What’s New In The Neighborhood (The Facebook Neighborhood, That Is)
Yup, you read that right. Facebook isn’t stopping at Workplaces and Marketplaces; they’re taking on whole Neighborhoods now. TikTok is also looking to give local businesses a boost with geo-targeting options for advertising. And finally, Twitter Spaces has lifted off! The audio option is now open to the public, with some restrictions on who can host a room.
Photo by Facebook.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Facebook Parks Itself In Nextdoor’s Spot
Facebook’s newest feature means they’ve noticed the wild popularity of the ‘Gainesville Word of Mouth’ Facebook group. Neighborhoods will allow people over 18 to interact with others in their area and surrounding areas. The feature will give users a streamlined way to recommend businesses, conduct polls, find local groups, meet neighbors, and more.
This is sounding like another social media service you might’ve heard of. Nextdoor aims to connect people with others in their area. The platform allows users to post and comment to the community as a whole, join groups, sell used items locally, and sort posts by topic. With Facebook’s user base and advertising advantage, we’re excited to see how these two platforms will be different. Connecting our communities and giving us new ways to support local businesses is definitely welcome, especially from an established platform.
What does this mean for Gainesville Businesses?
Facebook Neighborhoods is currently being tested, but we can’t wait to interact with our neighbors online. With an ever-changing college community bringing new residents every semester, recommendations are sure to be an important feature to look out for. We’ll be watching to see how business pages and advertisements can interact with a neighborhood, but all-in-all this is a win for local business.
Photo by TikTok
TikTok Wants To Know Your Location (For Ad Targeting)
They’ve got the content and the audience. All that’s been missing from TikTok is the advertising (or, more bluntly, profit). The platform is looking to cash in all the work it’s put in with business accounts, small business summits, and advertising features. The latest feature is one that will catch small businesses’ attention: DMA geo-targeting. DMAs, or Designated Market Areas, are collections of counties identified (and copyrighted) by the market research firm Nielsen.
Previously, businesses could only target TikTok ads by state. That might not be the worst for businesses that ship out their products or appeal to out-of-town tourists. For the local-dependent small business, TikTok ads were not the move. With this new change, restaurants, brick-and-mortar stores, and service providers can get in on the TikTok trend with ads that are broadcast to viewers near them.
What does this mean for Gainesville Businesses?
Gainesville falls into DMA 157, which consists of Alachua, Gilchrist, Dixie, and Levy county. You can also choose other DMAs to include more of North Florida, the tourist destinations in Central Florida, or whatever you’d like! This gives small businesses an extra incentive to buy TikTok ads since we know just the right demographic will be seeing them.
Photo by Árpád Czapp on Unsplash
Twitter Spaces Has Entered The Chat
Haven’t been invited to the Clubhouse yet? No worries! The best conversations are about to happen on Twitter Spaces, now that everyone can take part. Everyone can now join a Twitter Space – and if you raise your hand, you may be able to speak, too! Hosting is a little bit more exclusive. You’ll need at least 600 followers on the platform to start your own Space.
With top-notch communication (via Tweets, of course) about bug fixes and new features, Twitter has really used its experience and infrastructure to its advantage. A quick brose of #TwitterSpaces paints a picture of a well-received, functional service that has people excited to bring events and conversations to Twitter. 6 days after Twitter Spaces went live for everyone, Clubhouse shared that its android beta is now up – though you’ll still need an invite. Feels like too little, too late.
What does this mean for Gainesville Businesses?
We talked before about how you can prepare to get in on the audio trend. Seeing what others are up to, making connections with influencers in your industry, brainstorming topics that people ask you about, etc. Now is the time to really get in there and listen to what people are talking about with this feature. If you’d like to be able to host your own Space, it’s time to get that following up to 600 with engaging posts, account-following tactics, or a giveaway!
Ok, now what?
Now that you’re up to date with the latest industry news, it’s time to invest in a team that specializes in all things social media and digital marketing. We can help! Liquid Creative is a full-service marketing agency ready to help your business operate to its fullest potential without missing a beat.
