Facebook Messenger Team Up, How-to Pins, Longer Instagram Videos

Boarding with Facebook Messenger

Boarding your flight with Facebook MessengerIn what could be the first of many, airline KLM is integrating with Facebook Messenger to make it easier to fly. Using Facebook Messenger, KLM passengers will be able to receive their itinerary, flight updates, check-in notifications, get boarding passes and even rebook fights when needed.

KLM previously embraced social media by giving travelers the ability to book tickets via Facebook and Twitter, but this utilization of Facebook Messenger is an unprecedented move and could mark the beginning of a shift in the airline industry. Read more

YouTube Livestreaming App & New Facebook Tools

YouTube competing in the livestreaming market

There could soon be a new kid (app) on the block for livestreaming. YouTube is reportedly building an app it calls YouTube Connect to allow users to stream live video from their devices. This would put the app in direct competition with Twitter’s Periscope and Facebook Live. Livestreaming reportedly coming from YouTube Connect

VentureBeat reports Connect will allow users to log in from Google or YouTube to begin livestreaming and come with chat, tagging and newsfeed functionality. Naturally, videos will be viewable on YouTube as well as through the app. While this sounds intriguing there is one point that is sorely lacking from Connect: a lack of integration with Facebook and Twitter making it easy to share live streams on social networks. Lacking this feature could spell trouble for YouTube unless something can be done to allow access.

Read more

Instagram Algorithm Changes Feed as Engagement, Growth Fall

Instagram algorithm to change what is served first

Instagram AlgorithmThe news that sent shockwaves through the Instagram community this week came as the company announced it would change users’ feeds to display content differently than the classic chronological order.

The company announced the change in a blog post earlier this week, noting that because of the old chronological format many users missed out on seeing lots of content – especially if they followed numerous accounts. The Instagram algorithm will work to shore up what the platform most relevant to users (similar to what parent company Facebook does), but that all of the published content would still be in our feeds.

Instagram Exact Times Read more

Pinterest Ads Open, Facebook Reach Grows

Pinterest ads now open for your business

This week Pinterest finally opened up its Ads Manager to everyone interested in scheduled Promoted Pins. Up until now Pinterest ads were only in the beta phase.

Along with this opening up, Pinterest unveiled more detailed ad targeting tools to enable advertisers to more accurately promote pins. These targeting tools include some items similar to those seen on the Facebook Ads Manager, like interest and customer database targeting. Pinterest has one different type of targeting that may work in advertisers favor though: keyword targeting, which allows the serving of ads up to people exploring the platform using certain keywords.Pinterest Ads

Time will tell how successful these ads are, but Pinterest says people who saw Promoted Pins had a 40% greater awareness of new products and had a 50% higher purchase intent.

While this is great for individual advertisers with one client, Pinterest currently lacks the ability to switch between multiple ad accounts. This means that agencies with multiple clients will need to set up accounts and switch between them for different clients.

Facebook Reach reportedly still surging

Facebook post reach continues to rise, despite recent algorithm changes many expected to take a bite out of reach. Locowise reports the average reach for posts in February was up 5.33% from January.

Locowise also reported an increase in post engagements from January to February, but it will be interesting to see what happens to engagements rates once a full month of Reactions are able to be recorded.

Social Engagement Custom Audiences and Likes vs Favorites

 

Custom audiences by social engagement on posts?

Social Engagement Custom AudiencesFacebook Marketing Strategist Jon Loomer discovered what could be a new targeting tool for Facebook advertisers: the ability to create custom audiences based on social engagement.

Loomer posted his discovery in a blog post noting that when he went to create a custom audience he had more than the regular 3 option types for creating a custom audience. He had one additional option: people who have engaged with your content! This new targeting option does not appear to be an available for the majority of advertisers yet, but opens up some interesting possibilities. Loomer notes that he’s only able to create custom audiences off of people engaging with videos, but it appears the function is built for multiple types of content. Imagine how dialed in a custom audience list could be by targeting people who had already engaged with your content previously!

