In this edition of our social media round-up, Facebook Pages gets a makeover, YouTube Shorts to compete with TikTok, LinkedIn stories have added a swipe-up feature, Twitter shares its 2021 planner for social media strategists, and WhatsApp delays its terms and privacy policy updates. Let’s get to it.
Facebook Pages Get a Makeover
In January, Facebook Pages rolled out a variety of functionality updates that included a redesigned layout and a streamlined look.
A quick try shows that users now have access to a dedicated Pages News Feed (for more relevant content). The dedicated news feed also suggests new connections that fits the specific criteria or niche of your page.
Facebook has also made navigating between personal profiles and pages quicker and easier!
Comments from public figures will also be bumped to the top of the comments section for Page posts—meaning more chances of wider visibility.
The new updated Pages will be rolled out slowly to all users so no need to panic if you haven’t encountered it yet.
YouTube Shorts to Compete with TikTok
Video sharing giant YouTube is looking to go head to head with fast-rising short clips app TikTok with “YouTube Shorts,” following impressive beta testing results in India.
In a statement by Susan Wojcikci, head of YouTube, she outlined the company’s plans to expand YouTube Shorts for the rest of 2021 after it racked up 3.5 billion views a day in the beta testing.
“We’re looking forward to expanding Shorts to more markets this year,” she said.
YouTube Shorts is the platform’s new quick clips and was initially unveiled as “a new way to express yourself in 15 seconds or less.”
LinkedIn Stories Now Have a Swipe-Up Feature
If you recently clicked on a few LinkedIn stories, you might have noticed the new added swipe-up feature, similar to that of Instagram and Snapchat stories.
While the stories feature was initially received with mixed reviews by LinkedIn users who view the platform as a more “professional” online space, the new swipe-up feature allows users to direct people to a certain website.
This means that it can be used professionally to promote brands and improve connections with your target audience.
Per LinkedIn, the swipe-up feature for stories is currently available only to LinkedIn pages and individual members who have at least 5,000 followers or connections, and use the “Follow” button as the primary action on their profile instead of “Connect.”
Twitter Shares Its 2021 Planner
Working on improving your brand’s promotion on Twitter? Here’s some good news!
Twitter has shared its 2021 Planner to help social media managers and brand marketers better plan their marketing campaigns for the rest of the year.
“Learn our best practices, how to align your campaigns with your business objectives, and tips for setting campaign targets,” Twitter stated in a recent post.
The planner, according to Twitter contains, tips for finding your brand voice on Twitter, pro-tips from the Twitter Business team, tweet thought starters, creative best practices, a month of Tweet themes to inspire new content, and Twitter Ads campaign tips. You can download the Twitter 2021 planner here.
WhatsApp Delays Privacy Policy Updates
Following social media backlash, WhatsApp has decided to push back the implementation of its new terms and privacy policy to May instead of February as originally planned.
Back in January, many users raised concerns over the Facebook-owned company’s privacy updates after it decided to “partner with Facebook to offer integrations across the Facebook Company products.”
The in-app prompt fueled speculations that Facebook would soon have access to private WhatsApp messages and calls, which is not really the case.
WhatsApp has since issued a clarification to in light of all the confusion:
“The update does not change WhatsApp’s data-sharing practices with Facebook and does not impact how people communicate privately with friends or family wherever they are in the world. WhatsApp remains deeply committed to protecting people’s privacy. We are communicating directly with users through WhatsApp about these changes so they have time to review the new policy over the course of the next month.”
Rock your social media with Tulumi!
This sums up our social media roundup for the month of January 2021. As always, the Tulumi team is standing by to provide you with top-of-the-line social media management services aimed at elevating your brand and nourishing quality customer relationships. Give us a call today at (800) 481-1720 to get started with a FREE social media strategy consultation.
