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Another month, another round of updates! This month we’re covering:

• LinkedIn Employee Notifications

• Threads from Instagram

• Snapchat’s 3D Camera Mode

• Pinterest Academy

• LinkedIn Skill Assessments

• …and more!

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Employee Notifications coming to LinkedIn Pages

A suite of new tools are coming out for LinkedIn Page Admins. Most notable: Employee Notifications. This could be a game changer for businesses with employees active on LinkedIn, as it creates a built-in method for alerting team members of selected posts on the company page.

We’ve previously discussed the pros and cons of engagement pods on LinkedIn (which are controversial private groups of people who promise to regularly engage with each other's content), noting that a limited implementation could be a “great opportunity to empower and engage our client’s employee advocates on social.” It would seem that LinkedIn agrees with this assessment!

Note that there is spam protection built-in: once you notify your employees about a post, the feature will be unavailable for another 7 days. (Very similar to limitations in the group notifications feature covered in last month’s updates roundup!)

Learn more about this feature in the LinkedIn Help Center.

Introducing Instagram’s new “camera first” messaging app: Threads

Facebook and Instagram announced a new stand-alone app for visual messaging among close groups of friends. Threads—quickly labeled “Instagram’s latest assault on Snapchat” by outlets such as The Verge—is meant to promote instant sharing of photos and videos plus automatic sharing of information such as location, status, and even things like your speed and battery life.

Here’s an example of the Auto Status feature, that will update as you go about your day:

Messages from close friends will appear in both Instagram Direct messages and Threads for users signed up in both apps.

This focus on direct messaging seems to fit with the evolution of social media in general, as well as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s stated vision of private messaging as the future of the company. TBD on if that vision becomes a reality with the new addition of Threads.

The Threads app is available on iOS and Android.

Snapchat's new 3D Camera Mode

Snapchat’s latest feature “adds depth to your Snaps” by capturing spatial detail that can be manipulated by message receivers who give their phone “a wiggle.” Check out the examples in the video above!

This “3D Camera Mode” is also accompanied by new 3D Effect options in the Filter Carousel.

The feature is rolling out on select phones now, but any phone can receive and interact with 3D snaps.

Pinterest Academy

A free e-learning tool for businesses new to Pinterest is now available. Pinterest Academy offers 9 courses that each take about 2-5 minutes to complete. The topics seem to focus on ads, including:

• Pinterest Narrative

• Creative Inspiration

• Creative Strategy

• Campaign Objectives

• Targeting and Buying

• Setting up a Pinterest Business account

• Planning and strategizing a campaign

• Building and launching a campaign

• Managing and measuring a campaign

This could be a quick, easy way to learn about Pinterest ads for anyone considering the platform.

LinkedIn Skill Assessments

According to the Help article, these are the current available Skill Assessments:

• Tech skills: Angular, AutoCAD, AWS, Bash, C, C#, C++, CSS, GIT, Hadoop, HTML, Java, JavaScript, jQuery, JSON, Maven, MongoDB, NodeJs, Objective-C, PHP, Python, R, React.js, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Scala, Swift, WordPress, XML

• General skills: Adobe Acrobat, MS Excel, MS Outlook, MS PowerPoint, MS Project, MS SharePoint, MS Visio, MS Word, QuickBooks

• Other skills: Maya, Revit

LinkedIn says this feature will help users improve their profiles and become more discoverable for opportunities. It is also meant to help recruiters streamline their candidate search and source talent with more confidence.

For more on the launch of Skill Assessments, see the full LinkedIn Talent Solutions blog post here.

More Links to Check Out

• Instagram’s new @creators account provides tips for creators (TechCrunch)

• New features coming to Pinterest Group Boards (Pinterest Business Blog)

• New ways to control “the Data You Share with Third-Party Apps on Instagram” (Instagram blog)

• The Twitter for Mac app is returning (Twitter business blog)

• Take LinkedIn’s “Plus One Pledge” to help close the “Network Gap” (LinkedIn blog)

• Twitter disables tweeting via SMS after CEO hacked (Mashable)

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 (September 2019) →

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