Social Media in March 2016
How was your social media in March? The month of Easter has brought a 10-year anniversary, interesting reports and tweaks to self-learning algorithms.
A lot is going on in the background of these huge platforms we use daily but will any of it affect you? Have you noticed any major developments? You probably have noticed at least one of the three main developments below, more than likely the first one.
Happy Birthday, Twitter!
Twitter is now 10 years old (as of the 21st March 2016). That’s right we have only had the opportunity to use Twitter for 3654 days! In a decade it is amazing how much this platform has changed many individual lives, national cultures and influenced international news.
How has Twitter influenced your life?
With this 10-year landmark comes many questions, most of them reflecting the platform’s uncertain future. A falling stock price, a recent coalition with Google and lack of plausible user numbers reflect a stagnant if not wobbly social platform. It is still one of the favourites in our office though! What do you think the future has to hold for the 10-year-old Twitter?
Facebook Take into Account the Silent Majority
A recent announcement by Facebook has revealed that they are making changes to their ‘scoring’ criteria used to order content on the newsfeed. A recent update has seen them take into account the number of time users spent on a particular story relative to other content in their News Feed. So, if you are scanning the timeline and stop to read an update, Facebook will score that update and that person higher so future content will appear higher on your newsfeed.
More developments to this system are now being released that prioritise live video and also videos that users make full screen. Their goal is to place only the videos you might want to watch onto your timeline.
LinkedIn, Pinterest and Snapchat Transparency Reports
March has seen three social media platforms release their transparency reports. With some of these report, publications came official statements of support for Apple as they fought the FBI over data release issues.
A transparency report is an official data release detailing how many data requests governments make to a social media platform. They have been a common form of publication for the past few years and sometimes make news around the world when personal data privacy is debated.
The overall figures in these reports are not excessively high but do prove an interesting insight into how governments around the world may be using personal data to tackle crime and terrorism.
That is pretty much it for March social media news and updates. There are smaller developments such as the Facebook profile video finally being rolled out to Android devices in the UK but this development was announced late last year. Not quite March news.
Are there any major developments we have missed? Please comment below.
Thanks for reading. Find more blogs by me on our website: Lucky 6 Marketing.
