The major digital companies stay at the top of the pile through constant changes and improvements to their service. Facebook, Instagram and Google have all recently updated their offerings to the benefit of advertisers and users alike.
This week we’ve taken a look at changes to the popular Instagram and Facebook Stories, as well as Google’s valuable new support options for their rich results testing tool.
Instagram Allows Users to Re-Share Content from Other Accounts as a Stories Post
A new addition to Instagram is the ability to re-share content from other accounts as a Stories posts. The addition has been in testing since early this year and is now widely available – simply tap on the paper plane icon that appears in the reaction section.
From this point, you can either share the content with a single recipient through direct message, or add it to your Story as seen below.
By sharing someone else’s content as a Story, that person will be automatically tagged. You can also add stickers, GIFs, drawing or text to the Story as you normally would be able to.
This feature only works for public Instagram accounts for obvious reasons. Many users are disappointed that you still can’t re-share content within your actual feed, and it is unclear is Instagram are working on this feature going forward.
Pages Can Now Run Ads Within Facebook Stories
Facebook Stories was launched 14 months ago, but we haven’t heard a great deal from Facebook about the reach of the program until now. The social giant recently announced that 150 million people use Facebook Stories daily, which is a strong enough audience to allow for successful integration of advertising.
Instagram was reported to have more than 300 million daily users late last year, but Facebook Stories are popular enough in their own right. Facebook recently started testing Story ads in the United States, Mexico and Brazil – at present, ads are 5-to-15 seconds long and can easily be skipped by the user.
For the time being, Facebook Stories ads are simply about exposure – there are no click-throughs or calls to action available, but Facebook plan on improving their offering once they see how well it is received.
Events, Movies and TV Shows Now Supported by Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool
Structured data markup can now be tested for events, movies and TV shows thanks to Google’s new feature. These features add to the rich results testing tool’s ability to test recipes, courses and job postings.
Rich results are types that are more detailed than standard blue text links, and may include things such as carousel images and other non-textual elements. Tools such as this essentially allow site owners to structure data in such a way that Google can read the markup.
Site owners looking to validate their efforts can refer to Google’s guidelines on the subject. While there are only a few types of rich results at present, Google are regularly updating in this aspect and are looking to add support for many more in the near future.
Form a New Financial Year Strategy with Studio Culture
June 30 is just around the corner, and for many businesses the new financial year is a great chance to re-assess and try new marketing strategies.
Studio Culture offers a range of social media marketing services for businesses looking to appeal to new audiences. To make a connection with our team, give us a call on 1300 200 113 or contact us online.
