Lately in Social Media – 6/6/16
The internet is chattering about Facebook’s potential new post type, which would allow users to share something with their friends without saving it to their timelines forever. Perfect for those political memes you want to show everyone but don’t want lingering on your profile after election year. Or for the 360 photos you can now share to your newsfeed.
Facebook is also testing a user-controlled version of the Safety Check feature, which has previously only been turned on by company staff. The tool lets users notify their loved ones that they are safe in the aftermath of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. Facebook thinks maybe the user community itself can do a better job of judging when they need to use the feature.
Messenger has also been in the news lately as Facebook (once again) pushed users toward the separate app for private conversations. It happened to iPhone and Android users back in 2014, but some avoided downloading the extra app by using Messenger through Facebook’s mobile site instead. Now, that’s no longer an option. A note for marketers: The separate Messenger app matters to you because it provides another channel by which Facebook can target users, and Facebook firmly believes messaging is the lucrative future of social interaction. And now you can use diverse emojis to express yourself!
Feeling concerned that Facebook knows too much about you? You’re not alone, and you might not be wrong. Although Facebook denies it, some users suspect the company is always listening through their phone’s microphone feature when the app is open. Paranoid or not, here’s how you can turn off Facebook’s mic privileges and keep your private convos from showing up as ads in your newsfeed.
After weeks of warnings and whining, Instagram is about a month away from actually implementing that algorithm to change up your feed. And finally, at long last, iPhone users will no longer have to log into Instagram to post, because Version 8.2 FINALLY takes advantage of image sharing from within Apple’s Photos app and other apps. These two developments are beneficial to marketers because the algorithm change will help ensure followers will see content regardless of when it’s posted, and the iPhone shortcut simply saves time. However, we’re still waiting on those nifty new business profiles and commercial features that’ll make “link in bio” a thing of the past.
SNAPCHAT
The almost five-year-old platform recently reached a major milestone when it surpassed Twitter by having the most daily active users of any social platform. Marketers – you’ve probably been hearing for months now that you “need” to be on Snapchat to “engage with the youth” because “everybody’s doing it.” This news will only add fuel to those flames, and this week Snapchat revealed a redesigned look for the Stories page that lets marketers add images and headlines to promote their stories. The redesign should support marketers already on Snapchat, because the platform wants to boost content from brand publishers to build up its burgeoning advertising business.
For the Snapchat-obsessed user, here’s a possibility to get excited about: 3D or augmented reality snaps. Although Snapchat is keeping it on the low, the company secretly bought a phone-based 3D capture company called Seene, and hasn’t shared what they plan to do with it yet. If the predictions are correct, brace yourself for the most surreal snaps you’ve ever seen.
The biggest change on the social media spectrum recently would have to come from Pinterest, which decided to rename its most iconic feature. Now, the “Pin-It” button we know and love has been turned into a simple “Save” button that does the exact same thing, but has a name that’s easier to understand. The feature was always a social media equivalent of “Bookmark this page,” but apparently Pinterest tested the name change a few months ago and observed more users were saving more pins, especially overseas.
