New business ‘blast’ tool trials on FB Messenger
Facebook has built a new tool to further monetise Messenger. It lets small businesses blast a message (sales or otherwise) to anyone who has already chatted with them on social.
The service is free right now and easy to set up, however Facebook intends to start charging for this very soon, with pricing dependent on the number of users who are being targeted, similar to the way its ads service operates. To deter spam, Messenger is putting a limit on the number of messages that can be sent by a business. The targeting will only select from users who have previously engaged with the business.
More here
Voice status updates coming to Facebook
Facebook is also trialling using voice clips as status updates, offering a new way of posting on social to individuals and brands.
There is no time limit to clips and users can preview them before posting. Hands-free posting taps into the movement towards voice-activated internet and smart speakers.
It also widens the scope of the type of content that can be posted and opens up new possibilities for brands to interact with consumers.
More here
Instagram calling?
Voice capability of a different kind is being considered by Instagram, which is reportedly looking at adding voice and video calls to its social app.
Insta already has live stream options, but now there may be multiple new ways to connect in real time.
With personal connections between individuals now overtaking mass communication as the preferred way to use social media, Instagram is following in the path of Snapchat, which already has a calling option within its app.
More here
Read it later on twitter with Bookmarks
Twitter is letting users bookmark content to catch up on later, using its new bookmarks feature.
This removes the public act of ‘favouriting’ a post which was previously the only way of saving something from your timeline to go back to at a later date. This made the original poster aware of your action as well as everyone else who chooses to view the original tweet.
Bookmarks are being rolled out globally by twitter, across all platforms.
More here
Brands still worth a follow on twitter, say users
Twitter continues to be a social space where the public is happy to accept brands and even actively seek them out.
New data from the social platform shows that three quarters of twitter users follow brands on the platform.
Six in ten users say they are keen to give their opinion while using twitter, while more than one in four see it as a great place to find out about promotions and deals on offer from brands.
More here