Schedule Reels from 3rd Party Tools
Scheduling content makes a marketer’s life easier. But until this week Reels weren’t part of the Instagram API, that’s the bridge that connects Instagram to third-party tools. Because of this you couldn’t schedule or monitor conversations on third-party social media management apps.
As of Tuesday 28th of June that changed. Instagram has started rolling out API Reels access and by July 6th all accounts should have it.
Now the social media management tools will be scrambling to integrate it.
https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2022/06/27/introducing-reels-apis-to-instagram-platform/
No more Facebook Premieres
Premieres are a Facebook video type that allows you to upload videos and play them live. It works the same way as a Facebook live, people can ask for reminders for the show and it’s played for the first time in real-time.
It’s basically scheduling a video with a few perks. But it seems that it’s not different enough. Facebook is depreciating Premieres, they will no longer exist after August 22nd. After that, you’ll have to either rely on scheduling videos or use a live streaming tool to play it at the allocated time.
https://twitter.com/GerryMcG/status/1541812403842813952/photo/1
Facebook group upgrades
Facebook groups, whether it’s your own group or groups where your customers hang out., are a great place to discover content ideas and nurture potential customers.
This week Facebook announced that it’s going to be making some upgrades to groups that should keep your members interested and engaged.
It’s adding a group sidebar where you’ll be able to find your favourite groups and see if there has been activity. You’ll be able to pin your favourite groups here.
There will be a new group menu so you can jump straight into the content you want to see, whether that’s upcoming events or a particular topic.
You can create smaller ‘channels’ within your groups for more niche conversations.
You can start and participate in group messenger chats
And you can join community audio channels, I guess this is like ‘Rooms’
It looks like Facebook’s focus on groups won’t be going away any time soon.
New ways to start a Twitter space
Is making Twitter spaces easier to create a way to get more people to make them?
Twitter is testing new ways to start a space on iOS devices.
Those in the test will be able to set up a space from a Tweet (why has this taken so long!). And they’ll be able to start a space from a ReTweet, using the source tweet to spark the discussion.
Will we see a flurry of new spaces when this is fully launched?
California may ban addictive algorithms
Social media is deliberately addictive. The algorithms and the notifications keep you active on the platforms continuously checking for our next hit. As adults, we try and curb our use but it’s harder for younger people.
The state of California is debating a bill that could allow people to sue social media companies who use addictive algorithms and techniques on children.
This is bad news for the social networks who will have to work on a different algorithm for younger people but probably a good thing for all social media users.
WhatsApp Blur
Have you ever wanted to share a photo with your friends, family or clients on WhatsApp, but haven’t because it contains something you shouldn’t share?
Whether it’s the face of a child, your camera-shy other half or a screenshot including sensitive info, WhatsApp is currently working on a feature that will allow you to edit your image and blur out the offending section.
I’d love to see more of this both for images and for video content as it will save a whole heap of time from using other apps before uploading.
Spotify Karaoke Mode
Remember when you used to have a big machine to do Karaoke? And then you had to buy all the tunes? Not anymore, soon you’ll be able to sing Karaoke with Spotify.
It’s rolling out an upgrade to the ‘Lyrics’ feature. When a song has lyrics listed you’ll be able to click a ‘sing’ button that will quieten the lyrics on the original track and highlight the lyrics so you can sing along. When you’re done you’ll get a score based on your talent.
I can’t wait to try this out.