What You Need to Know About Social Media Updates in 2018

Marketers should always be on top of all the latest social media updates and here’s how we’re going to kick off a new year. 2018 brings many changes to popular social media networks. The changes in each of the listed social media networks are important to your strategy. How did we pick these platforms?

If you’re curious, based on Social Media Week and Buffer’s research, of the 1796 surveyed marketers, 96% use Facebook, 89% use Twitter, 70% use LinkedIn, 70% uses Instagram, 57% uses YouTube, 33% use Google + and 33% use Pinterest. Depending on your preferences, you’ll probably find many of these social media updates very useful to your marketing strategy in 2018.

Facebook News and Updates

• Mark Zuckerberg announces a change to the News Feed algorithm that will prioritize news from friends and family. This is the most talked about update for marketers as the change will be at the expense of public content from businesses and brands. With the  new algorithm, basically, it’ll be more difficult to reach your target audience. However, leverage this information and focus on tailoring your content to be interesting for your target audience.
• Engagement bait will not work in 2018. New machine learning can detect these types of posts and they will be shown less in the News Feed.
• The focus will be on improving user experience, to obtain more meaningful and authentic interactions.
• Temporary removal of reach estimates.
• Facebook partners with Universal Music Group and Sony/ATV for a new music related experience
• Campaign budget optimization – automatic awarding of more funds to the better performing posts
• Limited testing of “Today In”,  a city-specific section. 
• Introducing Watch Party feature where Facebook users can watch a video as a group at the same time.

Twitter News and Updates

• Limitation on news shown to users, following Facebook’s initiatives.
• Since 2017, bigger character count for posts.
• Currently working on a new Snapchat-style feature to help post videos.

LinkedIn News and Updates

• Top navigation bar which makes your search more relevant. The 7 principle areas include Home, Messaging, Jobs, Notifications, Me, My Network, and Search.
• Real time messaging service which is a lot like Facebook’s messenger.
• Audience insights coming to help see the details of the people that view your posts.
• Profile tips to help you make your page better.
• Increased visibility of your profile that makes you (or your brand) more likely to be found for opportunities.
• New paid feature – Matched Audiences to help target members.
• New tools for Premium users. Four new versions to choose from – Career, Business, Sales, and Hiring.

Instagram News and Updates

• You can now schedule Instagram posts, however it is only available for business accounts.  You have to use third-party software to schedule posts, but Instagram is working on integrating this directly into the app.
• You can now follow hashtags instead of checking on them regularly.
• Rights Manager will help users protect their content. If you upload a video on Instagram, you will get notifications of it being used elsewhere on the platform.
• Instagram is testing the “Recommended Posts” feature which is a great benefit to businesses.
• Alpha testing available to Android users.

YouTube News and Updates

• Discontinued paid content. New specifications for creators who now have to meet specific requirements to monetize videos. More information here.
• Changes to the YouTube Partner Program to protect creators.

Google+ News and Updates

• Ability to hide low quality comments.
• Zoom capabilities on images, less white space and more posts.

Pinterest News and Updates

• Hashtags now work like on any other platform. When you add hashtags to your pins, users will be able to visit a feed with all the other pins with the same hashtag.
• Find related content based on hashtags.
• Search feature moves from navigation bar to the homepage, saving users a tap.

Our list ends here, and we hope that this information can help you better tailor your strategy so that you can easily reach out to your target audience, acquire new followers and succeed in making your business omnipresent on social media networks.