We’re not sure about you, but April has FLOWN by! And once again, plenty has happened in the world of social media this month to keep us on our toes!
So, to keep you in the loop, here are some of the things we spotted…
MUSK’S TWITTER TAKEOVER
We’re sure you can’t have missed the biggest social media news of April, but we couldn’t do a round-up and not give it a mention! Billionaire, Elon Musk, has bought Twitter for a whopping £34.5bn.
It’s too early to say what this means for the future of Twitter and how it might change under it’s new ownership, but for now at least, there has been a significant drop in the number of users on the platform, including several celebrities and high-profile accounts who have decided to remove their profiles.
It looks like Twitter will also be cracking down on inactive and fake profiles, and asking users to verify their identity. So, if you have an account you haven’t used for a while, just note that you could potentially lose this soon.
GOODBYE GOOGLE MY BUSINESS
If you manage one or more Google My Business profiles, you may have received an email announcing that the Google My Business app is being replaced.
On further inspection, it looks like this won’t massively change your business listing on Google, but any edits and updates will be managed through Google Maps or Google Search instead.
So far, our Google My Business profiles appear unchanged and we are still able to make changes the same way we always did, but it’s certainly something to watch out for soon! Have you spotted any changes to your Google My Business profile yet?
CATCHY CAPTIONS
Have you noticed the new ability to pin comments to the top of your Instagram posts?
Now, when your Instagram posts receive multiple comments, you can choose up to three of the most relevant/best comments to ‘pin’ to the top, so these are the first people see.
We think this is great for hiding all those ‘promote it on…’ comments, and we’ve already seen accounts getting creative with caption contests, and pinning the winning caption as the top comment!
WHATSAPP COMMUNITIES
In their latest update, WhatsApp announced plans to introduce a new Communities feature, as a way to bring together multiple group chats in one place.
Primarily designed for business-use after seeing a huge increase in the amount of workplaces using WhatsApp for business, Communities aims to help people manage busy group conversations better.
The idea is that people can receive updates sent to the entire Community and easily organize smaller discussion groups on what matters to them.
Find out more about WhatsApp Communities here.
EDITABLE TWEETS (AND ABOUT TIME TOO!)
We are absolutely THRILLED by the news that Twitter is introducing an ‘edit’ button, allowing users to edit tweets once they have been published.
It’s human to make mistakes and the occasional typo, but there’s nothing more infuriating than spotting a tweet typo a couple of hours after it has been posted, once it has already built up likes, comments and retweets.
If it was Facebook (or basically ANY other platform!), you could simply edit this post, and correct the typo, without losing your likes and shares. But with Twitter, this meant having to completely delete the tweet and start over, losing any reactions or retweets.
Twitter plans to begin testing the edit feature with Twitter Blue subscribers in the coming months, and we cannot WAIT for this to be rolled out to all users!
SHARE YOUR STORY
This month, we spotted a new Instagram stories feature which allows you to share a story you’ve been tagged in, as a post to your Instagram feed.
Previously, if you had been tagged in a story, you were given the option to share this to your own story, making it visible to your followers for 24 hours. The new sharing option makes it possible to share the story as a regular post to your feed, making it visible to your followers forever, rather than disappearing after a day.
WOOCOMMERCE PARTNERS WITH PINTEREST
If you’re a creative business owner with a WordPress website, then this could be the news you’ve been waiting for! Pinterest has announced a strategic partnership with WooCommerce that will allow merchants to create shoppable pins.
This integration will connect more than 3 million WooCommerce sellers with 400 million monthly Pinterest users, making it easier for sellers to build audiences and drive sales.
THAT’S ALL FOR THIS MONTH!
We hope you enjoyed this month’s round-up and we can’t wait to see what May has in store! Be sure to keep an eye out for next month’s update to see what’s changed!
Don’t forget, you can also get our monthly updates straight through to your inbox when you subscribe to our newsletter here.
Is there something we’ve missed? We’d love to hear any other changes you’ve spotted in the last month, so be sure to share them with us on social media.