Welcome back to another week of Spark Bites, your source of weekly social media updates! We’ve got some tasty treats on the menu for you today: Facebook is releasing a video ad program called Spotlight and giving Android users some more privacy, Snapchat has updated their Explore education courses, and Instagram is introducing donate stickers in stories and Instagram TV previews in your news feed! So sit back, relax, and enjoy the social media news we’ve prepared for you.
Facebook:
With Facebook Watch allowing users to watch an ever-growing amount of video content, including original series and popular programs like Red Table Talk, Facebook is now introducing a premium video ad program called Showcase. This program will allow advertisers to upload high-quality video advertisements that can be viewed on Watch, as well as on your Newsfeed or on specific Pages. Spotlight is currently only available to advertisers targeting U.S. markets.
In a previous Spark Bites post, we noticed that Facebook was getting a bit clingy with Android users, but it looks like they’ve decided to back off a little bit and give them some space. There is now an option for Android users to turn off their Background Location. Apple users have already had three options to control their location sharing: to share always, to share only when using the app, and to share never. With this new security measure, Android users can enable location sharing while using the app, but prevent Facebook from tracking their whereabouts when it’s not in use… great job, Facebook!
Snapchat:
Do you want to better understand what Snapchat advertising can do for your business? You’re in luck! Snapchat has updated its Explore education courses, originally launched in 2017, to include courses on how to use Snap Ads to better promote your business on the platform. These courses educate users on everything from ad format to audience targeting and analytics. In addition, Snapchat updated its Snap Ads accreditation program, which is an excellent way to demonstrate your exemplary platform proficiency. So go ahead, go back to school!
Instagram:
Instagram unveiled a new feature for the fundraisers in your life. They announced that Donation stickers will soon be available for use in your Instagram stories, accompanied by a search engine to link your favorite charities to the stickers! Your followers will be able to click on the sticker in your story and donate whatever they’d like to…money-wise, that is!
Instagram is also adding features to their long-form video service, IGTV. Previously, users were only able to view your content if they went on IGTV, but now a preview of the videos will be played on users’ news feeds. The previews are also linked to full videos on IGTV, so they are easy to view. Instagram hopes that this will increase the number of users viewing IGTV, as well as the number of creators using the platform. So watch out for IGTV popping up in your newsfeed!
That’s all we have for you to nibble on today! Come back next week to sample more Spark Bites.