In social media news this week, Instagram wants to extend video upload limits, Snapchat wants to seamlessly sell tickets, LinkedIn wants your #feedback and Facebook boosts its Marketplace.
Instagram are thinking of extending the time limit on users’ videos posted on the social site. At the moment, people can only share videos that are up to sixty seconds long. The time extension could really up Instagram’s video hosting game and make it a competitor among Snapchat and Youtube as a place to upload longer, more engaging content. We wonder how long the restraint will be stretched to – we can all only take so much of other people’s summer fun before getting some serious FOMO.
Snap Up Your Concert Tickets
SeatGeek and Snapchat have joined forces to help users buy tickets for their favourite artists’ gigs and to support their football team at away games directly through the app. This means that users can swipe up on Stories and buy tickets straight away – they do not even have to leave the app to purchase.
It will be interesting to see what alliances form with other companies as Snapchat begins to push the boundaries on traditional marketing and advertising.
LinkedIn Wants to Hear from You
LinkedIn has created a new feature that asks users to follow hashtags that relate to things they are interested in. Consequently, whatever a user decides to pick refines their own news feed. LinkedIn is aiming for users to personalise their feed, so they have a more unique, personal experience on the social media site. Optimising your feed with relevant hashtags means you see more of what you like, and less of what bores you. The hashtags were originally there, but LinkedIn is putting a large emphasis on picking what content you want to see and using the hashtags as a way to do this.
Give Your Old Coffee Table a Boost…
Advertisers are used to boosting posts for promotions on business pages, but Facebook are finally letting users promote their own listings on Marketplace. The process will be simplified and will run like a normal ad – buyers will have to set their budget and choose how long they want others to see the advertisement for. The target audience cannot be made as specific as it can be on a normal ad but will be limited to people nearby who are over the age of eighteen. However, if someone does click on the link, Facebook will aim to reach those similar to that user in the hope that more people click through to the advertisement. The promotion will stop if the product is sold before the time’s up.
This is great news for those who want to sell their cupboards, but not for those who hate ads.
