New Canva Tools
There was a time when Canva didn’t exist. Do you remember it? Mastering tools like Photoshop and GIMP? Taking forever and a day to create content?
Canva is now part of every non-designer digital marketer’s tool kit. And they just announced a whole bunch of new tools.
For videos, you can now remove the background, it’s not perfect but it’s getting there. There are new editing effects and animations too.
There’s an AI tool that will create an image based on words you type in.
There are collaborative whiteboards for teams to brainstorm on, websites (although you can’t add GA it’s better than no website). Upgraded presentations and the biggest of all… Docs, which could be a great design alternative to shared Google Docs.
You gotta hand it to them for innovation and must-have tools.
https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/what-happened-at-canva-create-2022/
LinkedIn Focused Inbox
LinkedIn messaging can be where the magic happens. It’s where you get to know people better and build relationships that can grow your business.
But as you know, they are often abused. We’ve all had one of those overly salesy or spammy messages from connections we barely know.
LinkedIn is addressing this with a new Inbox filter called ‘Focused Inbox’. It will have two tabs, ‘Focused’ which will show the messages LinkedIn thinks you will be most interested in, and ‘Other’ which contains all the messages you get.
I imagine this will serve the same purpose as filtered inboxes on Instagram and Twitter.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/introducing-new-focused-inbox-internal-mobility-skills-tomer-cohen/
Meta collaborative Ads
If you produce a product but don’t sell it directly it can be hard to know what to do with Facebook ads. Yes, you can run awareness ads but if you want to see if they result in sales you can’t. Or you couldn’t.
A new ad type from Meta called ‘Collaborative ads’ lets you run ads for your product and will direct users to their local supplier.
You’ll need to get an agreement with suppliers through Meta, that will give you access to their catalogue so you can run ads. It’s a win for producers and suppliers. Hopefully, the process isn’t too complex to implement for smaller businesses.
WhatsApp + Salesforce
WhatsApp and Salesforce have teamed up to offer integrated messaging managed via the CRM.
This will take advantage of some of the new business features WhatsApp has been rolling out. You’ll be able to message customers who abandon carts and send discounts and offers.
Chatbot experiences are already being used on WhatsApp by many businesses, it’s how I buy my coffee, but an integration like this could offer deeper customer support.
Salesforce pricing starts at €25 per month so this could be accessible for small businesses and be a good way for Salesforce to grow its user base.
https://business.whatsapp.com/blog/whatsapp-partnering-with-salesforce
YouTube Creator Music
How many times have you created a video and known that the right music for it is a ‘famous’ tune that you could never afford to use?
Or maybe you just want to use something a bit more interesting than the free music YouTube offers? You can buy music but often the process of proving you have the license to use it is complex.
YouTube has a solution. A new ‘Creator Music’ library will let you purchase music, with a very clear indication of how you can use it. There will also be music that includes a revenue share. You get a cut of advertising revenue from the video and so does the music creator.
This could mean better music on your videos, fewer copyright strikes, and it could also mean creators get paid better than they do right now.
TikTok copies BeReal
BeReal is the hottest new social network, but it does just one thing so it’s hard to see it surviving. Particularly when that one thing is so easy to duplicate.
The app sends you a prompt once a day to take a photo of what you are doing. There are two cameras so you can see both you and what you’re looking at in one post.
Snapchat and Instagram already responded to the popularity of BeReal by releasing a double camera function and this week TikTok have taken it one step further by combining this with a random daily prompt.
Can a one-trick social network like BeReal survive in the world of giant do-everything social networks?
https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/introducing-tiktok-now
Instagram repost is official
We talked about this when it was spotted by an app researcher but now it’s official.
Instagram is going to start filling up with even more content you don’t want to see. A new repost feature will allow users to ‘Regram’ from other accounts to the feed. Much like you can currently do with stories.
It could mean more reach for your posts if your audience shares them, or it could just mean more bad content.
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