Instagram Expands Desktop and Mobile Features

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media.

On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show, we explore Instagram rolling out the ability to view live video and direct messages on desktop, and other business tools with Peg Fitzpatrick. You’ll also learn about YouTube’s new Video Builder tool with Ed Lawrence.

Tune Into the Social Media Marketing Talk Show

Listen to the replay of this week’s show below. You can also hear the show as an audio podcast on iTunes/Apple Podcast, Android, Google Play, Stitcher, and RSS.

Watch the replay of this week’s show below.

About Our Special Guests

• Ed Lawrence is the co-founder and a director of Business Film Booth, an un-corporate video production company that specializes in helping businesses communicate with video. He’s YouTube-certified and has produced more than 10,000 videos for businesses and brands.
• Peg Fitzpatrick is a professional social media speaker and writer. She’s the co-author of the best-selling book, The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users, and blogs at PegFitzpatrick.com.

Use the timestamps below to fast-forward to our top stories in the replay above.

• 4:02 YouTube New Video Builder Tool Makes Video Creation Fast, Easy for Businesses
• 14:40 YouTube Tests “Chapters” Feature to Help Users Navigate Long Videos
• 21:18 Instagram Rolls Out Direct Messages and Ability to Access Instagram Live Videos Directly on Desktop
• 31:10 Instagram Adds Gift Card, Ordering, and Fundraising Tools to Help Small Businesses Impacted by Shutdowns and Makes Restaurant Food Photos Shoppable
• 49:07 Instagram Updates IGTV With Creators in Mind
• 55:00 Instagram Encourages Engagement With Challenge Sticker

divider

YouTube New Video Builder Tool Makes Video Creation Fast, Easy for Businesses: YouTube released a free tool called Video Builder that promises to “lessen the burden on small and midsized businesses looking to incorporate high-quality video into their marketing strategies.”

Video Builder is a new, free tool with a variety of customization options that allows you to easily turn static assets into short YouTube videos

Find out more here: https://t.co/Nc8SjWAhJV

— YouTube Advertisers (@YTAdvertisers) April 14, 2020

This tool enables SMBs to quickly and easily animate static images such as photos, text, and logos with music from YouTube’s library. Businesses can also select a layout that fits their messages and goals and then customize the colors, fonts, and more to generate short videos.

YouTube Tests “Chapters” Feature to Help Users Navigate Long Videos: Android Police reports that YouTube is currently testing the ability to automatically encode timestamps as specified by creators and turn them into chapter markers for long videos.

YouTube is rolling out video chapters to help you skip to the parts that matter https://t.co/gN6mdh7Awp pic.twitter.com/xIr4RXU6fp

— Android Police (@AndroidPolice) April 13, 2020

Instagram Rolls Out Direct Messages to Desktop: Instagram took to Twitter to announce that everyone around the world can now send and receive direct messages on desktop. The company notes that the ability to access direct messages on the web is a long-awaited feature sought by many businesses, creators, and users.

*Sliding into your DMs*

Now you can get and send Instagram Direct messages on desktop, no matter where you are in the world ? pic.twitter.com/CT2SwuxHTv

Become the Social Media Marketing Rockstar for Your Business

Meet your secret team that makes you look like a social media genius and empowers you to embrace change! We’re a genuine community of marketers from your friends at Social Media Examiner. And we’re here to support you. Think of us as your career insurance policy. We keep you focused on what matters. We make sure you won’t be left behind as the changes keep coming. Join the Social Media Marketing Society. Get access to monthly online training, expert support, and a thriving community of marketers who will empower you to succeed.

CLICK HERE TO ENVISION A BETTER FUTURE

— Instagram (@instagram) April 10, 2020

Instagram Live Videos Now Stream Directly to Desktop: Instagram Live is now viewable on desktop as well. Accessing Instagram Live videos on the web offers an improved, more comfortable viewing experience. Instead of overlaying comments and emojis on the videos, Instagram Live’s web version moves the comment feed to a separate column on the right.

How to Watch Instagram Live on Desktop https://t.co/4ar9hBHPBl

— Jenn Herman (@jenns_trends) April 14, 2020

Instagram Adds Gift Card, Online Ordering, and Fundraising Tools to Help Small Businesses Impacted by Shutdowns: Following Facebook’s lead, Instagram is rolling out new features to assist small businesses impacted by ongoing shutdowns. These new Stories and profile tools include support for gift card purchasing, online ordering, and fundraising on its platform.

Today we’re launching a way for you to support small businesses through gift cards and takeout or delivery orders ?❤

For more info ? https://t.co/D3W1ze5sRQ pic.twitter.com/Xr88jyPSze

— Instagram (@instagram) April 15, 2020

Instagram notes that Fundraisers, which are “coming soon,” will open on Facebook as a personal fundraiser set up by the business owners or their supporters. Gift cards and food orders for delivery or takeout are available with the help of partner sites in the U.S. and Canada starting this week and will roll out globally in the coming weeks.

Instagram Makes Restaurant Food Photos Shoppable: Instagram partnered with ordering platform ChowNow to add shoppable stickers to restaurant food posts and stories. By clicking the attached specialty stickers, users will either find order forms pre-filled with the depicted meal or a page for buying gift cards to the restaurant. Customers can also reshare these stickers to increase awareness.

Instagram is helping restaurants by making food pics shoppable https://t.co/JU9Pdkb74f pic.twitter.com/MVFnoC8Ejs

— Engadget (@engadget) April 15, 2020

Instagram Updates IGTV With Creators in Mind: Instagram updated the IGTV app “in the hopes of getting more people to use the service and promote creators making long-form videos.” IGTV’s new home page features a popular creator at the top, as well as content from accounts the user follows in a feed-like experience.

Instagram redesigns IGTV with creators as the focus https://t.co/FxkLWwyNWU pic.twitter.com/2PYxFyU7jj

— The Verge (@verge) April 14, 2020

Instagram also released a small but important update that allows users to share their IGTV content to Stories as a 15-second video promo. The short preview is intended to encourage users to click and watch the full video, giving creators more video views.

Last month, Instagram began testing the option to share live videos to IGTV as soon as the broadcast ends. Earlier this year, the company began experimenting with monetizing IGTV with ads.

Instagram Encourages Engagement With Challenge Sticker: Instagram appears to be testing a new Challenge sticker for Stories. If rolled out publicly, these stickers would enable users to prompt more engagement by calling on their friends and followers to participate in visual competitions on the platform. This new feature was discovered by reverse engineer and tech researcher Jane Manchun Wong, and shared by Social Media Today.

Instagram is working on “Challenge” Sticker,

letting users nominate their friends to different challenges pic.twitter.com/Nelgd1HN4J

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) April 15, 2020

Want to catch our next show live? Click here to subscribe or add our show to your calendar.