Facebook ditches podcasts
Sometimes it pays off to try all the new shiny things social networks offer us, sometimes it doesn’t. That’s what Facebook podcasters are discovering this week.
Facebook was banking on audio. It saw Clubhouse explode and wanted in on the action. But now, not only have they taken the focus off ‘Audio rooms’, their version of Clubhouse but they’re also getting rid of their other audio-only tools.
That means no more podcasts on the platform, you can no longer add them, and after June the 3rd they’ll disappear. Plus, they’re getting rid of soundbites which were like audio reactions.
Does this mean the audio trend is over? I don’t think so, it’s just over for Facebook. Podcasts are still growing. 63% of people in the US have listened to at least one podcast in 2022, that’s up from 57% in 2021
It turns out, we just don’t want to listen to them on Facebook.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/news/facebook-switches-off-podcasts-5322876
Twitter circles are here
One thing I love about email marketing is that you can send emails to subsets of your list depending on the content of the email and which customer type it’s designed for.
Soon you’ll be able to do the same thing on Twitter with ‘Circles’. Currently in the testing phase, you’ll be able to create ‘Circles’ that contain a group of people and send tweets that will only be visible to those you have added.
This will be a great way to make sure you are sending only relevant information to your followers, and if you get it right, it could even boost engagement.
Let’s hope it makes it beyond the testing phase. What will you use it for?
Instagram goes fullscreen
Tall images and videos on mobile can work well. They take longer to scroll by and take up more of the screen. They offer a more immersive experience for the viewer as they are less likely to be distracted by other things.
Instagram is testing showing taller images and videos in the feed. This means 9:16 ratio videos and photos will take up way more space, making it a more immersive experience when viewing.
What does this mean? If the test is adopted you will need to create taller images 9:16 to fill the full-frame, these images will stand out in the feed. But, you’ll also need to ensure that the focus of your image or video is in the centre of that frame so it still looks good on your profile.
New profile links on LinkedIn
Most social networks let you put a link to your website or a webpage on your profile. On Instagram, this is almost the only place you can put a link.
But until now, on LinkedIn, this link was hidden under contact info. Not anymore, as of last week, you can add a clickable link at the top. To add the link click to ‘edit’ your intro section, scroll down and you’ll see a new box prompting you to add your link. You can even add anchor text that tells people where you are sending them.
At the moment this link only displays on desktop and iOS devices, hopefully, we’ll see it appear for Android users soon.
Meta landing pages for ads guide
Your ads could be great but if you’re not making sales, the landing page could be the problem. Meta just launched a guide to creating better ad landing pages that could help you get better results from your ads.
Tips include:
* Make sure it loads in under 3 seconds
* Make sure your page matches your ads
* Include FAQs on the page
* Put yourself in your customer’s shoes
* Make it easy to navigate on mobile
They’ve even included a scorecard to help you improve your pages.
https://www.facebook.com/business/news/landing-page-optimization-best-practices
Instagram tests shortening your story
If you’ve created a mega long story on Instagram you’ll notice that the engagement drops off after a few frames. In fact, when people see all those tiny dots at the top of the screen they may just swipe away immediately.
Instagram seems to think 3 frames is enough. They’re testing a new feature that will only show you the first 3 clips of a story unless you choose to expand it. After those three frames, it will move on to the next story. Once someone has viewed all their stories they’ll be presented with the next 3 frames.
This means we’ll need to be more concise but it could also mean more people see our longer stories as instead of swiping away they will see it in instalments.
Snapchat drone camera
Want your audience to create more content for you? Want your customers to create more UGC? Buy them a Pixy Drone.
It’s been a long while since Snapchat launched glasses. So long we’ve almost forgotten about them. But now they’re back with a way cooler piece of kit for creating stand out content.
The Pixy Drone is the size of your hand, when launched it will follow you around capturing video and photo content that it will upload to your Snapchat Memories. You can choose to share them on Snapchat or download it for use elsewhere.
It’s well priced at $230 so I’m sure we’re going to see them floating around.
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