By pinning comments you are getting more control on the tone of conversations. If people see positive comments they are less likely to be negative themselves.
Is Twitter about to launch a subscription service
Are your tweets subscription worthy? Or could they be? Would you sell access to key content on Twitter?
You may be able to do this soon as it’s rumoured that Twitter is considering a subscription service.
The rumour is founded in a job listing from Twitter that suggested a subscription service but what could this mean?
- Would it be a creator subscription?
- Would it be a Twitter subscription that gives you access to additional features?
- Would it be an ad free subscription.
I’m in favour of the last one. It would be nice to see social networks less reliant on ads. What do you think?
New WhatsApp business features
Do you use WhatsApp to communicate with customers?
WhatsApp has given it’s business app some updates this week. Alongside the out of office replies and quick replies you will now get:
A QR code to share with customers. Great for bricks and mortar businesses as well as online.
Stickers to use in updates to show your business is open.
Product catalogues, you’ll be able to share products with customers who will be able to browse and buy.
Another signal that Facebook wants in on e-commerce on all it’s platforms.
YouTube have launched quick replies
It’s almost a full time job for a popular creator to keep up with comments. And you’ll find that many of the replies you send, no matter what network are similar.
YouTube has just launched a ‘Quick Replies’ tool powered by AI. It will make suggestions on comment replies based on your previous commenting behaviour.
And it will continue to learn from you as you comment.
It’s a time saver but also a little bit creepy. Will machines one day be able to mimic us exactly online? Or maybe they’re doing it already?
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