With social media constantly rolling out new features, it can be hard to stay up-to-date with all of the changes. Our current three favorite platforms, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, have all rolled out new features in the past week. We’re giving you the breakdown of them, so you can stay in the loop and make sure you’re utilizing these services to the best of your abilities.
Following Instagram, Facebook has just released Facebook stories. You can share photos and videos that appear at the top of your newsfeed and they’ll disappear after 24 hours. All you have to do is click the Your Story icon on the top of your newsfeed and you can add to your story. Similar yet again to Instagram, you can also send direct photos and videos to your friends, enabling you the same privacy you see in the Messenger app and Instagram/Twitter direct messages.
We know that 140 characters isn’t a lot to work with, but that is Twitter’s standard and it doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon. However, they are helping us utilize our 140 characters more efficiently, by constantly looking at new ways to cheat the system. Now, when you reply to someone’s tweet, their @username characters do not count in the 140 characters. That means when you’re replying to @wowicantbelieveapersonmadeausernamethislong (just kidding, Twitter has a cap on username length), you can still savor your 140 characters for the message.
Snapchat
The newest Snapchat update lets you change the size of the brush tool. Just like on Instagram stories, you can now change the size of the wand by using two fingers. Move your fingers farther away from each other or closer together to change the size & then draw to your heart’s content!
With the goal of being “less transactional and more immersive”, Instagram has rolled out a new way to shop. In testing since November (https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/01/instagram-shoppable-photos/), shoppable tags are now available to all businesses.
So what does this mean for you? If you aren’t familiar with shoppable tags, let us explain. When implemented, each post will have an icon on the bottom left of the photo that says “tap to view”. If you click this button, up to five items will be showcased in the photo showing the product names and prices. If you click on a specific tag for an item, a detailed view of the product will open.
From there, you’re able to click on a Shop Now link. This link will take you directly to the product on the brand’s website, making shopping a lot more direct and easy via Instagram. Now, you don’t even have to leave the Instagram app to research and shop! Thank you Instagram.
Written by our Digital Specialist, Nora Henick.
What do you think of the new platform updates? Tweet us @somethingsocial or tag us on Instagram- @somethingsocial.
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