Read before you share says Facebook
Sharing link posts without reading could be propagating fake news. Facebook is following Twitter’s lead and prompting users who haven’t read a link, to click before they share.
For businesses, this could mean more clicks on posts but it could also decrease sharing and the ability to reach a wider audience.
It could also impact sharing pods, where businesses get together to share one another’s content. Fewer people will participate in this if they have to read first… which could actually be a good thing.
https://twitter.com/fbnewsroom/status/1391816265891778560/photo/1
Instagram story templates for Facebook ads
When you run a Facebook ad, and if you don’t customise your placements, it automatically turns your image or video into an ugly ad for stories. It selects a background colour and adds chunky text.
Soon we’ll be able to pretty up the story versions of our ads. Facebook is introducing story templates. Similar to video templates, you’ll be able to create something striking and interesting with a strong CTA.
This will save advertisers time and help their ads look prettier.
https://twitter.com/michaelvittori/status/1392391244601602048/photo/1
Pronouns on Instagram
You may have noticed that many social media users are adding pronouns they want used in reference to themselves, to their profiles.
The idea is that the more people who do this, the more this is normalised.
This week Instagram has added a section to your bio where you can list your pronouns.
Why does this matter? When the tech companies (LinkedIn has also done this) allow you to add pronouns they become truly mainstream. People who have been holding back to avoid political conversations can feel comfortable using them.
https://www.instagram.com/p/COvtaoLB-yg/
WhatsApp push their privacy update
Earlier this year WhatsApp attempted to push a new privacy policy. They needed people to agree to it so they could roll out new functionality to their business offering.
But people weren’t happy and refused to agree.
Now they’re trying again, but this time they are going to start penalising anyone who doesn’t agree. It will happen in a phased way.
Firstly, you’ll start to get the notification. Eventually, the notification will become ‘persistent’ when this happens you’ll no longer be able to access chats or start calls from the app, but you’ll still be able to respond from notifications.
Soon after this, even notifications will be disabled.
WhatsApp are pushing this update so that businesses can manage their accounts better but will people comply?
Twitter tip jar
Social media tipping has become a way that people can send their appreciation to creators. For businesses, it could be an interesting income stream.
Until now you had to subscribe to a service to accept tips, but now you can ask people to tip you on Twitter.
This is being tested right now. People who have tip jar can accept small payments via a variety of services including PayPal.
How will we see businesses and creators use this tool?
Instagram Reshare Sticker
Instagram is having a moment about sharing. For some reason, it doesn’t like that so many people share posts to stories…
Could it be because these stories are less engaging?
It was rumoured they were to stop enabling it, but instead, they’ve gone for a sticker.
Now if you want to share a post, you’ll have to add a sticker to your story and choose from your own grid, saved posts or liked posts. This makes the process a lot harder and could discourage sharing.
Twitter image cropping gets better
Have you ever posted a photo to Twitter, only to see it appear in the feed as a weird cropped image with only a hint at what it’s about?
People would have to click to reveal the full image.
Not anymore, on mobile at least. Twitter has expanded the size of images that show in the mobile feed.
Images with 2:1 and 3:4 aspect ratios show in full meaning it’s more likely to stop the scroll.
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