The Social Short 2020: Week 13

Reddit Introduces Polls

Reddit has now introduced a “polls” feature, the following suit after a variety of other social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter have seen a lot of success with this same feature.

In an attempt to boost engagement, Reddit now allows its users to pose questions via a poll, and other users to answer without having to comment and by simply voting. This method creates an easy and direct way for ‘lurkers’, people who scroll on threads but don’t engage, to contribute to the conversation. 

Reddit claims that polls are an “easy-to-use” feature, with the only instructions being: “Create a Post” and then select the “Poll” option from tabs. Sounds simple enough, right?

Polls can have one question with up to six answer options. They can engage a higher volume of users by votes, but also spark a conversation through comments, for those who wish to participate. 

This can be a useful marketing tool, especially considering that user growth for Reddit has unexpectedly exceeded the speed of user growth for Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Twitter Hashtag Etiquette

Joe Wadling, Twitter’s Global Creative Lead, has started a new series called “Good Copy, Bad Copy”. Who better to take creative copy advice from than the Creative Lead of Twitter himself? 

He posts videos illustrating how to best use these tips to improve your tweet approach. He recently came out with three new “good copy” ideas. 

The first piece of advice from Wadling is to utilize capital letters when tweeting. This creates clarity while improving the look of the tweet. It does so by eliminating any confusion that may come from long strings of all lowercase words. 

Next, he highlights the importance of “decluttering” tweets. This can be done by reducing the number of hashtags, as too many can actually minimize the potential number of people who will click on your focus link. 

Wadling’s last tip, which he claims is a key element, is to enable website cards for your tweets. These allow links to turn into “panels” with an attached preview image. This will grab viewers’ attention, as well as allow more space for them to click the link.

Development of New Remote Learning Programs

In an attempt to help the many families stuck at home due to current times, YouTube and Google have launched remote learning tools. These features are brand new to these platforms and give them yet another functionality. 

The educational landscape is changing in a way that puts new pressures on parents, as many now have to simultaneously work from home and homeschool their children. Both of these “systems” are a work in progress, which makes things slightly even more complicated.  

“Teach From Home” via Google provides a space for teachers to organize everything in one place. They can video chat students, assign homework and evaluations, and Livestream class sessions. The features continue to develop as students and teachers try it out and provide feedback. 

“Learn@Home” via Youtube is very similar, with a larger focus on the video aspect. They have partnered with Khan Academy to help provide dozens of channels which can serve to educate from preschool and up. 

Khan Academy will receive the first $1 million grant from Google’s $50 million donation towards fighting Coronavirus.

In case you missed our previous #SocialShort, click here.