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Backslash Week 11 – News of the Week

We share our knowledge of online marketing, digitalization and entrepreneurship with you – read about the latest trends of the digital world, webdesign and SEA strategies or even get tips and suggestions for your social media presence.

Week 11 has ended and a lot of interesting things happened throughout this period. We’ve got some fascinating news for you. First, we cover the topic of the new Instagram ’Scheduled’ sticker which is currently in testing. Later on, we mention that Reddit is trying out a new feature as well called ’Mod Notes’ to provide more insight on users. Google has also added new inventory packages to support media diversity, so we summarized the key points. Moreover, YouTube is adding new features to its live streams like full-screen mode and live guests. Lastly, we provide a few insights on Snapchat’s new ’Custom Landmarkers’ update.

Be sure to read on.

PROMOTE YOUR UPCOMING EVENTS WITH THE NEW ’SCHEDULED’ STICKER ON INSTAGRAM

Instagram is reportedly testing a new ‘Scheduled’ sticker for Stories, which can be used to promote future events. The new ‘Scheduled’ sticker lets you share a reminder for your events in your Story, along with a direct link to your events listing so you can choose which exact event to promote.

 

As part of the initial setup process, you could promote upcoming events in Stories and the main feed, but there’s currently no way to simply re-share and re-promote them once they’ve been set. The Countdown sticker can also be used to promote excitement, although it does not have a direct link to the event itself.

 

There are workarounds, such as combining the countdown sticker with the link sticker to bring visitors to pertinent information, but this new option is better integrated and especially linked to direct, streamlined event advertising in the app.

 

That might be a fantastic way to raise awareness for your events, and most probably musicians and other performance-based artists will find it extremely useful in terms of driving more direct traffic and promotion. Companies will also be able to re-promote forthcoming releases and events using the sticker, and there are a variety of uses that could benefit your goals.

 

As long as you don’t use it excessively. Like, people will get the concept, you won’t need to re-share reminders of your celebration each day, but it could be a useful cue to keep it in mind with your audience.

 

The new ‘Scheduled’ sticker is now available in the latest version of the app for selected users.

REDDIT’S ’MOD NOTES’ IS IN TESTING TO PROVIDE MORE INSIGHT ON USERS

Reddit has started an interesting experiment in which it gives advice and ratings to subreddit participants, giving them additional context about how they’ve contributed in the past.

 

Reddit has launched a new test of ‘Mod Notes,’ which allows moderators to submit useful notes and tips that are subsequently attached to a community’s user profile. A complete history of notes and mod actions are given to a user within a given subreddit is also available in Mod Notes.

 

According to Reddit:

 

“The profile hovercard will be your home base for accessing Mod Notes and any moderator with Manage User permissions will be able to utilize it.”

 

It’s not meant to be a public-facing information source, but rather to provide moderators with more information on every individual user and their activities within the group.

 

Moderators can assign one of five labels to each subreddit member: Helpful, Good Contributor, Spam Watch, Spam Warning, and Abuse Warning. This gives you more options for weeding out potentially troublesome contributors as well as recognizing top performers for their ongoing contributions.

 

It’s an intriguing concept that might provide Reddit, and possibly other platforms looking to adopt something similar, another way to provide more context about each member.

 

Twitter’s Birdwatch initiative, which allows users to write notes on problematic tweets to provide more background, is doing something similar. Twitter took that effort to the next level earlier this month, allowing certain users to see Birdwatch annotations from other users on specific tweets.

 

Reddit’s Mod Notes aren’t open to the public, so it isn’t the same, but it takes a similar approach in allowing users to provide context and oversight to contributors in order to weed out dubious posts and individuals.

HERE ARE THE NEW GOOGLE INVENTORY PACKAGES TO SUPPORT MEDIA DIVERSITY

With the ability to pick ad placements on Latino and Women-owned publisher websites for Display & Video 360 campaigns, Google has added a new opportunity to assist minority-owned publishers.

 

The alternatives build on Google’s multicultural inventory indicators, which were introduced last year for Black-owned publishers, and will provide marketers new opportunities to give minority-owned sources more attention.

 

According to Google:

 

“When accessing Marketplace, you can find inventory packages with attributes that feature inventory from Latino- and Women-owned publishers. We use those same attributes to make it easier to discover publishers owned by individuals from these communities, so you can add these properties to your media plans.”

 

As a result, you’ll notice some new icons on chosen units when searching through your auction packages for placement. Advertisers will be able to support multicultural publishers in a new way, as well as have greater influence over placement and bidding in this environment.

 

Having more resources to invest in a broader, more diverse selection of perspectives also aims to guarantee that support is dispersed more evenly online, as most media websites are sponsored by advertising.

 

The additional indicators can be found in your Display and Video 360 auction packages.

TAKE A LOOK AT THE NEW YOUTUBE LIVE STREAM FEATURES

YouTube has teased several upcoming YouTube Live changes, including live stream guests, new notifications for when a channel is streaming in the app, and additional viewing options.

 

To begin, on live guests – YouTube will soon debut a test program called ‘Go Live Together,’ which will allow creators to invite a visitor to their live stream by simply emailing a link, similar to other live alternatives.

