➡️ Facebook
Facebook, in keeping true to its mission of building community to bring the world closer together introduced new tools and features for its groups.
Reels
Reels in groups reinforced expression through creative and immersive videos and supplemented group member experience. This enabled members to share information and stories for more meaningful interactions
Further Updates
It was announced that testing was in progress to enable and ease the maintaining of relationships and connections with other members, which would in turn help in customizing information. This signals interest in connecting over shared interests.
➡️ Meta Announced Protection Tools for Teens
2022 saw Meta announce that Facebook and Instagram will commit to protecting teens from online harm. With this announcement, those under the age of 16 and 18 in some countries would experience privacy, when coming on board Facebook.
What this means:
This announcement heralds the creation of tools and education to initiate the prevention of the spreading of self-generated intimate images online. This supplements a previous initiative to place barriers, in preventing and protecting teenagers
Further initiatives
If a teenager blocks an adult account, it would then be considered suspicious and hence result in an extra layer of protection. Meta also announced that they were testing eliminating the message button on the Instagram accounts of teenagers when they are deemed as suspicious adults.
➡️ Instagram
- Instagram Profiles enabled the display of scheduled live info, to improve the discovery of upcoming streams
- Improved Discovery of Upcoming Streams through Profile Display
2022 showcased Instagram rolling out a new profile banner that showcases upcoming streams of users. Followers have the option of staying updated about upcoming live streams of the accounts they follow. The profile banner gives the feature of adding a badge to their profiles, that would give their followers notification of an upcoming Livestream, to which followers can subscribe, by tapping on the banner.
This enabled creators to separate scheduling a Live from creating feed posts, or story posts about that particular Live.
- Instagram allows the addition of music to regular images posts for feed
The Instagram platform enabled the addition of up to 90 seconds from users’ in-feed photo posts. 2022 showcased a more heightened Instagram experience with another way to integrate music into the overall experience. A presentation of a simple process to enable creativity and engagement, in heightening the photo experience through the incorporation of music was an updated feature by Instagram, in 2022.
Creators are king and that’s not all, with regards to Instagram updates for 2022
➡️ Twitter
Twitter Released 3 New Advertising Options
- Website Conversions Optimizations
Website Conversion Optimization– Popular on other platforms, especially Facebook, and now it is expected to be prevalent on Twitter. How it works starts with the definition. First, a goal must be defined, and then await the platform to go after people who are likely to take that particular action. For action, ‘Add to cart’ or ‘Subscribe’. This would be useful for advertising objectives and goals.
Mixed Media Feature Launched
Twitter now allows the addition of 4 different elements in one Tweet, which can be either a video, an image, or a GIFs, with the launch of the new feature called Mixed Media. With combinations of elements to choose from, it enables creativity for brands and drives greater engagement, as reaching out is presented in a more visual manner. It would be useful for awareness campaigns, promotions and a vibrant brand presence, in general.
Official Testing of the Edited Tweets Feature & the Birdwatch Program
Twitter tested the rolling out of the edited Tweets Feature, with a temporary editing button that allows a Tweet to be edited only for the first few seconds, for any typo rectification.
Twitter Relaunches Twitter Blue
Twitter is charging $11 a month for subscriptions purchased on iPhones and iPads, compared with $8 a month through Twitter’s website.
Twitter has introduced a color-coded system for people, companies and governments: Gold is for companies; gray for governments and blue for individuals.
➡️ Tik Tok Updates
TikTok Credits Creators: New Crediting Tool Acknowledges Creators, Points of Interest Features and Accessibility
In a mission to give credit to users’ favourite content originators, TikTok announced new tools to present more ways and options that allow for the ability to directly mention, tag, and credit TikTok videos from content originators that inspired them, in the description.
TikTok Pulse launched for top creators
Experience it all, beginning with a panel of great speakers from the digital marketing industry, as they drive the discussion of a trending list of topics that resonates across the global industry, followed by interactive discussion sessions.
Following an announcement in May, the news of this feature shows potential to share ad revenue with top creators. Reports have been noted to be circulating on Twitter that eligibility notices are being received by select creators.
