And they are just starting. Social media giants Facebook & Twitter, together with “newcomer” Google Plus, are rolling out new and improved features to attract more usage and to dominate the web’s social sphere. If you’ve missed out on social media news this week, here are a few of the new features that came out of your social networks:
Facebook is hoping to capitalise on its current dominance in the social realm by taking on the best features from other social media networks and adapting them to their products. Here are the latest updates they had this week:
>> Subscribe
Facebook recently launched the subscribe function that allows you to customise the news feed you want to see from your friends. This feature also allows you to follow updates from other Facebook profiles without adding them as friends (same as the “follow” function on twitter). With Facebook’s updated privacy feature – users can now e post updates and adjust its visibility easily (for everyone, for friends or groups).
>> Lists
Following Google+ footsteps with “circles”, Facebook makes the friends lists more accessible from the homepage. The list feature has been there for a while (even before Google +) but can be tricky to set-up. Facebook Lists allows you to categorise your contacts and then view updates coming from people on that list.
>> Redesigned news feed
Facebook news feeds have been revamped. The new news feed allows users to view news updates depending on their last login. So whether you logged in after a few hours or a few months, you won’t miss out on important relationship changes or status updates. At the same time, they’ve worked on increasing image sizes and adding a ticker on the top-right for real-time updates. You can view more about the updates at the facebook blog.
>> Facebook Timeline
Facebook is on a roll! At the recently concluded f8 developers conference, they gave a big announcement on the new Facebook timelines – an completely different upgrade to the facebook profile. It back tracks all your facebook updates & posts and fits them to your profile. It also has a sleek new design with a large cover photo on top. You can see the details of the updates here . The facebook timeline won’t be available until Sept 30, but you can do a quick hack by following these instructions.
Twitter announced last week that they’ll add analytics to its platform making it easier to see the number of clicks on links, tweet impressions and trending on followers. The feature is currently on private beta but Twitter promise to roll out this feature for all users soon.
Google Plus
Google plus opens its social network to all in the hopes of continuing its momentum as rival to the dominant social network.
We’re watching the rivalry from the sidelines – and this battle seems to be promising when it comes to delivering innovative ideas & improved features from our favourite social networks. Let the games begin!
What can you say about the new updates? How do you think these new features can improve your online marketing and engagement?
