1. LinkedIn Introduces New Features For Creators to Analyze Posts for Better Reach - Improved content analytics, new profile video features, newsletter showcasing choices, a subscriber bell for update notifications, and other new tools for creators have been introduced by LinkedIn.

To begin with, LinkedIn is introducing more data to its existing Creator Mode tools to help artists plan and optimize their on-platform content strategy. The new Creator Mode data will provide a more detailed picture of content performance, allowing you to see what's working and what's not with your LinkedIn audience.

Improved post analytics are also being rolled out by LinkedIn. Here is what was shared from LinkedIn “.. members have always been able to see analytics on posts, but now LinkedIn’s adding a new level of detail. Members will see analytics detailed in a summary page, along with more in-depth data like impressions and reshares. This data is available for all post types, whether it’s an article, video, or simple text post.”

LinkedIn is also offering new data on profile video views as well as updated profile video capabilities to help users grow their audience. Along with these improved view numbers, LinkedIn will also provide new prompts to help users decide what to publish in their Profile Videos.

Thanks to a new 'Profile Video ring' that will appear in the feed and search, people will be aware that you have a profile video active on your page, where they can learn more about you and your experience.

LinkedIn is also introducing a 'Subscribe Bell,' which will let a creator's audience receive notifications whenever they publish new content and the ability for creators to promote their Newsletter in the 'Featured' section of the profile.

2. Meta Announces Virtual Messaging Event - 'Conversations' - Meta has launched a new 'Conversations' messaging conference (May 19, 22), during which it will show off its newest innovations and upcoming enhancements for its messaging systems, which have a combined user base of over 2 billion. Every week, more than a billion people use Meta's messaging services to communicate with businesses, according to the company.

The Conversations conference will offer new product updates and technical deep dives for developers, as well as demonstrations, discussions, and other activities.

You can register for the ‘Conversations’ conference here.


3. Snapchat Announces 2022 Partner Summit - 'Back To Reality' - We'll soon find out Snapchat's next move. Snap has announced the date of its fourth annual Partner Summit, which will take place on April 28th. Snap will utilize the event, dubbed 'Back to Reality,' to show off its most recent initiatives and features, such as its expanding work on augmented reality, digital products, Snap Minis, content enhancements, and more.

You can register for the event (and receive updates) here, and all of the sessions will be streamed live on Snap's YouTube page.


4. New Profile Rings for Stories and Live on YouTube Plus Other Updates - YouTube is rolling out two new types of profile rings: one with a 'Live' marker and one without, to represent the different forms of content. This is part of YouTube's larger effort to include more conventional social app functionality into the app.

In my opinion, it's another approach to raise awareness of YouTube Live and Stories, which, although being a minor feature in the app, have served to strengthen the bond between creators and their followers by providing a new content choice.

Furthermore, YouTube has expanded its Community Tab available to additional channels and added Shorts, Reactions, and other well-known social networking platform alternatives to its offers.

Last but not least, YouTube is lowering the bar for using its Mentions tool. Mentions allow you to include another channel's username in the title or description of your video, and the other channel will be notified of the mention in their inbox.

Previously, this option was only available to channels with 500 subscribers, but YouTube has now made the mentions function open to all channels. This might be a terrific method to start collaborations on the app and get your films in front of related people, who might subsequently magnify your work.

If a channel prefers, it can turn off mentions.

Source: https://youtu.be/NFiMcE2MTQA 

5. YouTube Drops Maximize Lift Bidding - As YouTube continues to improve its ad capabilities, Google has discontinued support effective 4/1/22 for Maximize Lift bidding, leaving a TrueView, in-stream advertisements alternative in place.

Maximize Lift was a highly particular bidding strategy that worked in tandem with Brand Lift measurement to reach more of the right audience currently in the consideration stage. If you're unfamiliar with Brand Lift, it's a tool that helps assess memory, awareness, and consideration, and you'll need to have a Google Account Rep activate on your behalf.

