Social media updates â September 2016

Facebook instant video

At the beginning of September, Facebook launched their ‘instant video’ feature in the Messenger app which allows users to send small snippets of video in addition to GIFs and photos. Facebook Messenger already has a video calling feature, but these instant videos are designed to be quick and small bites that complement the existing conversation. Instead of sending a picture of that pop up restaurant, why not film it to provide a real vibe for the place? Could this be Facebook’s way of competing with the likes of Snapchat and Instagram, who recently launched their ‘story’ feature?

Facebook at work

The workplace has often ridiculed Facebook as a distraction to employees and some have banned employees from accessing the site. Facebook at Work aims to challenge that. Companies can set up their own network of employees and provide a space to interact with co-workers, in a separate space from their own personal Facebook. Working in a similar way to the original platform, Facebook at Work features a messaging platform, events, groups and a newsfeed. What do you think; would you use Facebook at Work?

Twitter character limit

Twitter have also been busy this month – photos, GIFs, videos and quoted tweets no longer count towards the 140 character limit in a bid to attract more users to join the network. Twitter is also testing these changes on @names in replies. These no longer count towards the 140 character limit, which is great for those users who are active in Twitter chats. So what will you do with your extra 24 characters?

Customer support

Similarly to Facebook, Twitter has also been busy in their updates this month, launching a new customer support feature for business and brand accounts. The new features allows businesses to tell users that they provide help on Twitter, indicating when they’re most active. These features are available to anyone with a business account who has activated their direct message feature. Facebook have already had their ‘response’ button for a while now so it will be interesting to see how this pans out.

Many customers expect to be able to reach out to brands through social media for customer service support and some brands have gone as far as creating a separate profile to deal with this (UPS, Amazon, Microsoft). It will be interesting to see which brands adopt this new feature on Twitter as the modern consumer expects to be able to reach any brand through social 24/7. And would you want to display this unless you were active 24/7?

Twitter moments

Twitter has also ‘opened up its Moments feature to everyone’ allowing any of its users to create their own Moments using tweets and photos. Users can also subscribe to Moments and any new updates will appear in their timeline. Sound familiar? Is this another copy of Snapchat stories? Have you tried Twitter Moments?

Pinch and zoom

Instagram have also updated their app. The first update allows users to pinch to zoom in on photos and the second is drafts. As expected, this allows users to save a post half way in the making and go back to edit and publish at a later time. A saved draft will appear at the top of the library, above the rest of the photos. If you decide that you no longer need a draft, you can also go back to delete it.

Snap.

Finally for this month, Snapchat have also revealed their new name, Snap. Oh, and they also sell glasses now too and they’re called Spectacles. The app, Snapchat, will remain the same and now refers specifically to the social network, which is now not the only product the company, Snap, makes, because Snap now sell glasses too. Making sense?

Snap Spectacles will record up to 10 seconds of video with the push of a button on the top left-hand corner of the frame. If the button is tapped twice, it will record up to 30 seconds of video. Lights in the inside of the frames will signal to the wearer that the camera is recording and lights on the outside will alert their unsuspecting victims. Once connected to WiFi the video will save to your phone. What do you think, will you be adding these to your Christmas wish list?

This was discussed at the DMA Social Media Council in October 2016.

https://dma.org.uk/communities/social-media-council