Don’t blink. You might miss the next big social media update. In the last couple of weeks three of the big social platforms have all announced major updates. What do these updates mean to marketers? Let’s take a look.
Facebook Reactions
The most widely-noted of the updates, Facebook Reactions complements the classic “like” button with a range of emojis for users to choose from. The reactions, labeled “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad” and “angry” were first introduced in October to Facebook users in Spain and Ireland.
The new buttons function the same way as the old “like” button. To react to a post, users simply hold down on the “like” button and the reactions pop up, allowing users to easily pick one of the emojis.
While the public reception of Reactions has been overwhelmingly positive, the new feature could be a mixed bag for marketers. On one hand, marketers are now able to see what posts clients enthusiastically love – on the other hand, consumers are now able to cry and rage over your content.
Overall, the new reactions are likely a good thing for marketers as they allow for more accurate methods for measuring audience sentiment. Richard Sim, Facebook’s director of monetization product marketing, agrees.
“Reactions gives businesses a really crisp way of understanding on a multi-dimensional level how people are feeling about the things that they’re posting,” said Sim.
Twitter First View
Twitter executives have long been trying to return the struggling social media platform to its former glory days, and First View is their latest attempt. The new Promoted Video ad product will allow marketers to own the top Twitter ad in news feeds for a 24-hour period. When Twitter users pull up their newsfeed on a desktop or mobile app the First View video will be the very first thing they view (hence the name). First View allows marketers to drive significant audience reach while driving word-of-mouth buzz. 20th Century Fox is the first company to purchase a First View ad placement. Here’s what Marc Weinstock, President of Domestic Theatrical Marketing for 20th Century Fox, has to say about it:
“Word of mouth is more important than it has ever been in movie marketing. And there is no better word of mouth social platform than Twitter. Twitter’s First View is a great opportunity to widely distribute our trailer for Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates while generating buzz and social conversation. We are able to hit a broad movie-going audience with great video in a way that not just garners views, but actually creates social momentum,” said Weinstock.
Twitter plans to gradually roll out First View to U.S. clients before expanding the program globally.
Instagram Account Switching
Brand managers rejoice! Instagram has just made managing multiple accounts simpler than ever. Whether you’re a small business owner balancing your personal and business accounts or an agency managing multiple client accounts, you can now add up to five accounts with one login. While this is seemingly the smallest of the new features, it’s the most functional. Prior to this update users had to log in and out every time they wanted to manage or view a different account.
To start managing multiple accounts, head over to your profile settings. Scroll down to “Add Account” and enter the username and password for the account you want to add. After adding multiple accounts you can easily tell which account you’re using by checking your profile picture throughout the app.
Have you or your company tried out any of these new features? What do you think of them?