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Welcome to This Week In Social, your one stop for the top five social media stories from the past 7 days. Facebook have been busy focusing on the e-commerce branch of their empire this week, alongside releasing their State of Small Business Report. We’ve summed up everything you need to know in this blog, but if you’re hungry for more we have linked to sites that explain in a bit more detail.
Ventura produce a This Week In Social update every week, so catch up on any you might have missed by clicking here. Staying on top of social media updates and trying the newest features keeps your social profiles fresh, so let’s jump into this week’s news…
This week Facebook have launched Shops, their new push into e-commerce which includes a shopping tab on Instagram and shoppable live streams. Shops will be free to create and is set to provide multiple new e-commerce experiences for businesses small and large. Shops will be a section of a business’s profile but will also be available in Stories and promoted in ads on across the Facebook network.
Facebook are also testing 3D product images in Marketplace. Gone are the days of buying a fridge with dents in it, fully check over goods before purchasing them using the new 3D feature. Of course, AI plays a big role in the process of creating these new features, read Facebook’s announcment blog for details.
Instagram launched Guides this week. As we all know, mental health is a huge part of day-to-day life and during the pandemic social media networks have taken it upon themselves to reach out to users who might be struggling. Guides is Instagram’s new feature focusing on well-being content. In the coming days Guides will show in your Explore tab in the Instagram app, and creators will be able to connect with organisations to share resources promoting positive mental health and taking time for yourself. Keep an eye out for Guides and let us know what you think of the new feature!
This week Pinterest have launched new “Shopping Spotlights” to highlight product recommendations from fashion influencers. As we reported in This Week In Social’s gone by, Pinterest is upping their e-commerce game. Their latest feature, Shopping Spotlights, will showcase a selection of Pin products chosen by your favourite fashion and style influencers. In their latest announcement blog, Pinterest revealed that with the new feature “you will be able to easily shop curated ideas based on current Pinterest trends…with the feel of a personal stylist and the look of an editorial magazine”.
YouTube has relaunched its premium ad offerings as YouTube Select. YouTube describe YouTube Select as “a reimagination and unification” of existing products for premium advertisers. Similar to Google Preferred, the idea is to give advertisers access to a higher quality of creators and publishers on the site. However, YouTube Select is also introducing a package focused specifically on YouTube content which is streamed to TVs (due to the number of people watching YouTube content from the TV app is increasing, as we reported last week). In their announcement blog, YouTube reveal that “with YouTube Select you can be confident that your ad buys are brand-safe. You’ll have access to advanced brand suitability controls, as well as the option to only serve ads on videos that have been machine classified and human-verified across all lineups.”
Facebook has launched a new State of Small Business Report outlining how SMBs in America are fairing during the coronavirus outbreak. A survey of 86,000 owners, managers and workers with less than 500 employees displays “an economy in crisis” which “has not eliminated a sense of optimism. Facebook claim that this is the first of an ongoing series tracking the progress of SMBs. Read the full report here.
