It is inspiring to see how the online platforms are developing new features and functionalities to address main business issues to lend a hand for the users to continue supporting their favorite brands all the while when the world is making an effort every day to stay resilient through the economic crisis we are dealing with now.
Here you may find a few of those online platforms that have come up with updates during this challenging time to keep you up-to-date.
Instagram :
Instagram is one such platform that keeps on adding and removing features round the clock. Even in this distressing time, Instagram is developing rapidly to maintain its pace with the users. The recent updates of Instagram are as follows,
Stories Caption Sticker: Transforms your words into text.
Instagram came up with this new feature that changes the way your stories and reels are viewed. Caption stickers are the feature that enables you to feed texts for your stories through voice command; in other words, this feature converts your verbal speech into writing. This update is ideal for people with hearing difficulties and those who prefer no sound while watching video content. Instagram is working on making this feature available for languages other than English.
Turn off audio and video on Instagram live.
Considering the discomfort of several people while broadcasting themselves with sounds and visuals, Instagram announced this new feature which enables users to turn off their video and mute their mike during Instagram lives, making the live stream very similar to audio chat rooms. This feature is available for both android and iOs around the world. Hence, the host will not be able to mute or turn off cameras for the other participants in the live chat.
Remix option to reels
The new feature allows users to add other people’s content with theirs and accordingly make a unique mix comprising the footage of both accounts. This remix option will be enabled by default in every public account, but the user will be able to turn off this option if they desire anonymity. Also, this feature allows the original creator to receive a notification whenever someone remixes with their content.
Instagram Insider – Digital Magazine
Now Instagram has launched its own digital magazine called Instagram Insider. Users will be able to find all the latest trends on this platform. At present, Instagram Insider is available to the users in PDF form, and it consists of all the top creators capable of inspiring the readers. As an additional attribute, at the end of the magazine, Instagram includes answers to frequently asked questions about the platform, such as the questions related to profile verification and hashtag-related questions.
Being one of the biggest social media marketing platforms, Facebook is updating day by day, and these latest features from Zuckerberg’s team are must-know for the marketers. May has brought us news about Facebook’s ad review process works, information about the impacts of the safety features on Facebook, new Instagram Insight tools, Live shopping Fridays, and new tools for Asian and Pacific Islander Businesses.
Ad Policy Review Process
Facebook recently broke down how their ad review process works to increase transparency, which is highly informative. Everyone knows that Facebook’s system hunts through every ad we submit and reviews before running it; despite such rigorous efforts, some scams make it through in one way or another. Hence, Facebook is likely to take actions such as suspension or banning the advertisers who constantly violate their policies.
Facebook revealed the effectiveness of the platform’s safety and integrity measures.
Many Facebook users have been worried over the past few years about Facebook’s use of their personal information and the issues with the transparency, hate speech, and misinformation strolls within the platform. Most of these issues still prevail and impact the users; luckily, Facebook’s updated platform’s safety and integrity rules positively impact the users and the brands. Hence this creates a more safe and positive platform for everyone.
New tools for Asian & Pacific-Islander Owned Businesses.
From May 17th onwards, Facebook has invited users and businesses to encourage the Amplify API program. Also offering content and training opportunities customized to API-owned small and medium businesses and also devoted to spotlighting and showcasing the small businesses around the API community.
Live shopping Fridays
Facebook has announced “Live Shopping Fridays.”, functioning every Friday from mid-May to July 16th. This live shopping allows beauty and fashion brands to go live and showcase beauty and fashion products and offer tutorials in real-time. These streams are available on the participating brand’s pages, or you can browse them in the Shopping tab. The users can buy the featured products by tapping on them while watching the live streams, and they can purchase without leaving the app.
This American business and employment-oriented online service add new profile features to address the Career Gaps on the user’s profiles. Users can now address gaps in employment history with profile options to point out life events such as parental leave or any sabbatical. From now the Freelancers and self-employed individuals will be able to list their career status in their profiles.
New Job Titles
The users will have the option to add a new type of job titles to their profiles that accurately displays their roles such as, “Stay-at-home mom,” “Stay-at-home dad,” or “Stay-at-home parent.” Also, LinkedIn plans to add a new field in user’s profiles, especially for the employment gaps, with options such as “Parental leave,” “Family care,” or “Sabbatical.”. LinkedIn explains why these options have nothing to do with the stigma associated with career gaps but to address how pandemics made millions of parents prefer children over their careers.
Google came up with several updates that expand the capabilities of various existing features in May. To start with, the travel product updates for vacation rentals and hotel booking extensions have rolled out from Google. Google has made few changes to help both the searchers and advertisers following the eccentricity of last year. Therefore, travel and tourism-related businesses are awaiting a dramatic increase in search volume and bookings because of the eagerness to travel after the lockdown.
Also, the company is eliminating the spend threshold for the Customer Match feature, which is more helpful to businesses. The Google Ads Insights page obtains a new Demand Forecast that predicts changes in the search behavior over the next 90 days. Performance Max campaigns are rolling out as an open bata worldwide. Businesses using Google Merchant Center or Manufacturer Center can use their product feeds in Video Action campaigns and Discovery Ads. Both the Video Action campaigns and Discovery Ads will support the ROAS bidding from now on.
Google is extending the platform’s shopping integrations to cover retailers. Integrations with more e-commerce platforms are rolling out to allow retailers to display their products for free across Google. Google is also testing a new checkout experience that shows shoppers all the purchasing options provided by a merchant.
