OM x BFM is a recap of our monthly podcast with our friends at BFM (Listen to the full episode here). In December 2017, we’ll be looking at a few new features on Instagram as well as an ad buying update from Facebook that we know marketers will like!
1. Instagram introduces Stories Archive & Stories Highlight.
Instagram Stories was born as a type of ephemeral content—here today and gone tomorrow. But with this latest update, Instagram is allowing you to not only archive your Stories, but to also highlight them to all your followers on your Instagram feed.
Until now, any budget invested in an Instagram Story had a 24-hour window to generate ROI or fulfil any KPI decided by the brand. With this new feature, brands will have more control and even greater opportunities to showcase their best moments and key highlights on Instagram.
2. Instagram is testing out regramming function.
Another interesting update is that Instagram is possibly adding a “Regram” button within the app. This would be huge for users and brands alike because it saves the trouble of having to manually screenshot or use third-party apps to repost content.
If you think about it, having such a button would be logical because sites like Facebook and Twitter already have the “share” and “retweet” button. Nevertheless, this is something worth looking out for in the coming year!
3. Instagram allows you to follow a hashtag.
Probably one of the biggest updates this month is Instagram’s new feature that allows you to follow a hashtag just like you follow a user. Instead of having to manually search a hashtag each time you’re on Instagram, you’ll now get automatic updates on your feed from the hashtags you love!
For brands and marketers, it’s time to up your hashtag game. It no longer suffices to just have 30 random hashtags. Instead, get creative and put effort in creating hashtags that will build a following.
4. Facebook introduces more tools for advertisers.
Once again, Facebook has come up a range of new tools aimed at helping brands reach their audiences more effectively.
Dynamic Language Optimization allows advertisers to create a single ad set, while Facebook helps to match users to their preferred language based on location.
Multi-city Targeting gives advertisers the ability to target their ads to different cities, while providing additional insights on the market size of those cities.
Multi-Country Lookalikes helps advertisers to form new sets of audiences not only based on their interests and demographcis, but also in multiple countries.
FB IQ Cross-Border Business Insights Finder shows advertisers comparative data from other countries. That means advertisers will gain insights on what has worked and hasn’t worked for brands in certain countries, allowing advertisers to make better and informed decisions when buying ads internationally.
In general, these new tools are making it easier for businesses to expand and reach an optimized range of international audience. This goes to show how Facebook is continuing on its mission to make the world borderless.
That’s all the updates we have for December 2017. Stay tuned for our special blog post on “The Top 4 Social Media Trends in 2017″ this week!
