10 Yetis - Social Media Round-Up blog - Twitter updates, Instagram vs Snapchat, Instagram ads & Tinder swipes right for Spotify

Here is this week’s edition of the Social media round up coming from Rhodri. I’m here to update you on some of the latest advancements and news in the world of social media.

Twitter

This one has been long anticipated by a lot of people, especially those in the marketing industry. I’m sure by now most of you know you can now get your tweets up to a whopping 140 characters of pure text as now @names, photos, GIFs and polls will not be counted. This may not seem like a lot to some people, but those who work in social media will know the pain, frustration, and day to day struggle of trying to express your opinion or get your message across with such a small word limit!

You can now also retweet your own text allowing you to quote yourself and add more context to a discussion if you wish. Overall this is set to give the opportunity for better conversation on Twitter and allow for visuals to be utilised more often as they will no longer take up characters.

It was the introduction of Instagram stories in August that has brought about the battle of these heavy-weight social media platforms. Instagram has blatantly copied Snapchat here but it seems all is fair in Social Media war, they’re not the first and they won’t be the last *cough-Facebook likes-Cough*. If generating more users means offering the same features as your competitors then it appears to be a no brainer.

How do the apps compare?

Round 1:

They are VERY similar, although at the moment Snapchat still has Geo-filters, face-mapping & motion filters over Instagram… A win for snapchat

Round 2:

Instagram has a greater reach due to its higher number of users which could affect Snapchat’s attempts at growing their advertising revenue via stories… A hit back for Instagram.

Round 3:

It’s anyone’s guess! Applications these days are constantly updating and adding new features. Right now Snapchat filters appear better and Instagram have dangerously ripped off their idea which could be bad for their image. Moving forward, Instagram’s parent company Facebook have just bought the Masquerade app which allows you to put animated filters over your face much like Snapchat, so this technology may end up on Instagram in the near future.

Good news for Instagram in general, they have just claimed to now have over 500,000 advertisers purchasing its ad space each month which is more than double the number it was a short time ago in February. Back in May Instagram allowed businesses to create business-specific accounts and since then more than 1.5million accounts have been made with the UK being one of the biggest sources of advertisers. The accounts give users access to self-service advertising via Instagram and lets them know how their posts are performing. Instagram claim to have more than 500 million users every month and 300 million per day! So their Ad service is currently providing marketers with a great platform to reach their audience.

Do you love your music? Do you love your partner’s music? If the answer to the second question is no, then there may be a new solution for you! The online dating app Tinder is planning to integrate Spotify into their app so that people can display their current music anthem when meeting new people. If similar music interests are important in your love life then this feature may change your luck in the dating game (probably not!). As they’ve put it themselves, you now have the chance to ‘make a little music with someone new’