August was a huge month in social media.
Facebook revealed over 10 new updates while Google+ emerged from the shadows for the first time in a while. The infamous Instagram stories made their debut and advertising changes rolled out across multiple platforms, too.
Here’s the social media news you need to know from August 2016.
Facebook Pages have a brand new look. The new desktop Facebook page layout design includes a new navigation and a prominent call-to-action button.
Learn More: Facebook Business Pages Get A New Look
How quickly your mobile site takes to load will soon impact whether people will see your Facebook ads. They will begin considering “website performance and a person’s network connection in our ad auction and delivery system.”
Learn More: Facebook Warns Advertisers: Speed Up Your Mobile Site!
In an effort to be more informative, Facebook is once again updating its news feed algorithm. This latest change will see Facebook boosting the visibility of stories it thinks you will find “really informative.” The key words here are personalization and prediction. Facebook’s new ranking signal aims to deliver stories to your news feed by predicting which stories you will find the most informative to you personally.
Learn More: Facebook’s Algorithm Boosts Informative Stories
Facebook announced it would increasingly prioritize posts shared by friends and family over those from publishers, brands, and other pages. Here’s how marketers can keep their Facebook game strong.
Learn More: 7 Ways Facebook’s Big Algorithm Change Will Affect Marketers and Publishers
In addition to making sure you never miss posts from friends and family, Facebook wants to make sure you never miss another ad. The social network has announced plans to make life harder for ad blockers that let desktop users view Facebook without seeing irrelevant advertising.
Learn More: Facebook Gives Users Control Of Ads They See
Facebook has removed descriptions from Trending topics. The announcement comes months after being criticized for having an anti-conservative bias.
Learn More: Facebook Removes Trending Topic Descriptions
Facebook wants to help you understand how those videos are performing and help you continue to grow your audience. Three new metrics – audience demographics, live video engagement, and views from shares and cross-posting – are coming in Page Insights and Video Library.
Learn More: Facebook Gives Marketers 3 New Video Metrics
Facebook rolled out a pair of new tools to help publishers who are using 360 videos: guided tours and heatmap insights.
Learn More: Facebook Unveils 2 New Tools For 360 Videos
Facebook live is currently testing mid-roll ads in live newsfeeds. These ads mark the first time Facebook has attempted to monetize their Live feature.
Learn More: Facebook is Testing Monetizing Live Feature
If you’re in the business of writing misleading headlines in order to get clicks on crappy content, your days in Facebook’s news feed are numbered. Facebook announced an update to their ranking algorithm that will reduce the number of clickbait stories people see in their news feeds.
Learn More: Facebook Wants To Kill All Clickbait Headlines
Google+
If you haven’t yet had a chance to preview the redesigned version of Google+, rolled out back in November 2015, Google will be issuing automatic upgrades over the next few days. In addition to the redesign, some brand new features are being introduced along with it.
Learn More: New Updates for Google+ Rolling Out to All Users
Instagram today introduced a new feature called Stories, which lets its 500 million users create slideshows of images and videos that will vanish after 24 hours.
Learn More: Instagram Stories Will Vanish After 24 Hours
LinkedIn is opening ProFinder, a service that connects companies to freelancers, to everyone in the U.S.
Learn More: Find Freelance Work With LinkedIn ProFinder
Pinterest has announced the launch a new type of video advertising called Promoted Video Ads. The new ads are designed as another way to help brands drive more sales on Pinterest.
Learn More: Pinterest Debuts Promoted Video Ads
Pinterest is introducing engagement retargeting to let you target users who have engaged with your pins, and adding a new tag for better retargeting.
Learn More: Pinterest Just Made Its Ad Retargeting Better
Pinterest advertisers can now buy ads based on how much they want to pay for impressions rather than engagement, the company announced. The company has also added frequency capping.
Learn More: Pinterest Advertisers Now Have CPM Bidding
Twitter is adding a new Message button that will make it easier for people who visit your company or personal website to directly contact you
Learn More: Twitter Users Can Now DM You From Your Website
In June, Twitter announced a new feature called #Stickers, which let users overlay searchable emojis on their photos before tweeting it out to the world. Millions of photos containing these “visual hashtags” have been tweeted since then. Now Twitter is opening #Stickers to brands.
Learn More: Twitter Stickers Can Now Become Ads For Brands
Twitter has opened Conversational Ads to all advertisers and introduced a new ad type that lets people who tweet about brands unlock exclusive content.
Learn More: Twitter Unlocks Conversational Ads For All Advertisers
YouTube
Do you consider YouTube a social network? The video-sharing site is working on a new feature called Backstage, which would make YouTube more than a place where its billion users comment on the millions of hours of video they’re watching.
Learn More: Here’s YouTube’s Secret Plan to Get More Social
Facebook Image Credit: Facebook
Pinterest Image Credit: Pinterest
Twitter Image Credit: Pepsi
