3 WAYS SOCIAL PLATFORMS CHANGED IN 2018
Staying on the cutting edge of the next social media trend or hashtag while maintaining complex content calendars and monitoring and engaging with followers can be hard enough. With social media channels seemingly constantly changing the rules of the game and adding new ways to play, there’s even more to pay attention to.
Here are just a few of the top changes made to social media platforms in 2018:
- Facebook Launches a New Algorithm.
Early this year, Facebook launched a new algorithm designed to prioritize content from friends and family. Simultaneously, the algorithm encourages brands to get more creative and authentic with content while spending more funds on advertising to secure the same attention on news feeds of its followers.
For most brands, that’s meant tweaks in their content strategy or even investing in video to keep their content engaging and visible to Facebook’s new algorithm.
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Shopping Gets Easier on Instagram, Snapchat
Instagram has been making it easier and easier for users to shop right from Instagram posts since its first ecommerce test in fall 2017. Brands can now add a product sticker to a story and, with just one click, users can see price information and purchase the product.
Snapchat is also taking steps to make it easier for users to shop using its app. In September, the social media channel announced a partnership with Amazon allowing users to take a photo of a physical product or barcode with the Snapchat camera and be automatically redirected to Amazon for the product or something similar. Users just have to press and hold the camera screen to activate the function.
The easier it gets to shop on these channels, the more opportunity there is for brands to capture the impulse purchase and also showcase true ROI via click throughs and purchases.
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OMG, IGTV
After the successful launch and adoption of Instagram Stories, the platform ventured further into the video space with Instagram TV – or IGTV. Allowing brands to post videos up to one-hour in length, the new feature competes with the likes of YouTube with a big notable exception – it only allows vertical videos, making it ideal for a mobile only audience.
IGTV has been available in June as a standalone app or as a tab inside the main Instagram app. It recently added the ability for users to share their favorite IGTV videos to their story. A short preview of the video appears, with a link for followers to watch the entire video in IGTV. All in the name of sending more followers – and brands – to IGTV.
The crazy part? These changes are just the tip of the iceberg. Social platforms are constantly rolling out new small features all the time – like polls and songs in Instagram Stories – that there are just too many to mention. If you haven’t revisited your social media strategy in the past year, now could be the perfect time to make sure you are working with the latest algorithms and trends – not against them. Learn more about our social media audits here and contact us to get started on a social media strategy that works best for your brand.
