It’s that time of the month! Time to update you on what’s been happening on social media in the last couple weeks. We like to feature some of the upcoming and recently launched changes and additions to our favorite social media platforms. Nothing ever stays stagnant on social.
One of the largest social media platforms has been very busy. Facebook has made some major changes in the last month, as they are continuing to work on increased privacy and security for users.
Here’s the roundup of top stories about social media updates.
New insights for facebook - Read it here.
Facebook announced that they’ve updated the way they define organic reach for Pages so that it's measured similarly to paid reach for ads in the News Feed. This allows you to more accurately compare paid and organic posts for your Page.
The new organic reach definition counts the number of people who had an unpaid post enter their screen. Previously organic reach was counted when a person had an unpaid post placed into their News Feed whether it entered the screen or not.
This update doesn't change how your posts are delivered, or who sees and engages with your posts (through likes, comments, or shares). This is an update to the way Facebook measures organic reach, which may result in changes to the reported numbers for your Page. For example, you may see a decrease in organic reach.
Facebook changes privacy policy and offers new privacy protections - Read their announcement here.
After privacy concerns were raised about Facebook and its apps data collection, and in response to the GDPR regulation in the European Union, the social media giant is revising their privacy policies and offering users new protections.
Users will be asked to review how their data is used and to make choices regarding things like ads, information in their profile, and face recognition. Facebook is also aiming to make political and issue ads more transparent.
Restricting data access for apps - Read it here
Going forward, all third-party apps using the API’s from Facebook will be more tightly monitored and in some cases need approval from Facebook before collecting certain data. Many features have also been disabled.
Making it harder for false news to spread - See more here.
While clickbait has been around on Facebook since it allowed business pages, more recently it has evolved into straight up misleading and fake news. Everybody wants Facebook to do something about it, but the company has a fine line to tread as banning all fake news could be seen as censorship. This is why they’d prefer to let the reader make their own judgment.
Previously this has been hard for users to do as checking various third-party sites – especially on mobile – is time-consuming. A solution directly within the newsfeed is welcome.
Facebook is looking to create a newsfeed with less sensational content and the platform is adding information about who is creating and sharing news articles and blogs.
This is a good time for advertisers to evaluate their style of ad creative. Advertisers who rely on clickbait style ads will find that their ads will look more and more dated and out of place in the newsfeed. Businesses should consider moving to a content-first approach where useful information is given in the ad itself so that users can decide whether it’s worth clicking on to learn more.
Making pages more transparent - See more here.
Facebook is also requiring that individuals who manage pages with large follower count are verified by Facebook, making it much more difficult for people to use fake accounts to admin large Pages. Facebook is trying to protect user identity and prevent election interference. However, these features will apply to non-political Pages, to extend protection to all users.
Here’s what Rob Goldman, VP, Ads, and Alex Himel, VP, Local & Pages, wrote:
“People who manage Pages with large numbers of followers will need to be verified. Those who manage large Pages that do not clear the process will no longer be able to post. This will make it much harder for people to administer a Page using a fake account. We will also show you additional context about Pages to effectively assess their content. For example, you can see whether a Page has changed its name.”
Facebook removed partner categories - Read more here.
If advertisers want to target certain users, they’ll have to use Facebook’s behavior targeting, interest targeting, or custom audience, with email addresses obtained “Facebook legally.”
Instagram posts directly to your stories - Learn how here.
You can know share your Instagram post in your stories as well. This is a handy tool to make sure more people see your posts.
Instagram adds a mute option amongst other features - Read more here and here.
Do you have annoying friends you don’t want to unfollow, but would rather not see their posts on Instagram? Well, now you can mute them. When you unmute someone you will no longer see their posts on your feed. You can still see their posts within their profile, receive notifications about posts you’ve been tagged in, and can unmute them later. They will not know when you’ve muted or unmuted them. This feature is being rolled out to select users in the next weeks.
Other new features have been found in the app’s code, but it’s not clear when they’ll be released. New features include slow-motion for stories, a calendar view for Instagram Stories archive, stories reactions, tagging Facebook friends in posts, and video calling.
Know when you’ve seen all recent posts - Learn more here.
Stop scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. Instagram will now be showing users right in their feed the message “You’re All Caught Up – You’ve seen all new post from the past 48 hours.” While the feature is still being tested, it’s part of an effort to make time spent on social media “time well spent.” A major campaign for Mark Zuckerburg and Facebook, this is the first feature that shares a similar goal on Instagram.
Instagram upgrades the Explore Page - Read more here.
If you’re familiar with Instagram, you know it shows you popular posts based on what you like and watch. Now, Instagram is expanding that feature by letting your browse content based on interest with a new “Channels” category.
Based on your personal interests instead of what Instagram thinks you want to see, you’ll be able to pick and choose which content you see, like for example sports, models, makeup, etc. This gives you greater control over the content you see. It also makes it more likely for people to find your business account.
Instagram adds an in-app payment feature - See more here.
To continue building Instagram as a resource for e-commerce sites and online shoppers, Instagram quietly added a feature that allows in-app payments. It hasn’t rolled out for everyone yet, but the feature appears to users to add a credit or debit card and a pin in their profile. Once they are set up, they can make purchases without leaving Instagram.
Instagram could be adding a music feature to stories - Read about it here.
It’s possible that Instagram will add a music feature to its stories. A code found inside the Android app points to “music stickers” which could let you search for and add songs to your posts. Instagram is also testing a way to automatically detect songs users are listening to and display the artist and song title as a label.
Instagram adds beauty partnership team - Learn more here.
Instagram is adding a new team that will focus on beauty and its community. Similar to the Fashion Partnership Team, the new Beauty Partnership Team works as a resource for the fashion community to learn about Instagram’s best practices and new features, and delivers product feedback from the community back to the company’s developers. It will also focus on the platform’s relationship with beauty brands and hair and makeup artists
Twitter may let users sell ads before their videos - Read the article here.
Twitter is thinking about letting publishers take the lead and selling pre-roll video ad at the start of their video clips. This could lead to more revenue for publishers, but the details aren’t finalized.
Snapchat
Snapchat adds AR selfie games called Snappables - See more here.
Snapchat has released Snappables, a new feature that lets users play AR games within the app. The games use touch, motion, and facial expressions to compete for high scores or participate in head-to-head multiplayer match-ups. Snappables are found within Snapchat’s Lenses. New games will be released each week and favorites will stick around.
WhatsApp adds in-app viewing of Facebook and Instagram videos - Read more here.
One of the latest updates on WhatsApp is the ability to watch Instagram and Facebook videos without leaving the app for iPhone users. This is just a couple months after YouTube video playback integration was introduced in January this year for iPhone users.
There you have it, what you need to know about the most popular social media apps! What update makes you most excited? Are there any changes you’d like to see? Let us know.
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