Twitter rolls out Communities

The Social Media Weekly: Twitter rolls out Communities

Latest social network features

Twitter rolls out Communities

Twitter rolls out Communities

Yesterday, Twitter rolled out its first public testing of Communities, which gives people a place to have more focused conversations with people who share the same interests. Comment: As a social media trainer, I’ve always been keen to focus on the conversational aspects of social media so it’s great to see Twitter roll out Communities and the new feature looks really good. I look forward to trying it. Not exactly innovative, but it’s a big change and should help conversation between like minded people and boost engagement.

All followers can now subscribe to your Revue newsletter directly from your Twitter profile on desktop and apps. See my Twitter profile for an example.

Twitter is introducing some new privacy options. Twitter plans to include an option to archive old tweets so that other users can’t see them after a specified period of time (such as 30, 60, or 90 days, or a whole year). Editing follower lists is on the way too. Additionally, users will have possible options to limit who can see which tweets they have liked, allow them to remove themselves from a conversation, and also allow users to remove followers without completely blocking them.

Twitter is working on letting you create GIFs via the in-app camera.

Twitter’s is testing in-tweet product displays providing a way to shop directly from tweets.

Twitter has added a Purchases tab to the sidebar menu on some users iOS apps. The Purchases tab shows any subscriptions or ticketed Spaces you’ve bought. Comment: No doubt in time, this will show Products that have been purchased via the platform too.

As flagged up here last week, Twitter has confirmed it’s going to make it easier to be the curator of your own followers list. Some users now have the ‘remove a follower without blocking them’ feature on desktop: To remove a follower, go to your profile and click “Followers”, then click the three dot icon and select “Remove this follower”.

Twitter are testing edge to edge Tweets that span the width of the timeline so your photos, GIFs, and videos can have more room to shine. iOS only at the moment.

Some users are reporting seeing the new Communities feature on their sidebar menu.

Twitter has launched the testing of tweet reactions in Turkey.

Twitter is making it easier to identify ‘good bots’ and their automated Tweets with new labels.

Instagram

Instagram launches link sticker

Instagram is going to launch live video in its Shopping tab.

Instagram is working on stickers you can collect from locations to include in your Stories.Regular Instagram photos are now showing up in the Reels tab.

Instagram has launched a new ‘Favorites’ feature which bumps posts from accounts you love to the top of your feed.

Facebook

Facebook Reels are coming

Following suit from Instagram last week, Facebook has updated its verification process.

Facebook will highlight top-rated Facebook Shops to help users choose where to buy from.

Facebook is testing ‘Your Shortcuts’, helping you find events, pages, and profiles you’ve recently accessed.

Facebook has launched fantasy sports and games in the United States and Canada that will allow users to predict what will happen in sports, TV shows, and pop culture content.

Facebook has introduced a new conversion ad option so advertisers can direct 10% of traffic to their Facebook or Instagram Shop, rather than an external site.Facebook is a launching a dedicated Stories tab in Messenger mobile app.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has ‘launched’ Competitor Analytics. Page Admins can select their competitors manually and compare and export stats for total followers, new followers, total posts and total engagements. Comment: You should find it under your Analytics menu but as with many LinkedIn new features, you might not see it for a while.

TikTok

TikTok is working on the ability to add comments to favorites so you can reply to them with a video later. This feature will also recommend comments you may be interested in.

Snapchat

Snap is introducing a fun new way for Snapchat users to track and celebrate the birthdays of their friends. The company’s new Birthday Mini gives you one place to see a list of all the upcoming birthdays of people you follow on the app. You can either see them organized by how soon they’re coming up or by zodiac signs. 

WhatsApp

Train passengers are now offered journey updates via WhatsApp via the National Rail Enquiries website. Updates via Facebook Messenger are already available.

WhatsApp is planning to add the “My contacts except…” option for Last Seen, Profile Picture and About, so you will be able to exclude specific contacts.

You will soon be able to disable privacy settings for specific contacts in a future WhatsApp update.

WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new feature that will allow users to react to messages, which is already available on Instagram and Facebook Messenger.

WhatsApp is finally developing a feature to migrate your chat history from Android to iOS, for all phones, not just Samsung smartphones.

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Social media trainer

For training on how you can incorporate these new features in your social media strategy, check out how Jonathan Pollinger can help you as a Social Media Trainer, then get in touch.

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