Five New Social Media Features to Know

It’s quite hard to keep up with social media these days. My apps seem to be updating every five minutes, moving things around and making it harder for my ageing self to use.

Just yesterday I went to upload a story on Instagram and almost bought something from ASOS. When did I become such a technophobe?

If like me, you’re accidentally uploading voice notes as tweets, making a reel instead of a boomerang and going live unknowingly, here are some social media updates you need to look out for:

1. INSTAGRAM GUIDES

I’m not going to lie, when I first saw Instagram Guides, I thought this was going to be Instagram’s way of getting rid of the blogging world altogether.

It looked to me like Instagram creators could now upload blog posts to their profiles, meaning followers wouldn’t have to leave the app and the creator could have all of their content in one place.

I’ve written before about Instagram and other social media apps being only ‘rented space’ on the internet and the need for a creator to have their own owned platform (a website), so when I saw the Instagram Guides, I did get a little fearful.

However, after a little bit of experimenting with the new feature, it seems that the guides are solely made up of posts on Instagram. For example, you could create a guide of ‘The Best Breakfast Spots in London’ and the list would contain posts from your own profile or others that you like. You can also create guides for brands, by choosing an account and listing products that they sell through Instagram.

What I thought was going to be the death of the blog, is actually just another selling feature on Instagram, furthering its cause to be the Amazon of the social media world.

Related: Five Things More Important than the Number of Likes You Get on Instagram

2. TWITTER FLEETS

Twitter Fleets just feel so wrong. There, I said it. Twitter has basically introduced its own story-function, letting a user post something for 24 hours only.

Each time I have logged on to Twitter and glanced at the circles at the top of my app, I’ve felt no inclination to watch them at all and continued to scroll down my Twitter feed as normal.

I don’t know if I’m just being a negative Nancy and unwilling to accept change – we all hated Instagram stories at first, remember? – but I just can’t see myself scrolling through Twitter Fleets.

If I wanted to watch these, then surely I would just follow these people on Instagram instead? It’s a no from me.

3. SNAPCHAT SPOTLIGHT

Probably one of the strangest new updates to the social media world is Snapchat Spotlight. Kylie Jenner once pronounced Snapchat dead at the scene, but surprisingly, it has managed to survive and it seems, is still thriving.

Although Snapchat’s user demographic is relatively young – us oldies have moved on to Instagram it seems – there is a fear that the young audience has moved to TikTok.

We all know how TikTok has taken off around the world and the number of views content is receiving, and how easily it seems to go viral. Will TikTok users migrate back to Snapchat now that there is monetary incentive?

4. INSTAGRAM REELS

I’m sure you know about Reels by now, or have had your Instagram feed attached by them (like I have). Reels are quick, creative videos a little like TikTok videos.

Actually, a lot like TikTok videos. If not identical. So identical that people are repurposing their TikTok videos on Instagram and posting them as Reels. It seems like a safe thing to do if Reels are to take off and surpass TikTok’s popularity.

Personally, I much prefer Reels to IGTVs as they’re a lot quicker and to the point and just a lot more creative really.

5. TWITTER LIVES

It was bad enough when Instagram introduced the LIVE feature, and then LinkedIn rolled it out. Do we want to watch professionals live-streaming working from home?

But now we have Twitter lives. Again, social apps just copying others. Where is the creativity? Where is the uniqueness?

However, I think Twitter Lives may work best for this app compared to the others. Since I always get my news from Twitter, I think it’s a great introduction to the app as anyone around the world can livestream from the scene of something happening.

We can now watch the news happening in realtime which will either be great, or horrible – we’re yet to find out.