Lately in Social Media: December 2018
Can you believe it’s our last social media update for the year 2018?? It’s been a wild ride from start to finish, that’s for sure, and if you’re looking for a big-picture overview of how social media marketing and customer expectations have shifted this year, read our post on what you need to know in 2019.
While we usually wait until the end of the month to complete our round-up, we’re writing this month’s installment a little early since we’ll be enjoying family time during the holidays, so it’s possible we missed a few last-minute additions. If so, tweet us!
Without further ado, let’s dive into the nitty gritty updates so far this December:
- The revelations kept coming in early December when a dump of company emails and internal conversations revealed the platform’s approach to sharing data and undercutting competitors. And then they accidentally exposed 6.8 million users’ private photos to developers…And then we found out they gave other companies far greater access to users’ data than they’d disclosed…(but hey, don’t just get mad at Facebook since Spotify and Netflix were in on the action.) If you’ve lost track, here’s a helpful timeline.
- Of course, Facebook wants you to believe that it really wasn’t like that, because that’s not who they are.
- Blame the racist advertisers, instead.
- Besides, they didn’t actually sell your data, they just profit from it…
- We can only imagine how Facebook employees must be handling all this drama…
- After Tumblr announced its impending obsolescence, Facebook quickly neutered their Community Standards around sexual or suggestive content. Of course, that backfired quickly and people noticed.
- Stories, but for your Groups!!! This could be a fun way to share admin announcements or promote themes and topics, so go wild.
- Shareable collections will allow you to share the posts you’ve saved with specific friends in a Pinterest board-like way.
- Good thing they found more room for your ads in the Search feature, I was worried there might be a single ad-free space on this platform.
- Individual developers can submit applications to Facebook’s verification process, without having to be associated with a specific business.
- A new site called Inspiration wants to help you unleash your creativity on all Facebook-owned advertising platforms, please.
- In a quiet blog post update, Facebook ruled that it will limit the reach of Pages that primarily post repurposed content, and also won’t allow those Pages to monetize that content.
- Subscriptions to Instant Articles is still in test mode, but we’ve already seen a few updates.
- Also getting a few updates: Messenger’s camera mode, Life Events and Facebook Watch, which is still struggling to pretend it can compete with YouTube.
- P.S. Sandberg couldn’t solve all the problems at Facebook, because no one could.
- Get this: In the first half of 2018, more than 6.2 million accounts were reported for violating rules. If Twitter wants to improve its reputation in the new year, enforcing its own guidelines could be a good way to boost users’ confidence.
- Now you can finally switch between your latest or top tweets with just a few taps.
- Shocking news: women get bullied the most.
- P.S. My favorite Dorsey headline of 2018.
- Make a list of your Close Friends so you can send them your most exclusive Stories. This could be a fun tactic for super-engaged fans and followers. Or use question stickers to share music, whichever is more on-brand.
- Recently users gained the ability to add custom alternative text to their photos. Here’s how to do it.
- Keep an eye on this, influencers: Instagram is testing creator accounts that would offer more control and in-depth analytics.
- If you’re into voice messaging, now you use it to ruin your conversations in Instagram Direct, too.
- Turns out the platform played a more important role in Russia’s influence operation than previously suspected…
- But what if the next generation of D2C businesses could exist solely on IG?
- P.S. One of our own gave up Facebook/Instagram for a month and, shockingly, found that it made her a happier person. But what if we’re just approaching the problem wrong?
SNAPCHAT
- The platform appears to be testing a portrait mode with features such as batch capture, a compositional grid and a selfie timer.
- These location-based features can help retailers target previous visitors to their stores and create lookalike audiences.
- New features won’t save them if advertisers are bailing and creators are struggling, though.
- But if you can find a way to incorporate Lens Challenges, you’re a much more creative marketer than I.
YOUTUBE
- If your subscriber count dropped over the weekend, you’ll see a banner in YouTube Studio if spam subscriptions were removed.
- Speaking of spam, YouTube removed 7.8 million videos from the platform during the last quarter alone, and three-quarters of those videos were detected and removed before they received a single view.
- By dropping the paywall to its Originals programming, YouTube created potential advertiser opportunities such as sponsorships or new ad inventory.
- Lessons learned from the Smosh/Defy Media shutdown scandal.
- Trending charts will now be integrated into the YouTube Music app, available through search.
- Say goodbye to the old call-to-action overlays, and hello to its replacement ad extension button, which will first be available for True View in-stream ad campaigns with branding objectives.
- The latest lowdown on the algorithm right now, and make sure to optimize your profile.
- P.S. Did you see the top-viewed videos for 2018? Or YouTube Rewind?
A few last words…
- R.I.P. Google+
- What do you think about these predictions for where social media will go in 2019?
That’s it for 2018! Here’s hoping for lots of great social media marketing news in the new year!