Updates to Social Media Platforms Target Privacy, Community, and More
In a single minute, the world publishes 481,000 tweets, creates 2.4 million snaps, and watches 4.3 million YouTube videos. And along with all that content, the platforms we share it on are constantly evolving to better serve us as users.
If you’re still in the process of multiplying 481,000 tweets by 131,040 minutes, you can stop (it’s around 63 billion). We’re here to tell you all you need to know about how the major social platforms have evolved since our last update, and more importantly, what these changes might mean for your brand’s social strategy.
New Tools for Groups
With millions of active groups and billions of users across them, Facebook is upping the support it provides group administrators. A new online portal gives group admins access to best practices for managing their groups. Facebook is also testing a dedicated support portal that group admins can use to get quick answers from the Facebook team.
For all groups, the new pre-approved members feature allows selected members to bypass pre-moderation on their posts. This is great for groups that require moderator approval of posts but also have members whose content you trust. When posts do need moderation, an additional moderation tool allows admins and moderators to easily inform users their content was removed. We’re excited about this feature, as educating a community about the rules goes a long way in preventing repeat offenders.
Changes to Reviews (on the horizon)
There hasn’t been an official announcement of this yet, but several of us here at ModSquad have noticed some changes to the way Facebook handles page reviews. Instead of giving 1–5 star ratings when posting a review, some users see “Do you recommend <page name>?” with Yes and No options.
Facebook’s new scoring system gives all pages a score of 1–10, instead of the previous 1–5 based solely on page reviews. It claims new recommendations weigh more heavily in calculating the score, so for those of you lamenting a lower-than-expected score, give the “Do you recommend?” option some time to roll out to all users.
API Limitations for User Privacy
Instagram has limited the access to its application program interface (API). This will impact how teams use third-party tools to interact with user content discovered through hashtag and location monitoring on Instagram. Even comments on a brand’s own content can no longer be deleted through a third-party platform. All of these actions must now be done natively, typically adding extra steps to existing processes.
Analytics have also been impacted by these changes. You now need a business profile for your third-party tool to pull your Instagram data.
Add More to Your Bio
All Instagram profiles can now include in their bios clickable profile handles and hashtags. Add another user’s handle to your bio as a way to promote partnerships or feature fans or influencers. A hashtag in your bio can be used to promote a campaign or to share and encourage user generated content (UGC).
Upgrades for Stories
It seems there’s always a new feature to add to your Instagram Stories. Among the latest are the emoji slider, type mode, and the ability to upload multiple pieces at once. Use the emoji slider to ask your followers a question they can answer using a rating scale. Type mode allows you to create a story asset without needing a photo or video background; no more uploading blank images just so you can add a text-only slide!
For those of us who like to curate our Stories and preview them before they go live, you can now upload up to 10 photos and videos at once, rather than one at a time. This is perfect for major announcements and refined storytelling where you don’t want your avid followers sitting there waiting for you to add the next slide.
That’s right, LinkedIn made our list this time, with an important update they rolled out recently. Drumroll please…
Multi-Photo and Native Video Publishing
Ta-da! LinkedIn now supports native video publishing for all pages and profiles. This was a long-awaited feature, as pages would previously have to upload their video to YouTube or another video hosting site in order to share it on LinkedIn. You can also now publish an update with multiple photos, instead of just one. The only sticking point so far is that video can’t be published or analyzed via third-party tools.
As the social media world turns, we’ll be here to keep you updated with all the latest changes and how they might impact how you engage with your followers. Will the updates we covered here change any aspect of your social strategy? Others have you not sure how to proceed? Comment below and a member of our digital strategy team will get back to you.