Update Your Status! Our Roundup of 5 Recent Social Media Updates

Keeping up with the status updates of friends and family presents challenges, and we know that staying abreast of social media trends and platform updates proves even more daunting. Our team always shares news amongst ourselves on the latest changes - from minor tweaks to major overhauls - to the different social media platforms. To get you up to speed and update your status on the latest and greatest, here’s our roundup of some of the most compelling recent social media updates.

1) Twitter’s big, longer tweet update: Our team at Roaring Pajamas had been anxiously waiting for this one for a long time… longer tweets! On September 19, Twitter changed the way it counts to 140. Now, media attachments such as images, GIFs, videos, polls and more, plus quoted tweets, will not be included in the 140-character count. The extra room for text will give users more flexibility when crafting their missives. Can you hear us celebrating?!

2) Facebook’s status update on branded content: On September 1, Facebook started enforcing their branded content policy. Facebook defines branded content as “any post on your Page that features any third party product, brand or sponsor.” So, if your Page is promoting content for a verified third party Page, you must disclose it via Facebook's “handshake” icon. Facebook now removes any non-compliant branded content or disapproves ads that don’t adhere to the policy. Check out Mari Smith, our favorite Facebook phenom, who provides additional clarity on this topic.

3) Facebook Page design changes: Earlier this year, Facebook started testing and rolling out a new design for Pages. You’ve likely noticed these changes, but do they have you wondering what to do next? We found Kristi Hines’ article on Facebook Page design changes a great resource for navigating this new look, and we agree with all of her suggestions on adapting your Page to the new design. Our team finds itself especially keen on adding a call to action button and ensuring you have content for each of the content tabs. Pretty lame to click on the “Videos” tab and get donut (as in nothing, not actual donuts…), right?

4) Instagram photos maps are getting lost: We recently detailed Instagram Stories, Insta’s shiny new status update. The other, slightly less exciting, update is that Instagram is killing its photo maps feature. Apparently, photo maps were not widely used, so this won’t be a major upset. Going forward, one will still be able to click on a post’s location tag to see where a photo was taken, but users will no longer be able to view a separate tab containing geo-tagged photos on a world map.

5) YouTube’s major social network status update: Have you heard that YouTube's now a social network, too!?! And, according to The Next Web, it doesn’t suck!  Some channels now feature a “Community” tab that gives YouTubers additional tools to interact with their audience beyond just video. They can now better engage their followers using text, GIFs, images and more. YouTube hopes this new features will keep YouTubers from breaking up with them and moving on and dating other platforms. Have you noticed this feature yet? If so, what do you think?

Have you heard of or are you curious about any other recent social network status updates? Social media platforms constantly change and evolve. Some changes affect users more than others, and some affect different types of users - either business or personal users - differently. Let us know what questions you may have about these, or any other, recent social media updates.