Here’s the replay of Monday 31 July’s #SocialMediaShow which was broadcast live via my Facebook Profile from The Grand Hotel in Bristol. I was there for an Enterprise Nation Small Business Meetup. Lots covered this week including 23 social media news stories (see below) with insights plus the usual features – Headline, Question Time, Top Tip, Tools Talk, Number of the Week plus a quirky story from the world of social media with And Finally.
The #SocialMediaShow is aimed at people who work with or who are interested in social media. If that’s you, and you want to keep up on the latest news throughout the week plus get access to insider tips, then check out Social Media Professionals – a very affordable £5 per month (price is going up to £10 per month TOMORROW, 1 August) or to keep in touch join my newsletter subscribers.
FACEBOOK NEWS
1. Facebook released their Q2 results last week and here are a few notable figures. Ad revenue is now over $3 billion per month with total revenue accelerating at 45% year-over-year. Total users stand at 2.01 billion. The numbers beat market expectations.
2. Another hardware device is in the offing from Facebook after news last week of development of a ‘modular electromechanical device’. Rumour has it that Facebook plans to release a smart speaker along the lines of Amazon’s Alexa with a 15-inch touchscreen in early 2018.
3. Facebook has shut down an AI program after it the bots involved invented their own language. Should we be worried? Elon Musk thinks so.
4. Facebook Groups link up with Pages has now been rolled out globally. There are some nice features available now to those wishing to create a community with a Group.
5. Facebook is asking users to suggest tags for Groups. A new pop-up found within the Facebook groups area is asking members to ‘suggest tags to admins that describe the Group.’ Users can recommend up to three tags that best identify what the group is about and help other people find it.
6. Facebook has announced that it will now support 4K resolution for all Live 360 streams.
7. Viewers will soon be able to enjoy Live 360 videos streamed at 4K in VR with the Facebook 360 app for Gear VR.
8. Facebook Stories can now be published publicly. When launched you could only publish to Friends only.
9. Facebook’s TV service will be called….you guessed it – Facebook TV. Shows will be starting as early as next month.
10. Some Facebook users are being prompted to share Events via Messenger in Events section.
FACEBOOK LIVE
11. Facebook appear to be testing Live Video in Stories. Will this make Stories more attractive for users? My bet is that Stories users will stick with Instagram Stories.
FACEBOOK ADS NEWS
12. There’s a new custom audience enabling advertisers to target people who’ve engaged with Events.
FACEBOOK MESSENGER
13. Shopping via Messenger outside of the US where it’s being beta testing is getting closer. Developers now have access to a new one step payment process plus new call to action buttons like Shop Now and Get Support.
INSTAGRAM NEWS
14. 250 million people now use Instagram Stories (up from last reported figure of 200m).
15. Improved metrics via Instagram’s API are now available. Expect to see improved metrics published in third party measurement tools in due course.
LINKEDIN NEWS
16. The new LinkedIn dashboard is being rolled out and it showed up on my Profile this week. It displays profile views, post views and search appearances plus yesterday they popped saved items on the bottom of the panel too.
17. I noticed a new Premium area on the LinkedIn homepage on desktop but not on mobile apps this week. It’s pretty useful and displays Who’s viewed profile and number of InMails used and remaining.
18. You can now upload multiple images with updates although only on the iOS app at the moment. Finally!
19. Great to see the search filter ‘Connections of’ re-introduced. For some reason it disappeared in the redesign earlier this year.
20. LinkedIn has announced the launch of Website demographics which sounds very interesting. Advertisers will be able to get insights on LinkedIn members that have visited their website and quite detailed info too at page level and including job title and industry.
TWITTER NEWS
21. Twitter’s Q2 results were disappointing. There was no increase in the number of users in Q2 results and an 8% drop in year-on-year ad revenue, which doesn’t compare too well with Facebook’s 45% increase. I really fear for Twitter. Will it be around for much longer? Twitter’s share price is now $16.10 down from $20 a week ago. On a positive note ad engagements rose 95% plus there was some good news for advertisers with cost per engagement falling 53%.
22. Twitter is testing a new $99 per month ad product whereby the 1st ten tweets each day are promoted. Sounds appealing for small businesses but will the news feed be swamped with ads thereby damaging Twitter even further?
23. Some users are reporting a new Twitter notifications tab containing details previously published as push notifications eg when you get a new follower.
AND FINALLY
Good news for Facebook users! According to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the average Facebook user is about 12% less likely to die than someone who doesn’t use the site.
Upcoming social media workshops in Gloucester
How to sell yourself and grow your business with LinkedIn (Gloucester) – 10 August
Advanced Social Media Workshop (Gloucester) – 15 August
How to sell yourself and grow your business with LinkedIn (Gloucester) – 12 September
Facebook Masterclass – (Gloucester) – 19 September
Questions? Need help with social media?
For more information about how we can help with your social media efforts including other social media training options please call me, Jonathan, on 029 2078 9139. Alternatively you can email, tweet or message via Facebook.