Instagram: Find and share stories in a new way
Stories are constantly rising and increasing engagement on Instagram. As ‘story’ mentions become more popular, Instagram rolled out a new story @ mention option aiming to make this trend more beneficial and engaging to users.
Slide, See, Select
This new rolled out feature appears as an @ symbol in your ‘Create’ mode. As you slide over to this option, you’ll notice that it says “See all 3” at the top of the screen, showing how many stories @mentions your profile has at a given time. You can select any of the listed frames and re-share them into your own stories feed until they expire.
Share, Share and Share
This feature is good for brands, giving them a chance to showcase relevant mentions that include customer feedback, endorsements, influencer marketing, partnerships and more. This, in turn, increases credibility with brands, strengthening their relationship with customers.
Check and Amplify
All Instagram bloggers and brand owners should take a look through their stories’ mentions regularly and aim to amplify relevant messages, adding a level of social proof through customer comments.
Though it serves as a good option for brand marketers and Instagram users, this feature is not fully confirmed yet at this stage.
Twitter: Emoji Reactions for Direct Messages
Because an emoji is worth a thousand words, Twitter has announced the launch of its new reactions-like option in direct messages. Users can now choose an emoji to respond to any message with a thread.
Click and React
All you need to do is click the heart and puls icon that appears when you flicker over the message on the web or double-tap it on mobile and select an emoji from the pop-up. People can also undo any reaction at any time and it will be removed from the message for all participants.
As explained by Twitter:
“All conversation participants will receive a notification any time a new reaction is added to a message.”
More Reactions, More Engagement
As other messaging platforms offer similar tools, Twitter’s new feature comes in handy, tapping into the habitual messaging behaviour that increases engagement. With previous updates, it showed that the ‘Heart eyes’ emoji didn’t make the final cut, while the thumbs up and thumbs down responses have been added.
Older versions of Twitter
Twitter does also note that if people are using an older version of the app (iOS or Android) which doesn’t support message reactions, they’ll see reactions displayed as text-based messages.
This new emoji feature is a quick way to engage with others or simply signify that you’ve read a note. When people now come across a message they can just react to it instead of the need to write a reply.
Instagram and Twitter are constantly adding new features to increase engagement and enrich the users’ experience on the platforms by following trends and facilitating usage.
Read our weekly #SocialSpeak blog to keep track of all social media updates.
