Social media round-up for charities – #6

Welcome to our sixth social media round-up! Here’s the latest social media news and what it means for your charity.

1. YouTube introduces hashtags

If you love using hashtags, the good news is that you can now use them on another social platform! YouTube is introducing hashtags to descriptions and titles to help creators make their content easier to find. The hashtags will be clickable and, not only will they will help you to find the top videos that are relevant for your organisation, they will also help your videos appear when people click on the hashtag and search that topic.

A word of warning – YouTube will be strict in which hashtags you’ll be using in an attempt to avoid misleading tags. The feature is, as yet, not available to everyone but it has already shown up in some accounts on the web and Android apps. Watch this space! In the meantime, go through all your existing videos and make a list of relevant hashtags for when the feature is available to you.

2. Twitter presents their health metrics

Twitter is determined to combat trolls and fake accounts and they’ve proudly presented their latest health metrics. There have been more than 9 million accounts that were identified as potentially spam accounts and removed from the platform. So, whilst you may have seen a dip in your follower number, this is a good thing! Who wants a spam or bot account who will never engage meaningfully with you anyway?

3. Facebook brings augmented reality into ads

Facebook is looking at the latest tech trends to make their advertising features more appealing. They’ve announced that they’re launching the first Facebook Ads that involve Augmented Reality, to make them more interactive than ever. This feature brings out an exciting opportunity to make your campaigns even more engaging. Imagine taking your storytelling to the next level with the use of AR in your next fundraising campaign!

4. Pinterest launches group boards

Pinterest has finally decided to be more social. Although the platform is more of a visual search engine rather than a social network, they still want to make boards more engaging.

The introduction of Group Boards will allow conversations between members of a particular board and can also help to keep track of the member activity that takes place. For example, when a new member joins, or if someone saves a pin, you’ll be able to see this. This can be a great way for charities to use Pinterest and set up a board as part of a campaign, and then encourage their supporters to pin ideas, recipes, tips etc to it.

5. YouTube adjusts aspect ratios

Vertical videos have taken over social media, starting with Snapchat and Instagram Stories. Not to be left out, YouTube now acknowledges the rising trend to improve the viewing experience on the platform. From now on, if you upload a vertical video, you won’t see any black margins, as the videos will be enlarged to scale at the best ratio.

Interesting reads

Here are the posts that caught our attention this month. Grab a cuppa and catch up with more interesting social media stories and resources.

5 data-driven tips for scroll stopping video
A helpful social media policy template from Charity Comms
A quick guide to IGTV
Avoiding the algorithm: messaging tool offers solution to Facebook’s crowded news feed
LinkedIn rolls out voice messaging
Facebook Live: a tool for parent mobilization and engagement in diverse communities

Enjoyed this roundup? Make sure you subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest social and digital trends!

Share this with your colleagues and friends and tweet us any questions at @Lightful.