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.
Facebook Acquires Confirm
Confirm is a Boston-based startup that has developed tech to verify government-issued identification (drivers’ licenses being one example), and has caught the eye of Facebook. This new partnership means that Confirm’s tech and employees will be joining the social giant, and that they won’t be selling their services to anyone else in the foreseeable future. As the Social Times piece notes, it’s likely that Facebook is looking for a way to improve verification on the platform. This is important to advertisers because they want to know their ads are reaching the right real people.
Snapchat Continues to Make Updates
According to CNBC, Snapchat users will soon be able to share their stories on Facebook and Twitter. This will be the newest way that Snapchat tries to attract more users to their platform, which in turn enables them to sell more ads, and become profitable. This will follow the recent and not-so-popular Snapchat redesign. Users have been complaining that the latest version of the app makes it difficult to see friends’ stories. According to TechCrunch, early reviews of the update in targeted international markets were 83% negative.
WhatsApp Rolls Out App for Small Businesses
One of the most popular messaging apps, WhatsApp (owned by Facebook) has begun the implementation of business tools. According to Adweek, WhatsApp rolled out a specific Android app for small business owners. The add-ons include a basic business profile, smart messaging tools, simple metrics and the ability to send and receive one-on-one messages.
Instagram’s New Text-Only Stories
Instagram has rolled out a new feature that gives users the ability to simply type their thoughts out against a colorful background and add it to their story. Along with the addition comes 4 new font choices for a user’s story: Modern, Neon, Typewriter and Strong (pictured below).
Snapchat announced a new feature, Bitmoji Deluxe, that adds hundreds of more options to customize a user’s Bitmoji including new skin colors, hair colors and face shapes. According to The Verge, Snapchat purchased Bitstrips, the company behind Bitmoji, back in 2016 and since then it’s integrated Bitmoji into the Snapchat app with features like Friendmoji stickers, 3D Bitmoji world lenses, and Bitmoji geofilters. Bitmoji Deluxe also allows users to snap a selfie to help in building their perfect avatar.