The Latest Social Media Updates

When it comes to social media, there are constant changes in algorithms, updates to the interface, as well as new sites popping up every day. The big players are continuously tweaking their platform to make it more user friendly, which basically means more controlling, and they are all trying to monetize their site. That has been an elusive task for many social media sites, but you can’t blame them for trying.

This article from Social Media Today by Andrew Hutchinson provides the most recent social media updates with the headliner sites:

5 New Social Platform Features That You Need to Know About | Social Media Today

The social media landscape is constantly changing, everyday there are new options and tools being announced and introduced, some major and some less significant. And in that, there are also some of those smaller, minor updates or tests that are important to specific groups but can go under the radar because they’re not widely announced.

As part of our ongoing effort to provide our readers with the best coverage of the latest social media news and insights, we feel it’s important to cover all of these, but sometimes they’re not worthy of a their own individual post. So to keep you up to date on these smaller changes and features, here’s a rundown of five upcoming or “in test mode” features that are currently being trialed by some of the major platforms – starting with Facebook, which has several interesting new options in the works.

1. Hiding Mature Content

Policing offensive material on social is always a challenge, and one that’s been made even more difficult with the advent of live-streaming – when the content is coming through in real-time, how can you censor it? For their part, Facebook has a whole team of people who scan through potentially offensive material on the platform and flag or remove as necessary – but even with such processes in place, The Social Network still receives many complaints from users about confronting material everyday coming up in their feeds.

As part of a new effort to combat the problem, Facebook is trialing a new ‘Mature Content’ filter option for users.

Image from Facebook

As shown in the image sequence, selected users are being shown the first message in their News Feed, giving them the option to remove mature content from their feed. If you do opt to remove mature posts, you’re then able to either filter them out completely, or to appear with a warning cover which gives you the option on whether you view the flagged material or not. Facebook told Business Insider that machine learning is being used to determine if something in a post violates the platform’s Community Standards, leading to it being potentially censored.

It’s an interesting option, giving users more control over what they see, and potentially could have some impact on brand content, depending on the products/services you offer.

2. Donations During Live-Stream

Facebook’s also reportedly looking to trial a new system which would enable people to donate money during a Live stream, with those donations – and donators – displayed during the broadcast.

The discovery is based on currently dormant back-end settings within Facebook Live, discovered by Moshe Isaacian (and shared by The Next Web’s Matt Navarra) earlier this week.

Facebook’s been investigating ‘tip jar’ type options for a while – back in April The Verge got access to a Facebook survey which had been sent out to verified users posing a range of questions around how they use Facebook, including whether they might find a tip jar option useful. If introduced, it could give Live broadcasters a new way to monetize their streams, and a new incentive to provide more value to their viewers, to whom they could directly appeal for funding to keep doing what they do. And worth noting, both YouNow and Twitch, which Facebook is now competing with in the live-streaming space, have donation options which, in YouNow’s case, enable a sort of digital busking option for artists.

That’s very likely the type of activity Facebook’s looking to encourage, giving broadcasters more reason to create content on the platform.

There’s no word as yet as to when, or even if, the tip jar system will ever be activated, but given it’s already built into the code, it’s likely we’ll see the tool announced some time soon.

3. Facebook Crossposting

Another recent Facebook Page addition is a ‘Crossposting’ tool, enabling admins to submit one video post that can be shared across multiple Pages to which they’re connected.

Crossposting has been available within Business Manager since April, but the option has now also been added to the general Facebook Page options – Facebook’s main use case for crossposting video is explained like this:

“A media company might want to post a video on their main Page, their international Page, and one of their topical Pages. Then they might also want to repost that same video a few weeks later.”

So if you manage multiple Pages and are looking to more easily share your video content across them, there’s now a simplified tool to do so.

Read the rest of the updates here:  5 New Social Platform Features That You Need to Know About | Social Media Today

So, the fact that Facebook updates are highlighted in the first three sections is no surprise. They are one of the few social media platforms that are profitable.  Plus they seem to find a way to regularly be in the news. Not many of the social sites can boast about their bottom line, including Twitter.

This Statistica infographic shows how Twitter rates against Facebook after ten years of existence. Even with its celebrity status, Twitter is still struggling to be in the black. There are numerous reasons, but time will tell whether Twitter can please their stockholders.

You will find more statistics at Statista

Facebook plays a big part in many businesses social media campaigns. There are numerous other platforms that are used to promote brand and products or services. We use Facebook, but we also use YouTube regularly as a promotional tool.

Here is another article that highlights social media updates. In this case, I chose to display the “other” platform updates, although this article by Debbie Miller of Search Engine Journal also started with Facebook news:

10 Social Media Updates from April 2016 | SEJ

Google +

Google has loosened its restrictions on who can leave reviews. Once requiring a Google+ account, now reviews can be left whether signed in to a Google+ account or not.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn released an app with the potential to bring in more young people to its social network. The new app, appropriately titled “LinkedIn Students”, is made specifically for helping college students in their efforts to find jobs after graduation.

Reddit

Reddit finally has its own self-produced mobile app for the iOS and Android platforms. Its presenting a completely different user experience on its mobile app than what people are accustomed to on desktop.

Twitter

Twitter is set to be the destination for sports fans on Thursday nights; the signing of a partnership with the NFL gives the social network exclusive streaming rights of NFL Thursday Night Football.

YouTube

Google is rolling out a new ad format for YouTube which will be short and unskippable. Google is calling me these ad units “Bumper” ads and they will appear just before videos that you watch on your phone or tablet.

See the other updates here:  10 Social Media Updates from April 2016 | SEJ

I know many people see social media as a way to stay connected with family and friends. Even though I enjoy it, it is also part of my job and my daily routine. In this day and age, a business can’t ignore the number of eyeballs that view the different platforms every day and use that to their advantage.

 Originally seen on S&S Pro Blog