July, 2020 | InoSocial

What is the best Linktree alternative?

If you are using some sort of social networks you might have heard of Linktree, a website to add multiple links in one place. It is true that Linktree is one of the most famous websites in this market, but still there are rooms for further improvements. Users are looking increasingly for Linktree alternatives to get a more advanced free tools to manage their links.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is a web page that you can insert anything in it. Indeed, a landing page is where your visitors come and see all about you. A landing page can be your resume, portfolio, your social links, all URL, favorite music, videos, or anything you prefer your visitors know about you. You can also add a short biography about yourself to give more information to users.

A landing page is like a website that only have one page! you can get customers, build connections, get visitors, make friends, or even give others a place to find all about you for free! Yes, making a landing page is free!

Linktree is one of those websites that helps you to make your landing page for free but it is not all the story.

Like many other tools, Linktree users found that there are some gaps about it. compare to other landing page makers, Linktree is not stunning. It is true that is free, but with limited options and you cannot customize your web page. so, users started to look for another website that gives the same services, but more quality, with more options.

What is Linktree?

Linktree is a platform to combine many URLs into one single URL on a webpage. This single webpage is also called a landing page which is described. This single URL which belongs to a landing page is usually used for social media, or any places that you can only put one URL. Or even where you are going to redirect your audiences to the specific places.

Many of us may have an Instagram or Facebook accounts with thousands of followers. Everyone now knows that having an Instagram account with this condition is worthy and you can even make money on Instagram if you have audiences. But how?

Fortunately, Instagram has provided an option for its users to link their website in the Instagram bio. So, if you have any products to sell, and you have Instagram followers, you can easily share the website URL in bio, and make Instagram followers to the potential customers.

But it is not all the story! Few of us can own a website because of many reasons. Yes, it is somehow expensive. But thanks to the technology that made it easy to make a landing page instead.

Here are some examples of Linktree landing pages.

What are the Linktree cons?

From Linktree reviews, it seems that the landing page design is one of the weakness of this tools. Another disadvantage is limited option to customize the web page. for example, if you have a brand with the black background, you cannot customize the landing page based on the color you want. You should use the fixed colors there.

A landing page is a place that many of your audience visit it, so, you need something that really defines you. And the more important thing is that it should attract the visitors at the first visit.

So, it should be something different and amazing to keep the visitors at your page. the more they stay there, the more they click on your links (which all is of great benefits for you).

So, you might need a smarter tool, or template to design a unique landing page with all your URLs, socials, and connections. Once, you share it on your social media, everyone can go to where you like to go (from your landing page, you can redirect them).

What is the Linktree alternative?

I was searching the internet to find the best available alternative to Linktree. Specially to fill up the gap. I found iLink website that I feel is the best alternative to Linktree which is also a free tool to make a landing page.

But what I found amazing about the iLink is as follow:

It’s free for lifetime!

You can create a landing page for free. The landing page would help you to add as many links as you have including videos, audios, or photos, and URLs.

Unique design

If you are going to present a brand, or your own design, and colors, iLink has provided the opportunity for you to design your landing page as you need.

Animated background

iLink has recently added a new feature, that animates background. So, the color would change as you want. This gives a sense of uniqueness and attraction to the web page you have created. This option is not available in the Linktree landing page.

iStore

Another iLink feature, that allow you to create an online brochure for your products if you have any. If you are selling any products on Instagram, using iLink iStore you can add a catalogue to your Instagram bio with all products. The iStore is also very functional for users, and they can sort the products out according to their needs. For example, price, popularity, brands, categories, etc.

Support

ILink experts are available 24/7 to give users tips or guidance if there are any issues for them.

Conclusion

If you are looking for Linktree alternatives to get a more stunning landing page, I would suggest iLink. It is well worth it because of its design options, different types of background, customizable theme, and many other features.

Byte, the video-sharing app, is Seeing a huge increase in Downloads Amid TikTok’s controversies

Byte, the Second Coming of Vine, is Seeing a Surge in Downloads Amid Debate About TikTok’s Future. After India banned TikTok and 59 other chines apps and also after Trump Claims He Could Ban TikTok after the politics surrounding TikTok heat up.

These movements are the reasons why Byte has seen a huge increase in downloads this week in the US.

Scott Nover from Adweek has given an exact number of the growth in Byte’s downloads.

“Update: Yesterday, Byte had 622,000 global downloads in a single day—five times more than Wednesday’s 126,000. Per”

Many TikTokers from all over the world, especially India and the United States, are looking for TIkTok alternatives with Byte being a key beneficiary of the speculation around the app.

