Here’s your weekly dose of Top 3 Social Media Updates.
Wow. So much has happened in the world of social media this past week. Facebook has finally jumped off the fence concerning the labelling of state-backed posts, Twitter has announced its built-in scheduling tool, and Pinterest makes the path to conversion even easier for its users.
Facebook adds labels to state-backed media posts
Following the calls for political transparency on its platform, Facebook has begun to roll out the labelling of state-controlled (or backed) media outlet posts. The move is an attempt to combat interference in state elections such as the widely publicised Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2018 and the US 2016 elections.
Facebook has said that the labels will appear globally on Pages, and in the Page Transparency section from this week and, in the US, the labels will also start to appear on posts in the News Feed. To ensure full transparency, the social media network will also begin labelling ads from these publishers later in 2020.
You can read the official update, here.
“We’re providing greater transparency into these publishers because they combine the influence of a media organization with the strategic backing of a state, and we believe that people should know if the news they read is coming from a publication that may be under the influence of a government.“
Facebook.com
Twitter announces built-in post scheduler
Twitter made the announcement we’ve all been waiting for this week, a native Tweet scheduler! Despite being able to schedule Tweets via the Twitter Ads platform, a native scheduler within the main platform has been a long time coming.
Most social media professionals have been using third-party apps to schedule Tweets such as Hootsuite, Sprout, and my preferred platform, Loomly (get a free trial for Loomly via my referral link). However, it will be interesting to see how many of us jump ship to the native scheduler – personally, I don’t think I’d have time to hop around to each native scheduler which is why I use a third-party tool in the first place.
Pinterest makes it easier to purchase products
Pinterest has further cemented its position as an eCommerce platform with the addition of a ‘Shop’ tab within its visual search results (known as Pinterest ‘Lens’). The fnew eature will make it easier for users to find buyable items based on their image search.
“As more retailers come online and bring their products to Pinterest, we’re making it easier for Pinners to shop with their camera. Over the years we’ve greatly improved the results that appear when you snap a photo with Lens camera search, to match related suggestions and products to buy. There are 3x as many visual searches using the Pinterest camera than last year.“
Pinterest.com
To use the new tool, just click the camera in the search bar, take or upload a photo, and you will be presented with a ‘Shop’ tab. The new tab displays a feed of shoppable Pins based on the in-stock products Pinterest has identified with the image. Every Product Pin shown will link directly to the checkout page on the retailer’s site.
You can get the full scoop on the new feature over at the Pinterest Newsroom.
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