While Twitter recently introduced a similar feature, something like this has been a long time coming for Facebook. Time will tell when it rolls out for the rest of us and in what capacity.

We heart the Heart more than the Star

Likes over FavoritesMany people bemoaned Twitter’s decision to kill off the Favorite button and replace that with a Like button similar to Facebook. However, the move appears to be paying off for the social network. Locowise reports Twitter has seen a nearly 29% increase in people liking tweets vs favoriting them. The study included 1,500 Twitter accounts over a three month period with more than 2.2 million tweets.

Locowise noted that a big reason for the increase is due to the favorite button being used to archive material for later compared to the like button. That’s in comparison to a like which provides an immediate representation of your approval of something. While Twitter has been struggling in recent months, positive news like this is promising for the social network.

Facebook Launches Canvas Ads and Reactions

Facebook introduces Canvas

Canvas AdsFacebook advertisers now have access to a new immersive type of ad called “Canvas“. While previously available to certain advertisers, the new ad works to open up a full screen experience once an ad is clicked by a user.

This full screen experience is said to load ten times faster than traditional ads. Canvases provide advanced functions for ads like animations, carousels, product catalogs, tilt-to-view images, and videos.

The user-friendly feature is available through Power Editor for all advertisers. Facebook says it wanted to provide everyone with the means to make great looking ads while also elevating the ad content being served to users – from Fortune 500 companies to mom and pop coffee shops.

According to Facebook, 53% of users that open a Canvas view at least half of it, and the average view time is 31 seconds. The top Canvas ads can see more than 70 seconds of view time per user. Read more

Messenger Ads, Algorithm Effects and Presidential Tourism

Trending at TwoSix this week: Facebook Messenger ads, the impacts of Facebook’s recent algorithm update and big boosts in tourism thanks to the presidential race.

Facebook introducing Messenger ads?

Facebook Messenger AdsIf recent reports are to be believed, you will soon be able to create Facebook’s Messenger ads through the app using message threads. TechCrunch reports that starting next quarter businesses will be able to send ads to people who had previously initiated a chat thread with the business. The report indicates that businesses are recommended to try to get more private messages sent to them before the feature rolls out.

While Facebook would not confirm the report and the new Messenger ads, it did confirm that it had launched a URL short link fb.com/msg/ that instantly opens a chat thread with a business, which would be the perfect tool to use for Messenger ads. Read more

Twitter Changes Things Up as User Growth Stalls

Growth stalls on Twitter as the platform changes timelines, adds new video ad feature

Twitter Growth StallsThis week Twitter announced its monthly visitors for last quarter coming in at 320 million – which may sound good until you realize this is the exact same number as the previous quarter. Simply put: the platform is not growing.

This disappointing news comes as the social network’s co-founder, Jack Dorsey, returned last year and began making some big changes to the structure of the company and how the platform operates.

One of these changes includes a tweak to the timeline designed to be more in step with Facebook by placing more content Twitter thinks users will want to see first at the top of your timelines as opposed to reverse chronologically – the way the platform has previously operated. The change is being done in order to allow users who follow multiple accounts to get “caught up” on content they may not want to miss, according to Twitter. If this doesn’t sound particularly appealing to you, there are ways to turn this new function off.

Twitter First ViewMeanwhile, the company also announced (we did tell you they were making lots of changes) a new feature for video ads designed to give advertisers top spot in timelines – as long as they are willing to pay. Called “First View” it allows advertisers to pay more to position their ad at the top of timelines they target. Paying for this feature is limited to select advertisers at the moment, but it will give you that position for 24 hours and not allow users to escape it like they would for Promoted Tweets.

