It’s update time! New and helpful features have been added to some of the most popular social media apps. These features include Snapchat Memories, Twitter’s Periscope and Instagram’s ad post feature.
Snapchat Memories
On July 6, social media’s ephemeral app, Snapchat, introduced a new feature to its platform: Memories. Memories allows Snapchat users to retrieve saved stories from the past and repost them any time. It’s organized into tabs, where you can see your saved snaps or images/videos from your phone’s camera roll. The search feature allows you to find memories with ease, tagging snaps with categories like “outdoors,” “food” and “people.”
Memories is a significant shift toward the app’s growing status as users’ default camera. Also notable is the app’s recent explosion into the “over-35” age demographic.
Twitter and Periscope
Earlier this year, Twitter took its integration with Periscope to another level – while you could formerly link to the Periscope app and stream live, Twitter has made the transition easier by integrating Periscope’s broadcast directly into Twitter. Now without even downloading Periscope to your phone, you can stream live to your followers. This will allow for faster engagement and provide a quick solution to instantly and effectively spreading messages to followers.
Instead of letting their Instagram posts trickle to the bottom of the news feed, businesses can now turn their most popular Instagram posts into advertisements. By adding a CTA and selecting a target audience, posts will be visible for any chosen length of time. Targeting by age, gender and interests allows the user to increase engagement while also gaining new followers.
In contrast to the traditional digital advertisements Instagram allows, these sponsored posts are more affordable for smaller businesses. Traditional Instagram ads can cost as much as $1 million to run for one month, while the cost of sponsored posts is primarily determined by the types of businesses promoting their posts (non-profit versus retail). Businesses can choose to charge by CPC, CPM or CTR, and these posts can cost as little as $0.14 per click.
With apps constantly changing, users and organizations that adopt new features can greatly benefit from them. Check these features out for yourself and let us know what you think!
