This week’s most important social media changes
What’s changed in the last seven days? What does it mean?
Updated news feed and more music deals for Facebook, changes to Messenger in 2018, Twitter’s new anti-abuse rules roll-out and Instagram tests text-only Stories.
Let’s take a look at these changes in more detail.
Big changes coming to Facebook’s news feed
Late last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced an overhaul to the platform’s news feed – changing the role of the product teams to help Facebook users have more meaningful interactions via content from friends… not just finding content from brands and publishers. This is expected to hit publishers which rely on Facebook for traffic and reach hard. It will also hit the reach of content (including video) from brands.
Read more about the announcement and its expected impact here, or the post from Mark Zuckerberg here.
Text-only Stories feature for Instagram
Instagram is testing a feature that allows users to post stories in text-only format (not dissimilar in appearance to those text-only updates you’re likely seeing pop up all over your Facebook feed). It was first spotted by users in Japan last year but now appears to be available to some users in Europe.
More here.
More music deals for Facebook
After sealing deals with Universal Music Group and Sony / ATV, Facebook has signed three further deals with Global Music Rights, HFA / Rumblefish and Kobalt Music Publishing. It means that tens of millions of songs will now be freely avaialble for creators to use in their videos, with artists being compensated for the use of their music.
More from Facebook here.
Twitter completes roll-out of abuse rules
In a process that started last November, Twitter has finished its series of changes aimed at halting abuse on the platform. Notable changes include new reporting tools that allow users to report posts, and to see what happens to those posts.
More here.
The year ahead for Messenger
Facebook Messenger’s David Marcus announced six trends to watch out for on the platform in 2018. Echoing sentiment from Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement of changes coming to the Facebook news feed, Marcus described the platform’s goal as making Messenger ‘the easiest and most delightful way for people to spend time together in happy and harder times’. Look out for a streamlined and simplified experience on the platform this year.
More from David’s announcement.
Follow us on Twitter for news of these social media and content marketing changes as they happen.