Social Media Highlights for the Year 2018
Change in Facebook Algorithm
Early this year, changes to Facebook algorithm have ignited so much interest and buzz as the recent ‘meaningful interactions’ update, in which Facebook would be prioritizing posts that create meaningful conversations, especially those from family and friends.
Facebook targeted the following types of content:
- Public content like videos and other posts from publishers or businesses
- More engaging content that ignites conversations or provokes people to react.
- Content focusing on sensational or niche topics, even fake news and radical politics.
Facebook particularly pointed out that “page posts that generate conversation between people will show higher in News Feed.” Live videos often initiate more discussion and interaction than passive content. Live videos get six times (on average) as many interactions as regular videos.
Facebook Groups have also been the new sources for brands to establish following and build customer communities and increase organic reach.
2. Zuckerberg was called to Congress In 2018,
His appearance in Congress was seen by business people and marketers and they felt the effects of this kind of political pressure. Facebook soon controlled the access to their APIs, which affected Hootsuite, Buffer and the like. They limited ad targeting options, and restrained the many ways marketers could target using custom audiences feature.
3. The General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR)
The General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR) is designed to protect the netizens against unscrupulous companies.
“The GDPR is an attempt to strengthen, harmonize, and modernize EU data protection law and enhance individual rights and freedoms, consistent with the European understanding of privacy as a fundamental human right.”
4.Facebook Watch and Instagram TV joined the global TV market!
Instagram IGTV was launched on June 20 this year. It is a standalone app for longer video. Now, there’ll be more opportunity for video publishers creating niche content as video discovery and searching is soaring in Instagram.
Alternatively, Facebook’s video platform, Facebook Watch—which features longer content and made-for-social TV shows was also launched globally. And remember, public content which is mostly video was targeted by the algorithm update and Facebook is looking for way to get those valuable video views amidst the crowded News Feed.
5. Instagram’s arrival into the ecommerce scene
Instagram’s entrance into ecommerce -shoppable media, on the last quarter of 2018 created a huge new profit for the company, as well as new space for small business owners to reach new customers globally.
6. Twitter Chronological Feed
In 18th Sept, Twitter announced that they will allow users to switch to a chronological timeline so yes, this means no algorithm! Twitter users can choose the ‘best tweets first’ algorithm based timeline or they can also choose tweets in a reverse chronological order.
7. Twitter Live Video Priority
Twitter has joined the “live video” bandwagon by prioritizing live video on people’s feeds. In September, Twitter started displaying live streams at the top of their users’ timelines.
8. Social Media stocks dropped!
Middle of the year, Facebook’s stock dropped from $215 per share to $176 per share.
Snapchat had a turbulent year. Snapchat has struggled with user growth. Statista data shows that on the average, Snapchat had 186 million and it dropped down from 191 million in the first quarter of 2018.
It just shows how difficult it is for a new platform to compete against the well-established platforms.
Which of these platforms are you currently using? Which ones are you planning to use? It always doesn’t hurt to try and test. See for yourself what and how using different social media platforms can do for you and your business this coming 2019.