SMD’s Monthly Media Round Up

Welcome back, valued reader, to yet another recap of the most popular announcements and news from the largest social media services out there, as summarized by yours truly. This past month included everything from geofilters to real-time content tags. What does this all mean for how your business uses social media? Read on to find out!

First off, the popular social media service Snapchat, where one can store and view photos for only a brief amount of time, has now introduced geofilters into their system. Utilizing one’s Wi-Fi or mobile data, geofilters essentially grant access to different overlays and photo effects depending on where the taker of the photo is. This essentially encourages Snapchat users to travel more often, leaving it up to advertisers to utilize this tool as they see fit. This could include offering special Snapchat overlays and deals for simply visiting one’s business or holding contests where contestants take photos of themselves with a business’s product and post them on social media for the chance to win a prize.

Speaking of taking pictures, the photo-based social media service Instagram will now keep users up to date via a new, real-time feature that notifies individuals when popular hashtags or images are used in areas around them. This move reflects a broader movement for social media to be more instantaneous while tapping into live events, including everything from concerts to protests. With this said, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom has gone on to say that Instagram is not currently focused on live streaming, but wishing to currently build upon Instagram as a photo and short-video posting format.

Moving along, the fastest and shortest form of communication ever conceived, aka Twitter, is currently facing some financial problems after their disappointing quarterly earning reports were leaked ahead of schedule, causing Twitter’s stock to fall by 20 percent the same evening. Financial data aggregator Selerity was the first to post the results, but claim to have obtained the reports through Twitter’s own investor relations website. The post caused suspicions of hacking or other underhanded methods of obtaining the information to arise. That said, not everything is doom and gloom. The same reports show monthly active users have topped 300 million for the first time and Twitter’s revenue from advertising has also gone up 72 percent.

Facebook, on the other hand, has been taking it easy with only a few small adjustments to their system’s usage. Users can now utilize updated feed controls, including preferential settings for posts, people and groups. For businesses or organizations that are required to “like” and follow other businesses or individuals, these may be the tools needed to make managing your place on the Facebook timeline a little bit easier.

The popular networking site LinkedIn is overhauling both its recruiting tools and advertising segments in hopes of getting users to view it as a social media site more than a portfolio-hosting one. This re-imaging of LinkedIn as a social media platform comes shortly after polls revealed them to be the lowest-ranking social media site in terms of popularity and ease of use. These votes also included those of LinkedIn’s premium subscribers who’ve stated they don’t feel the value of LinkedIn’s premium services match up with their prices for it.

Lastly, the ever so popular blog site Tumblr has found that the average user spends around 30 minutes on Tumblr per visit. Alongside this, content also lasts longer and remains more prevalent on Tumblr than almost any other social media site. More interesting stats on Tumblr’s demographic and content can be found here. This brings our social media recap to an end, but for everything social media and social media news, be sure to follow SMD on Twitter, Facebook and more.

Will NesbitAugust 19, 2015