Are you keeping up with social media changes?
As a business your choice of which social media channels to use might be the key to success when it comes to genuinely communicating to your audiences. Do you focus on Facebook or Twitter or should you blanket campaign through all available platforms with the same message?
Understanding which channels your audiences use and how best to communicate to them is top of the list when planning your online business strategy, but what is less common is keeping on top of the new features that can boost your reach.
Recent activity by two major players in the world of social media apps has sparked my thinking, both have made changes to their features with surprisingly little fanfare, or at least to those who don’t regularly read the industry news.
Twitter has finally implemented the long touted changes to its policy on how its 140 characters are devoured by the inclusion of additional information. You can now include images, gifs, and re-tweet quotes with no effect on your characters, leaving you free to be more specific about your campaign. That said, images or videos embedded outside of Twitter still hit your character limit.
Instagram too has launched changes that have been much talked about and said to be ‘Coming Soon’ or having a staggered release to accounts. As a business, Instagram has had little charm in helping build audiences and in turn conversions.
Since it was acquired by Facebook, it was only a matter of time before it started taking on more of the business and advertising models that its parent company has long worked at.
Now any Instagram account intended for business campaigns can be officially converted to a business account. Once converted a contact button will appear near the top of your profile. Clicking that button presents options like Get Directions, Call and Email, depending on the contact information you provide.
In addition, and similar to Twitter, the familiar bar chart icon offers insights into your post and audience activity – providing you with the information to make more informed campaign planning decisions.
In a world where everyone strives to stand out in a never-ending social media frenzy, keeping on top of new advancements should be high on the priorities of anyone charged with running their businesses digital activities. Just don’t expect those changes to be handed to you on a silver plate!
So, what’s the call to action? Well, to really be on top of all your digital media it’s worth allocating a short but regular slot in your schedule for research. Reading selected news feeds such as Mashable, ClickZ or Digital Trends daily or weekly will keep you up-to-date with emerging tech and social media advancements.
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