This month, we’ve got all the latest stories about the major social networks, and a roundup of anything you may have missed in December.
Check out what’s happening on:
Instagram | Snapchat | Google | Other
Social media marketing news: Twitter
Take your followers on a journey with Twitter’s new threads feature
If a tweet is one step, the new Twitter thread button is a complete journey, with rest stops and brunch included.
Twitter threads are for those people who love storytelling. In the past, you could manually link a series of tweets together into a longer story (a technique Twitter calls threading), but now, the new thread button will do it for you.
Just click the ‘add another tweet’ button after your first tweet, and you can build a series of them into a consumer engaging story.
It’s now easier for followers to keep up with your story too, as Twitter has also added a ‘show this thread’ label, enabling readers to find all tweets in a thread.
Monitor your social fitness
When it comes to a fitness resolution, you need to monitor everything.
How many extra miles have you run? (zero)
How many inches have you lost? (zero)
How many beers have you had this month? (don’t ask)
If tracking is your thing, you’ll love our new, improved Talkwalker Alerts.
It can now track your brand mentions on Twitter, as well as on news sites, discussions and blogs.
Talkwalker Alerts is completely free and all notifications go straight to your inbox (or RSS feed). So if you want to monitor your brand, products or competitors mentioned on Twitter, you can.
Social media marketing news: Facebook
It’s not just you planning to change this year
Many people set themselves a New Year’s Resolution, but none will impact as many people as Mark Zuckerburg’s.
Back at the start of the year, he set himself the challenge to work on Facebook in 3 areas:
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Protecting the Facebook community from abuse and hate.
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Defending against interference by nation states.
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Making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent.
And now we’re seeing a massive change regarding the third.
Although we don’t know exactly how this will impact on your marketing strategies and the organic reach of your page, Facebook has already said that this update will prioritize posts that spark conversation. This could be detrimental for pages with less engaging content, as these pages will receive less reach, video views, and referral traffic.
You’ll start to notice a change in the feed over the next few months, but don’t wait to see what will happen. Now’s the time to get more creative with your content, by creating posts that are engaging and spark conversation.
Keep yourself busy
If your resolution is to keep busier in 2018, you could look to the Facebook team as a prime example. Not content with just working on the above, they’ve also added several changes to the News Feed algorithm since mid-December:
If people often search for your channel, or you get repeat viewers on your videos, then this change will increase how often your videos are shown in people’s feeds.
The ability to snooze people’s channels
If you’re finding a friend’s posts a bit repetitive, the new snooze option allows you to hide their posts for 30 days.
This means individuals can keep control of what they want to see on Facebook.
But bear in mind, people can also snooze Groups and Pages, as well as friends. Make sure your content is engaging, or you could be the one that is snoozed.
Although engagement is key to Facebook’s algorithms, the wrong type will now be penalized. Defined as engagement baiting, posts that goad users into liking, sharing or commenting will be demoted in people’s News Feeds.
Repeat offenders could face further repercussions, as Facebook looks to demote whole pages for anyone who consistently uses engagement bait.
Following further research, Facebook will be replacing their disputed content flags with related articles. Their results so far have shown that instead of deterring people from sharing false news, disputed flags may actually further entrench false beliefs in their readers.
So instead, false articles will now be shown alongside related articles, to give readers an alternate view of their alternative facts.
Social media marketing news: LinkedIn
Discover the skills you’re missing with LinkedIn
Is this year your year to gain new skills? If only you knew what skills you were missing in your current role...
That’s where LinkedIn’s latest trending skill notification comes in.
Each month, they’ll suggest relevant skills that are common among people of the same job title as you. If you already possess the skill but don’t mention it on your profile, this is a subtle reminder to keep your CV relevant.
Or, if it’s something you need to learn, they will recommend courses for you to take to improve your proficiency in that area.
If you want to boost your CV in 2018, LinkedIn has got your back.
Social media marketing news: Instagram
Engage with the people that matter
Will 2018 be your year to get out there and meet new people?
Instagram can help. As long as those people are online.
You can now reach more people through live videos on Instagram, by sharing them with your followers in Direct.
Whether it’s your own live video or one you’re watching, you can share it with your contacts in real-time. You can even share video when you’re live with a friend. Just tap the Direct button, and your contacts will find it in their Direct inbox.
If your brand uses live videos regularly, it’s worth encouraging your viewers to share them, to boost your audience reach.
Social media marketing news: Snapchat
Snapchat is stretching their legs
And speaking of getting out more, rumor has it, Snapchat is looking to make their content more shareable with a new ‘Stories Everywhere’ product.
According to Cheddar.com’s sources, this could mean it’ll soon be easier for users to share Snapchat content to their blogs or sites, much like you can do already with the embedding options from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
There’s also the possibility that Snap will allow external apps to license some of their feeds, to boost the company’s revenue.
If these rumors are true, expect some major changes from the company in 2018, and more online integration opportunities.
Social media marketing news: Google
Get yourself an Assistant
With some resolutions, you can’t go it alone. You need an assist.
Like Google Assistant.
It’s now available on over 400 million devices worldwide. And as part of CES 2018, Google announced even more devices Google Assistant will be coming to in the future. Whether watching YouTube videos on your smart display, listening to Spotify on your headphones, or chatting on WhatsApp in your car, expect even more device options in the future.
And with so many more things you can do, Google has introduced Actions. These are all the activities you can perform with Google Assistant. There are now over one million Actions to choose from (and growing), so Google has made it easier to find the ones you need on their new directory page.
With some of the biggest brands (and smallest) optimizing their content to work with Google Assistant and other digital assistants, it’s time you got on board too. Or you risk missing out on future consumer engagement.
Social media marketing news: Other
Take a swipe at business networking with Ripple
Building your business contacts is always a worthwhile resolution. If only it was as easy as Tinder to connect with new people.
Well, it soon could be, as the team that built Tinder have now released a professional networking app called Ripple.
Their mission is to build a business network that encourages connections, in a less time-consuming manner. Or in their words, to 'create a network worth having.'
The app is in its early days, and early reviews claim it’s quite buggy, but it’s worth sticking out as often the first people to join a network can quickly gain a following.
Whether Ripple will have any impact on LinkedIn in the future, we’ll have to wait and see.
Get fit for 2018
That’s it for another month. Hopefully, you’re now raring to go and wearing your digital spandex.
If you’ve any comments or stories you think we’ve missed, leave a comment. Or try out the amazing new Talkwalker Alerts by clicking below.
