Understanding the latest social media trends is crucial to every business that wishes to stay ahead of the curve at all times.
To help you improve your online presence and make the most out of social media, we will be publishing latest social media updates on a monthly basis. So, here is your scoop for February 2018:
What’s new on Instagram?
Scheduling Made Easier
Instagram came up with a brand new feature to help businesses schedule their posts in advance. If you have your business profile on Instagram, you should be able to schedule your posts using the API or one of the third-party software programs such as Hootsuite, SocialFlow or Sprout Social.
Carousel Ads in Stories
Now you can have three slides of media in your Stories ads on Instagram. Feel free to include images, videos, and other interactive elements to make your Carousel Ads highly engaging.
Once widely released, this feature is sure to give that much-needed boost to the click-through and conversion rates of your ads. It will also make your Stories ads more powerful than ever.
The release of the Type Mode
Have you used the new type of Facebook post – the one that comes up against the colorful background? You can now find it on Instagram Stories too.
Now, you can make things more interesting while making announcements, sharing information and engaging customers. It would be a great idea to combine Type mode with your images and videos.
GIF into Stories
You are able to spice up your visuals by adding GIFs into your Instagram Stories. Instagram has partnered with GIPHY to offer you access to thousands of animated stickers to make your Stories content more creative, fun, and interactive.
You would see the GIF option when you try adding a sticker to the photos or videos in your Stories.
What’s new on Facebook?
The Merge of Power Editor and Ads Manager
As a social media advertiser, you must have been struggling to use the Power Editor and Ads Manager simultaneously.
Luckily you don’t have to face that situation any more. Facebook has merged together the two of them in its new Ads manager.
You can now choose between the two or even familiarize yourself with the components of the Facebook advertising campaigns.
What’s new on WhatsApp?
WhatsApp for Business
With WhatsApp launching WhatsApp for Business, you will be able to create your business-specific WhatsApp profiles and manage all your customer communications.
Small and medium-sized businesses can now have their own ‘Business Accounts’ with a description of their business,and other details such as email address, physical address (in the form of a map) and working hours, with link to their website. They can also link up their landline phone number with their accounts. By creating welcome and set away messages and configuring “quick replies” they can easily manage conversations with their customers.
What’s new on Snapchat?
Share Snapchat Stories through Link
Very soon you will be able to share your Snap Stories outside of Snapchat through link shares or embeds. However, these stories will be limited to the public ones that would appear in the new Discover tab of Snapchat.
This option is the latest effort of the company to enhance awareness about the app and inspire more and more people to download the app.
Source: Mashable
Source: Mashable
Snap Store – The App Shopping Section
By opening up Snap Store, Snapchat just made it easier for its users to buy Snapchat merchandise from the comfort of their home.
Apart from generating revenue via product sales, this will create better revenue streams for Snap. Through the billing and shipping addresses entered by the users, Snapchat can make it easier for brands to target their ads based on the location of their customers.
New Range of Bitmoji
Ever since Snapchat acquired Bitstrips, the maker of Bitmoji, it has been offering its users, better ways of using Bitmoji characters.
Through customizable Bitmoji characters, they made it easier for users to add more flair and personality to their Snap presence.
The 3D Bitmoji characters introduced later could move and interact freely within real-world scenes.
With its new range of Bitmoji that includes 50 hair colors, 40 new skin tones, and 50 hair treatment options, Snap is adding in more scope to customize and refine personal characters.
What’s new on Twitter?
Livestream to conversation
If you are in the United States, you may have noticed a small window next to your Twitter timeline, displaying live coverage of some breaking news event. Try clicking on that livestream. You will find yourself in a feed of tweets related to the news.
According to KayvonBeykpour, the GM of Twitter video, this is Twitter’s way of providing credible information to its users. Twitter has officially partnered with local news stations to get the footage of the streams. However, the feature is right now available only for the Web version of Twitter.
Better Image Cropping
Ever had to struggle with odd or incomplete looking photos posted on Twitter?
You don’t have to worry about that anymore as Twitter is improving its image cropping process.
Instead of focusing on face detection, the process will now use neural networks to figure out the most interesting sections of the picture. Although a small improvement, it will help organizations in representing their businesses in a professional manner.
So, how exactly will you benefit from these social media updates? Are these social media trends going to transform the way consumers and brands use social media? Probably not; But they sure do make up for an interesting year.
Not all latest updates on social media might affect your business. However, it is good to stay tuned to these social media updates if you want to keep enjoy that competitive edge in the market.
Whenever you find a new trend or an opportunity that fits well with your brand, make efforts to update your brand strategy.
It is all about connecting with your target audience and setting yourself apart from the crowd.
You sure don’t want to miss out on any opportunity to achieve that. Right?