27 Mar Social Hysteria – it all kicked off in 2018 didn’t it?
Welcome to my first blog on my new website! Reading blogs and gaining information and knowledge on subjects and topics is key to enriching our online experience. For me, I love to read the Hootsuite blog (amongst many others). It provides me with inspiration, ideas to try new social media tactics, insights into content marketing practises that I might want to try/avoid, and so much more. Recently, they released their Social Networks Forecast 2019, and it makes for a really good read. I’m going to condense it here, focusing on the networks my clients tend to use.
OK, so – social media. A growing phenomenon which started out it’s days allowing the majority of users to reconnect with each other (who remembers Friends Reunited? RIP!) The recent hysteria surrounding platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram has left many users feeling the burn. Many have washed their hands and deleted their accounts, others are hanging on in there. Are you a hand-washer or a hanger? I’m definitely a hanger. Although, at times, I need a hiatus just to remember what real life feels like. What are the major platforms doing to combat this? How can they regain trust and make the land of social media a happy place once again? Let’s start with the big one…
I’ll kick off with the bad news. Facebook had a turbulent year in 2018 (and let’s face it, 2019 hasn’t been all that peachy either). After admitting to a data breach of 137 million users, the good news is that they’ve promised to regain the trust of their users in 2019 (so far, not so good…) The good, the bad, and the fake – Facebook is reportedly dedicated to reduce the amount of fake news in 2019. On the plus side, Facebook are introducing new features such as a heavier focus on groups and allowing branded Facebook pages to join and interact within groups (this is something I’m pretty excited about TBH!) Also, watch out for Facebook Watch Parties – which allows group members to watch, comment and react to videos together. Party on!
Microsoft owned, LinkedIn continues to be a customer centric network. The two brands have worked together to integrate programmes and features to allow users of Microsoft’s CRM package, Dynamics 365, into the LinkedIn Recruiter tool, making hiring managers and recruitment professionals’ lives a breeze. That twinned with the launch of Talent Insights will help users understand market trends and skills availability. Building upon their new user interface, new ads format and native video features in 2018, it appears that LinkedIn is going from strength to strength.
There’s communicating on a virtual level (when you’re actually interacting with a human being) and then there’s communicating on Twitter… often plagued with bots which tend to ‘dehumanise speech’, Twitter have promised to double down on security and get real people having real conversations again. Also, look out for live broadcasting in 2019; top tip – live video streams will be bumped to the top of followers timelines – so be sure to get your live stream on and get that video content out into the world!
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