Since the start of June, the big social media platforms have been rolling out updates for the benefit of creators and brands alike. With so much change being thrown your way, you might have missed announcements that could potentially help your company attract more attention and increase revenue. But don’t worry, we’ve summarized the big updates and included tips on how you can use the newfound information to improve your social media strategy!

Facebook

To continue its mobile-friendly direction, Facebook added new templates for canvas ads that advertisers can use to create more immersive experiences for consumers. Advertisers will be able to create fully-branded, interactive ads, along with full-screen videos, product information, and other content.

They will be able to pick from three templates that have different objectives:

1. Get new customers: This is a great method for increasing brand awareness and attracting potential new customers!

2. Showcase your business: Great for brands that want to focus on a specific service or product

3. Sell products: Great for brands looking to display their inventory and sell products

How it can help your brand?

The templates have placeholders that advertisers can simply drag and drop their text, photos, or videos into. They encourage creativity and push advertisers to come up with more natural ads for mobile users. If your brand can provide consumers with a positive experience, they’ll be more inclined to view your advertisements and listen to your message. A brand’s priority should be focusing on making the mobile brand experience pleasant for consumers.

Twitter

Twitter introduced DM (direct message) buttons for brands to be able to encourage consumers to take an action. There are currently four buttons that are available for brands, and a brand can attach up to three to a single message. The four buttons will allow the brand to:

  1. Direct people to visit the brand’s site
  2. Post a pre-written tweet by the brand
  3. Follow the brand’s account
  4. Open a DM thread with another of the brand’s accounts

Brands will have the freedom to customize the button’s text.

How can it help your brand?

Companies can get creative with these new DM features, like creating a button with a coupon in a DM that influencers could share with their followers for discounts. This enables an opportunity (CUSTOMER ACQUISITION OR DRIVE SALES FOR BRAND) -> Drive awareness, which is another avenue for driving consumers down the conversion funnel.

Instagram

Instagram is a great place for brands to work together with influencers who have a large organic reach. The issue with influencer marketing on Instagram is that majority of celebrities and brands fail to mention when a post is paid for. Instagram stepped in to fix the issue by creating incentives for brands and celebrities to disclose their sponsored posts.

Instagram creators and publishers will be able to label their posts as sponsored, and their photos, videos, or Story posts will include a “Paid partnership with (brand).” There has been little mention of what types of Instagram accounts will have access to this tagging, but Instagram has been working with a few creators and brands to try out the new feature.

To incentivize influencers and brands to disclose their sponsored content further, Instagram allows anyone who tags a sponsor in a post to do an in-depth analysis of their post’s performance. For the influencer, they can use the data as proof that the brand is getting its money’s worth. For the brand, they will be able to view the reach and engagement stats themselves to evaluate for themselves. This feature will allow both sides to gauge the effectiveness of their sponsored posts.

How can it help your brand?

Brands will be able to calculate ROAS from partnerships with influencers. Both sides can leverage the data to negotiate a fair price. Brands can also test different products with different influencers and measure success with the data Instagram provides. This way, they can separate the partnerships that work from those that do not.

Snapchat

Snapchat is the leading camera platform for young consumers, making it an attractive option for brands to place advertisements on. Advertisers have had trouble justifying the ROAS because of the lack of analytics tools available to them, and have been pressuring Snapchat to help them. Snapchat has responded by acquiring PLACED, a location analytics firm, to help brands attribute digital campaigns to physical store visits and in-store sales. PLACED will help measure the offline effectiveness of advertising on Snapchat. It will complement Snapchat’s other analytics tool, Snap to Store, which is used to help brands understand the effectiveness of geofilters when it comes to store visits and offline sales.

How can it help your brand?

With Snapchat’s new analytics capabilities, brands will be able to see if their advertising efforts on Snapchat actually inspire purchases and brick-and-mortar visits. They’ll have the opportunity to measure the effectiveness of geotags and video content and see if their investment in the platform is paying off.

With these new updates, brands will be able to have access to more data and creative tools to generate relevant and appealing content for consumers. They’ll be able to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements on different platforms by gauging the reaction of the audience and see if they are getting a positive ROAS. Creative content without data is irrelevant, while data without creative is uninspiring. Here at Direct Agents, we believe in integrating data-driven content with creative strategy to help your brand tell a compelling story that your audience can resonate with. Let us help you understand what your customers want through the social media channel, and get you the most out of your marketing efforts.

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