4 blog types to build organic traffic

Content marketers all want to build traffic to our websites, but that’s often easier said than done. Fortunately, there are some easy types of blogs you can create that are good ways to drive visits. According to a recent post by PR Daily, here are the types of blogs you may want to experiment with:

  • Listicles: think Buzzfeed and their “Top 10” types of posts we all click on so much
  • Reviews: we all have opinions and rarely does everyone see eye to eye – which is part of the appeal
  • Thought Leadership: publishing original pieces using your own thoughts and expertise is a great way to generate an audience – so long as you are qualified to write about the topic you choose
  • Infographics: easy to consume yet still very informative and eye appealing – assuming you have the means to create

Infographic

 

Longer Video Ads, Algorithm Tweaks and Air Travel Demand

Instagram rolls out 60 second video ads, multiple account switching

Instagram Video AdsWhile there are several reports indicating our attention spans are getting shorter, Instagram is doubling down on video ads by unveiling 60 second ads that will soon be widely available.

A statement from Instagram said the longer video ads would allow advertisers to tell unique stories that better tell their brand message.

Although only a handful of advertisers would have access to these longer video ads (just in time for a certain big game this weekend…) the wider advertiser base would have access at a later date.

Additionally, some iOS users can now switch between multiple Instagram accounts without repeatedly signing out and signing back in. The feature is already available to Android users, but appears to be a slower rollout (for now) on iOS.

Facebook tweaks the news feed algorithm…again

Supposedly Facebook’s new algorithm tweak to newsfeeds may help increase engagement due to qualitative feedback being used to deliver more relevant content to users. To help with this adjustment Facebook is utilizing a team of tens of thousands of users it calls its Feed Quality Panel to rate experiences every day to help improve what kinds of content is served up and cut down posts we don’t care to see.

Two Facebook software engineers explained that this update should not impact reach or referral traffic for most pages. Declines in referral traffic may occur if “the rate at which their stories are clicked on does not match how much people report wanting to see those stories near the top of their News Feed. This update helps rebalance those two factors, so people are seeing relevant stories to them.”

In short, avoid posting and encouraging actions on your posts which may deliver a short term increase in engagement because “temporary spikes in metrics might then be rebalanced by feed’s ranking over time.”

Global demand for air travel surges

Air travel demandThe dark days of the global recession appear to be only memories for the airline industry. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released the 2015 global passenger traffic results and the numbers are good. The numbers show demand rose 6.5% last year compared to 2014. This marked the best year since the supposed Financial Crisis rebound of 2010.

These numbers were aided by an increase in capacity and all regions experiencing positive traffic growth, but carriers in the Asia-Pacific region accounted for one-third of the total increase.

 

Ad Spending on Facebook, Reactions & Hawaii Tourism

Facebook Q4 ad spending soars

Facebook Ad SpendingWhile the overall economy may not have ad a banner quarter Facebook didn’t have any problem selling ads in Q4 – more than doubling over the same time the previous year. The social network reportedly made $5.64 billion off of ads.

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg noted that mobile placement buoyed the ad spending and now account for 80% of total ad revenue on Facebook. Facebook has a reported user base of 1.59 billion each month.

Hawaii tourism breaks records

Business is apparently good if you’re in the tourism industry in Hawaii. Tourism to the islands reportedly jumped to 8.6 million people last year. That’s up from 4% over the previous year with consumer spending also rising to a record $15 billion.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority reports a rise in direct flights from its biggest sources of visitors (U.S. mainland, Australia and China) helped lead to the banner year for the Aloha State.

Facebook Reactions coming to U.S.

Facebook users have long asked for different ways to engage with posts besides the iconic “Like” button. The social network seems to finally be listening and has announced six emoji, called Facebook Reactions, would be coming to allow users new ways to interact with content.

The new emoji: angry, sad, wow, haha, yay and love were beta tested in different countries but should be rolling out to the rest of the world in the coming weeks.

Facebook worked with sociologists to carefully select the emotions that would be most appropriate for the content people engage with.

Facebook Reactions