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December may be the end of the year, but the updates keep coming... These are the most important social media channel changes savvy marketers need to know RIGHT NOW!

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Events feature coming to LinkedIn

Announced as an “Early Look,” this feature isn’t quite ready for prime time. BUT this could be HUGE for professional event management once it’s available.

To make a long story short, this is Facebook Events but for LinkedIn (side note: LinkedIn has had a recent run of glorifying features that have been around for years on Facebook, like offering photo albums and videos…but hey…progress). Anyway, here are the main features:

• Key details: Event organizers are encouraged to provide a description, date, time, and a unique hashtag (interesting, right?). Hosts (and attendees) can then invite their connections and share with their network.

• Manage your event: Track attendees and invitees, post updates, edit the details if the time or location changes, and follow up after the event.

• Attendee conversations: LinkedIn wants event attendees to chat with each other in the event page feed “before, during, and after the event” in order to “continue strengthening their relationships.”

• Guest list: Since attendees can see the guest list, networking event attendees could see where fellow attendees work, which industry they work in, etc.

Stay tuned for more. (We’ll most likely invite you to the next #ShowAndTell via LinkedIn because…why not!)

“The Year in Review” released by Facebook, LinkedIn, Spotify, etc.

It’s the end of the year, and everyone and their mother is creating a “Year in Review” and/or a 2019 preview. (We’re guilty on count 2: Be sure to check out our 2019 Social Media Trends post, out soon!)

The most notable we’ve seen include:

• Facebook’s Your Year in Review — Check out your personalized-via-algorithm video by heading to facebook.com/memories.

• Spotify’s Top Songs, Artists, Playlists, and Podcasts of 2018 — They have some interesting data on song trends around the world—and of course you can find your own personalized playlists in your Spotify account.

• LinkedIn’s 2018 Diversity in the Workforce Report

• Pinterest’s Top Gift Trends for 2018 — You can also check out general Pinning trends in the “What’s Hap-Pin-in’ in December” article.

Screen Readers Can Now (finally?) Describe Instagram Photos

Rolled out under the banner of “a more accessible Instagram,” IG has announced the ability for screen readers to describe posts for users who are visually impaired.

The great thing is, action is not required on the part of all users because “automatic alternative text” will be generated using “object recognition technology.” Basically, this means a machine algorithm will come up with a description of the image automatically.

However, you can also input custom alternative text to give visually impaired users a more rich and customized description. This should now be considered best practice.

For more info:

• IG Help article: How do I edit the alternative text for a photo on Instagram?

• Alt Text best practices for accessibility

Student pricing for YouTube Music and YouTube Premium

We’ve written a few updates on YouTube’s new Music/Premium subscription model. Now, just in time for the holidays, YT has special student pricing for ad-free music:

Facebook’s Collection Sharing feels a lot like Pinterest

Touted as “A New Way to Share Gift Ideas on Facebook,” Collections are basically a way to save Facebook content into a Pinterest-style board. While this feature has been active for a year, the ability to share collections is new—and is probably a strategy for growing feature adoption rates.

So, now Collections has the ability to act like a Pinterest Group Board, rather than just a solo one.

Happy Pinning/Collecting!

Latest Facebook Crisis, NYTimes edition

ICYMI, Facebook’s ongoing public credibility crisis got even worse over the last few weeks. A series of bruising reports from the New York Times—”Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis,” etc.—has detailed how FB’s top executives reacted to issues surrounding Russian election interference and ongoing criticism of the company in general. Both CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg have had a lot with which to contend.

For a good recap, check out Recode’s explainer article.

Friendship Profiles on Snapchat

Snapchat wants users to celebrate friendship by tapping on their friend’s Bitmoji to explore a new Friendship Profile. There, you’ll find “the images, videos, messages, links, and more that you and your friends have saved in Chat, all in one place.” It’s a bit like the “See Friendship” feature on Facebook.

This is rolling out now.

More Links to Check Out

• New Inspiration section of Facebook Business

• Close Friends Lists on Instagram

• Lens Creative Partner Program coming to Snapchat

• LinkedIn Notification and Email Sharing Tips

• Pinterest Ad Landing Page Tips

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Catch up on last month's social media updates (November 2018) →