Author: austinphinney7

Facebook adds feature that allows users to respond to Instagram messages via Messenger

Facebook announced earlier this week that users will soon be able to respond to Instagram and WhatsApp messages through their Facebook Messenger app. They hope that this will add a heightened sense of convenience with users between platforms. I think this is an awesome feature given that you can’t respond to Instagram direct messages if you’re on another platform besides a mobile device.

Owner of Pavos Extreme, Anibal Fuentes Perez, was selected to be a beta tester for this new software. Perez said that this unified messaging feature helped significantly with customer service issues. “It speeds up my work and has facilitated communication with my clients, especially during busy periods such as Christmas, when I received a large influx of messages,” says Perez.

Mark Zuckerberg announced this unified messaging system alongside his plans to integrate Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. I really think that this feature is going to help out the corporate side of social media, specifically the customer service aspect. Right now, I assume that Facebook customer service personnel probably have to switch between all three different messaging applications when responding to users. Hopefully this integration helps make things a little easier for them. On the public side of things, I also think that users will enjoy having the ability to check all their messages on one platform.

Zuckerberg hopes that this integration program between the three apps is completed by the end of 2019 or early next year. Facebook intends to get this done quickly, so I assume that they are going to do everything in their power to get this update out sooner rather than later.

https://marketingland.com/facebook-pages-will-soon-be-able-to-respond-to-instagram-direct-messages-256708

WhatsApp Celebrates 10 Years Of Connecting Friends And Family All Across The Globe

The popular messaging application “WhatsApp” on app stores worldwide, turned 10 years old this week.

WhatsApp now has over 1.5 billion users, more than 1/6 of the entire earth’s population. One of the perks of WhatsApp is the functionality of being able to message those around the world with only a WiFi connection. In celebration of their 10th anniversary, WhatsApp launched the “first iteration of the WhatsApp Business app” which aims to bring business owners more user-friendly interactions with customers in hopes to maximize opportunities around the globe.

WhatsApp also introduced their own variant of stories, and an ad program as well. This is foreign soil for other messaging companies too. Nobody enjoys seeing ads in their private messages because it’s a private space. I understand why WhatsApp is trying to generate more revenue from its giant user base, but pulling it off will not be an easy task. I’m curious to see if these ads within the messaging component itself will last. Maybe they should look into doing what Instagram and SnapChat already do. Embedding ads into the stories function of the application makes them almost impossible to avoid, generating more money for the company. Ads are a pretty tricky road to navigate, and most users do not enjoy seeing them on their feeds. However, if WhatsApp can figure out a way to embed these ads in a non-invasive way, they will grow exponentially.

I’m excited to see what other features WhatsApp offers next. The amount of growth that they’ve seen in the last decade is truly remarkable. Going from an SMS replacement to the biggest free messaging application in the world is a very respectable feat. Here’s to 10 more!

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/whatsapp-celebrates-its-tenth-anniversary-as-it-continues-to-broaden-its-bu/549137/

LinkedIn Debuts Live Video Feature In Efforts To Increase App Engagement

Earlier this week, LinkedIn announced that the company now supports live video in their app. The announcement of LinkedIn live comes off the tail end of Instagram and Facebook’s live features that debuted in the past. President Pete Davies said that “… live has been the most requested feature”. It’s simple, people enjoy taking a glimpse at other peoples’ lives through live features across social media platforms worldwide. In fact, statistics show that video content performs twenty times better than posts with text alone.

Live will allow more than 600 million users to stream their experience in the professional world. This may consist of keynote speeches, conferences, Q&A’s. In the future, LinkedIn plans to support third-party apps in the future that will allow users to edit their footage that they previously streamed.

I think Live is huge for LinkedIn, especially since it was the most requested update that the company received. In light of other social media platforms introducing live quite a while ago (Snapchat, Instagram/Facebook, etc.). While these introductions were more for social interaction, I think LinkedIn Live provides a way for people to explore other companies in a more formal and professional setting. I think LinkedIn should be cautious about is their regulations in which they allow users to stream. LinkedIn does a great job of providing a strictly professional social media service to its users. The last thing that they would want is for their Live feature to become just another casual social media site. Not that I think that it will happen, but I think that they should stay on top of it before it becomes an issue.

https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2019/02/linkedin-makes-its-debut-in-the-live-video-space/

“The egg” becomes the most-liked picture on Instagram

Earlier this month, a new Instagram account surfaced with the goal of becoming the most liked picture on social media, ever. Chris Godfrey, the man behind the account, posted the picture with the caption “Let’s set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram. Beating the current world record held by Kylie Jenner (18 million)! We got this.” Well, it happened. To this date, Godfrey has over 52 million likes on the photo, almost tripling the previous record.

Godfrey works for an advertising agency in London. Which probably helped his project up and running so quickly. Since being posted, the egg has since been aired on a Super Bowl ad and a Mental Health advertisement. The ad shows the egg being cracked from all the “pressure” it’s been receiving. It then goes on to say “If you’re struggling too, talk to someone.” All in all, the world record egg ended up getting more attention than originally anticipated. But, even if the success was a fluke, it still worked.

Eventually, I could see more and more people trying to break this record in the future. But as of right now, I just don’t see it happening. When I was in high school, the most liked picture on Twitter was a selfie that Ellen Degeneres posted that gained only 3.3 million likes. At that time, I thought that there was no way that a picture could get more than that. But here we are, 5 years later, with a picture that has close to 55 million likes. I am curious to see what the next big picture will be. But, for now, we must wait and see.

https://twitter.com/theellenshow/status/440322224407314432

https://www.standard.co.uk/tech/person-behind-record-breaking-instagram-egg-post-revealed-to-be-london-advertising-creative-a4056636.html

DELTA faces backlash for “creepy” napkins distributed on flights

This week in Social Media, Delta is facing backlash after a creative collaboration with Coca-Cola. Originally the campaign was targeted to encourage passengers to communicate with one another, rather than continue to promote a culture that is strictly focused on themselves.

Delta distributed the napkins on their airplanes these last few months. The napkins had spaces for names and phone numbers to be exchanged if someone felt lead to pass one to a neighbor. However, some people went on social media and voiced their disgust for this idea on twitter saying that it was “disgusting” and “creepy”. Others, however, thought it was a great idea. Some people appreciated Coca-Cola’s attempts at trying to connect others with the real world. Todd Bernstein voiced his opinion on Twitter, saying that he sees nothing wrong with trying “to get people to actually interact with each other outside of their phones…”. I agree with Todd. I think that it’s a great idea to get people to get out of their comfort zone and start communicating with one another.

I don’t think that Delta should necessarily apologize for these napkins, but rather just an explanation as to why this is a good idea. Our culture is raising a generation that does not know how to truly associate with their peers without messaging them on their phones first. I truly think that this is a great move from Delta and Coca-Cola. I applaud their efforts to try and get people to talk to one another again, even if they are a stranger.