Learn about some new features for personalized experiences on social media channels. How can we use these tools to engage our audience?
Social media platforms consistently change the features they provide to users; in fact, many of the social channels that didn't continue evolving have disappeared (cough, MySpace, cough). As a Marketing Specialist, I am always excited to see how these social channels decide to move forward, for better or for worse. Recently, I have seen a trend on many social media sites as they work hard to incorporate a personalized experience for their users. Here are few examples of how personalization is creeping into social media channels:
Snapchat is a relatively new social media platform, released in September of 2011. It is a messaging application that allows its users to send photos to each other. As the company grows, they have been looking for a way to provide more value to their users, and on July 15th, they released a new feature called "Geofilters." This feature provides icons related to users’ locations that can be added to a Snapchat picture before sending it to their friends. Creating this personalization that is not offered within any other app, Snapchat sets themselves apart from other social media platforms. Check out the new feature in this video:
Creating an experience for your users that is personalized to them based on their location in order to assist them in telling their story adds value not only for your users, but also for the places they are visiting. This feature saves the user time in trying to create a graphic within the application’s interface, which is very helpful for those (like me) who feel like they have limited artistic ability or difficulty creating a graphic within the Snapchat interface. Although some people have a found a way to use the paintbrush tool to personalize Snapchat photos, I have not conquered this, so I’ve found that the Geofilter feature is a great help.
This may be old news to you by now, but Facebook released a new "save" feature a little over a month ago. This is a very practical tool for creating personalization, and I have to admit to using this feature a time or two. Allowing users to quickly view what they want to read right now and specifically save posts, places, or articles that they want to really dig into for later is yet another great way that Facebook is delivering a personal experience to each user’s newsfeed.
Foursquare recently made several updates to their ever popular app for finding new places to visit and checking in while there. They have separated their check-in feature into a new app called Swarm and provided more personalization on the Foursquare app for finding new places you’ll love. The new app now learns what kinds of places you like and directs you to new places based on your preferences.
On top of these new updates, Foursquare has also added a new feature called “Here”. This section of the app will help you decide quickly what is good at a new restaurant that you’ve just sat down in. No more contemplating seven dishes at a new restaurant; Here is your personal guide to choosing what to order.
While it’s always interesting to see the new ways that social media and other websites and apps continue to evolve and provide more value to their users, this always leads me to wonder how we can keep up with this ever-changing social landscape. How can we take advantage of these new features to reach our own customers? How can we make use of them to provide the best experience for our users? AtDiagram, we continue to assess the ways we can deliver a personalized experience for our clients and visitors, always striving to add a personal touch and demonstrate how we can solve people’s problems and meet their needs. Do you have any questions about how you can make use of social media to engage your customers? Please contact us to speak with a Marketing Expert, or feel free to share your own favorite apps, tools, and features in the comments below.
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