 

According to YouTube:

 

“The host creator will be able to create a live stream, invite and screen their guests before going live to their viewers. Note that the guest channel and user information will remain hidden during the live stream.”

 

Streaming analytics will be available to hosts, just like any other live stream, but viewers will not have access to this data at this time. The ability to go live with a guest might relieve stress for a solo artist, as going live when it’s just you and your camera can be scary. Adding the ability to invite others will assist to increase the number of people streaming, which may result in more creators monetizing their video via YouTube’s developing ad systems.

 

YouTube is also introducing new ‘live rings,’ which will allow users to see when a channel goes live. The new ‘Live’ ring works similarly to Instagram in that it provides a unique identification when a channel is live, allowing you to tap through to view the broadcast.

 

YouTube is considering implementing a new function known as ‘cross channel live redirection.’

 

Currently, creators with at least 1,000 subscribers can use a tool called live redirect to direct their viewers from one live stream or premiere to another on their own channel. They can’t, however, direct their viewers to another channel’s live stream or premiere. Creators with at least 1,000 subscribers and no active community guidelines strikes will now be able to direct their audience to a live stream or premiere broadcast on a different channel with this launch.

 

This expands the app’s capacity for joint promotion and could make it a useful tool for influencer collaborations.

 

Furthermore, YouTube is working on making Live more full-screen, as well as developing a new Q & A tool that will allow viewers to submit questions based on the creator’s question prompt during a live stream.

 

These new features are similar to those we’ve seen in other live-streaming platforms, but they could be much more useful on YouTube, and it’ll be interesting to see how producers react to them when they become more commonly accessible.

 

The Go Live Together and Live Rings features will be available in the coming weeks, while the other updates will be available soon.

SNAPCHAT IS WORKING ON ITS AR EXPERIENCES AGAIN

With a new Custom Landmarkers option in Lens Studio, anybody can create a location-locked AR experience, Snapchat is giving advertisers another method to use its AR Landmarks feature.

 

According to Snap:

 

“In 2019, we started with templates of 30 beloved sites around the world which creators could build upon called Landmarkers […] But there’s an infinite number of places for our AR creator community to build anchored, location-based Lenses – ranging from experiences that are entertaining, educational, or can even help businesses grow.  Today, we’re launching Custom Landmarkers in Lens Studio, letting creators anchor Lenses to local places they care about – from statues to storefronts – to tell richer stories about their communities through AR.”

 

Landmarkers allow developers to create location-specific AR experiences by combining digital effects with existing real-world infrastructure.

 

Custom Landmarkers will allow you to design your own AR effects that are tied to any location, so you could, for instance, develop an AR graphic that expands on your store brand or uses AR to convey your company’s story.

 

That, of course, necessitates a certain level of technological know-how; but, you could collaborate with a Snap developer to create a personalized AR experience, giving you even another option to communicate with your audience.

 

Snap is also creating its own AR-enabled glasses, which might make the experience much more lucrative and entertaining in the near future. People will soon be able to see your new AR designs and features just by glancing at your storefront in AR – or you can display special discounts, items, and more. Snap claims that Custom Landmarkers will be discovered by actual Snapcodes at the landmark or on a Lens Creator’s profile for the time being.

 

It may not be a priority for many brands right now, but it might become a lot bigger deal in the future, so Snap is wise to seize the opportunity now and offer new opportunities to start building in AR.

FINAL WORDS

We truly hope you’ve learned something new today and become more familiar with the new features and updates of Instagram, Reddit, Google, YouTube and Snapchat.

Would you like to know more? We are always here to help you out! Feel free to contact us any time! Stay tuned, archetype!

References:

Hutchinson, A. (2022, March 21). Instagram tests new ‘scheduled’ sticker for stories to remind your audience of upcoming events. Social Media Today. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-tests-new-scheduled-sticker-for-stories-to-remind-your-audience/620762/

Hutchinson, A. (2022, March 21). Reddit tests ‘MOD notes’ to provide more insight on users and their contributions in communities. Social Media Today. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/reddit-tests-mod-notes-to-provide-more-insight-on-users-and-their-contrib/620769/

Hutchinson, A. (2022, March 21). Google ads new inventory packages for ad campaigns to encourage support of media diversity. Social Media Today. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/google-ads-new-inventory-packages-for-ad-campaigns-to-encourage-support-of/620750/

Hutchinson, A. (2022, March 18). YouTube adds new live stream features, including live guests, full-screen mode and more. Social Media Today. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/youtube-adds-new-live-stream-features-including-live-guests-full-screen-m/620665/

Hutchinson, A. (2022, March 16). Snapchat adds new ‘custom landmarkers’ to build location-linked AR experiences. Social Media Today. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/snapchat-adds-new-custom-landmarkers-to-build-location-linked-ar-experien/620519/

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Backslash Week 11 – News of the Week

22/03/2022

We share our knowledge of online marketing, digitalization and entrepreneurship with you – read about the latest trends of the digital world, webdesign and SEA strategies or even get tips and suggestions for your social media presence.

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