10 Best Features That Facebook Announced At "F8" Conference 2016

The annual Facebook Developer Conference was held this year in San Francisco, and Mark Zuckerberg had the interest of the masses with the details of Facebook newest thrilling features and most exciting announcements. After reaffirming his commitment to the constant progression of the leviathan social media network, with a thorough emphasis on “developing a family of apps to share anything they want with anyone.”, he reminds us of Facebook’s trailblazing role in our modern times. After all, if anyone can do it, it’s going to be them.

Now that we have all the information at hand on what to expect, we have cherry picked the top ten features and adjustments of what to look forward to in 2016. And, as we are not only Facebook aficionados in our private time, but also professionally, we have agreed that these tools are going to be pretty great for our digital marketing campaigns. Read on and find out how!

1. Messenger Platform Bots:

Already coining affectionate terms from The Next Web such as ‘virtual assistants’, these bots will give businesses a new avenue to connect with their customer base. From customized communications, to automated subscriptions, and even ecommerce, these bots will be the Facebook middle ground of you and your customers. Bots are a way to simulate conversation for the user, while acting as a browser- and may replace them completely. For example, you may have the Uber app on your device, but have you heard of the Uber bot?

This is predicted to shake the foundations on how we share and interact with social media, as it opens up new streams of communication we have not previously had access to. As dialogue is becoming encouraged with companies, consumers are demonstrating an enthusiasm for a more encompassing experience with their favourite brands.

2. Live API:

There aren’t many forms of media that can quickly and effectively share content like video, and Facebook has been championing the cause with the new “Facebook LiveAPI”, creating a new way for publishers and developers to combine to develop engaging and interactive video experiences on Facebook from a live source.

With over 100 million hours of video content being watched every day, marketers can look forward to this being one heck of a tool. Companies who jump in and find new ways to use this to their advantage to expect to get massive amounts of exposure.

3. Video Discovery:

It was not long before the F8 2016 the Facebook announced its new mobile browsing hub for video content, making trending news and topics even more accessible and appealing. Now users have the opportunity find authentic content from their favourite sources, and share easily with others on the network.

The value of ‘sharing’ content cannot be understated, and this compliments the use of ‘Live’ as a great way to offer users even more interaction with brands, and to generate interest in upcoming promotions or products.

4. Profile Expression Kit:

For those who want to display more in their profile picture than a standard image, these profile videos give users the ability to upload a video of up to 7 seconds to take their place. So rather than a single image from that wedding you went to last summer, why not use a short clip of you twirling with the bride-to-be? This currently supports 6 apps: Boomerang, Lollicam, BeautyPlus, Cinemagraph Pro, MSQRD, and Vine.

Of course, this can be used for us marketing strategists, as this is an immediate glance into your company. Show off more than a logo, and make a seven second welcome into your business- guaranteed to make an impression, and short enough to catch the ever dwindling attention spans of internet users.

5. Virtual Reality:

The unveiling of the 360 degree video camera to film virtual reality footage sparked a lot of interest among the crowd, and continues to create a lot of conversation. The professional grade ‘Surround 360’ contains 17 cameras, with a bill of about $30,000 US to construct. For personal VR devices, audience members witnessed a demonstration of ‘Oculus Rift’, where people can be connected in the virtual world, no longer constrained by proximity. Watch Video

This technology is new, and has the price tag to make some businesses wary, but this is definitely one to watch as it becomes more available and refined. Many tech companies are pioneering the technology behind it, so as it becomes more accessible to brands, there will be many ways to use it in a ground breaking marketing strategy. Read more.

6. Quote Sharing:

Sometimes a passage or quote rings true, and you want to share it with others without them necessarily having to trawl a 2000-word article to find the gem. This streamlines the sharing of content, making it easy for you to pick out certain quotes and link it to others, even able to add your own annotations.

With the user being enabled to share content even more than before, this will have a massive effect on how your content is accessed across the network. And, of course, the easier it is for users to share content, the more we like it. Start assembling an ace team of content creators to ensure your articles reach new users with the advent of this tool.

7. Save Button:

Ever seen an article, image, or product on Facebook, then lost it? Never to be seen again without active trawling? The Save button means that users can now bookmark links, and return to it for later viewing.

So saving links isn’t exactly revolutionary, but the extra ease of brand accessibility this means for marketers is huge. Keep an eye on your brand interaction with users, as this could give you powerful feedback and some new analytics data to keep your content team at the front.

8. Account Kit:

This kit is put in place to help app developers, as it gives people the choice to sign in with a phone number or email address, acting in place of a password.

As this is accessible to anyone- even the mythical few among us without Facebook this means users can readily access more apps with ease. This has shown serious gains for marketers, with increased sign ups and an ever expanding audience.

9. Instant Articles:

Opened to publishers of all size at the F8 2016, this has actually been around for almost a year now. Now, you can instantly access content form publishers within the Facebook experience, instead of waiting for a new page to load from the link.

If you wanted a quicker, easier way to get people engaging with your content, this is it. No more waiting or refreshing browsers; now users can move seamlessly from their newsfeed to your newsroom, with 20% more clicks than standard Facebook promoted articles, and a 30% higher chance of being shared.

10 Crossposted Video:

To take the extra work out of posting videos, Facebook has launched a new way to post videos easily across Facebook Pages under the same Business Manager account. Now, if another Page in your Business Manager umbrella shares a funny or thought-provoking video that you want to include on your Page, you have the freedom to reuse the video and incorporate it into a new video, without having to re-upload it.

Great video content often ends up sprawling across pages, which is great for viral sharing, or to reach different audiences through different pages. This means that you can synchronise your efforts, and make it easier to monitor and analyse performance.

Watch Complete F8 Conference 2016

Facebook is a great tool for your business, and can be used to a great advantage- if you know what you’re doing. If your feeling a bit behind with your social media strategies, or any other part of your digital marketing campaign, talk to us here at Dilate. Our team are experts at online marketing, and can help you create an online experience that your customers will love.