It’s difficult to stay up to speed when the social media landscape is constantly shifting and shaping – we get it! That’s why we provide our partners with a This Week in Social Media (TWISM) e-newsletter. We highlight the biggest changes in social media weekly and share these updates and insights with our partners and internal teams. We’ve compiled the best of the best TWISMs (so you don’t have to!) and share them with you in What’s New in Social Media: June 2018 Edition.
- Facebook Announces “Brand Collabs Manager” Platform to Connect Influencers with Brands: Facebook is officially launching its new ‘Brand Collabs Manager’ dashboard, which will highlight relevant influencers to brands and enable them to make connections. The platform highlights relevant influencer matches based on your specific promotion requirements.
- Twitter Introduces New Measures to Tackle Trolls and Bots on the Platform: Twitter is cracking down on the misuse of its platform by introducing a measure that will require confirmation of an email address or phone number in order to sign up for an account. The platform has also begun efforts to improve their detection measures to stop people from creating multiple accounts in quick succession. Twitter’s recent purchase of digital spam detection platform Smyte will further support these efforts.
- Facebook Tests New Tool to Track the Amount of Time You’re Spending on the Platform: After releasing a report last year that looked at the potential negative impacts of social media use, Facebook vowed to make future changes more focused on user well-being and less on boosting its engagement metrics. Facebook is now testing a new “time spent in app” measure, which would show your total Facebook usage per day and average daily usage and also enable you to set alerts to let you know when you’ve reached a certain usage threshold. Instagram is also testing a Usage Insights feature.
- Snapchat Is Reportedly About to Launch its Own Gaming Platform: Snapchat is seeking to explore new ground as it tries to outrun Instagram’s efforts to copy its features. Its newest effort may be building out a bona fide hub for gaming inside Snapchat. The platform will launch later this year, and Snapchat is already signing on game publishers to participate in its efforts. It’s not clear whether these gaming titles would be focused largely on AR gaming, though one might expect it given all of the attention Snapchat has paid to the emerging mobile platform.
- Snapchat Reveals Major Updates to Ads Manager: Snapchat has revealed major updates to its self-serve platform that will provide performance-focused marketers with the full suites of tools needed for end-to-end campaign optimization.
- Instagram Is Launching Mute and “You’re All Caught Up” Features: Rolling out in the next few weeks, the mute feature allows you to hide photos from specific users in your feed without having to unfollow them. Instagram decided to add this feature to make the feed more personalized and confirmed that there was user demand for it. The “You’re All Caught Up” indicator shows when you have seen all of the content posted within the last 48 hours on your feed. This is a nod to users who want to see all new posts despite Instagram’s non-chronological algorithm.
- Facebook Launches Gameshow Platform with Interactive Video: Facebook announced a new set of interactive live and on-demand video features that let creators add quizzes, polls, challenges and gamification so players can be eliminated from a game for a wrong answer. Gameshow launch partners include Fresno’s “What’s in the Box,” where viewers guess what’s inside, and BuzzFeed News’ “Outside Your Bubble,” where contestants have to guess what their opponents are thinking. Plus, Facebook is also testing the ability to have monetary prizes.
- Facebook Opens Up Watch to Creators & Adds Video Features to Take On YouTube: The company is designing a more YouTube-like landscape for creators as it tries to build out Facebook Watch. Facebook is expanding its video offerings for creators and publishers launching new interactive video features and offering creators a chance to be included in Facebook Watch, the site’s video hub.
- Snapchat Ad Prices Go from Ungodly to Cheap: Today, Snapchat has the lowest ad prices of its peers. Snapchat ads in the first quarter of the year cost an average of $2.95 per thousand impressions, compared to Instagram’s $4.20 and Facebook app’s $5.12. By the end of June, every type of ad product Snapchat offers will be available programmatically, through auctions, with ad targeting and measurement. This is a risky move for Snapchat but could be beneficial for advertisers.
- Instagram’s New Shopping Bag Icon Adds Commerce Element to Advertisers’ Stories: Instagram is giving a select number of e-commerce brands a new feature to help with their e-commerce efforts on the platform. Certain advertisers can now add a shopping bag icon to their Instagram Stories that will display more details about the featured product. Clicking on the shopping bag icon can display various types of product information, including more images of the featured product, images of other products contained in the story, descriptions and pricing information for the product and links that lead directly to the brand’s website to purchase the product.
- Facebook’s 3D Posts Are Coming – Here’s What They’ll Look Like: The new 3D posts will provide a level of depth to posted images and will respond when you scroll past or angle your phone. They look impressive, adding another element to your images. The end result is a simple way to create good-looking, eye-catching visual effects without having to be a tech expert.
Stay tuned for next month’s updates!