4 Important Changes to Facebook & Instagram in 2019 Not To Miss
We cover the latest announced changes to Instagram and Facebook as announced at the F8 conference and how brands will be affected on the platform.
The game just changed!
This year at the F8 Facebook developers conference Mark Zuckerberg and his team announced the latest changes to their products, and gave us a glimpse at what the future holds for Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.
If you use any of these for your business: keep reading to find out what's changing and how it will impact the way you use these social media platforms.
Here's the lowdown:
They have turned Instagram on its head, with beta tests hiding the “Like” button and adding in-app checkout features.
Over at Facebook, the news feed is being sidelined in favour of groups and other “meaningful content” and huge safety updates change the architecture of the site.
"The future is Private" was the main message from Mark Zuckerberg's keynote speech.
Mark Zuckerberg introduces the new safety features during the keynote speech.
Are they still patching up their post Cambridge Analytica reputation, or is this a new dawn for the social media titans?
One messenger to rule them all
It's been hinted at for a while but at this year's F8 conference we learnt more about the plans to integrate Facebook Messenger, Instagram's messaging service and Whatsapp.
The change might not be obvious at first, as the backend infrastructure of the different messaging apps are brought into line. The end goal will be to have a consistent experience across the board. It'll be easier for people to keep track of all those different conversations.
This is great news for businesses of any size who want to communicate directly with their customers. As more users than ever are reaching out to brands through messenger services. Facebook acknowledged this in their press release.
"To date, there are over 300,000 active bots on Messenger, and over 8 billion messages are exchanged between people and businesses each month; that’s 4x the amount of messages exchanged since just last year."
This trend will only rise. Make sure you have someone or something there to answer those messages to avoid losing customers who have their wallet out, but just need to check something. A simple FAQ bot can help convert leads that would otherwise be lost to paralysis by analysis.
Facebook gets a facelift
Facebook have also announced a fresh new look for their site. Promising a "simpler, faster, more immersive" design.
The feel of the site will be more in-line with the mobile experience with bolder buttons and a complete overhaul of the landing screen with groups and stories taking centre stage.
This is part of a drive to have more meaningful content on the site. Facebook has been under fire for the amount of 'Fake news' and articles that are not relevant being regularly shown.
This is why they have decided to prioritise groups. Focusing on building communities that will engage more users and generate content that people can relate too.
So what does that mean for businesses?
Gone are the days where you can hope to create viral content that will be shared across everyone's feed. Especially if it is not paid advertising.
It's not all bad news though. Businesses of all sizes can use the groups feature to create their own community. It should be a priority for you to create your own group page and start building a fan base. Competitions, early access and member only discounts are just some of the tactics a company can use to create a group, that adds value to the members.
There is also the option to make your group private. This might sound counterintuitive to the marketer who wants to get the biggest reach for their announcements, but you can use one of the best psychological tricks in social media marketing: FOMO or fear of missing out.
Everyone wants to get in to the VIP room.
Limiting access to those who sign up to a mailing list, visit your website or even buy your product, can create a super engaged audience of people who choose to listen to what your saying.
And an attentive audience is every marketers dream.
Like, where’s the “Likes”?
Instagram has long been worried about how it makes its users feel. The Head of Instagram - Adam Mosseri - said at F8 they were focused on creating a “less pressurized environment where people feel comfortable expressing themselves.”
They found the “like” feature can create anxiety in the users, as their posts are judged and ranked against their peers.
Have you ever felt like deleting a post that got only a couple of likes after 48 hours?
Yeah me too, who wants that on their feed?
Instagram are already running a beta test of this in Canada, with the amount of likes being visible only to the poster.
Example of hidden likes from the Later blog
This will change how influencers and businesses work together. No longer will people have the bragging rights of how many likes they get, visible for all to see. Perhaps the herd mentality, of liking an already popular post, will also change.
Vanity metrics, such as likes or followers, are always hard for businesses to quantify. Sure our post got 10,000 likes but which of those converted and actually bought the thing being advertised.
Only time will tell if the heads at Instagram decided to keep this change. However, as marketers, it does tell us a lot about their thoughts for the future of the site. Like with the introduction of the stories, they want to get users to share content without feeling the social pressure of a popularity contest.
We have to be able to relate to this in order to keep our customers engaged. This could be as simple as a story giving a behind the scenes look at our product or a post of the office team breakfast.
Don't make everything a hard selling, customer converting post, sometimes a more casual update will make your brand more human.
Checkout while you check out
Instagram has introduced an in app checkout. This means that users will be able to buy the items they see on posts, directly in the app, payment details and all.
This is a huge move for the platform that is already considered the birthplace of new consumer trends. Mega-users such as Kylie Jenner have been using the site to showcase their own style, and brands have been desperate to get a slice of that exposure.
Generation Z (people in their early twenties or younger) are especially interested in what their social media idols are wearing. Mintel reports that 64% of these users say that social media influences what clothes they will buy.
The team behind Instagram have tried to make the flow as seamless as possible with the item being tagged just like a user would be.
Instagram have made a seamless checkout experience in their app.
Currently this is being beta tested with a number of big brands in the US, but once it's rolled out for other business accounts it will be a huge change to how marketers use the site. It will also give some figures for us to quantify conversions and ROI data for social media marketing spend.
Even small businesses which typically rely on sites like Etsy or Made It to sell their products could find new avenues to reach customers.
And no more of that awkward 👉LINK IN BIO👈.
Finally!
What's not to like?
This year’s F8 was action packed for sure!
With increased personal security, better ways for businesses to stay in touch with their customer base and easier ways for users to purchase the brands they love it’s all good news.
If you want to geek out over the details or find out more information about anything above: I recommend you head over to the official F8 website. There you will find the keynote speech and some of the planned changes that are less business focused.
As always if you are looking for some more advice and want some advice on how to create a #winning social media strategy then drop us a message on our contact form below.
