The social media landscape is constantly evolving in order to keep up with the competition, current trends, and its technology-hungry users. Social media marketing is no longer just about great posts through your Facebook and Twitter accounts…it’s transformed into the ultimate way to engage, entertain and interact with your followers through a myriad of new features: virtual reality, live-streaming, and in-app advertising and purchasing.

As they say, strike while the iron is hot! Here are a few ways for you to take advantage of these new features and trends, and extend your brand’s reach through social media.

Pokémon GO

Pokémon GO is a mobile app released by Nintendo a few months ago…and if you haven’t heard of it by now, you might be living under a rock! It has literally taken over the world, and is the reason that (even more) people are walking the streets with their faces buried in their phones.

The game uses GPS to map out the game course through your local neighborhoods, where Pokémon creatures are hidden. When you come close to one, it will show up on your phone and you use your Poké Ball to capture them.

Pokémon GO has already been downloaded more than any other mobile game. Ever. Here are some stats since it’s release on July 6th:

• 100 million downloads
• 20 million active daily users
• Average of 26 minutes spent in the app daily
• Average of $10 million in revenue generated per day

So, what does this mean for your business? How can you benefit from it?  Well, branded capabilities are coming soon, which will mean you can purchase advertisements in the form of sponsored locations or Poké Stops (which are stops in the game that allow you to collect items or more Poké Balls to capture Pokémon). In the meantime, download the game for yourself and check out the GPS map next to your storefront. If you have a Poké Stop close to your location, you can purchase a Lure Module ($0.99), which will increase the number of Pokémon that will be attracted to that area.

You can then use social media to promote this Lure, and also promote the types of Pokémon that end up showing up to that location. It will mean a ton of extra foot traffic near your storefront, which increases the likelihood of at least one of them turning into a customer. Sweeten the Lure by offering a deal: “Show us your caught Pokémon and get 5% off your meal”.

You can have lots of fun with the way you choose to promote your connection to the game, and it may just turn you into a Poké master yourself!

Instagram Stories

Live streaming or broadcasting is super popular now, after the introduction of Periscope and Snapchat. With Facebook Live you can use your phone to share a moment instantly with your audience, and you can read and respond to their comments and see their reactions live while streaming.

Just last week, Instagram launched “Instagram Stories“, a new feature that lets you share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile. As you share multiple photos and videos, they appear together in a slideshow format: your story. Similar to Snapchat, your story will remain on your profile for 24 hours, and then disappear from your followers’ feed, as well as your saved profile grid.

Although the feature is just like what you can already do through Snapchat, Instagram Stories is actually turning out to be more preferred by brands due to its higher usability. For example, Nike posted its first Instagram Story last week and generated 800,000 views in the 24 hours it was posted (vs. the maximum 66,000 views it received on Snapchat).

Twitter Moments

To date, Twitter Moments have always been created by Twitter’s own curation team (along with a small group of publishing partners). But just yesterday, Twitter announced that they are now planning on opening up their Moments feature to more creators and influencers, and eventually, to all of the rest of its users.

Twitter Moments piece together breaking news or trending stories through the best pictures, highlights and headlines. It’s a consolidated way to get access to the most important, breaking information quickly, within a “moment”.

When things happen in the world, people come to Twitter to see, experience and comment about what’s happening as it unfolds. The stories and voices aren’t always expressed through a single Tweet – they unfold across multiple Tweets and involve various points of view. Moments allow people to capture and experience richer stories reflecting the diversity of Tweets that, together, make Twitter so powerful.

Extending Moments’ creative reach to everyone gives those users a new and dynamic way to tell stories. For example, Budweiser was selected as one of the early users, and put together this Moment yesterday:

Click to explore every detail of the America can in all its glory. #ThisBudsForYouhttps://t.co/FS25yZ5Lj3

— Budweiser (@Budweiser) August 8, 2016

It’s definitely a new feature of an already classic social media tool that is worth exploration once it’s live to every one of us.

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Now go forth, and have some fun with these new social media features and advertising platforms. We’re looking forward to hearing your success stories!

To stick to the tried-and-true method of paid advertising, check out our guide to Facebook Advertising. It may help you decide if you want to stick to what is familiar or try alternate platforms for your paid advertising strategy.