These factors lead us to Byte, which is a video app that allows users to share 6-second videos and was released not recently but in January. Byte had a good entrance and reached 1.3 million downloads in its first week after full launch, but it did not continue to stay popular until now and these TikTok controversies.

Byte has been trying its best to overcome TikTok’s popularity for months. It even increased its video lengths from 6 to 8, and it also added new music tools to further align with the TikTok use case.

As Byte announced in its official Twitter account on the 9^th of July, they have also added some new options which were demanded by their users.

I recommend you all to try Byte and create an account on it for those days, which it’ll become the next video-sharing app giant.

Snapchat Tests TikTok-Like UX with Vertical Scrolling in Discover

Snapchat is trying to copy a popular feature from TikTok and make it easier for its users to browse their Snapchat feeds. Snapchat confirmed it’s testing a new experience that allows users to move through Snapchat’s public content with a vertical swiping motion — a gesture that’s been popularized by TikTok where it allows users to advance between videos.

A screenshot of the new feature was first noticed by Twitter user @artb2668, which obviously showed that Snapchat is experimenting with a new, vertical swipe UX for Discover content, similar to TikTok’s swipe-up functionality.

As TechCrunch has explained the Vertical Scrolling update in more detail, The test is focused on content that’s published publicly to Snapchat Discover, not your friends’ private Stories. But because Stories can have multiple parts, users will still tap to advance through the Story, as before. But in the new experiment, a horizontal swiping motion — either to the left or right — will exit the experience, instead of moving you between Stories, as before.

Since it is a new feature on Snapchat, the platform even included a guide on the screen of the users who encountered the feature for the first time.

Snapchat will soon have the vertical scrolling for the discover feed, which makes users see as many snaps as they want one after another. As Snapchat has announced, the test will only be available to a limited number of users, and the selection is random. After the test is successful, Snapchat will decide to roll out the update to all its users.

As soon as India banned TikTok, and some other countries have started to think about banning it, other similar apps have tried to fill in the gap. For example, Facebook quickly rolled out Instagram’s ‘Reels’ functionality, and now Snapchat is trying its best to play the role of a quality competitor to TikTok.

UK Labour Joins Facebook Ad Boycott

Another company added to the long list of advertisers’ boycotting Facebook. Britain’s main opposition Labour party announced that it has also joined the Facebook advertising boycott.

UK labour said Facebook’s failure over sufficiently curbing hateful content is the reason for this boycott. Shadow minister Rachel said that they wanted to express our concern about the failure of Facebook to take down some hateful material, and that’s the main reason for the decision they have made about Facebook ads.

The Facebook advertising boycott was started by the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody in the US city of Minneapolis. And now, lots of big brands and companies have joined this movement and have stopped working with Facebook ad campaigns.

Regarding what BBC news have included, The organizers, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, accused Facebook of allowing “racist, violent and verifiably false content to run rampant on its platform.”

Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr, Ms. Reeves said: “All MPs in the Labour Party use Facebook to get across our message, but what we’re not doing at the moment is advertising on Facebook.”

“And that is in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter campaign but also in line with what many businesses are doing this month, which is to express our concerns about the failure of Facebook to take down some hateful material from their platform and take more responsibility for the lies and propaganda that are sometimes put out there on Facebook.

“Facebook needs to do more to take responsibility, and this is just one way that businesses and the Labour Party and others can put pressure on Facebook to do the right things and take tougher action on hate crime and hate speech.”

This movement of boycotting Facebook ad campaign has so far had terrible impacts on Facebook, which you can read more about on our article for what the boycotts have done to Facebook, and its reputation and the list of names who are joining the boycott t is getting longer and longer day by day, and this is when Mark Zuckerburg has to do something serious about this matter.

Google’s ‘Swirl’ 3D Ad Option is now globally Available for Display and Video 360 Campaigns

One of the most wanted features of the last year, which Google has been working on is now globally rolled out. Google has announced that its 3D ad format Swirl is now available to all Display & Video 360 customers globally following a beta program involving brands such as Adidas, Belvedere Vodka, and Nissan.

This feature was being tested for the last year for a very long time and is now accessible to all advertisers and brands.

How does the new “Swirl” format work?

The new Swirl format allows advertisers and brand owners to offer a 3D form of their promotions, which is also interactive.

The digital information world explains the cool new feature in more detail by clarifying that the Swirl 3D ad format involves banner ads that enable marketers to use interactive 3D product models in their promotions. Google wrote in a blog post that Swirl 3D ad format allows consumers to engage with a specific product like the product is right in front of them.

