10 Yetis Insight - Social media roundup - Instagram are making moves, Chatbots are on the rise and Facebook are out to get Snapchat

Hello everyone, Rhodri here. Welcome to this week’s edition of the social media roundup.

Social media is interesting because it is constantly changing on a daily basis. With such fierce competition between organisations, there is a constant need to innovate and update features. Here are some of the latest arrivals from your favourite social media platforms.

Shopping on Instagram

Some huge news from Instagram this week, and planned to start on the 7^th of November in the US, a ‘Shop Now’ button feature will be introduced to the app. This means that brands will be able to tag their products in photos, provide information about their products and link the picture to their website via the shop now button.

Initially, Instagram will be giving this privilege to 20 retail brands, but it is expected that many more will be on board if all goes well. The director of market operations at Instagram, Jim Squires, explained how he believes smartphones have changed the way we shop, so much so, that consumers will research products on their phone, while they are in a store. This move by Instagram is essentially giving users a full shopping experience all from the app. They can browse, research and purchase all by using the app.

Instagram is now accessible from Windows 10 Tablets and PCs

Users can now maintain their Instagram accounts from any device that has Windows 10 running on it. There is no longer a need to rely on Android and iOS versions of the app to manage accounts as it can now be done from a number of Windows 10 devices. This is good news for business owners and marketers who wish to manage their account from PCs.

The Windows 10 app allows people to use features like explore, search and direct messaging that are not normally accessible when using Instagram on a computer. Perhaps the most useful feature that users can now do is editing pictures via the site, they can also view stories.

There is a strange restriction though with these new features. The editing and posting of photos is now only available on tablets and PC’s with rear cameras and touchscreens. Although this doesn’t really make a great deal of sense as not everyone will be using devices and PCs that meet the criteria, it is still great news for those who advertise through the social media platform. The fact you will no longer have to switch between different devices and operating systems to maintain a part of your social media is sure to make life a little easier.

The rise of Chatbots

You’ll have probably noticed by now that more and more businesses are beginning to use Chatbots for a number of things. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Chatbots, it is what it sounds like, essentially a robot that you chat with. These artificial intelligence programs are normally there to help users with any queries they may have regarding a business or problems they may be experiencing. The bots respond with the answer to questions by scanning through a number of stored responses it has, if it can’t answer the question, it will normally forward you on to a human being.

More and more now these bots are popping up in new areas of life. For example, Facebook Messenger now uses bots where people can ask for advice on shopping. The idea is that users don’t have to download another app to gain the features that the Chabot’s offer and so overall engagement will be raised in one app or platform.

The bots are providing a number of helpful features such as weather forecasts, news, customer service, scheduling and some are even trying to give life advice. These bots seem to be popping up in loads of places as it is perhaps an easier alternative to creating a completely new application.

Facebook live could be creating some exciting new visual features

With Snapchats growing popularity, Facebook are now trying pretty hard to bring in some cool new features to compete with the app. The potential new features would mean they can produce enhanced visual effects to live video.

To get an idea of what I’m talking about, check out this upload from the main man Mark Zuckerberg:

If Facebook can begin to provide some tools and features that can compete with Snapchat, then it may be able to slow down their expansion. The technology could also be added to Facebook owned Instagram, but right now it seems Facebook Live would be the best fit for the live video streaming tool. Snapchat claim that their face altering lenses get used 10million times every 24 hours, if Facebook’s features are impressive enough to make people want to share and use them then they may be able to break into that sector.