It’s a new year and with it comes various updates in the social media world. With a variety of updates to help combat fake news to numerous advertising updates, Facebook leads the charge.
We also said goodbye to Vine and hello to LinkedIn’s new layout.
Here’s the scoop:
Facebook is changing the way it ranks stories in the News Feed. The social network is adding and updating signals to its ranking algorithm. The goal is to start showing users more authentic content by cutting down on posts that are “misleading, sensational or spammy.” In other words, cutting down on the Facebook’s fake news problem.
Learn More: Facebook Is Changing How it Ranks Stories in 2 Ways
Facebook will look at a new News Feed ranking signal for video completion rates. Facebook said most pages wont see much change in visibility. However, they noted that it’s possible that “some shorter videos may see a slight dip in News Feed distribution.”
Learn More: Facebook Has a New Way to Rank Videos in the News Feed
Facebook announced three new updates that will alter the way its Trending topics section works. 1. Facebook Trending Will Add Headlines. 2. Facebook Trending Will Look at Topic Popularity. 3. No More Facebook Trending Personalization.
Learn More: 3 Changes Coming to Facebook Trending Stories
FB business pages now feature three vertical columns and appear more like a traditional desktop website. The left-side navigation is replaced with tabs that can be customized for your business’s messages, and the cover photo is now less cluttered, standing alone at a larger size.
Learn More: What You Need to Know About Facebook’s Business Pages Layout
Facebook has implemented several measures to address the issue of fake news. Facebook has also banned fake news sites from its ad network.
Learn More: Facebook Journalism Project Launched to Build Stronger Ties With News Industry
Facebook debuted six new Facebook Live tools and features that publishers should find helpful. Among them: Pages can go live via browsers. You can appoint live contributors to stream on your Page’s behalf. You can highlight comments. And more!
Learn More: 6 New Facebook Live Features You Need to Know
Facebook is reportedly testing new mid-roll video ads. These ads will be triggered after a Facebook user has watched a video for 20 seconds. In addition, the new mid-roll ads will only appear during Facebook videos that have a running time of at least 90 seconds.
Learn More: Facebook Tests New Mid-Roll Video Ads
Facebook is changing how Dynamic Ads work. To help drive more sales, Facebook will show even more targeted product ads to users based on a recipe that includes their browsing activity, Facebook behavior, and demographics.
Learn More: Facebook Updates How Dynamic Ads Work
Only five months into its launch, Instagram’s ephemeral storytelling feature for photos and videos has introduced several new functionalities such as links, live video, and stickers. This time around, Instagram is focusing on businesses by bringing ads and insights to Stories.
Learn More: New in Instagram for Business: Insights and Ads in Stories
LinkedIn gave its desktop site a much-needed redesign. The company said the new look LinkedIn was designed to emphasize conversations and content.
Learn More: 6 Major Changes Coming to LinkedIn’s Redesigned Desktop Site
Vine
Last October Twitter announced Vine would be discontinued. But instead of a complete death of the app, as of January 17th, it, like a phoenix, emerged from the digital ashes as the “new” Vine Camera.
Learn More: Vine is Dead, Long Live Vine
YouTube
In honor of Super Bowl 51, YouTube put out a new AdBlitz 10-year anniversary report, in which they name the top 20 most popular Super Bowl ads on YouTube for the past nine years.
Learn More: The Top 20 Most Popular Super Bowl Ads on YouTube
Featured image by Paulo Bobita
