We’re back with the latest in digital marketing news news! Our favorite social networks have doled out some tantalizing goodies this week. Some of the quieter social apps have also announced impactful updates. Go ahead, dive into this week’s edition of Spark Bites!
- Facebook is testing a new feature called “Your Emoji,” which allows users to overlay an emoji of their choice on their Messenger profile picture. This will be a way for the user to communicate to their friends what they’re currently up to or how they’re feeling. Much like a story, the emoji disappears in 24 hours.
- Facebook is planning to expand its video platform, Watch, in order to directly compete with YouTube. The social giant will open Watch to more individual video creators who can post their content for free and monetize it through ads. It also means businesses will have one more platform to advertise on!
- Facebook celebrated its 14th birthday this week by letting users give their friends a shout-out of sorts. Users could select a template with a tagline and post it on a friend’s picture, resulting in an animation. Taglines ranged from “Always Has My Back” to “Big-Hearted.” Also part of the anniversary celebrations were new friend-themed camera lenses and a handful of short videos. We must say, the social network always manages to come up with creative ways to ring in “Friends Day.”
- Instagram is testing a new feature which lets users “Regram” public accounts’ content to their Stories. The social app decided to test it on limited number of users after it saw an escalating trend of content screenshots being posted to Stories. There is no confirmation yet as to whether the test-feature will actually be rolled out.
- Experts revealed the best time of day to post content on Instagram to drive the most engagement. Results of a study conducted last year said that the most ideal time to post is between 7-9pm. The latest poll touts 11am-1pm as an equally impactful time-slot. However, because every audience is different, our expert team strongly believes in A/B testing and strategizing post schedules accordingly!
- Twitter reported that it had a Q4 2017 revenue of $732 million as opposed to the estimated $686.1 million. Daily active users also reportedly increased 12 percent, and the news subsequently resulted in Twitter’s shares skyrocketing over 20 percent. Looks like the social network had a better close to the year than it expected!
Snapchat
- Snapchat launched a new feature called “Custom Lenses,” that allows users to create temporary, geo-specific AR face lenses for special events like birthdays or weddings. The catch is that it’s a paid feature starting at $9.99. Users can choose animations and write custom captions for the face lens and select the time and location they want it to be available for.
- Things are finally beginning to look up for Snapchat! In its Q4 2017 earnings report, the social app reported an additional 8.9 million daily users which implies a 5.05 percent quarter-over-quarter growth rate. This figure is significantly higher than Q3’s growth rate of 2.9 percent. Although the app saw a heavier monetary loss this year than last, its Q4 revenue is up 72 percent. We’re excited to see what Q1 2018 has in store for the app.
- Google launched a feature called “Your Reminder Ads” that gives users more control over the ads they see. It shows users which companies are remarketing to them and allows them to mute any or all of them. Google has also updated its existing “Mute This Ad” feature to sync and function not only on desktop, but across all devices, as long as the user is logged into their account. These two feature updates will certainly have some impact on display marketers.
- Google+ is launching quite a few features this coming week in a bid to revamp itself. The features will enable users to hide low-quality comments, zoom in on photos and, most importantly, create and join events, much like Facebook!
- Google announced the launch of a brand new Google+ app for Android. Although the design of the new app will not be significantly different from the existing one, it will have functionality improvements. Stream rendering, scrolling, and the photo lightbox are some of the features that will run more smoothly on the new app. We can’t wait to try it out!
Quora
- Quora announced new targeting options for its ad platform. Upon its launch in 2017, the platform was limited to topic targeting. The new targeting options include behavioral and contextual targeting as well. This expansion will open up a new avenue for strategic possibilities for digital marketers.
It sure has been an eventful week! We look forward to leveraging these updates for our future digital marketing strategies. Check out our work so far or contact us to learn more!