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In this month’s social media roundup:

• Facebook and Instagram announce "Shops"

• Twitter's retweet counts now include RT with Comment

• LinkedIn 's new ad targeting criteria

• Facebook's hidden "view collections" feature

…and more!

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Facebook and Instagram Launch "Shops"

Both Facebook and Instagram are rolling out a new eCommerce feature meant to help eligible businesses build an online store to take advantage of the extensive FB network.

The “Shop Builder” will be an extension of Facebook’s Page tools where admins can load product info. Plus, businesses with existing catalogs can connect straight to platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce. The shop will be free to set up, but according to Forbes, there will be a charge ($ amount TBD) for each transaction.

On the user side, it looks like it’s going to be easier than ever to make a purchase without needing to leave whichever platform you’re using, from the feeds of FB and IG, to DMs on Insta, WhatsApp or Messenger.

Learn more

For more information about shops visit Facebook for Business. To enable the feature on Instagram, check out the IG setup guide.

Note: The Shops feature is rolling out soon, and will not be available to everyone at first. Keep your eyes peeled for more info soon!

Your Retweet Count May Be Going Up!

Starting on iOS, a Tweet’s retweet count will include both basic retweets AND retweets with comments. This update also means users will be able to see which is which in a new listing within the tweet detail. (See video in the embedded Tweet below.)

This is a welcome change, as previously any “RT with Comment” was counted as a unique Tweet. This made accurate engagement metrics impossible for many marketers.

Don’t miss the Tweets about your Tweet. Now on iOS, you can see Retweets with comments all in one place. pic.twitter.com/oanjZfzC6y

— Twitter (@Twitter) May 12, 2020

This update also comes as Twitter has also been tweaking the feed interface for a cleaner threaded conversation display that includes “lines and indentations that make it clearer who is talking to whom and to fit more of the convo in one view.”

As The Verge beautifully said: we will need to wait to see how these updates stand up “to the unrelenting chaos of Twitter in the wild.”

New Ads Criteria Spotted on LinkedIn

LinkedIn ads have been improving over the years (especially after LinkedIn was acquired by Microsoft in 2016). Improved targeting is one reason that more businesses are considering LinkedIn ads. These newest targeting features may be especially helpful to B2B brands:

• Company Growth Rate - “Allows you to target companies by their rate of growth year over year, determined by factors such as employee or revenue growth.” (This is especially valuable because most advertising platforms do not have the employee numbers data that LinkedIn owns.)

• Company Category - “Allows you to target companies by custom segments such as S&P 500.”

How could this be useful to you? AJ Wilcox, for Search Engine Land, offers a number of ideas such as excluding negative growth rate companies for ads pushing products likely to “exceed traditional budgets” or targeting the Fortune-500 with enterprise-only offers.

For more info on LinkedIn ads, download the Targeting on LinkedIn PDF.

How to use "View Collections" on Facebook

Have you ever wished you could save interesting Facebook posts or ads that come across your feed in order to reference later on? Well, Facebook has a built-in “Save Links” feature just for you! Similar to a Pinterest board, this feature is essentially a bookmark that places the post in a designated area of your account. You can even group your saved links into “Collections” similar to a Pinterest board.

Here’s how to save a link:

• On the post you want to save, click the three-dot menu button.

• Click “Save Link.”

• Afterward, you can click “Add to a Collection” to further categorize the bookmark.

To find your Saved Links and/or Collections later on:

• Desktop: Go to facebook.com/saved or click “Saved” on the left side of News Feed.

• Mobile: Click the hamburger (three-line) menu, then click the “Saved” item.

We’ve found this to be especially helpful for brainstorming content with clients. When we come across ads in the feed, we’ll save them to a client collection for reference later on. Bonus: when you click ‘View Collection’, Facebook will also show you similar items to what you’ve saved.

Learn more in the Facebook Help center.

More Links to Check Out

• Navigating your community through race and social issues (FB Group Admins blog)

• A collection of anti-racism resources (Webby Awards)

• How YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, And More Platforms Are Responding To The George Floyd Protests (Tubefilter)

• Facebook is buying Giphy and integrating it with Instagram (The Verge)

• COVID-19 Response Toolkit (Mailchimp)

• Facebook’s “Calibra” digital wallet renamed to “Novi” (FB blog)

• FB now labeling "State-Controlled Media" (FB blog)

• Facebook's Workplace, now with 5M paying users, adds drop-in video Rooms and more (TechCrunch)

• Facebook's new “manage activity” tool will let you delete old posts (Vox/Recode)

• How AI is transforming the way people shop (FB tech blog)

• Supporting Well-being with Guides on Instagram (IG blog)

• Twitter's Adding a New Prompt on Retweets When Users Haven't Opened the Link (Social Media Today)

• Facebook introduces Avatars, its Bitmoji competitor (TechCrunch)

• How Twitter decided to label Trump's tweets (Washington Post)

• Twitter brings Fleets, its version of Stories, to India (TechCruch)

Looking for More Social Media Help?

The expert team at Dooley Social Studio helps brands get attention by being thoughtful about how they give it. Our goal is to make every social interaction with your company a remarkable one. Get in touch to find out how a partnership with Dooley Social Studio can grow your brand.

Catch up on last month's social media updates (May 2020) →

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