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Twitter’s numbers are slowing down:

This year, we are expecting Twitter to be losing at least 20% of its audience to social media competitors. Surveys conducted in 2016 are suggesting people want more in-depth content at a slower pace, and due to such a variety of social platforms available, the changing trends are becoming more distinct. The 140-character limit that Twitter provides just isn’t cutting it anymore as the bombardment of tweets creates a flood of information that is often skimmed over by users, which is a concern for business marketing. Within the 310 million accounts created a staggering 60% are terminated, or deemed inactive, before any tweets are sent out. Other social platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, are the primary sites that the public are reportedly been shifting to, as they provide higher levels of identity security that prevents accounts being created anonymously resulting in fraud, cyber bulling or other unjust behaviour.

Throughout 2016, there have been rumours surrounding the closure of Twitter, even having #SaveTwitter, the most trended international online feature of August 2016. How much longer do you think Twitter will stick around?

The Facebook-owned app rolled out a bookmarking feature:

If you’re a hooked Instagram user (and these days, who isn’t?)  you’ve no doubt stumbled upon a pic you wish you could save for posterity.  Unfortunately, Instagram has lacked a dedicated “save” button, allowing users the ability to save favourite posts, privately. This has resulted in phone camera roles being over filled with screenshots of memes, quotes or inspiration. This has finally changed. The Facebook-owned app rolled out a bookmarking feature for its users.

“When you stumble upon a funny meme, a new outfit you like, or even motivational quote for Monday morning, you can now keep track of favourite posts right from your profile,” the company wrote in a blog post. “You can save posts you’d like to revisit later.”

It works exactly as you’d expect. A new bookmark button, below images, similar to the one on Facebook, saves Instagram posts you deem worthy to an offline gallery and can be easily deleted if required.

http://blog.instagram.com/post/154465796577/161214-savedposts

In 2016 Instagram, announced the introduction of a newsfeed algorithm, which had most of the world sceptical. The new algorithm is based on theory of ranking your posts higher in your followers’ feeds based on timing, engagement and previous interactions. After originally doubting the popularity of the theory, it has turned out to be a success and working incredibly well. Users are getting lost in the app by clicking videos and swiping their feed, spending on average 24 minutes a day, equating to thousands of hours worldwide. In 2017 Instagram is determined to revamp the algorithm with an ‘explore tab’ that will have users interacting and exploring further, thus spending more time on the app.

Although Instagram has 300 million active users daily, they previously had strong competition with Snapchat, until they rolled out Instastory. Originally instastory had little impact on engagement due to its limited differences from Snapchat. However, a new feature allowing users to create hands free videos and include unique “stickers”, creating a slight differentiation from their competition. Some features exclusive to Snapchat have also been modified to suit Instagram’s audience, such as the Geofilters, which are similarly stickers in relation to location, time and weather, which can be added to images.

The competition between Snapchat and Instragram continues to stand, encouraging greater creativity for the users. Comment below who you think will win, the battle of social videos, Snapstory or Instastory?

From friends to colleagues:

Facebook is becoming a more professional form of social media as the development of “Workplace” is making it easier for internal business communication. This will push out the need for emailing colleagues, which is a highly-complicated method, and create an organised approach to create, share and develop business ideas.

Gary Briggs, Facebook’s chief marketing officer has stated that in 2017, Facebook is introducing more ways “to share and communicate about events and moments that are happening in their communities and around the world.”

In November 2016, Facebook users were greeted with a message at the top of their newsfeeds, notifying them to not miss the Supermoon that will be occurring. This was the first of many ‘Global Event Reminders’ that will be continually shared to users as a method of communicating relevant information and encouraging change. The Supermoon notification proved successful as the hashtag #supermoon2016 became highly popular, prompting users to share images of the night sky. This campaign increased user engagement and excitement, as well as a taste for what is to come in 2017!

Did you notice the Supermoon event reminder in November 2016?

Snap:

Snapchat has undergone a facelift and is now known as just “Snap” due to overwhelming public association with the abbreviated word. This app provides “in-the-moment” news, stories and information that are communicated with emotion, either through the sender’s expression or addition of a filter. Snap has seamlessly incorporated highly effective marketing by using friends or influencers, instead of corporations, to communicate to each other the latest movies, events or products with the use of the filter and geo-tags.

Did you know that in 2016 within the 7 billion snaps sent per day, drinks were the most popular feature in Snapchat videos? According to recent statistics, a staggering 93% of Snapchat users have sent a picture to somebody else of their drink! Over 60% sent pictures of people they don’t even know.

Comment below, what you think will be the most popular feature of 2017!

The future for all platforms:

 In 2017, brands will stop spreading so thinly across range of social media platforms, instead of jumping onto all the new ones as they become available. They will instead refine their social outreach to a select number of sites, ensuring a higher quality for their key audience. By using a strategy that works for the brand, narrowing their focus and making the best use of the specific platforms the brands will build better business-consumer relationships. Eventually brand categories may be solely associated with a specific social platform, just as MySpace became a music sharing and promoting based website.

Why teens love Musical.ly:

Move over Vine — there’s a new video app making waves in the App Store. Musical.ly allows users, primarily teenagers, to make their music infused 15-second videos to share on the platform publicly or privately with friends. This app is more than just a lip sync video creation tool like Vine, Dubsmash, Instagram or Snapchat, it’s a full on social network with challenges and talented creators to entertain you. It’s a powerful tool for talent scouters, influences and marketing companies to find upcoming new talent.

We can’t wait to see what Musical.ly is going to bring in 2017!

Virtual Reality: 

We didn’t see much virtual reality in 2016, although we certainly heard a lot about it. Most of the content came in the form of 360 virtual reality videos, uploaded on YouTube and Facebook. David Brickley, CEO of STN Digital, states that, “it’s definitely the future. It’s not convenient enough for consumers yet, and wearing a huge headset in your living room daily won’t scale. However, it’s the future and a space that will only continue to grow.” This new and exciting concept has captivated technology enthusiasts for years and is set to be a game changer in how viewers and creators share information on social media.