In the biggest social media news of June, Microsoft announced it was to splurge £18.5 billion on purchasing LinkedIn. This equates to roughly £45 per user. This is a bold buy for Microsoft as it tries to move into the lucrative world of social media. The buyout can be seen as a recognition of potential in LinkedIn – the social network has shown weak growth over the year so far. However, the pairing of Microsoft and LinkedIn can be seen as particularly on-brand; each has a specific business focus that other competitors lack. How Microsoft will influence LinkedIn remains unclear, but with a big cash injection, the potential for change is ripe.
Facebook has rolled out new features throughout June that are perfect with the barrage of upcoming summer holiday snaps. Users with a smartphone with a panorama camera are now able to upload 360 degree photos to Facebook. The marketing potential for this feature is incredible; businesses would be wise to put decent thought and effort into creating beautiful original content with this feature. However it might be hard to beat NASA’s 360 photo from the International Space Station…
The tech giant has introduced visual changes to its Messenger app that indicate towards its long term goals. Messenger now no longer displays all chats in simple reverse chronological order; chats are ordered into groups, and then sorted by favourites, and broken up with birthdays and ‘active now’ friends. These changes align with Facebook’s longer term plan to urge users to spend more time within the app, therefore making Messenger a destination in itself, which is able to do much more than simply host private messaging.
The Facebook-owned app has now rolled out to users its new algorithm-based newsfeed. This means posts will now be viewed out of real-time in an order of how Instagram believes users want to see content. Users have generally reacted negatively to this change, yet businesses believe it will mean strong content will now no longer go unnoticed. This roll-out, which had been announced in March, was merely a blip in an otherwise strong month. Instagram proudly announced, via an Instagram video of course, that the number of users had finally topped half a billion. Over 300 million of these users are said to use the app on a daily basis. This is a huge achievement for Instagram, as they have doubled the amount of users in the last two years.
To mark further this shift from picture-sharing to app to global giant, Instagram has now unveiled automatic translations for posts in another language. Similar to Facebook, a user will now see posts in other languages automatically translated to their own preferred language. This is in part a recognition that users no longer follow local friends and family, or even just users from their own country. This is great news for companies who post content to followers around the globe.
Continuing this transformation, Instagram announced in June new functions for Business accounts. Business profiles will be able to add ‘Contact’ buttons to their page, meaning customers will be able to direct queries in a more effective way. New ‘Insights’ tab will let users know more about their followers and their posts; from which posts are more popular, and more advanced demographic user data. In another positive move, organic Instagram posts will be able to be pushed with a ‘Promote’ function, in a very similar way to Facebook. This means that popular posts can become ads and will also stay on a business’ home page indefinitely. Instagram swings from strength to strength from both a user perspective and a business perspective.
Following a large data leak at the beginning of the month, Twitter has been vocal in their crackdown on security practices. High profile data breaches and account hacks, including Canadian rapper, Drake, prompted Twitter to take action. Twitter has notified all users with the most recent security information. After a difficult few months for the company, this is yet more difficult press.
Twitter has introduced stickers in June – similar to emojis and Facebook reactions. These stickers will be used in conjunction with users’ own images; Twitter stickers can be placed over an image to further personalise content. Tapping on a sticker will take users to a collection of where else the sticker has been used. The stickers are creating new avenues of communication and sharing. This is an interesting way to allow users to explore new content in a visual way (which has not been Twitter’s strong suit). Further changes to Twitter images include the ability to apply filters, crop the size, add tags, and alter accessibility options. Twitter stickers will allow businesses, publishers, and bloggers instant access to user-generated content, opening a host of opportunities for outreach and brand awareness.
by Jenny Connelly
