March Social Media Roundup
Twitter is going to keep its 140 character limit– the platform’s 140 character limit is not going to change, despite speculation that Twitter has been considering a limit of 10,000 characters. As the social network turned 10 in March, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey put rumours to rest, describing the current restriction as a ‘beautiful constraint’ that gives it ‘a sense of speed’. The update would have had a huge impact on digital PR.
WhatsApp is rolling out a much-anticipated document sharing feature – with more than 1 billion monthly active users, WhatsApp is entering Google Drive territory with its new file sharing service. A new document transfer feature will allow users to access files on cloud storage, including Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox and iCloud. The feature will be particularly useful for sharing business documents thanks to its end-to-end encryption that allows all documents shared on its service to be protected. The new system will also have direct consumer benefits for scans and other PDF documents.
Twitter and Facebook test overlays on images – Twitter is currently testing a new feature called ‘Stickers’ which allows users to add images to photos before tweeting them (much like Snapchat allows currently). In addition, Facebook will soon allow custom profile photo overlays to show users’ support for their own causes. This follows the flag overlays that have proved popular in recent months.
LinkedIn automates its ad targeting feature based on sales data – LinkedIn has launched a new way for advertisers to reach out to professionals at specific companies on a large scale by using their sales data. LinkedIn Account Targeting is the first element of its Audience Match platform. This offer is similar to Facebook where advertisers can choose their target audience. The new service will allow advertisers to run large scale targeted campaigns, capable of reaching up to 30,000 companies at once. At the moment LinkedIn Account Targeting is only available for those who have signed up for managed services though there is a plan to extend the support for self-service customers later this year.
Instagram kills off its chronological timeline – New findings show that Instagram interactions fell 40% in 2015. Social Media Analytics group Quintly, which looked into 10,000 Instagram accounts, discovered that follower growth had been slowing down as well. In other news, Instagram is planning to kill off its chronological timeline. The network now plans to push up the content that its algorithm deems of interest to users, on the basis of their past interactions with content, their relationship with the person posting it and the timeliness of the post. The change is also expected to allow new types of ads to feature on the top of feeds.
Google is building its own live-streaming app to compete with Periscope – Google is launching a new live streaming app called YouTube Connect to compete with Periscope and Facebook Live. Live streaming has been available on YouTube’s Creator Studio for a while but has not been particularly user-friendly. With the new Connect app, users will be able to livestream content directly from their mobile devices. There will also be a newsfeed for viewing recent videos from friends or people users have subscribed to, as well as chat and tagging features. Also, as with Facebook Live, users will be able to save their broadcasts after finishing a live stream.
Live-streaming service Meerkat shuts down – One of the pioneering live-streaming apps, Meerkat, has shut down following strong competition from the Twitter owned Periscope and Facebook Live. The app, which launched to much fanfare exactly one year ago at SXSW festival, is now looking to explore the development of a network that will share videos with a smaller group of friends and connections. Watch this space.