The constantly evolving world of social media is ever-changing and marketers, business owners and even the daily Facebook user should be aware of the updates. Make sure you are subscribed to our blog to get the monthly news and updates on all things social media sent right to your inbox. Let’s see what happened this past month.

Hit the Snooze on Facebook

On December 15th, Facebook launched a new feature they call the “Snooze” button. According to TechCrunch, the option, available via the top-right dropdown menu on a post, will hide any content from a person, page or group for 30 days. Snooze joins a number of actions that users can take to control their News Feed. Unfollow, report, hide and see first are other options Facebook gives their users to customize their page and experience.

Hashtags Can Be Followed Like Handles on Instagram

Hashtags, which have long been used to group together conversations around a particular topic, can now be followed in the exact same way that users follow an account. Clicking on a hashtag now brings users to a screen that provides the option to follow the tag; after doing so, users will see top content associated with that hashtag in their feed, the same way they would from a friend or from a company.

Instagram Adds Two New Ways to Save Stories

Good news for Instagram users who sometimes wish their Story would stick around a little longer. Thanks to a recent Instagram update, Stories will now be automatically saved to users’ private archives after they expire. Users will also have the option to re-share those Stories on the platform, either as standalone posts or through the new Stories Highlights feature.

25 Million Businesses (and counting) are on Instagram

According to Adweek, in 2016, Instagram began testing business profiles. They became available in the United States in June, and globally later that year. Today, 25 million businesses have joined and are actively using the platform. Adweek also notes that Facebook released data showing that more than 80% of users follow at least one business, and that 200 million Instagram users visit at least one business profile per day. This growth further proves that brands, especially consumer brands, need to be present on Instagram.

Facebook Tests Mass Brand Messages for Messenger

Facebook Messenger, the standalone app for chatting through Facebook, is the third-most-used app in the U.S., but isn’t a big revenue source (yet) for the social network. Facebook’s long-term goal for Messenger is to have it serve as the main conduit between consumers and businesses, but so far, that’s mostly been on the custom service front. According to Social Times, they’re now testing a way for brands to send mass messages, with a paid component allowing those companies to reach more users. In an effort to prevent spam, businesses would only be allowed to message users who have already opened a thread with them.

LinkedIn Tries TV Advertising

Oprah’s speech got most of the attention coming out of the Golden Globes, and understandably so. However, those in the social media world also noticed another interesting thing. LinkedIn took out a spot during the awards show, and the creative direction of that ad was all the more intriguing. As Social Times observes, the ad was careful to show people from ‘non-traditional’ backgrounds, which indicates that LinkedIn is trying to position itself as a network for all people of all professions.

Facebook Dealing with Fake News

In the wake of the 2016 election, Facebook has taken quite a few steps to tamp down on the disinformation and ‘fake news’ that made waves last year. As some may remember, one of Facebook’s ideas as to how they could solve this was to mark controversial articles as disputed and bump them down in the feed. In addition to that, Facebook has now started floating additional articles next to the ones in question as a way to add context and give users more information. According to Adweek, an information button has been added to selected articles. When clicked, this feature will bring up related articles that allow users to make an “informed decision” on the content they are seeing.

Want to talk social media for your brand? Contact us today.