Social Media Update 2019
Social media updates we’ve seen so far in 2019 relevant to small businesses
Small companies are often at the mercy of third-party platforms and websites. This is especially true when it comes to social media.
Many businesses are dependent on social media for acquiring new clients, small changes to their algorithms or policies can have a big impact on how a company is performing their day-to-day business.
During this year, we can expect a lot of changes that will affect small businesses. Facebook and Twitter, in particular, are taking the charge. There is a clear tendency for social networks to help advertisers while stifling organic visibility.
Anyway, it is crucial for small business owners to get acquainted with these updates as the future of their business may depend on them.
Here are some things that you need to expect in 2019.
- Facebook sharing
At this point, Facebook is performing tests that are meant to improve its “Facebook Story” feature. According to the company’s representatives, this will allow users to share events and other things through their Stories page. There will also be notifications and stickers for this page making it look even better and allowing followers to partake. If they want to learn more about an event or participate in it, they can simply use stickers to let the poster know. Instagram and Facebook are trying to intertwine their Story features so that a person can instantly share the same post on two platforms. In terms of small businesses, this would allow you to easily track followers and it will make it easier to manage two platforms at the same time.
- New blocking feature
Facebook puts a lot of emphasis on helping its advertisers. There will be a new feature allowing advertisers to block specific publications and feeds when they run their advertisement. As a result, the success of their campaigns should increase. With this blocking feature, small businesses can put emphasis on their products while omitting everything that would endanger the campaign. It is important to keep in mind that there is a limit as to how many feeds you can block.
- Dynamic ads in several languages
One of the biggest issues companies encounter when selling their products and services in different countries is accounting for language barriers. In most cases, organizations are limited by language. But with Facebook’s new multilingual ad feature, you are finally able to promote your brand across the board. The feature is able to analyze internet activity and based on users’ country of origin, they can translate ads to a specific language. So, this would allow you to reach even more people and potentially increase your total profit.
- Additional Facebook features
Besides these 3 major features, Facebook will also introduce some other minor improvements meant to assist small business owners.
The most exciting news is that they will add CTA to Facebook Stories. With this feature, you will be able to direct potential clients to your website thus increasing conversion rate. For some people, this might seem like a small improvement but in practice, Call-To-Action buttons are one of the quickest and simplest ways to increase your revenues.
According to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is working on a big project: intertwining WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. While this isn’t something that will directly increase your profit, it will allow you to chat with clients across various platforms. It will also make communication easier within a team.
- Improvements to Instagram
Instagram has made a lot of improvements to its algorithms and features in the last year. Some of the more notable improvements that we will see in 2019 include scheduling video posts.
If you are a business owner who has a business account, you will be able to take advantage of this feature and make your processes more automated. Scheduling is very important for reaching out to followers at the same time each day. In turn, this will increase conversion and save time. Given that the users will now be able to share stories across several platforms (as previously mentioned), scheduling will allow you to better utilize several social media channels at the same time.
- Twitter Steps Up
There has been a lot of talk about how Twitter is dying out as a platform. However, the creators of this social network have done their best to improve the platform and offer their users new options and features. Among others, the company plans to introduce analytics suite during 2019. Needless to say, this will be an awesome feature for small companies allowing them to track engagement and the way followers are interacting with their posts. There is a neat stat that will allow you to track when your followers are most active. This can be a great advantage to small companies as they will be able to schedule their posts accordingly. Users will also have access to a second dashboard allowing them to advertise events thus gaining more visibility through this platform.
- Twitter’s new app
We also have news that there will be a new app for Twitter. It is still in beta phase of testing so we have limited information about it or how it will pan out in the end. At this point, beta testers are given full access to the app and they can suggest what kind of changes should be made. We still don’t know what kind of an app this is and how it will impact advertisers. Still, given that most platforms introduce updates that either impact the organic or paid traffic, there is something positive (or negative) on the horizon.
- Alterations to YouTube
With this new feature, all YouTube users are able to watch videos without a stop, on smartphones, by simply swiping. This will excite mobile users as it will make watching videos that much easier. If you are a company that profits from YouTube and in particular younger users, this should be exciting news for you.
There we go! Now that you know what kind of social media updates are to be expected in 2019, you can customize your future SMM campaigns.
Ellan Dineen is the Marketing Associate at Design Wizard. When she’s not hard at work in the Marketing Department, Ellan can be found en route to foreign lands with a book in her hand and a podcast in her ear. With a Master’s in English and Diploma in Social Media Marketing, she knows the importance of staying up-to-date with the industry’s latest trends and insights and is keen to pass these tips on to her readers.
