Social media is a fast-paced and ever-changing industry which can make it hard to follow the latest changes to platforms and industry updates. Thankfully we have you covered with this months latest updates.
Posted Monday, November 4, 2019
Facebook:
Facebook has had and an interesting couple of weeks. The recent quarter 3 report from Facebook revealed that they have added an additional 36 million more daily active users. The platform now has 1.6 billion users logging into Facebook every day with 2.45 billion accounts active on a monthly basis. As a result of the increasing usage and other factors, Facebook reported revenue growth of $17.7 billion for the quarter, an increase of 29% year-over-year. The results are a reminder that Facebook is far from a declining platform for users, brands and businesses.
Facebook also revealed that it will continue to run paid political advertising on its platform and that the ads would be exempt from its fact-checking process and rules. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that they are not doing this to help politicians but to allow people to think for themselves about what politicians are actively saying. Facebook’s stance is clear in that they want to encourage freedom of speech and discussion instead of becoming embroiled in political bias and that it shouldn’t be refereeing political battles and discourse.
Behind the scenes, Facebook is making a few amendments to ad metrics, specifically those that track video views. Businesses will no longer be able to view 10-sec video view metrics. The change is designed to better deliver optimisation using ThruPlay metrics and improve ad recall. Facebook will also be changing the names of the video metrics categories to make them much clearer to users. Facebook has also removed the grey page verification tick from business pages. The reasoning is that the verified pages were causing confusion for users and so removing it would tackle that issue. It was also highlighted that the removal would contribute to better quality business pages meeting Facebook standards.
Instagram:
Fresh from removing the ‘following’ tab within its app, Instagram has rolled out a few new features for its users with a focus on Instagram stories. Users can now use the stories camera to create more interesting content by adding GIFs to their stories. Instagram has also added new customisable templates for users to create unique content on their stories. Much like Facebook, users can now also create ‘memories’ posts of content they have posted to Instagram previously. Additional features include being able to ask your followers a question, creating a quiz, themed countdown clocks and an option for creators to run an Ask Me Anything post.
Internally, Instagram is testing Stories for groups. The feature allows photos from the story’s camera is rumoured to be able to post to a user’s story, made visible to close friends only and stories for groups in the Direct Messages function. Instagram has yet to confirm if this will feature in future updates and as such remains a rumour until we see the features rolled out in the updates. Other Instagram rumoured features include a must requested ability to send and receive direct messages through Instagram using the Instagram desktop website.
Twitter:
With a UK general election right around the corner and the well-documented toxicity of tweets when discussing politics on the platform, Twitter has taken the decision to remove all political advertising from its platform. Twitter co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey made the announcement via a twitter thread. The key takeaway is that Twitter believes those who wish to get their political message out should earn it instead of paying.
Aside from removing political advertising, Twitter has released a few new feature updates. Twitter users on Android can now switch to Dark mode. Mac users can now also download the dedicated twitter app to their Mac laptops and desktops. Twitter has also begun rolling out the new Direct Message search to those running the app on iOS. Apple users can also now pin their top 5 twitter lists making the lists function more organised and swipe functionality also adds to better user experience.
Google:
Google has acquired fitness tracking device maker, Fitbit for £1.6billion. The acquisition of the fitness tracker signals Google’s intent to further explore the lucrative expanding health data market. Google has said that its acquisition of Fitbit combined with its resources and global platforms will help to accelerate new development in the field of wearable technology. The deal should be completed next year pending approval by the board and regulators. Fitbit meanwhile has reassured people that the acquisition by Google and users’ data would not be used for Google adverts and will continue to ensure strong data privacy protections.
Emojis:
Those with Apple devices can rejoice using their starry eyes emoji as the recent iOS update has added a whopping 398 new emoji’s. The new emojis are set to be more inclusive and will feature emojis that are gender-neutral and inclusive of disabilities. The new additions include wheelchair users, prosthetic limbs, hearing aids, new animals, guide dogs and so much more. Check out the video below to see all the new editions in the iOS 13.2 update.
That’s your update on what’s news for social media in November. If you would like to find out more about our social media strategy, management or training services, why not give us a call?
