Unless you’re a social media manager, finding ways to make every platform work for you can be difficult and time-consuming. But more and more social apps and sites are adding labor-reducing features to make lives easier. Don’t like what you see on Facebook? Facebook will change the default algorithm for news feeds. WhatsApp is going to offer calling service to anyone with an Internet connection, and Twitter is trying to eliminate the steps of reported abusive content by automatically hiding it from your timeline. With these developments and more, life is getting easier for everyone.
1. Facebook Updates News Algorithm Again: Here’s What You Need to Know
by @northcuttHQ via @socialmedia2day
Facebook has taken feedback from users and redesigned their algorithm for what appears in news feeds. Feeling like you miss important updates from friends? Think you see too many activity updates from people you don’t care about? That could be changing in the near future!
2. Twitter Introduces Controversial Messaging Feature
by @_JayMcGregor via @ForbesTech
Twitter’s direct messaging feature is about to get a whole lot more usage. In this update, Twitter users (including businesses, big and small) will have the option to get DMs from any other user, even without following them. But when the option to privately field complaints and questions opens up, will businesses rise to the challenge or shut users down?
3. Don’t Get Fired: This App Will Delete Your Embarrassing Posts on Social Media
by @karissabe via @mashsocialmedia
Need a succinct way to clear your online reputation? Clear is an app designed to methodically flag inappropriate posts from the past for your convenient clean-up, so you don’t make the same mistakes that inspired the developer to create the app…
There are still over 19,000 people ahead of us in line to try the app, so maybe it’s more necessary than we realized.
4. Facebook’s WhatsApp Will Be How the World Makes Phone Calls
WhatsApp is already wildly popular on its own, notorious for giving people with limited options cheap communication, but the newest extension will make it possible for app users to call people for free when connected to the internet. Find out what this could mean for the future of free communication in this WIRED piece.
5. How Twitter’s New Abuse Filter Could Backfire
by @yaelwrites via @RWW
We’ve covered before how Twitter is stepping up its efforts to address abuse and harassment on the platform, but is there an unintended consequence in the latest effort to shield Twitter users from hate? Nobody wants to have violent tweets directed at them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t want to see the tweets.
Metter Media LLC is a Boston-based social media management company that implements community-based, localized social engagement strategies for small businesses and corporations alike. Need help with your social media? Email Lauren today.
