Social media is nothing if not constantly changing, which on the surface can be quite discouraging. We may already feel as though it's next to impossible to keep up, but I would argue that most of the time, these changes are improvements, and meant to make things easier and more effective, and not simply change for change sake.
Whether it's a new way to publish content, publicize your wares, or network with your audience, social platforms change constantly, and often for the better.
To help with this, here are some of the latest social media changes to come down the pike in the last few months, what they are, and how they can help your small business!
5 New Social Media Updates that Can Benefit Your Small Business
Facebook Instant Articles – Facebook is debuting a new feature called Instant Articles, which is designed to allow information publishers to more effectively get their message out on mobile devices. Highly interactive and user friendly, this promises to help publishers with monetizing and spreading their content.
Twitter Loading up Characters in DMs – Starting in July 2015, Twitter has lifted the 140 character restriction on direct messages. (Not Tweets!) in an effort to allow better interaction and engagement on the platform. Your mind should be spinning at the possibilities this might afford!
Google Search to Show More Social Results – Look for Tweets to start showing up in Google mobile search results. All you need to do is to type your interest into the Google mobile app and the resulting page will have relevant and recent Tweets on the subject at hand. Right now this only works on mobile, desktop to come later.
Twitter's Killer New Search Page – Even more from Twitter, a new, full-featured search results page which boasts a far cleaner and useful interface. You can also filter your searches quite nicely, to further refine your search queries.
Better LinkedIn Reporting form Simply Measured – If you've been using the social analytics company Simply Measured you might have noticed a new report for LinkedIn publishers that gives a much deeper dive into their analytics. There is a ton of metrics to analyze, and also an updated cross channel social performance report feature that covers 8 of the most popular social networks, including LinkedIn.
Social media is in a constant state of change and up with some of the shifts will help keep your social efforts fruitful.