Consumers can rotate, zoom, and even expand the product in the ad. With Swirl ads, marketers can illustrate changes in behavior, unique product features, new technology performance, and many more. The company described various campaigns that have already been created using the Swirl 3D ad format. Nissan Spain used the Swirl 3D ad format to show off new features of Qashqai SUV. Adidas Latin America also used the format to advertise the Adidas Ultra Boost 2019 shoe.

Note that as interesting and useful the Swirl feature is; it also has some difficulties to start using it. For example, it needs technical and professional skills to be created. Developing complex 3D presentations can be challenging and sometimes really hard, but from my point of view, it is worth the effort since Swirl ads can be a great option for advertisers to boost engagement, and brands can maximize brand messaging using this format. As more platforms are moving towards AR

(augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) presentation formats, Swirl ad format will provide Google another way to improve its ad offerings.

How to use the “Swirl” 3d ad option?

Previously the swirl feature was only available to limited brands such as Adidas, Nissan, and Belvedere Vodka. But from today on, the new update is available to everybody and all brands and businesses workwise.

If you want to create a Swirl campaign, you can upload 3D assets to Google Web Designer. Advertisers can also edit campaign models using Poly. These ads run across Google Ad Manager Inventory, which means that your campaign will get large-scale reach.

Instagram Provides New Options to Manage How IGTV Previews Appear in the Main Feed and Discover

Instagram is becoming more and more considerate daily, and this time it has published a new feature which lets IGTV creators to better manage the way they create and share their IGTV videos.

Instagram has added some new tools which help IGTV creators to manage how they want their IGTV to show up in both Instagram’s feed and the discover tab. Now creators can customize their IGTV previews.

It was April 2020, which Instagram added a set of updates for IGTV, which creators found to be very useful. Updates such as when Instagram allowed creators to share the first 15 seconds of their IGTV video in Stories (with the rest available via ‘swipe-up’ link), while also improving the display options within the Discover tab.

This time Instagram has tried something different, and it now enables creators to edit the preview image and thumbnail displayed for their IGTV clips.

Source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-provides-new-options-to-manage-how-igtv-previews-appear-in-the-ma/581355/

In Matt Navarra’s latest tweet, which was originally posted by Sumeet Rajpal, it is shown that Instagram now has more options to control how your IGTV video previews are displayed, with ‘profile cover’ relating to the thumbnail shown in Discover feeds.

To many ordinary users and people who are not creators on Instagram, this update might seem useless, and it does not excite them, but the change can actually be a very useful one for creators and helps that to maximize their content engagement, and build their presence within the app.

As you can also see in the above screenshot, Instagram now also enables IGTV creators to cross-post to Facebook Watch, boosting potential exposure for their uploads.

TikTok Opens its Self-Serve Ad Platform to All Businesses Worldwide

It has been a few months since TikTok has been working on this new feature, and now after months, TikTok has officially opened up a “self-serve” ad platform that lets companies buy and manage ad campaigns directly, a move to lure the ad dollars of small and medium-sized businesses.

This Self-Serve Ad Platform is a part of TikTok’s recently launched TikTok for business, which is a new platform dedicated to marketers and advertising.

As explained by TikTok:

“The global availability of TikTok’s self-serve advertising solutions gives marketers the tools to tap into the creativity of the TikTok community, reach new audiences, and optimize their marketing campaigns with an easy-to-use platform.”

TikTok said these companies have access to creative tools to make ads, flexible budgets allowing for spending adjustments and performance targeting. TikTok said advertisers and ads have to undergo a review and approval process.

The self-serve platform’s placement tool lets businesses choose between allowing TikTok to place ads for them in any location, or specifically selecting where they want their ads to run.

How does TikTok’s Self-Serve Ad platform work?

If you are one of those social media addicts or professional marketers who have previously used other platform’s ad campaign, the TikTok Self-Serve Ad platform would be very easy to work with for you.

The platform is nothing complicated, and like all other social media ad platforms, when you open the page, you’ll see the usual ad set-up options, including campaign and ad groups, targeting options, budget, and scheduling, etc. The platform also includes options like video templates and auto-editing tools.

The platform also has very creative and automated tools that allow you to add a combination of still and video content for your campaigns.

For sure, targeting and scheduling tools are two other important tools included in the platform to make it easy for advertisers to create TikTok ads.

