On June 22, Facebook hosted its first-ever Facebook Communities Summit in Chicago. This event was a gathering of hundreds of group admins. The Summit was kicked off by Mark Zuckerberg who shared his gratitude for the role Groups play in the Facebook Community and for the group admins who lead them.
One of the biggest announcements that rolled out during the Summit is that Zuckerberg introduced a new mission for Facebook intended to guide it through the next decade: Give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.
As part of this initiative, Facebook announced several new features to help Groups grow and make managing Groups easier for the admins. Here’s a highlight of some of the newest features:
Group Insights: is bringing real-time metrics into Groups to allow Admins to follow growth, engagement and membership.
Membership request filtering: For some of the busiest Groups, admitting new members one-by-one can be very time consuming. Facebook is now allowing Admins to filter membership requests by common categories and then will allow them to accept or decline memberships all at once, instead of individually.
Removed member clean-up: Admins will now be able to not only remove a toxic person, but also remove all of the content they’ve created within the group. Even better, they can do this all in one step.
Scheduled posts: Group Admins and moderators are now able to schedule posts.
Group to Group linking: This feature is still in the testing phase but will allow Admins to recommend similar groups to their members, as a way to bring communities and sub-communities together.
Globally, there are over 1 billion people currently using Facebook Groups and over 100 million people are part of groups. Facebook has clearly set its sights on immersing itself more fully in Groups and there’s got to be a monetization strategy in there somewhere. Facebook hails the Summit as a big success and mentions more meet-ups in the future. Facebook NewsRoom
The video below shows what the new Group metrics look like:
Snapchat continues to prove its permanence in the Social Media App world with its acquisition of social map app Zenly. After acquiring Zenly for $250M to $350M, Snapchat introduced a new feature, Snap Map, which is based on its Zenly investment.
Snapchat will keep Zenly running independently in the same way Facebook allows Instagram to run independently.
So, what is Zenly? It’s an app that allows users to see where their friends currently are on a map using constant GPS in the background, which allows users to message friends to make plans to hang out. The app was started in Paris, has 4 million downloads, and is mostly used by teens.
With most of Snapchat’s features being aggressively copied by Instagram and Facebook, it was wise for Snapchat to expand in to the social utility space which helps people meet up offline. This move could open up Snapchat owning two apps that appear on people’s home screens. TechCrunch
Instagram rolled out a new feature called “Paid Partnership” and this is what you need to know.
Influencer marketing is a popular marketing tactic and the boom in Influencer marketing has brands of all sizes forming paid and unpaid partnerships with influencers and then using social platforms to spread the message. The problem is that many influencers, including celebrities, are regularly failing to meet disclosure requirements established by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Instagram is working to combat that problem by announcing a change that will affect brands and marketers who are engaging in paid partnerships with influencers on Instagram. Soon, there will be a new tag for posts and stories that are part of paid partnerships. Similar to the feature Facebook implemented last year, the tag will say “paid partnership with”.
In its announcement, Instagram stated “The relationships people form on Instagram are what makes our 700M+ community so unique…As more and more partnerships form on Instagram, it’s important to ensure the community is able to easily recognize when someone they follow is paid to post content.” So, what does this mean for brands and marketers? Here are two of the most significant takeaways:
The feature was created to enhance transparency and credibility. Businesses are looking for ways to be transparent with their followers when they have a partnership and this new feature will honor that. Another bonus is that enhanced transparency will help brands better comply with the requirements of the FTC.
One of the best perks of this rollout is that brands and marketers will have access to data on influencer posts that are tagged. This is a huge benefit, allowing brands and marketers to have data and insight into the real impact of influencer marketing.
Thank you to Marsha Collier for the share.
What You Need to Know About #Instagram‘s New ‘Paid Partnership’ Feature via @toprank #marketing https://t.co/MVWG0MAbnd
— Marsha Collier (@MarshaCollier) June 22, 2017
Pinterest prefers users not use Pinterest. What??? Unlike every other social network, which wants users to spend as much time as possible immersed in their platforms, Pinterest President Tim Kendall expressed a desire that’s just the opposite. In fact, in a recent discussion with Marketing Week, Kendall mentioned that his goal for Pinterest is to figure out how people can spend the least amount of time using Pinterest in order to most effective achieve their goals. That means creating a delightful discovery experience where users are inspired by an idea or concept they then can then go away and make into reality.
Borne out of a belief that in a world with many people addicted to their smartphones, Kendall’s vision is that Pinterest should be a catalyst. It should be able to make people’s lives easier instead of adding to the stress of living in an always-on environment. More specifically, Kendall is focused on trends that show people are spending more time on their phones but are less happy, with higher levels of anxiety and depression.
Rather than measuring how much time in-app users spend, Pinterest measures “time well spent” which is the return based on the amount of time a person spends on the platform. Kendall and team are hoping to be able to measure how often someone finds a great idea on the site, and then goes and does it. That explains the company’s new product called ‘tried it’ which allows people to indicate things like what recipes they have cooked or crafts projects they have done.
Kendall wrapped up his comments by stating “As leaders of technology we need to be thoughtful about the kinds of services we’re building in terms of the impact we’re having on people’s lives. If what we’re building is making you have more anxiety, that’s not great.” Interesting. And quite a different POV than what we see/hear from other social networking platforms. Marketing Week
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