Social Media: What is New in 2017
Nowadays, social media is of enormous importance to businesses.
In recent years, brands have discovered the potential of these platforms and the advantages they bring by using the tools available in their digital marketing and communication strategies. However, keeping up with the constant updates and changes of each social network can prove to be a complicated task.
We decided to compile the most relevant changes in social networks in 2016 to ensure that nothing goes unnoticed.
New tools to report abuse
On November 15, Twitter announced new tools, reports and actions to deal with online abuse. As part of this campaign, Twitter has expanded the existing "Mute" feature, giving users the ability to block notifications for certain keywords, phrases, and entire conversations.
Still aiming to combat abuse on the platform, Twitter trained its employees on cultural and historical contextualization, trying to avoid situations in which certain cultures may feel offended by the company’s conduct. In addition, these tools made the process of denouncing hateful content based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, among others, more direct.
Jobs Page
In November 2016, Facebook introduced its new “jobs” page, for companies to promote jobs opportunities on Facebook. Finding that many small companies were publishing posts on the job boards on their pages, facebook decided to test a new page in which the employer can place the vacancies that the company has, including details such as positions, salary, among others.
Messenger 1.3
Also during the month of November, Facebook introduced Messenger Platform 1.3 that allows businesses to target audiences to Messenger. With this new feature, companies can post ads in the news feed that automatically open Messenger conversations and send sponsored messages when someone clicks on the ad.
Ethnic Affinity Marketing
In 2016, Facebook launched updates on "affinity" marketing in an attempt to prevent discriminatory advertising. Facebook intends to build tools to automatically detect and disable the use of ethnic affinity marketing for certain types of ads, such as those offering housing, employment, or credit.
Unified Inbox
Last year Facebook launched a unified inbox to enable businesses to turn in one place interactions between Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. Companies can now link the accounts and manage the communication of the three platforms with a single application. In this way, companies can respond to Facebook comments, visitor posts, comments, messages, and even tap a user's profile to see their past interactions with the business.
Call to Action button
Instagram announced last year that they are testing a new "Call to action" button to make it easier to purchase products on Instagram. The button gives buyers the possibility to discover more information about a product, as well as the option to go directly to the brand site to buy the product. This option is being tested by 20 major US brands and is expected to come online in 2017.
New Stories features
In 2016, Instagram released new features for Instagram Stories, including Boomerang and the possibility of making mentions. With Boomerang, users can create a short GIF loop video. With mentions, Instagram users can identify other users in their stories, appearing the person's name or underlined mark. When other users tap on that mention, that person's profile is immediately opened.
All these innovations were implemented in 2016 and add a lot to each of the social networks. For companies, the challenge is to realize how they can take advantage of these features and communicate with their followers and potential customers in a more efficient and creative way.
At a time when we are constantly bombarded by information, it is up to Communication professionals to think about new ways of interacting with the public, so being aware of the constant updates of these platforms is essential.
