In social media news this week, Twitter tests a ‘news’ feature, Snapchat updates its Snap Map, Instagram helps businesses to sell and Messenger lets people take control in group chats.
Breaking News!
Twitter is testing out a new breaking news feature this week which will sit comfortably on top of users’ timelines. The feature is set to highlight big news stories and provide individuals with the latest updates in the world. When you click the article, it’ll take you to all the tweets that relate to the story, making sure you stay on top of the news and events happening in media-verse and real life too. Twitter is trying to establish itself as a more reliable source for information, which will be rather refreshing in the world of fake news and bots spurting out meaningless links.
Check In With Snap Map
Snapchat is still going for gold in the world of updates, with a new feature added to Snap Maps that will keep a user updated and inform the individual about what is happening with their friends in their Snap Map. The updates are automatically uploaded when a user goes to an airport, an event or even an attraction that would be big enough to show up on a map. You just have to click ‘New Updates’ to see where your friends have been.
Shop Instantly
Finding out where your favourite Instagram influencer got that perfect pair of shoes has become a whole lot easier. Instagram has rolled out its shopping feature (the ‘Shop Now’ button) to eight more countries, including Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom. All a business account has to do is tag an item in a picture like they would a person – it’s that easy!
People cannot buy directly from the app, but brands can tag their products in their post along with the price, product name and details and links to purchase the item from the original store. The process is a lot easier than clicking through the link in a brand’s Instagram bio and trying to scroll until you find the product manually.
Instagram is a great way to market and sell products and services and we should expect a further push for e-commerce from the app as it continues to make the whole selling process easier.
Group Admin Control
Although Facebook has been under severe criticism this month, it has still been releasing updates to its services. One of the new features to come to Messenger is Admin Privileges for Group Conversations – a requested feature from Facebook users. The update means new members have to be approved by the group admin before they are added and anyone in the chat can be removed or made an admin by them also. The feature can also be turned on or off, depending whether the group admin likes having control or not.
