Social Media News May 2021

May 5, 2021

Tips on effective brand use of LinkedIn Stories 

 LinkedIn Stories, yes or no? According to Andrew Hutchinson from SocialMediaToday, it’s hard to tell if LinkedIn Stories are catching on yet, and whether they should be a consideration within your platform approach. Of course, it provides a deeper connection and showcases more of your brand, but there is still the question whether the format really fits on the professional social network. Nevertheless, LinkedIn has provided some general tips which might convince you to use the Story format more often. ​ 

 

1.Educate your audience ​ 

 Brands should provide educational, insightful notes within their Stories. ​ 

 Here’s an example of how Adobe used LinkedIn Stories to share insights from their Digital Insights report:

       

2. Highlight your products​ 

 Stories can be a good opportunity to showcase your products and features in a creative and not too ad-like way. LinkedIn suggests that brands take a ‘member-first mindset’ when approaching their product presentation.​ 

     

 3. Add a human touch​ 

 The more casual and natural your Stories are, the easier it gets to build a brand community. This is important for differentiating your company and building stronger relationships with your audience. Also, don’t forget to @mention relevant employees and customers in your Stories. ​ 

Ernst & Young let their interns take over their LinkedIn Page and post Stories on their behalf: 

       

4. Share event updates​ 

 LinkedIn Stories are handy for sharing information about upcoming and ongoing events and help boost awareness and buzz.​ 

 

5. Share bite-sized information​ 

 Don’t bombard your audience with too much information. Upload a series of Stories with videos, pictures and text instead. Also, include a CTA with a swipe-up link to additional resources at the last Story frame.​ 

 The example shows how Pfizer makes a complex subject simple while giving viewers the opportunity to dive in further if they’d like: 

 

6. Find ways to interact with viewers​ 

 Stories can also be another way to boost community engagement, via interactive content like a quiz. Ask yourself these questions: “Will this really compel someone to pause and think? Would I want to if I were logging on to scroll my feed?”​ 

 

Facebook introduces soundbites, podcast integration & audio chats​ 

 

Facebook is fully committed to audio and wants people to consume audio content on the platform. As mentioned in the April Newsletter, Facebook is not the only network that integrates audio content (e.g., Twitter), but you don’t see it to this extent on any other platform. According to Jan Firsching from FutureBiz, Facebook has unveiled several audio content integrations that go beyond the functionality of Clubhouse and also Twitter Spaces. 

 Facebook Soundbites: 

Soundbites are short audio bites that can be shared in the Feed. Facebook is working with creators to test the acceptance and functionality of Soundbites. The audio content can also be edited with effects such as voice distorters and is intended to be not only informative but also entertaining. 

 

 Podcast integration: 

Facebook has several podcasts of its own and podcasts are shared on Facebook pages and in Facebook groups. However, the podcasts cannot be played directly in Facebook. So, you have to leave Facebook, and this is where Facebook’s new podcast integration comes in. Creators will again play an important role here, but Facebook will also provide various tools for companies that have their own podcast, so they can distribute new episodes as effectively as possible. 

​​ 

Facebook Live with audio chat rooms: 

Facebook Live will be enhanced with audio chats and will be available for Facebook and Facebook Messenger. There will be public and closed audio chat rooms. Audio events can be announced and shared. There will be an overview of upcoming audio chats in the groups and on pages that use the feature. As it is known from Facebook Live, interaction with the content will be very easy. 

 

New advertising options 

 

Facebook has newly announced new topic targeting options within Facebook In-Stream video, testing of Instagram Reels ads and other ad experiences in Facebook Stories to help increase opportunities for brands to better engage with relevant audiences.  

 

In-Stream advertising: 

Over 2 billion people watch Facebook In-Stream eligible videos every month. To help advertisers find the right environment for their ads, a global test has launched on April 22nd which gives advertisers new targeting options. With the help of machine learning, advertisers can now choose between 20 different topic categories. There are top categories such as sports and subcategories such as basketball, swimming or golf. Advertisers can choose between these in the ad manager. With the more precise classification into categories and subcategories, the ads reach more interested video viewers. Instead of advertising only in sports videos, a baseball bat manufacturer could use the “Baseball” subcategory for its ad. On the other hand, the brand safety features also allow users to select content next to which they do not want their own ads to be displayed. 

 

 Instagram Reels Ads: 

The day has finally arrived, where Instagram starts testing Instagram Reels Ads in India, Brazil, Germany and Australia. According to Instagram, 90% of people follow a business on the platform, and people are already embracing Reels to discover new creators and businesses. Due to the high reach that Instagram currently grants Reels, videos can be seen by significantly more people than Stories. Especially since Reels are also viewed by Instagram users who don’t follow you. From the test run and the reaction of the users, Instagram will work on further functions.  

Similar to Story Ads, Reels Ads are played between other Reels in full-screen mode. They can be up to 30 seconds long and people can like, comment, save and forward them. Also, users have the option to simply skip the ad. 

According to Aniko Milz from Onlinemarketing.de, the first companies to test Reels Ads are BMW and Westwing. Let’s see how this goes! 

 

Sticker Ads for Facebook Stories: 

In the next weeks, Instagram will be testing custom Sticker Ads for Facebook Stories with selected advertisers and creators. These ads allow creators to monetize their Facebook Stories with ads that look like stickers and receive a portion of the resulting revenue. Creators can choose from a selection of different stickers and integrate them into their story. Stickers are clickable and lead the user directly to a landing page. If a purchase is made there, the creators receive a share of the revenue.  

 

Facebook adds scheduling for stories and business discovery options 

 

Great news for all social media managers! In April, Facebook announced some new features for its Business Suite management platform, including Stories scheduling for Facebook and Instagram, and some new business discovery options for the News Feed.  

 

Stories scheduling: 

According to Andrew Hutchinson from SocialMediaToday, the new option will enable users to compose and schedule Facebook and Instagram Stories. The scheduled posts will be displayed on your content calendar within the Business Suite app.  Also, Facebook will now enable all Business Suite users to save their posts as drafts, adding even more planning flexibility for your Stories approach. 

 

 Business Discovery Option: 

In addition to the Stories upgrade, Facebook is also adding a new business discovery feature in the form of related Page recommendations below posts in the News Feed. The content will be shown below posts when users take some time to look at news feed updates. The users can then scroll through a new feed with similar content.  

Facebook has been trying topic-based recommendations for some years now, but this one focuses on business discovery. According to Facebook, the new recommendations will show up under feed posts related to topics like beauty, fitness, clothing and restaurants. At the moment the feature is being tested with a small group of users.

 

 Author:
Johanna Leffers