Instagram introduced direct messaging recently. How does it work? Instagram has added an extra icon to the top right corner of your news feed page. If you tap that icon, an inbox will drop down, revealing the messages you have received from friends. To send a photo or video to a specific person, click the camera button and attach the media you'd like the same way you would upload one to your own account. 

Keeping a constant stream of enegagement on your Facebook page can be a painful process and very frustrating. Don't just post content in hopes that someone will comment or start a dialog for you. Don't be the boring brand with the boring Facebook pages. Here are 10 things you could be doing to encourage more interaction on your page while still informing your customers. 

Have you ever wondered what makes people want to like a photo you posted on your Instagram account? Is it the content of the photo? Is it the colors? Maybe it is the quality of the photo versus just a random photo you had taken from your camera roll and posted? 

Have you seen the new changes to Facebook ads? The layout for ads has drastically changed and the process you take to make one is...different. 

Now Hootsuite, I have a small bone to pick with you. I just logged in earlier last week and scheduled a few social media posts, looked through my streams on the dashboard and went on my merry way. Little did I know when I logged in today.....

What are Google Grants? The Google Grant program is when businesses who are considered "charities" can have the opportunity to receive AdWords money from Google for advertising. The direct definition from Google is as follows:

Facebook is always just one step ahead of the rest of us. They make changes, often times without us noticing for weeks at a time. Facebook didn't blog about this change nor did they announce it anywhere for people to see. It just sorta...happened. 

Pinterest posted on their blog on October 9th that they are starting to test promoted pins with a few businesses. Pinterest's blog mentioned that promoted pins are in test mode and will look something like this:

Snapchat has gained a reputation that is not ideal for the marketing world. Mashable writer Todd Wasserman says it best, "Taco Bell was one of the few brands to adopt Snapchat, a platform that has a reputation for sexting." 

Facebook made more changes. This time? To their ads dashboard. There have been some changes over the last few months with the way that ads are made for a campaign but the most recent changes are to the reporting for ads.