Well, here we are: it is the fourth month of 2019, and already it seems like each social media platform has changed things up (and/or experienced accidental shut-downs, but we aren’t naming names…). If you are wondering what has been updated on your newsfeeds and timelines, follow along with our list of the top updates fresh produce marketers need to know:
2019 Social Media Updates Marketers Should Know
Twitter decided to finally hop on the stories bandwagon and added a camera composer to their tool line-up. Much like on Instagram and Facebook, this feature allows you to capture videos, photos, or live streams to share with the audience. It shares similar features like being able to scan your region and offer relevant tags, and your text will appear as a footer tweet at the bottom of the image or video. Unlike Instagram, Twitter has yet to roll out branded stickers or filter tools to use with this feature.
In other Twitter news, this year Twitter plans to launch a “hide” feature that will now allow you to hide troll-like or negative responses to your tweets.
So far Facebook has made history this year with its biggest outage. The platform attributes the outage to server configuration change, and had many users and brands at a loss for what to do when Facebook and Instagram shut down. In the meantime, Facebook continues to set its priorities around creating original content with its TV Watch Party where users will be able to host watch parties with friends and connections while a major event is on television. This will of course expand to include interactive features where creators can add Q&A and trivia to increase engagement.
The latest feature for this platform is the “Pause All” tool. Unfortunately for brands, this tool was put in place to mute all notifications for a time limit varying between 15 minutes to 8 hours. Through this feature users are being encouraged to step away from social media and come up for air once in a while. This was mainly rolled out as a tool for parents to use with younger children, or for those looking to have a social break. This could mean that your stories, livestreams, or updates get ignored even if the user previously made sure they receive notifications from your brand. On a more exciting note, Instagram plans to launch sorting tools for followers, as well as karaoke-style music videos that many users (including our karaoke-loving CEO) are sure to enjoy.
Regarding ads on Instagram, the platform has announced that it will now use “branded content ads” to help brands and influencers partner in a more transparent way. These ads will allow brands to sponsor posts created by influencers. Overall, Instagram plans to continue to heavily clean up the platform and improve metric integrity by removing inauthentic activity, such as likes or follows from bot accounts. This could mean you may see your follower numbers occasionally drop due to bot account removal.
LinkedIn:
It would appear that LinkedIn is also trying to cash-in on a possible story feature. In 2018, the platform tested out the reactions and stories features. Though it was a limited test, we are interested to see if this feature will be unveiled in 2019. As we all know, LinkedIn is not the “typical” social platform. It’s often looked at as more of a place for business communication or for job seeking and recruiting. Despite that perception, this year LinkedIn launched a trending news section that allows you to stay up to date—much like what you see on Facebook.
Pinterest:
Say hello to four new advertising regions later in 2019. Pinterest announced this month that four new regions will now be available for ads, including Germany, Austria, Spain, and Italy. Pinterest has also voiced interest in expanding business to the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and Switzerland in coming months. Pinterest is trying to slowly transition from its current state to a discovery and eCommerce engine, with a focus on product listings and the ability to help users navigate directly to their search items. With Pinterest soon filing for an IPO, we are on the edge of our seats for what this will mean for the platform.
Snapchat:
Though it may appear that Snapchat is slowly burning out as a social platform, the company is still in full swing—and making updates to its trending topics feature. The platform still has a large 18-and-younger audience that uses the platform for news and trending topics. Gaming and entertainment companies are viewing Snapchat as a way to appeal this this tech-savvy demographic. Each month in 2019 Snapchat has been releasing “Snap Chatter,” a report that reveals global trending topics and what users are watching, searching for, and even trending slang. Snapchat is also currently testing out use of eight different languages to expand capabilities with new audiences.
While each platform appears to be making significant moves in 2019 to expand and improve, whether these updates stick and improve capabilities for brands remains to be seen—stay tuned!
Have you noticed any other updates we should add? We’d love to hear more in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheCoreBlog!
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