Youth Marketers, What’s “Popping” On Your TL?

In Trends

We’re only half way through the year and it’s already difficult to stay up to speed with the social media landscape that is constantly shifting and evolving. Everywhere we move, the youth are staring down at their phones, indulging in so many cool new and changing social platforms. That’s why we’re highlighting the biggest changes from your favourite social media platforms over the past few months so that you never miss a post!

1. 1.Facebook Let’s Your Fingers Do The Walking

We predicted in the beginning of the year that live video would be the next big thing for social media users, and with the success of ‘Facebook Live’ where users can chat live with friends’ face-to-face, one could not help but wonder what’s next for the app and it seems Facebook has taken its user experience up a notch, now introducing itself as “online yellow pages”.

According to Facebook, in the future consumers will no longer need a contact number to reach brands, as Facebook Messenger will act like a Yellow Pages and allow people to search for the brands they desire by simply using the app. This means you’ll be able to search for people in Messenger and no longer need their phone number to be in contact with them, which makes brands easily accessible to students who support them.

This is a huge win for youth marketers as students will be able to contact brands straight through Facebook, without the hassle of saving a bunch of phone numbers in order to get the products they need from their favourite providers.

2. 2.Twitter Amps Up Its Look

One of the first things that may have got your attention as a regular Twitter user is the applications’ biggest redesign in years. Twitter has recently changed the layout of their app, which has become more circular- seemingly going for a cleaner look.

Apart from this change in layout, Twitter has added a particularly interesting feature as now the reply, retweet and like counts underneath your tweets will update in real-time instead of the user having to refresh every time to see tweet progress. If a tweet went viral, you should be able to see the retweet and like count on it go up quite rapidly, without you having to refresh your timeline. This design change will for now only be on and the mobile apps and may not be available on Twitter.com for a while.

Furthermore, whenever someone who you don’t follow, DM’s you, you can now decide whether you want to respond to them or not. This is a useful feature for any social media manager who has ever tried getting hold of a competition winner through a message, only to find that the person of interest is not yet following their brand’s account.

3. 3.Snapchat Goes Under The Lense

Snapchat recently expanded its advert choices lineup with three new and geofilters. Geofilters and lenses are being used to explain and provide more for storytelling purposes. With geofilters and lenses, Snapchat users can make an otherwise unentertaining story more interesting and engaging by adding a simple filter that shows where they are at that moment or how they are feeling.

The new ad features aim to take advantage of Snapchat’s already widely used lenses and geofilters. The new products will include world lenses, audience lenses, and smart geofilters representing the biggest update to its Sponsored Inventive Instruments since 2015. On average 1 in 3 daily users plays with lenses every day and snaps with geofilters are viewed, on average, over 1 billion times a day which makes this an exciting new go-to tool for advertisers to try.

4. 4.LinkedIn Gets With It

After its acquisition by Microsoft earlier in 2017, LinkedIn has become a major player in social networks as a business oriented social networking tool. Apart from bringing back the hashtag which makes searching for content easier on the platform, LinkedIn has also revamped its news feeds, profiles and company pages, as well as adding a new messaging tool to make connecting on the platform, easier. But you must hear it from the horse’s mouth. Here’s a short video of LinkedIn changes that are rocking the content marketing world:

5. 5.Instagram Gives Influence A Boost

A little bird told us that there’s a new feature Instagram is currently testing that will make it easier for influencers to mark sponsored posts. Actually, this is according to AdEspresso – you can thank us later. But that’s not all.

They’ve listed an incredible rush of new Instagram Story features, including new objectives in Story Ads, Story location stickers, and Story Links, all of which take Stories from being only good for reach to actually being able to drive real results– including site traffic. Aren’t marketers always struggling with Instagram’s illusive ROI measures? Well then this should help your next influencer campaign along.

“Previously, brands had to hope that users were interested enough in their content to find their profile or find the site on their own. Now, these ads can drive actual conversions and actions instead of just views, making them more lucrative and customizable for each business’s needs. While brand awareness is essential, these new ad objectives , since users can actually click to your site to learn more about who you are and what you do.”

Social Media Waits For No One

2017 is another big year for social media- with major changes taking place almost on a weekly basis. Want to stay atop of these changes and make social media work for your business? Then ask the youth experts – contact Student Village on for a social media strategy that will rock off your brand’s socks.