Social media networks change pretty regularly, between upgrades in functionality and design it isn’t a surprise when you log on and something has moved. In the last couple of months, however, there have been some exciting changes to the networks. Let’s break it down.
Twitter Moments
You may have noticed a little lightening bolt appear at the top of your Twitter feed in the last couple of weeks. Twitter Moments is described as a place to easily see what the most popular tweets, conversations, and topics are at that moment. Instead of relying on only the accounts you follow and the trend section, you can pop into moments and see an overall picture of what people are talking about from music to world news.
Twitter Removes Share Counts
In September Twitter announced that they were doing away with the ability to count shares via your web content. Tweet counter or share buttons have been widely used on website blogs as an indicator of content popularity. Twitter explained in a blog post entitled “Hard Decisions for a Sustainable Platform” that the reasons are mostly technical in nature although it stands to reason that Twitter would like websites to pay for accurate data or use Twitter analytics to find insights on their content. As of now the Twitter buttons are scheduled for removal around Thanksgiving.
Facebook “dislike” button
One of the most controversial and talked about new developments is Facebook’s “dislike” button. Facebook has consistently been clear that this development is not a dislike option but more of another way for users to interact with content they don’t necessarily “like”. The new update is being called Facebook Reactions. The best way to describe it is an extension of the like button. Now with a hover or hold of the finger on mobile you can react with an emoji. The options so far include like, love, haha, yay, wow, sad, and anger. Ireland and Spain are the first to receive the new feature and depending on how it tests, it could be rolled out to the U.S.
The reactions could be an upgrade for marketers, giving more insight into analytics of each post. Marketers can also manage negative reactions and learn which types of posts receive the most positive reactions and tailor their future posts based on those findings.
Facebook Carousel Link Posts
Facebook also made a small change to their posting functionality that could potentially have a big impact. The update gives you the option to upload 5 photos with a link you post on your page. It will automatically upload your auto populated site image which you can remove and add other images from your website or computer. This allows an image rich post for articles and the ability to do custom messaging using multiple posts. Ex:
(source: Social Media Today)
This functionality is currently available for both personal and business pages on Facebook. You are unable to change the “see more” section of the post, however creative marketers will have some fun utilizing this new functionality.
LinkedIn Groups
One of the biggest updates to come out of LinkedIn recently has to do with groups and how groups will function in the future. LinkedIn announced the complete new LinkedIn groups as well as a dedicated iOS app for the new features. The major change is the move to allow all private group admins to now have a choice to decide if they want an Unlisted or Standard group.
Unlisted groups will not appear in the standard group directory or appear in LinkedIn group search. The badges for these groups also will not appear on member’s profiles. To join an unlisted group you need to be invited by a group manager.
Standard groups can be populated by the owner with invites as well, however the owner can invite first degree connections and can approve requests to join groups as well.
The change is geared toward making groups more exclusive to increase the relevancy of the conversations and quality of contributions. The app allows you access anytime, anywhere to conversations in your groups and the ability to manage your group on your mobile device.
It will be interesting to see all of these changes take affect over the coming months as social networks continue to change to meet business and personal demands.
