July flew by, didn’t it? The Euros have been and gone, and the Olympics went swimmingly! Of course, you aren’t here for that, you’re here for the latest social media updates! It’s been a busy month, so let’s dive in…
We begin with some huge news from Clubhouse, they are scrapping the invite-only process and opening up to all users. The audio-based social site was originally invite-only and that gave the site an early hype boost. Being a recipient of an invite was a big status factor, some users even pawned off the invites for ludicrous amounts of money via eBay!
This isn’t the only thing to come from Clubhouse in July, as their leaked new feature became reality, a texting channel called Backchannel. This new texting feature will allow users to send written messages both during and outside of audio chats. This will be an asset for hosts as the written messages will make it easier to organise a room before going live.
Over on Facebook, they have introduced a Groups Expert role. The Group Expert role will refer to an individual who is highly knowledgeable about the topic of the group. The Expert title is also a good way for the admin(s) to acknowledge that person as well.
Next up, Facebook will be introducing a Threads feature that is not too dissimilar to Twitter’s!
Threads, for those unaware, is a chain of posts from a user. This feature is helpful if users have more to say than character limits allow. They are also great to continue a story as it happens.
Let’s talk Reels! Facebook has been working hard on its Reels feature. The reels feature is short videos which are like the length of TikTok videos. To maximise the potential engagement and prevent users from migrating to TikTok, Facebook is continuously working on Reels.
Moving onto Instagram with an update that we’re really excited to see, Instagram is increasing their analytics to sixty days. This will be a huge bonus for businesses that track data as it will provide them with a much wider pool of information.
In reference to Facebook working on its Reels feature, they have also been doing video tests on Instagram. These tests are helping Instagram to stay in competition with TikTok as the most superior entertainment-based social media app.
Lastly from Instagram, they are introducing some safety settings for teenagers. Protecting young people on social media has been a major push in recent years, with networks doing what they can to enforce better safety measures. For instance, whenever a teenager signs up to Instagram, their account will automatically be set to private, giving them the choice of who can follow them.
Pinterest will be adding some new tools that will make it easier for Pin Creators to monetise their content and assist brands in promoting their products through influencers. One of the tools being included will allow creators to tag products in Idea Pins for easy promotion.
Additionally, they are introducing further features to help creators get their content monetised.
If you’re looking to take your first steps with Pinterest, get in touch!
Onto Snapchat next and an exciting update tells us that the app is growing faster than it ever had before. The App’s revenue growing even faster than that of Facebook and Twitter!
TikTok is taking control of the influencer market! It is making sure to restrict content that promotes certain investment schemes such as cryptocurrency – this comes after TikTok’s recent update to its branded content rules.
This then ties into the announcement that TikTok is banning financial advertisements. This appears to be in an effort of preventing users from being deceived by potentially false financial advice, which is especially bad considering the younger users on the social network.
We’re starting off strong with Twitter as it has now established a goal for its new business professional site, to kill off LinkedIn! Harsh words aside, this does prove how much faith Twitter have in their business-oriented network. We will have to wait and see how much it will rival LinkedIn…
Twitter seems to have thing for ending things, as it has now terminated its Fleets feature. Fleets, for those who don’t remember, was a version of Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat’s twenty-four-hour story posts.
Going back to business, as Twitter will be incorporating a new shopping module for professional profiles. This will be a dedicated space on a business’ profile page where they can easily showcase their products for customers to explore.
An update regarding the criteria for verification has also been released by Twitter. They go over some of the categories that allow for verification, such as being an Entertainment or Government figure. They then go over some of the factors that make someone eligible for verification, such as being regularly active on the network.
Twitter have also introduced captions for voiced Tweets. The captions will be auto-generated in multiple languages including, and not limited to, English, Spanish, Hindi and Japanese. This is great news, and a fantastic way to further help the platform to be more inclusive.
The last update from Twitter is that it will allow users to limit who can respond to their Tweets. This will be an effort to establish more meaningful conversations and attempt to limit harassment.
Lastly, we come to YouTube. Where they are introducing a ‘New to You’ feature. This feature will allow users to find content creators that they have never seen before and comes to boost engagement and exposure for creators.
This new feature is going to be great for creators who may not have the same size audiences as the more popular creators.
That’s it! You’ve reached the end of the social media updates for July. That was a pretty jam-packed round-up, wasn’t it!
We hope you found this month’s round-up helpful, and you’ll be taking away updates that will help improve your social media experience!
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