7 Updates to Stay on Top of Your Social Media Marketing

To remain relevant to online communities, your social media marketing efforts must actively adapt and respond to social media updates. Social media is a constantly changing playing field, where new platforms seem to emerge every day, while familiar platforms like Facebook or Snapchat grow and improve. Here are seven updates to be aware of when helping your business or brand stay on top of social media marketing efforts.

Augmented Reality (AR)

We see technology opening new doors left and right, and augmented reality is one such up and coming trend for social media marketers to take advantage of. For instance, AR has equipped Snapchat with the technology to release Shoppable AR. This new feature offers advertisers the opportunity to sell their products through sponsored lenses at a more advanced level. A lens-based advertising, Shoppable AR allows Snapchat users to download, buy, or view a video directly from a Snapchat face filter on the in-app browser.

Taking Shoppable AR a step further, Snapchat will also roll out with AR menus. By scanning a Snapcode, customers will be able to use this AR menu feature to see a virtual copy of their meal before even ordering it. Bareburger is one of the first clever restaurants to implement the use of Snapchat’s AR menu, to connect with the “foodie” community that often uses social media as a platform to share pictures of their meals.

Snapchat isn’t the only social media platform to test the waters with AR features, however, as Facebook Stories also offers an AR drawing tool to its users.

Augmented Reality is a groundbreaking technology predicted to play a significant part in the changes social media marketing will have to embrace in this year, as well as the years to come.

Improving User Experience

Another major update within the social media community is the new initiative to improve user experience across multiple platforms. As this new goal becomes more of a priority to social media, social media marketing will become directly affected. This is seen most prominently with Facebook’s recent algorithm changes, as Facebook now reduces the reach of posts by publishers and brands to emphasize and focus more on content generated by friends and family. With this shift, many companies now worry how this will affect their online viewership, specifically with their Facebook pages that already see a decrease in reach.

Twitter also seeks to improve the user experience by cracking down on bots and strictly limiting how users can automate tweets from multiple accounts at once. By doing so, Twitter’s hope is to add some transparency and truth in an online world riddled with spam and political propaganda bots that cultivate distrust amongst the Twitter community. Matching Facebook’s new initiative, Twitter will also limit the amount of news shown to its users compared to their real-life connections.

Instagram is improving user experience by aiding users in copyright issues through the transition of Rights Manager from Facebook to Instagram, which will aid users in protecting their content.

Facebook Updates

Although Facebook’s algorithm changes have reduced the reach of company pages, Facebook has released QR codes as an easier way to connect users to specific accounts. Page managers can tailor a code to automatically like the page, check-in, or connect the user to a recommendation or review page.

Facebook is also releasing Facebook Video Premiere, as an expansion of the extremely successful live streaming feature. Video Premiere will boost engagement by allowing users to post pre-recorded content in the context of Facebook Live. Premiere will work similarly to Live Streaming and seek to achieve similar engagement rates; the only difference in that the videos are pre-recorded. Facebook Live Streaming generates six times more interactions than regular video posts, and with Facebook Video Premiere, the hope is that this interaction level will stay on the rise.

Instagram Updates

A recent update to the Instagram user interface is the “recommended posts” intertwined with the natural flow of your feed. This recommended feature represents a great opportunity for social media marketing. Following hashtags, and thus the community that uses the hashtag is also a new feature Instagram offers.

Instagram has also announced plans to include Carousel Ads as a new ad format in Instagram Stories. Rather than a single photo or video, a brand advertising through Instagram stories can include up to three! With new ad formats released by Instagram, there is now more variety in social media marketing on the Instagram platform to connect with your brand’s niche communities. According to Statista, the monthly active users of Instagram Stories each month impressively overtakes the monthly active users of Snapchat.

Twitter Updates

The most recent Twitter updates are the expanded character count for tweets and threaded posts. Twitter also began highlighting content as well, such as sports games. Earlier this year rumors also unfolded about Twitter becoming more video-friendly like Snapchat. Though this is still unconfirmed, it is possible that with a new feature centered around videos, Twitter will also allow advertisers to promote and create sponsored content in a new way.

The newest development, however, is Twitter’s reported rise in profitability and gain in users once more. With this sudden and recent growth, Twitter is in a position of scrutiny by the public, which may result in possible continued social media updates.

Snapchat Updates

Snapchat’s most relevant and recent update is their new user interface. This brought a lot of discontent from the users, even bringing about a petition to return the previous design of Snapchat back into the spotlight. The main difference, which many argued to be hard to navigate, is the separation of content of friends, to celebrities and promoted material. It is still unknown whether Snapchat will bring back their old design, keep the new design, or implement a hybrid.

Up and Coming Social Media Platforms

Amino Apps targets a younger Generation Z audience looking to share in the community. The average user range for Amino Apps is 14-24, which is a more focused age range compared to that of Tumblr or Instagram. Known as a cross between Tumblr and Reddit, Amino Apps creates communities for a variety of interests ranging from Pokémon to anime to K-pop. Amino Apps is most recently introducing Avatar Chat, where users can chat using animated avatars.

 

 

A second up and coming social media platform is Vero True Social. Vero True Social’s mission is to provide an honest platform, free from advertising and data mining. Although brands can still own a profile and use User Generated Content or Influencer Marketing, brands cannot pay for advertising on the Vero interface. Products can be sold, although Vero will collect a commission. Vero has gained a significant amount of traction recently, however, it is still unclear whether it will become as widespread as Instagram or Snapchat. Is what Vero offers, a social experience free of advertisements, worth its price?

These seven updates have already brought about significant change to the social media world, affecting the tactics with which we can implement social media marketing. By ensuring that your brand keeps track of these social media updates even beyond just these seven, you can stay ahead of the game or even predict what the next big move is in the social media marketing industry.