Maximize Lift created content for Brand Lift surveys based on information provided by advertisers about their brands and goods. Maximize Lift then used the survey data to zero in on the customers who could be the ideal fit for your products. Unlike other bidding types, Maximize Lift would prioritize lift overviews.

The promise of driving meaningful B2C results drew Maximize Lift to the market in 2018. According to Google, COVERGIRL's Lashblast Mascara product had a 2x return on ad investment when it was released. 

Source: https://searchengineland.com/youtube-to-drop-maximize-lift-bidding-383272

6. YouTube Videos Can Now Be Shared via Snapchat Camera - Snapchat is finally adding another new sharing option, with users now able to share YouTube videos with friends directly from the Snapchat Camera, after allowing users to embed tweets directly into their Snapchat snaps in late 2020.

When sharing from YouTube, Snapchat users will just press the Snapchat icon to add the YouTube link as a sticker to their Story. This opens up a new set of creative ways for sharing YouTube links, benefiting both YouTube (through increased referral traffic) and Snap (by expanding your Snap expression and engagement options).

The sticker display provides a more integrated, direct sharing procedure, which is a fantastic method to encourage more active sharing.

To share a YouTube clip on Snap:

Source: https://www.adweek.com/media/integration-allows-youtube-videos-to-be-shared-via-snapchat-camera/

7. Professional Accounts Are Now Available To All Twitter Users Worldwide - All Twitters users are now able to convert their account to a Professional Profile which then gives you access to a range of additional features, like a new business information display, product listings, a newsletter module (for those that have a Revue newsletter) and more.

Professional Profiles were first tested by Twitter in April of last year, with only a few brands participating in the initial beta experiment. Twitter began inviting more businesses to join until finally opening it up to all applicants in September. You no longer require Twitter's blessings to convert your profile; instead, you can choose whether or not to have a Professional Profile in your profile choices.

The following rules must be followed to qualify for a Professional Account:

To convert your Twitter profile to a Professional Account:

You can read more about Twitter’s Professional Accounts conversion process here.

8. Descriptive Structured Data Error Reporting In Google Search Console - The structured data report in Search Console has been updated by Google to provide additional context regarding problems, helping you fix invalid markup with less guesswork.

Let's imagine you're using review snippet markup but missing the author's name.  This would result in an error. Previously,  the structured data report provided a message that said, "Missing field "name."

Now, if the page has multiple name fields in the markup, then the previous method of reporting problems wasn't as useful as it could have been.

Thanks to the latest update, the identical error will now appear as: Missing field "name" (in "author").

The additional information in parentheses allows you to quickly identify what's missed from the markup.

9. New Insights Reports in Google Merchant Center - To ensure you're pricing your products competitively, Google has added several new analytics for retailers, including free listings conversion and product price insights.

To begin, a new display of total traffic, impressions, and conversion rate for free product listings are now available in your Google Merchant Center tools.

This will make it easy to gain a complete picture of your Google product display performance, while the new price insights tool will assist merchants in determining whether their products are competitively priced, as well as the revenue impact of price changes.

The new display will show businesses how their pricing compares to other retailers selling the same goods.

You can read more about Google’s product display updates here.


10. Google's Trusted Store Badge Is Now Available For Free Shopping Listings - Google is launching a new Shopping Experience Scorecard program, which will provide shoppers with yet another method to learn more about each seller's performance based on previous activity.

Top-rated sellers will now receive a new 'Trusted Store' label, which will help potential customers feel more confident in your service.

So, how does Google evaluate these factors? According to Google, the badges will be assigned depending on Google's tracking of each seller's performance.

 
“The program will monitor the experience you provide to customers in several areas, including shipping speed, shipping cost, return cost, and return window. You’ll be given a rating of “Excellent,” “Comparable,” or “Opportunity” on each metric.”

Google will continue to track performance in order to give shoppers more information as they browse Google Shopping listings.

Google claims that merchants who displayed the Trusted Store label received higher hits in early testing, and they also helped generate more traffic to lesser-known merchants.