What's New in Social Media?

Social media companies are always launching some new feature or aspect of their platforms, but it seems in the face of COVID-19, these launches are more frequent. This makes sense as I imagine, like me, many people have extra time on their hands, want more ways to stay connected and want to access information quickly.

Here is what’s new in the last few weeks.

New Best Time to Post on Social Media

Many businesses and influencers are aware of the best times to post on social media. But COVID-19 has changed people’s routines, so now there are new best times. Sprout Social has released their findings. Previously, their findings said Wednesday between 11-12am was the best time for a post to get noticed.

Now, however, their studies show, based on March and April’s usage, the best times to post on Facebook are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 10-11am.

For Instagram, the new best times are Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 11am and Tuesdays at 2pm.

Twitter’s best times have moved from Wednesdays and Fridays at 9am to just Fridays at 9am.

What’s App Expands to 8 Person Video Chat Feature

The move to an 8 person encrypted video chat doubles the capacity for group chats on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp wrote on their website, “The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that many of us are isolated from friends and family. As a result, we see that people all over the world are turning to voice and video calling on WhatsApp more than ever before. Group calling has been particularly useful and our users have asked to connect with more people at once. Starting today, we’re doubling the number of participants you can have on a WhatsApp video or voice call from 4 to 8 people at a time.”

Instagram has New Fonts

Yup! New fonts for stories and some new background effects to make your font stand out.

Instagram and Facebook have been launching lots of new features lately and new fonts is one of them.

• Stay at home stickers

• New Care reactions

• IGTV now shows a 15 second preview

FB Creates Messenger Rooms

This looks like Zoom, but the difference, Zuckerburg points out, is meetings do not have to be scheduled. You can start a room at any time and an active listing of rooms you can join will be at the top of your screen.

In fact, this Rooms feature has been highlighted by Facebook as an alternative to the cancelled graduation ceremonies and parties. Facebook will launch special features like a graduation hub, custom filters and more.

Also to honor and acknowledge the 2020 graduates, Facebook and Instagram will be hosting a #graduation2020 event with appearances from Awkwafina, Jennifer Garner, Lil Nas X and Simone Biles and a commencement speech by Oprah Winfrey!

Creators Can Now Charge for FB Live

You may have played a game of Quizzo on FB Live with a local bar or listened to a DJ on FB Live. And I have seen in the comments of these events a Venmo account. It was usually optional. The artists just threw it out there to see if they could recoup some of their lost income.

Now, in an effort to support small business and gig workers, FB Live will allow people like this to change for their events. This feature has not officially launched yet and there is no release date.

Social media has always been a fast changing landscape, and COVID-19 has definitely made that truer than ever before.

Stay tuned with us for more about the changes to your favorite social media platforms