Get Ahead of the Race! Top 10 Social Media Updates in 2021
Your favorite social media channels are going to experience some significant changes this year. Keeping yourself updated on these essential alterations will help in ensuring your strategies remain effective, competitive, and successful altogether. In this blog, we have highlighted the top ten upcoming Social Media updates in 2021.
List of Social Media Updates in 2021
Snapchat
1) Inclusion of Advanced Lens Creation to Lens Studio
With the advanced lens creation tool added by Snap Inc., now you will be able to create your own, face-changing lenses within its Lens Studio.
When Lens Studio was introduced by Snapchat last year, the focus was on lens effects through which users can connect virtual objects to real-world scenes. With this update, now you will be able to create more complex visuals such as three-dimensional facial movements.
Moreover Snap is also planning to execute its new Official Creator Program as a step towards the betterment of ingratiating the app with influencers. This particular program will be designed to facilitate technical support, extra promotion, and primary access to new templates and features.
Besides, Snap is going to introduce new creative additions in its Discover tab thereby allowing users to access all public uses of these snaps, and check the lenses on their own.
2) Finally the addition of the ‘downvote’ option as the ‘dislike’ button
After Facebook has released its reaction feature in 2016, now the company is working on a “downvote” option.
Through this new option, now users will get a chance of disliking or downvoting a particular post. Testing has already been processed as reported by WSOC.
The idea behind this introduction is to downrank the comments containing informal or offensive content from becoming widespread. This means whenever a user is downvoting a post, it is getting lower in a feed.
3) AR Drawing Tool + Some More Tools in Facebook Stories
As Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg said “We expect Stories are on track to overtake posts in Feed as the most common way that people share across all social apps.” stories are the future.
Facebook will release a new feature in its Stories section by using its spatial recognition and SLAM digital object detection tools for the creation of hand-drawn and three-dimensional elements.
In simpler words, this tool will allow users to doodle on screen and finally get the image affixed to the virtual world. It is somewhat similar to the advanced world lenses objects of Snapchat. But the slight difference lies in Snap’s tools are limited to definite objects whereas Facebook enables its users to create their own creative element in a more realistic way.
Besides, Facebook is also including Boomerang repeating video just like Instagram in its camera section.
4) Realizing New QR Code for FB Pages
The newest thing that Facebook is offering is the new QR code option for pages along with posters that can be used to promote a particular account.
Initially marked by Jane Manchun Wong and shared by Matt Navarra, this latest feature allows the page managers to develop a range of QR images (scannable) for their individual pages and present the same in different formats.
5) Addition of Q and A Sticker Option for Insta Stories
Instagram continues to work on its Stories section and this time it is focusing on ‘Nametag’ scannable codes to link users to profiles. It is also going to introduce its ‘Focus’ mode for cooler selfies.
According to WABetaInfo reports, Instagram is also working on a new Q and A sticker option to redefine its Stories experience. This feature will help users to share a question in the flow of Stories, the response of which will, however, be private.
This addition will be effective for brands who look for suggestions and feedback on their products or services so as to improve their user experiences. In this way, the brands will become aware of honest feedbacks without having the fear of getting the question exposed to others.
It will also benefit users to get solutions to those questions that they do not want to share in the public forum.
6) Releasing New GIF Access to its On-Platform Messaging
It seems LinkedIn is determined to tap its foot into the tunes of other social media networks. No matter whether the trends will be a perfect fit for this particular professional network or not.
The latest trend upon which LinkedIn is working is the inclusion of its directly accessible GIF library in its message box, in partnership with Tenor (a prominent GIF search engine database).
The functionality of this new addition greatly resembles the GIF features present in Facebook or Twitter i.e. whenever you are composing a message, you will be able to search for animated GIFs to include in your chat.
7) Introducing Video Ads & Videos for Business Pages
LinkedIn has ultimately put its eyes on the video ad trend for sponsored content. This professional platform is now allowing businesses to add a video to their individual company pages.
These video-based sponsored content can be positioned in the news feed of LinkedIn as a standalone post. Such ads are equipped with a call to action button to allow businesses the chance to draw leads anytime throughout the video.
This professional social media network believes that such video ads are likely to generate five times of conversion in comparison to other content types.
8) Redesigning Business Profiles with Visible Monthly Viewer Count
Pinterest is looking forward to giving brands better control over the content they are sharing on this particular platform.
The platform will now cover more customization options that will showcase the total monthly viewer count i.e. the number of visitors viewing the company’s pins within the span of 30 days. It will help businesses to estimate how far their influence extends on Pinterest.
YouTube
9) Stops Supporting Third-Party Ad Serving
YouTube finally decides to limit access to third-party ad serving and pixel tracking all over the world, just before the privacy regulation of the European Union takes effect.
Owing to this, advertisers not using DCM or DoubleClick Campaign Manager are advised to “retraffic their ads” by the 21st of May in order to avoid any delay in delivery.
Check out 10 YouTube Video Optimization Tips
10) Reach Planner Launched by Google for YouTube & Video Ads in Google Ads
Reach Planner has been developed to support advertisers and media planners in estimating the frequency and reach of video campaigns on YouTube and the video partners present on the network of Google Display.
It offers separate reach data for all devices, video formats, and core audiences for 50+ countries. It comes with product mix recommendations that help in identifying which YouTube ad formats will be best on the basis of a budget, objective of marketing, and preferences of ads or available assets.