Eligibility for TikTok Pulse means that creators must ideally:
- Be at least 18 years of age
- Must have posted at least 5 videos in the last 30 days
- Have a minimum of 100K followers
- Follow all community guidelines
For Marketers
As for marketers, TikTok Pulse can be used, by placing ads next to the top videos on the platform. A choice of 12 Pulse categories is on offer to increase the changes of pairing ads with relevant content. In being so, creators secure the potential of earning up to 50% of the revenue from Pulse ads placed next to their content.
This presents as great news for short-form video creators!
TikTok new Profile Kit permits creators to embed up to six videos on Linktree
Displaying up to six videos on an external site is a new feature for TikTok creators, through its all-new Profile Kit. A choice of displaying favourite TikToks, latest TikToks, and the most popular TikToks is now possible on creators’ own landing pages. As for visitors, viewing videos without having to navigate away from the app is possible, within Linktree itself.
➡️ WhatsApp 2022 APK Main Features
Message Yourself
The latest features from WhatsApp present users with the option of sending themselves messages that act as reminders, to-dos, or even moments, according to users. Using the option by tapping the chat icon where users can then select their own contact card from the list, is how to enable this option. Likewise, messages can be sent similarly, as they are to other contacts.
Avatars
WhatsApp launched Avatars for user-created digital versions of themselves. This enables personalization and can also be used as a photo. As a tool to express diverse emotions and actions, it can also be used as a custom sticker. The Avatar feature by WhatsApp also presents a selection of hairstyles, facial features, and outfits, allowing for further customization.
Communities
This feature is to be rolled out globally, as per a company announcement. The Communities feature functions much like neighbourhoods or such as parents at a school. As such, workplaces are presented with the scope of connecting multiple groups together under one main umbrella or categorization, when organizing group conversations on WhatsApp. The offers users of a particular community to share and obtain information from various groups in the community itself. Similarly, they will also have the option of receiving updates from other members within the community itself, who share a common interest. As per a company statement, up to 50 organizations in 15 countries are in the process of providing feedback to WhatsApp for Communities.
In-chat Polls, 32-person video calling & larger groups
Three more features were launched in tandem with Communities and what is noteworthy is the option of creating polls in chat, together with a sizeable expansion to video calling allowing up to 32 persons, at a time. Groups can be created with as many as 1,024. These three new features further enhance the experience for communities.
In-chat Polls, 32-person video calling & larger groups
Offering ease to manage businesses, WhatsApp announced that it is developing advanced features to empower businesses to amplify their presence online and also present ease in managing chats on up to 10 devices. Customizable WhatsApp click-to-chat links are added features to help attract customers online. Such services would be included as premium, chargeable services that could be opted for by users of WhatsApp Business account.
Privacy control for profile picture last seen
This feature enables users to hide their profile pictures, status updates, and last-seen statuses from specific contacts. This means that users are given more control over who can see their information. A new option named ‘My Contact Except…’ is now added to the existing three – ‘Everyone’, ‘My Contacts’, and ‘Nobody’ – that can be selected from the privacy screen.
➡️ LinkedIn
New features to help you generate more Newsletter subscribers
LinkedIn released features and tools that upgraded the experience of company pages. In the case of Newsletters, it can help establish thought leadership status for companies or brands. This highlights LinkedIn’s ability to showcase your newsletter as the center focal point of a company page, and the platform will act in a way that will enable people to subscribe to the featured newsletter.
LinkedIn’s publishing tools allows users to dive deep on timely and recurring topics, helping to turn an audience into an engaged community. Through the usage of LinkedIn Newsletters, users can recurring Articles and instantly build a subscriber community via a one-time notification to page followers and ongoing notifications to newsletter subscribers.
Brand Safety Hub Released
LinkedIn released a brand safety hub, especially brand ad campaigns, using the audience network, on a set of platforms outside LinkedIn. This tool serves to review and find out if there are any platforms that the advertiser prefers to not showcase the brand/ad on, in the case of clashing values and ethics that could negatively impact brand association.
Growth in Engagement
LinkedIn continued to see growth in revenue and grew in revenue and engagement and as per Microsoft’s Q1 statement, LinkedIn Talent Solutions grew by 17% and LinkedIn Sessions grew by 24%, with record engagements. In a dynamic and rapidly changing social media world, particularly in terms of content and the short-for-video disruption that is happening with the trend set by Tik Tok, LinkedIn continues to grow through engagement.
