3 Major Social Media Updates that Changed the Way We Interact with our Followers

Throughout the course of 2016, we have seen some major changes to social media that have impacted the way we engage with fans, customers, and followers. Twitter increased the character count, Facebook unveiled Facebook LIVE, and Instagram added shopping tags. These are the most popular social media channels today and the impact of these changes was felt by users, marketers, and business owners alike. To better understand what these changes meant for business, in regards to marketing, I’ve outlined a few key impacts for you.

Facebook LIVE

Facebook LIVE might be the biggest of the three changes. Being able to stream video live from anywhere in the world (with cell reception) is just incredible. Although periscope has already been on the market for quite some time, Facebook LIVE has mastered the art of LIVE streaming in connection with marketing efforts, mass media, and vlogging. With access to your entire database of Facebook friends and their Facebook friends and their Facebook friends, etc. etc. there is no limit to your reach. The another benefit of Facebook LIVE is the real-time engagement with you fans, customers, and followers. During the live stream, you will see ‘like’ icons float across the video and comments instantaneously. You can reply to comments either by speaking to that person directly or replying in the comments section. Having the ability to answer questions instantaneously is a game changer for streaming webinars, conferences, and live events.

Twitter Character Count

The character count allowed by Twitter has been increased to 140 this year. When is comes to marketing, the expanded character count allows you to say more to your audience and to start a dialogue or give more description to target specific personas. Being able to add a few more words can be the difference between two different targets, instead of having to send a vague and generalized message to your Twitter audience. For example, if I am targeting my clients and my client's customers, I need to have a different message to each of them. It is easier to customize the verbiage to differentiate with a larger character count. Another benefit of the increase is being able to share links to content and still having enough room to include a customized message.

Instagram Shopping Tags

When you are perusing your Instagram feed you may start to notice that you can click to buy on certain retailers ads. For small businesses and specifically retail business, these shopping tags will add another dimension to the sales process and can ultimately produce conversions that you might not otherwise get. Just like tagging friends in your photos, retailers can now tag articles of clothing in their ads with links that allow you to click through to their shop page. This feature is currently in development for android users and video ads and has only been available to a select group of iOS users. The feature comes at no additional cost to the retailer and is being used by some big brands such as Kate Spade and Warby Parker.

As you can see, 2016 has been a big year for advancement in social media. With the digital age growing stronger and stronger it is important to keep up with the times and understand how you can leverage social content and digital media in you businesses marketing campaign. For a better understanding of what that means for you, chat with one of our experts at Revenue River Marketing.