This post is a part of our monthly social media updates and news series, where you can quickly scan through quick recaps of all the changes that took place in recent months.
Social media networks never stop evolution. Therefore, failing to follow new regulations, feature launches, or algorithm changes may result in fewer sales, traffic, engagement, and higher ad costs.
As always, we’ve compiled the most important events happening in the social media industry to save you the hassle. For easier navigation, you can jump to the respective section by choosing one below:
Entertainment news:
Welcome the Special AR Effects in Group Videos. Here are a few spotlights:
- All members of the group are eligible to use them.
- These effects, designed to make long-distance friends, family members and relatives feel closer to each other and have fun, will increase gradually in number.
- In addition, this feature will soon be available for Instagram too.
Facebook Messenger has also introduced special effects and stickers in the messaging section and during video calls, especially for those who celebrate Halloween.
And it doesn’t stop there:
Another announcement coming from Facebook this month will benefit SMBs. That is, you will now be able to make video and voice calls with business pages.
Additionally, Facebook meeting appointment tools allow companies to set up a quick and easy appointment schedule directly on the company’s Facebook page.
The Live Audio Rooms feature, available to public figures and creators globally, has already been approved for use. In addition, Facebook is launching Live Audio Rooms for groups – giving you an easy way to connect more deeply with your community.
Clubhouse
One of the most entertaining platforms, Clubhouse, wants to add more context to in-app discussions with the new Saved Links feature, which will allow users to add any URL to the top of the room screen.
TikTok
You probably don’t know how time passes on TikTok. And the platform aims to keep it that way.
In October, Tiktok announced the creation of The Discover List, a brief description of the influencers (icons, innovators, foodies, changemakers) who are considered the heart of Tiktok.
And it gets better:
A new series of video tips designed to help marketers understand the key elements of the application and create better TikTok campaigns are now live. With this, new TikTok users will learn how to use the app and its filters easily.
Let’s switch to one of the most popular social media platforms. Influencer marketing opportunities keep growing on and on.
You can now share posted content on your Feed and Reels by using “Collabs” on Instagram. Also, sending invitations to be a Collaborator of your specific post to other accounts is another new exciting function.
The advantages of this feature:
- Both accounts’ names appear in the post’s top title;
- If the post is a Live video, it’ll be active on both profiles;
- The number of views, likes, and comments falls on both accounts.
The second update on Instagram (you may have already encountered this): Live videos and feed videos are now both in one place – Instagram TV.
And so, you will have a unified view of all videos. And the best part? Now all of them will have cropping, filtering, human, and spatial labelling functions. Sounds incredible!
A little more serious and analytical news
YouTube
Do you remember how excited we were when YouTube started letting us separate our videos as chapters to make navigation easier for viewers?
Now they came back with the idea that we don’t need to do it anymore.
You know why?
Because the platform will automatically create chapters itself.
Red alarm! There’s a warning: to protect people (public figures, celebrities, politicians, and all other users), Facebook emphasises that it’ll delete content including bullying and harassment and likely block profiles sharing them.
However, for those behaving well, Facebook has great news:
The new Quick Access feature aims to make our lives easier. With this feature, you will combine everything you constantly use on Facebook in one place so that next time you won’t try to remember where your lovely feature was.
You know, this is Facebook acknowledging that they’ve finally created chaos of underutilised features, and you need navigational help now.
A few exciting things going on here:
Now users will be able to subscribe to Revue news feeds directly from the feed (without even entering the profile).
Not only that, now you will have the opportunity to use a special checklist for video sharing on Twitter. How? Twitter has created a small list to strengthen your video strategy. The list includes composition notes based on video capture trends in the platform, as well as a selection of ideas for your next video. Given that video tweets are ten times more engaging, this strategic feature will make your job much easier.
Starting this week, you’ll be able to upload and edit all photos and videos via the desktop version of Instagram.
We are sure that there are enough social media professionals who are as happy with this news as we are.
This one comes to the ones trying to create a serious image on Instagram: you can now add your Facebook page/profile link in the Instagram bio section. Note that this link will be in addition to the main link that we currently have.
If you advertise on Instagram and is a fan of the Insights section, this is for you: there’s a slight change in the interface intended to make it easier to prepare reports, compare ads, and analyse the page.
Upcoming features
In addition to the social media updates released in October, I want to mention a few features that are still in the testing and development stage.
The “Search for Similar Products” feature on Instagram will allow you to find products similar to ones you see in Stores or other posts.
The sound function is perhaps one of the most valuable discoveries in the tech world. And guess what? Facebook is now working on allowing 10-second voice recordings on Facebook posts.
