Social media changes so much in a week that it can be hard to keep up. Check back every Friday for our weekly roundup of what we think you should know about.
Not only is today Friday and Valentine’s Day, two great reasons to celebrate, but it’s also the first birthday of TBG’s Social Media Snap! We started our weekly social media news roundup one year ago and in that time we’ve watched Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google and everyone else in the social media world grow and change, just like our own little Social Media Snap. Happy birthday, Social Media Snap!
- A study published by LinkedIn found that small business owners have become increasingly savvy at social media marketing. They understand the power of social media as a free tool to identify and communicate with current and potential customers.
- According to Ad Week, LinkedIn’s introduction of native ads and “Influencers” blog posts make the professional networking site seem more like a publisher. Further, LinkedIn now acts as a broker between brands and publishers. “Meaning, if a marketer is in need of content to distribute to readers, LinkedIn’s team of ‘content marketing consultants’ can link it up with a roster of partner publishers.” LinkedIn has never really found its place in social media, so offering services geared more towards businesses and marketers will hopefully position the site more firmly in consumers’ minds.
- This week Facebook updated its gender settings to give users “50 different terms people can use to identify their gender as well as three preferred pronoun choices: him, her or them”. This change will have a huge impact on Facebook marketers and page managers. When it comes to demographic targeting on Facebook, it will no longer be as simple as selecting males or females.
- The Atlantic published a story this week regarding Facebook’s influence on the news. According to the piece, Facebook sends 3.5 times the amount of traffic to members of the BuzzFeed Partner Network, a conglomeration of popular sites, than Google does. Furthermore, the kinds of stories that go viral on Facebook are not stories about current events, but are “essays about diets, Millennials and happiness, studies on coffee and decision-making or beautiful photos”. This could start to have a huge affect on what stories news outlets and publishers decide to post.
- Several sources reported this week that Twitter is testing a profile redesign that is very similar to Facebook and Google+. The new design has a greater focus on photos and strays away from Twitter’s typical linear home page setup.
- A new study this week figured out what really appeals to male Pinterest users. The study found that “while women and men differed in the types of content they collected and the degree to which they specialized, surprisingly men were not particularly interested in stereotypically male topics.” Instead, men were more interested in photography, art, design and home décor.
Happy celebrating,
@Richellem09