Source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-opens-its-self-serve-ad-platform-to-all-businesses/581260/

Good news for small businesses from the TikTok’s ad platform:

After the launch of Self-Serve Ad Sales, it Pledges $100 million in ad credits for small businesses affected by the pandemic. TikTok has officially announced this in the launch of its Back-to-Business Program, through which it will give out $100 million in ad credits to small businesses around the world that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Twitter is building a ‘subscription platform,’ and soon, we might have to pay to access some tweets

Twitter seems to be working on a new subscription-based offering for limited users after the company shared a new job listing, which is for a mysterious new Twitter subscription team, codenamed ‘Gryphon.’

As you can see in the above description and pictured shared by Social Media Today, the Gryphon team will reportedly work with Twitter’s payments group on a subscription process – “a first for Twitter.” What form, exactly, a subscription-based Twitter offering would take is unclear, but the speculation alone saw Twitter shares jump 12%, with investors keen to understand more about a potential new revenue stream for the platform.

The job posting announcement did not clarify anything more or explained any details to Twitter’s eventual plans, but it is obvious that the team behind the subscription platform will work closely with the internal Payment team. That does suggest some possible directions Twitter might head.

As some professionals suggest, it seems like twitter may also be considering Twitter may also be considering a Twitch- or Patreon-style type of subscription, where you could subscribe to individual accounts in some way. We’ve reached out to Twitter to comment on its subscription plans, and we’ll update you accordingly.

Twitter has now made a little change to the job listing announcement and has removed the mention of a potential subscription feature in development or the Gryphon team working on it. The job listing is now simply in search of an android engineer for work on a bevy of backend engineering teams to build components that allow for experimentation to deliver the best experience possible to all of our users.”

Such a thing can have a huge impact on the future of Twitter. Take the example of a new Twitter in which you have to pay to access their tweets or news outlets that can share breaking stories or in-depth reporting with their subscribers before their non-paying Twitter followers.

LinkedIn users can now upload audio clips to help others pronounce their names correctly

LinkedIn has added a cool new feature to user profiles, which it has never spoken about before. Users can record 10 seconds of audio to guide pronunciation. Amazing, isn’t it?

If you are one of those people who get your name pronounced wrong most of the time, or when you get interview calls, people often end up mispronouncing your name, with this thoughtful LinkedIn feature, you’ll never have such problems ever again.

“Starting this week, we are adding an audio recording feature to your Profile so you’ll have the ability to create a recording of your name pronunciation, which will then be clickable on your Profile. Once you add a recording, other members visiting your Profile can quickly listen to the recording to better understand your pronunciation preference and, subsequently, ensure they can correctly say your name. You can also listen to other members’ pronunciations by visiting their profiles when they have added a recording,” Joseph Akoni, Product Manager at LinkedIn, said in a blog post.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/8/21317032/linkedin-name-pronunciation-record-audio-feature

Remember that the audio clips can only be recorded on a mobile phone, but do not worry since they can be played on both desktop and phone.

Here is how you can add audio clips to your Profile on your LinkedIn (according to India Today):

Tap your profile picture and then select View Profile.
After opening your Profile, go to the Edit option and select it
You will find a Record name pronunciation option when you hit Edit. Tap and record your name.
If you want to make changes or redo it, you can tap the Edit icon to delete or replace the existing recording.
Once you are done recording your name, click on the Use button if you are satisfied with your recording and don’t want to make any changes to it.

We all hope that users will not misuse the ability to place a 10-second audio recording of their choice on their Profile.

Instagram Lets Users Pin Comments to the Top of Posts

Instagram has finally rolled the “Pin Post Comment” feature. That means you can pin a few comments to the top of your feed post. The feature was first announced in May and is now globally rolled out. This new feature allows users to pin up to 3 of their favorite post comments to the top.

“Today we’re rolling out pinned comments everywhere,” Instagram tweeted on Tuesday. “That means you can pin a few comments to the top of your feed post and better manage the conversation.”

This new option can be used in a very useful way and can help the author of a post to control the tone of the post. It’s designed to allow the author of a post to better control the tone of the comment thread through highlighting positivity and moderating more negative and abusive responses that show up below the pinned comments.

One of the uses of this feature for business accounts and brand owners would be that they can amplify common questions and answers. If someone asks a good question about your product, you could pin it, then reply, helping profile visitors get more context.

To Pin a comment to your Instagram post:

Swipe left on a comment
Select the pin icon on the far left in the tray.

The new pinned comments feature on Instagram is similar to the one we see on YouTube, where creators highlight a comment to let others know the type of conversation that will be preferred.