SOCIAL

Facebook Launches ‘Community Help’ Where Users Can Register to Help Neighbors or Request Assistance

Published

3 years ago

April 1, 2020

As part of its ever-expanding COVID-19 relief and assistance efforts, Facebook has this week launched a new platform called ‘Community Help’ where people can either offer assistance to others within their community, or request help with tasks from locals.

As explained by Facebook:

“Today we’re announcing Community Help, a place for people to request or offer help to neighbors, such as volunteering to deliver groceries or donating to a local food pantry or fundraiser.”

The platform, which you can access here, enables you to search through assistance/request posts which have been posted by anybody within a 50mi radius of your location – though you can also narrow down the range of your search (down to 5mi) to your immediate, local community.

Social media expert Matt Navarra posted this image of the platform late last week.

When you tap on either ‘Request Help’ or ‘Offer Help’, you activate a pop-up tab, which includes a range of options that you can add to your post, including up to 14 images and relevant tags to help sort your post for searchers.

You can also set a preferred contact method (Messenger or WhatsApp), and choose to post publicly or only to friends, as with regular Facebook posts.

And while the focus right now is on assisting those in need of help amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook may opt to keep Community Help as a permanent option, giving local communities a means to better connect and help each other via the app.

The functionality is actually similar to how people are using Nextdoor, which has seen a surge in interest amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Facebook already offers some similar features, including listings of local services, and Marketplace, which hosts local sales. But Community Help is more specifically focused on facilitating assistance – which, while much like Nextdoor, makes sense for Facebook to be offering, given its broader reach and the benefits it could potentially provide in the current environment.

The option is first being launched in the US, the UK, France, Australia and Canada, which will happen over the next few days, with Facebook planning to expand the functionality to more regions “in the coming weeks”.

Socialmediatoday.com

SOCIAL

Social media businesses look out, here comes Chat GPT

Published

5 hours ago

December 9, 2022

Entireweb News Bot

Social media businesses look out, here comes Chat GPT

XiaoIce has pioneered a cutting-edge artificial intelligence system designed to create emotional bonds with its 660 million users worldwide. — © AFP

From the explosion of TikTok to the fall of Twitter, the social media industry has experienced some seismic changes over the past 12 months. Next year promises to be no different. How are those who rely on social media for businesses purposes to navigate through the turmoil ahead?

Luke Lintz, CEO of Highkey Enterprises, a multinational social media marketing firm, has told Digital Journal about the top three social media trends he expects to see in 2023.

Short-Form Video Content Will Dominate

Lintz observes the rise in video shorts and sees this trend as one that is likely to continue. Here he says: “The number one trend in the digital marketing landscape next year will be the emphasis and prioritization of short-form video content.”

This is because: “Social Media platforms’ competition for attention with short-form content has been the epicentre of 2022 and will continue to be the focus in 2023. People’s attention spans are ever-decreasing, and social media users quite often don’t have time to sit down and watch a 10-minute video and would rather watch a short video tailored to what they like to watch rather than a picture.”

Using example, Lintz finds: “This is why we have seen Instagram change its newsfeed and algorithms to favour Instagram Reels content in competition with Tik Tok. We have also seen a massive prioritization of YouTube Shorts in their fight against the lost attention to Tik Tok. In 2023 we will see very large incentive problems for top YouTube shorts, Tik Tok and Instagram Reel creators to incentivize the best creators to stay on the platform. For creators and business owners, they must strategize ways to incorporate short-form video content into their content plans to stay relevant.”

Social Media Users Will Turn Their Back On The Algorithm

This could be the age of new media. Lintz says: “Burnt out by the pressure of chasing “likes” and constantly trying to add new followers, a growing share of social media users will turn to smaller platforms in 2023. Sites like Discord, Mastodon, Geneva, Substack and Patreon emphasize community building in private spaces.”

In terms of the cultural change driving this, Lintz says: “A search for safe spaces and nostalgia for the Internet of the early 2000s — when the word “algorithm” wasn’t part of everyone’s vocabulary — has fuelled interest in these more intimate digital environments. Expect to see people look for smaller social media platforms that they have more control over.”

ChatGPT Will Revolutionize Social Media Management Companies

There is one new item of technology that is set to bring with it significant change. Lintz predicts: “Chat GPT (‘generating pre-training’) is not only the best artificial intelligence chatbot ever released to the general public, it also promises to usher in a new era for social media management companies, including HighKey Enterprises. The AI chatbot will take over basic writing tasks, thereby eliminating the need for human creativity to create new social media content.”

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