Each time you open your Instagram account or Facebook feed, there it is again — another new feature.
That's one of the best parts about social networks. They keep evolving to become better for businesses like you and the individuals who follow your brand.
And Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest all just announced some significant change to their platforms. Each of these new updates presents your company with new ways to engage current followers and discover new ones. Learn how below!
Searchable Stories: More people beyond your followers can now discover your Instagram Stories. Now, in the Explore tab, you'll see a story recap for a nearby location. For example, you'll see the name of your town, and if you click it, there is a compilation of stories taken at that location. Or you could even find new stories by searching for a specific location or hashtag. At the top of the results, you'll see a clickable story ring that corresponds to that search term.
How your business benefits: For your stories to be featured, they must include one of two things: a hashtag or a location sticker. This new capability for location presents the most opportunity for local businesses. Create and add a sticker for your shop, and add stickers for the town you're in, too. For national brands who often attract new followers using hashtags, this could be another way to reach those new eyes. If your story is featured, you'll get analytics on how many people saw it in the video collection for that location or hashtag.
Improved live streams: All pages and profiles can now add a guest to their live stream videos on Facebook iOS. Here's how to make it happen.
How your business benefits: When you add guests, you add value — plain and simple. Adding a new, well-known face to your live video helps you create richer content. Plus, promoting your featured guest before the live stream will make it more enticing for your audience to join. Your guest will likely be hyping her featured spot as well, so that's double the promo.
Autoplay videos: Less than a year ago, Pinterest added promoted video ads. Now, they're enhancing what they do. Promoted videos will now autoplay in Pinterest home feeds and search results. You could search "rustic overhead light" and discover a video autoplaying of a product that fits that description. Plus, you get better analytics about these videos. You can learn the age and gender of those watching along with how many seconds they watched the video.]
How your business benefits: You can't beat videos on social. They're more successful than images, and people just can't get enough. So, the advantage of your promoted video autoplaying in search results could be huge. People are naturally attracted to moving video, so it draws their attention, making it more likely they'll see your product and forget about the other picture results in their feed. Plus, Pinterest says the more people that watch your video, the less you pay. More on how that works here.
