Another month, another round of updates…

There were compelling updates coming out from most of the big platforms this month, including a new privacy tool from Facebook, a live-streaming upgrade for Twitter, and a desktop app for Pinterest. Let’s check it out!

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Facebook is rolling out a “Clear History” privacy tool

Following last month’s declaration that “Privacy is the future,” Facebook will soon begin rolling out the long-awaited “Clear History” tool and is warning advertisers that it will affect some targeting. Outlined by news outlets such as Marketingland, the official announcement includes a reminder that this was actually announced last year (it’s true!) and describes the change in terms of user transparency and control.

What is it?

AdAge described it most succinctly:

It will allow users to delete data that the social network gathers from websites and apps outside of Facebook, and no longer use that data for advertising.

Here’s how it works

Starting in July, users will have the option to anonymize their data so the history of the websites and apps they’ve used will no longer be associated with their account.

“When someone disconnects their off-Facebook activity, we won't use the data they clear for targeting. This means that targeting options powered by Facebook's business tools, like the Facebook pixel, can't be used to reach someone with ads. This includes Custom Audiences built from visitors to websites or apps. Businesses should keep this in mind when developing strategies for these kinds of campaigns in the second half of the year and beyond.”

The effect this will have on your business will depend largely on how much your targeting relies on targeting that is powered by users’ off-site (meaning off-Facebook) activity. It’s safe to say that many businesses will be impacted, especially if they have invested heavily in Facebook Pixel-based ad campaigns. This could be retargeting users who visit your website or even targeting users who Facebook has categorized based on other websites they’ve visited.

While this should be a positive move for Facebook in the long-run (this is clearly designed to make people feel more comfortable with Facebook) now is the time for brands to plan for potential declining returns from certain ad strategies.

There are some other hints in the announcement about things to come, especially that Facebook plans to make advertising practices easier for users to understand. Stay tuned!

Twitter introduced a guest feature for livestreams

Twitter is rolling out a new feature allowing up to three audio-only “guests” to join live video streams.

Go live with guests! It’s more fun than talking to yourself. We promise. pic.twitter.com/CB5qSLebwq

— Twitter (@Twitter) May 29, 2019

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

This could be a great way to further engage a Twitter audience during live videos. You can invite guests onboard for a live Q&A, or with a little planning, you could have pre-approved guests join in to create a more interesting video for your fans.

Learn more about going live on Twitter in this Help article.

Read Our Free 2019 Trends Guide »

Story highlights coming to Facebook profiles

Facebook has begun allowing Facebook users to save story highlights to their profiles. This feature appears to be identical to story highlights on Instagram and continues the trend of Facebook integrating all the successful parts of its Instagram Stories product into the main Facebook application.

TBD on if (when!) this feature will appear on brand pages. Let us know if you spot it!

Pinterest introduced a desktop app for Windows

If you’re an avid Pinner on a Windows machine, this one may be great news for you… Pinterest recently announced a desktop app built as a Progressive Web App (this is nerd-talk for a user-friendly and speedy way to build a mobile website that is more mobile app-like). It’s now available through the Microsoft store.

The Pinterest Engineering blog does a good job of selling the benefits of this app for Pinteret’s business: it extols the value of reaching the hundreds of millions of Windows 10 devices worldwide and the positive feedback they’ve received from users who can now find “inspiration outside the browser.”

And Venture Beatmentioned that the app comes built with Pinterest Lens, “which taps computer vision to detect objects in the real world and suggest related items.”

Cool!

LinkedIn rolling out an improved Jobs hub

LinkedIn announced that they redesigned the LinkedIn Jobs page that includes instant Job Alerts to find out about jobs matching your criteria in minutes and streamlines the Job hunt experience on LI into a “single search and scrolling model.“ It also “unlocks” Salary Insights so you can research pay-potential of different roles in various markets without needing to give them information about your own job title and salary.

On the hiring side, LinkedIn announced that the Jobs, Recruiter, and Pipeline Builder tools are now located in a single platform that also includes a “screening questions” feature.

And coming soon: Skills Assessments

“Skill assessments give members the ability to assess, validate, and showcase their skills to more effectively stand out. They will also serve as a tool for recruiters and hiring managers to reliably vet candidates.“

IGTV now supports landscape video

Last year, Instagram introduced IGTV to house longer-form video content. We’ve seen this feature become more prominent overtime, with Stories previewing a video and allowing users to seamlessly jump over from their feed to the IGTV side of the app. Yet IGTV still hasn’t caught on in the huge way that it seemed IG was hoping for when it was announced as a YouTube competitor last year.

With the introduction of support for horizontal videos, the Insta team is hoping to bring more content-creators to the IGTV platform—and a bigger audience with them. (Check out this great breakdown from Social Media Today for more analysis.)

More Links to Check Out

• Bitmoji comes to Venmo (Venmo blog)

• Instagram lets you see what it thinks you like, and the results are bizarre (Mashable)

• Why Brands are Turning to Spotify as the Next Big Social Platform (Buffer blog)

• 8 content marketing mistakes that reduce conversion rates (Twitter blog)

• What Businesses Should Know About the Upcoming Tool for Managing Off-Facebook Activity (FB Business Blog)

• Top Pinterest Trends for June 2019 (Pinterest blog)

• 10 Tips for Creating Engaging Social Media Videos (Sprout Social blog)

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Catch up on last month's social media updates (May 2019) →