Welcome back to another Smorgasbord of Social Media, your weekly roundup of all things social. Here’s the latest in social media news:
Facebook Messenger Enables Payment Feature
Tired of Jerry McGuire asking you to “show me the money?” Fret no longer. Message him on Facebook and with 3 easy clicks you can send him what you owe. Although not currently available everywhere, Facebook Messenger has begun rolling out the application in many major US cities. Even though money still doesn’t grow on trees, receiving some could be as easy as opening up an app.
Restaurant Reviews
Yelp may need some help once this feature goes live. Facebook continues to dominate as a social platform, striving to become a one-stop shop for all things social. They are currently testing an integrated critic review feature available when users search or visit restaurant pages. Currently, restaurants have control over the content that is on their page, but Facebook is giving back users their freedom of post. Although restaurants can still delete any negative wall posts, they will be unable to delete reviews.
Businesses May Be Messaging You On WhatsApp
Thanks to Facebook, businesses may be able to say ‘Whats up?’ on WhatsApp. Great for customer service issues, but I’d prefer not to wake up to a message from my cable company asking me if I enjoyed the movie I watched the night before. This feature is still in the early stages and is aimed to enhance the business-to-consumer communication- NOT to bog down your inbox. That’s what email is for!
Trying To Win Us Back With ‘Highlights’
EMAILstagram. For the first time since Instagram’s launch nearly 5 years ago (yes, it’s been that long), Instagram wants you to know that they love your selfies- sort of. Adopting Twitter’s reengagement process, Instagram will begin sending out emails to all users with ‘What You’ve Missed’ since the last 40 seconds you checked the photo-sharing app (maybe that’s just me) to get users posting and checking the social platform more frequently. Curse you Instagram for drawing me back to the app where I’ll once again spend countless minutes stressing over the perfect filter.
Tweets Become More Searchable
Having to type in Twitter.com while you’re already on Google to search what’s trending? Now that’s a first world problem. But luckily, you’ll no longer have to. Whatever or whoever you’re interested in looking up on Twitter, you’ll now have access to that information directly on Google. Any Google search will now bring up related and trending tweets on the subject. This has the potential to greatly increase the accessibility and speed of disseminated information for both twitter and non-twitter users.
Cinematic Pins
Rich pins just got richer. Pinterest has GIF’d wrapped their Promoted Pins for marketers, introducing new Cinematic Pins. Controlled through scrolling, these motion-based pins are sure to catch your thumb. Watch the video below to see just how these new Promoted Pins show up on different boards!
