#SocialMediaRoundup – The week that was (August 01-August 05, 2016)

The week starting August 1 was full of surprises for the social media industry. While we were steel reeling from the shock of Snapchat Memories, Facebook threw a curveball and launched Instagram Stories.

As the industry debated the move, other platforms too released various updates. Social Samosa summarises the week that went by..

Instagram Stories: If you can’t beat it buy it, if you can’t buy it ape it

Instagram Stories is the newest feature from the Facebook owned photo sharing platform which is identical to Snapchat Stories, a slideshow of pictures and short 10 second videos that users can share with their friends. These stories would disappear after 24 hours.

Facebook Live testing revenue sharing models for original content

Facebook begun testing ads with Facebook Live as they plan on creating a revenue sharing model with original video creators on their platform. Facebook Live was launched earlier this year, since then there has been anticipation regarding when the company would introduce ads to monetize the well received feature.

LinkedIn encourages Influencer Marketing, launches 30 second videos

LinkedIn decided to dip their feet into the video pool by offering video sharing options of up to 30 seconds. It will be available to LinkedIn users on web and mobile devices on the iOS and Android platforms.

Businesses can now set ‘Shops’ on Facebook

Intended to help businesses drive the actions that matter to them, Facebook rolled out two new Page sections, a services section and a shop section. Businesses on Facebook are thriving as globally, more than one billion people on Facebook and in India, more than 57% of people are connected to at least one business.

Instagram will allow monitoring comments on personal posts

The feature will be rolled out to the regular 500 million users on the photo sharing platform. It was aimed at preventing online abuse and harassment from online trolls and bullies and has been received well by users. Users can filter comments on their posts and turn off comments altogether on a post if they wish. Instagram will also screen and block comments that contain words that have been flagged by the user previously.

While the industry is divided over Instagram Stories, it definitely poses some threat to Snapchat, owing to the large number of active users it (Instagram) boasts of. No matter what the outcome, social platforms stand at a serious threat of turning into disfigured clones of each other.

LinkedIn opening up the video option to influencers implies a huge shift in behavioral change of the platform – from professional networking to B2B marketing for brands.

The coming weeks will determine the fate of these updates and what do they hold in store for brands and end users.