Ring Communications is a badass public relations agency in Boston (and recently expanded to Nashville) and my go-to experts on social media trends and strategy. This post is from the always fabulous, Jessica Poillucci.
Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are evolving at rapid speeds. If you’re worried about being able to keep up with the latest features, don’t be – we’ve got you covered.
Instagram and Facebook Split-screen Live
In a world where people are connecting from states and countries away, this feature is truly what dreams are made of – though, I’m not sure even Hilary Duff could have predicted such awesome technological 
advances when she sang those lyrics at the end of the Lizzie McGuire Movie. Now, in a FaceTime-like fashion, people can go live together from different locations, making live interviews easier than ever. For Instagram, simply go live, tap the icon at the bottom right of the screen (it’s shaped like 2 smiley faces), and select who you are going live with. For Facebook, just swipe left during your live broadcast to see “viewers” and select who you would like to invite to join the live. This incredibly easy to use feature will have you making your list of interviewees a whole lot bigger!
Instagram Superzoom
Everyone loves zooming in on a cute dog’s face – although there are many other options for how to use this cool new feature! Instagram has made stories even more entertaining with their new Superzoom feature, which zooms in on a subject with 3 hard motions set to music. Whether you are highlighting a new product or showcasing one of your employees, why not do it with dramatics?
Instagram Stop Motion Stories
This is such a fun new feature that is being totally underutilized. Lucky for us here at Ring Communications, we have brilliant minds on our team and our very own Ainsley Winship came up with a prime example of how to use Stop Motion Stories. As a female-led PR company that embraces our love of fashion (and lipstick… seriously, we love lipstick) we are implementing a new Instagram series that gives our followers a look into our bags. Using stop motion, Ainsley was able to show off each item in her bag, tagging the different brands that were shown for #Marketing! How could your company utilize this fun feature?
Twitter Periscope Live
Once again, social media is bringing all of our daily activities to one place. Instead of going to Youtube to 
watch your favorite daily shows, you can conveniently watch many within the Twitter app! AM to DM, a live morning show from Buzzfeed News is using this feature to broadcast their shows, allowing them to market and broadcast all within one place. “What makes this live feature different from those of Instagram and Facebook” you may ask – Twitter is used more often than the other channels as a timeline for news, making it a much more fitting outlet for daily shows and news shows. Plus, a Twitter-only show keeps people engaged by giving exclusive content that keeps them on the platform!
Facebook Discover
With a Youtube-esque feel, Facebook Discover allows users to follow different shows and “discover” new 
shows related to their interests. While in some ways this feature is similar to Twitter Periscope, it has an entirely different feel. Twitter’s new live feature feels perfect for news and daily shows, whereas Facebook Discover aims to make the most of everyone’s love for sharing viral videos by turning many of their concepts into weekly shows – for example, that video of kids listening to and trying to name songs from before their time has become a recurring show called “Do They Know It?” I highly suggest keeping a watchful eye on which videos are performing well and considering how you could turn them into a weekly or bi-weekly show.
For more great social media strategies, tips and trends follow the RingComm Girls at:
@JESSPOILLUCCI, @RINGCOMM and, of course, their Founder and President @RINGPRGIRL
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