It seems that every time we log onto our favourite social media platforms there is a change to their layout, functionality and what we have access to on the dashboards. But what are the most exciting (and practical!) changes to our social media platforms and how can you use this to propel your marketing?
Facebook Shops
For most, the recent pandemic restrictions meant that they had to take their business entirely online. This meant that shops which before you would have physically visited, had to be put online which gave people more options, but took away the shopping experience of walking into a shop, and experiencing sights, smells and the feel of things. Then, like a breath of fresh air came Facebook Shops. This slick functionality enabled business owners to put their shops on an already established platform, and the customer could buy directly from them. This functionality has always been here of course, but the update meant that people could buy in confidence without ever having to come away from the Facebook app – a huge tick in the box for user experience.
Top Tip: Make sure your Facebook Shop branding matches (fonts, images and logos) and customise this to match your Business Page.
LinkedIn Voice Notes
Although this has been around since 2018, it’s a feature that many people forget is there. As this is only available on the mobile version of LinkedIn (many people use LinkedIn at work on their desktops), people may not always notice it on the app. However, this is a great way of bringing your personality out on a professional platform, which is usually really hard to do.
Top Tip: Why not drop a few prospects in your network a voice note and see how well it’s received. It will be a nice change to receive a personal note rather than a copy and paste InMail!
Instagram “DM Me” Sticker
In April, Instagram launched a whole new suite of stickers to go on your stories. These have always been fun, but apart from the hashtags and tagging, they haven’t served much of a purpose for getting your customers to interact with you. Introduce the “DM Me” sticker. This now gives your followers a chance to interact with you and take the conversation away from the public domain, and into your inbox, making it easier to personalise the user journey.
Top Tip: Ask your followers to DM you on a story which will invite conversation about your brand. Ask their opinion on something, you never know what you will learn!
Instagram Inbox Organisation
Another great feature from Instagram is the new ability to organise those DMs that you are encouraging! You can now separate them into three categories: Primary, General, and Requests. Meaning that you get to see the ones you want to engage with first.
Top Tip: Get organised and mark those key messages as Primary, and the spam type ones as General. You will get a clear picture of the kind of DMs you get and where to focus your efforts.
Twitter Voice Notes
Not to be outdone in the race to be the social media innovator, Twitter has released the new feature of a voice note. You may not have noticed the “wavelength” icon when you open a new tweet, but this gives you the ability to record a message to your followers. This is a risky move from Twitter, whose “keyboard warriors” up until recently, were able to hide behind a generic handle and say what they wanted, to who they wanted. One word of warning, be cautious with how you use this as a business. As much as people like to hear your voice and hear the person behind the brand, this platform is typically one for interacting in short bursts. However, it will evolve so we will have to see how the landscape looks for this in the future.
Top Tip: Try a sales pitch or an introduction about what your company does as a test for this feature. Remember to have a script in front of you and keep it as polished as you can!
