Also, this month in social media news: Instagram allows posts to multiple accounts; Snapchat shares research on social media use; and YouTube adds new swipe-to-view option.

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Highlights

• Facebook and YouTube are making changes that reflect a shift toward the Stories format.
• Snapchat releases research revealing that users seek different types of content on different social media platforms.
• Twitter is considering a big update to its conversational features designed to boost user engagement.

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The new year is off and running in the social media world. As social media platforms vie to keep up with user behavior, we’re seeing a broad industry shift in favor of the “Stories” format. Facebook is attempting to ramp up the popularity of its Stories feature by giving users more options for direct response, while YouTube is introducing a swipe option, reflecting the growing preference for this kind of interface.

Businesses should take heed to the changes this month. The opportunity for CTA stickers in Facebook Stories — as well as Twitter’s plans for new conversational features and Instagram’s introduction of a feature allowing users to post across accounts at the same time — have important implications for how B2B businesses market themselves on social media. Additionally, Snapchat has released the results of a study examining how and why people use various social media platforms.

Here’s your social media news for January 2019.

Facebook Adds Call-to-Action Stickers for Page Stories

As Facebook continues to work toward making its version of Stories a success, the social media titan is testing a new set of Call-to-Action (CTA) stickers for Pages. The stickers let businesses on Facebook use Stories more effectively via direct-response tools.

The new buttons echo the CTA options already available to Pages in their header. Options include inviting users to “Shop Now,” “Book,” or “Get Directions” directly from within Stories.

Why does this matter for B2B businesses? This new feature brings direct action to where Facebook is pushing users to spend more and more time — Stories.

Twitter Releases Detailed Plans for Beta Testing of New Conversational Features

Twitter is looking to evolve its platform in line with usage trends, announcing the creation of a new beta program to test its conversational options. According to TechCrunch, Twitter will soon launch the beta program with a select group of users. Features to be tested include color-coded responses, algorithmically sorted replies, and status updates.

If the beta testing is successful and Twitter adopts the changes, expect to see a big impact on platform use. For example, color-coded replies would corollate with your connections, making them easier to locate within extensive threads. Algorithm searching would also assist with keeping users up to date with the most personally relevant parts of any discussion — all with the goal of boosting engagement.

Instagram Now Lets You Post to Multiple Accounts at Once

Earlier this month, Social Media Today and TechCrunch reported that Instagram is rolling out a feature allowing users to post a single update across multiple profiles at the same time. For social media managers responsible for maintaining several accounts, this is big news.

[bctt tweet=” Instagram is rolling out a feature allowing users to post a single update across multiple profiles at the same time. For social media managers responsible for maintaining several accounts, this is big news.” username=”Fronetics”]

It’s now easy to post content to all accounts at once. But the question remains: is this good news for your audience? Of course, every case is different, but it’s yet to be determined if this ease of posting identical content across multiple platforms will broaden audience engagement or backfire, causing users to get bored and tune out your content all together.

Snapchat Shares New Research on How and Why People Use Different Social Media Platforms

Partnering with Murphy Research, Snapchat Business conducted a study of more than 1,000 of its users between the ages of 13 and 44. The goal was to gain insight into the social media apps they use, why they spend time on each, and how each makes them feel.

The research revealed three key insights:

1. The apps people use can impact their moods.
2. There’s a reason users tap on each app.
3. And there’s a time and place for each app in this space.

What does this mean for B2B users? Being aware of the various platforms people use to find a specific type of content, for example, can help shape content creation and sharing.

YouTube Adds a New Option to Swipe to View the Next Video

As if it weren’t easy enough to fall down a YouTube rabbit hole. This month, the video giant is rolling out a new option that gives users the option to swipe left to view the next video or right to go back to the previous. Users can also get a “sneak peek” of the next or previous video by partially swiping. Currently, the update is only available to iOS users and is in line with a broader industry trend toward the swipeable Stories format.

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