Independent Thinking Blog

Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter Changes You Need to Know

The “Big 3” social media platforms are making moves.

Because I watch so you don’t have to, here is an update on recent Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn changes you need to know.

Facebook made me cranky.

Hush (no auto-audio please)

Maybe you haven’t noticed it yet, but Facebook just made the videos in your feed not just autoload but auto-audio-load. That makes your conference clips, LIVE replays (yes, I know that’s technically an oxymoron), and snippets of your son dive-bombing into the pool about as welcome as a telemarketer peddling her wares VERY LOUDLY at you over the airwaves. It’s not good.

The good news is that you can disable auto-audio in your settings. For mobile, go to App Settings, and disable “Videos in News Feed With Sound.”

I don’t know yet if there’s a way to disable auto-audio when you upload your video. If so, do it (please!!!). I’ll turn on the sound of a video that catches my attention. But if you start by talking at me, I’ll probably mute you before you have a chance to make that first impression.

LinkedIn is adding video.

Sure, you’ve been able to upload video clips to LinkedIn for some time. But this is supposed to be more about point and click.

I haven’t checked out the feature yet (it’s rolling out slowly, and I don’t have it on my app), but this should make it easier to capture moments that matter to your business. It’s hard to understand how it works until I see it — but keep your eyes out and start thinking about whether and how you might take advantage of LinkedIn video.

Twitter threads are a very big deal.

Spools of thread

Agility PR has a good roundup of 8 newish Twitter features, including live video, more characters for text (images and @names no longer count toward the 160-character limit), and Moments. I must admit, Moments makes about as much sense to me as Facebook’s “Direct / Your Story” feature. I get it, they’re trying to compete with Snapchat stories — but each feels forced.

But there is a newish feature that no one’s talking about, and I think it’s a very big deal: threads.

Threads, in which a user keeps replying to his or her initial tweet to create a series of interlocking tweets, has emerged in the last 6-8 months as a policy and political commentary tool. It’s a way to explain a topic or expound on a position that’s too complicated or nuanced for 160 characters. Whereas stand-alone tweets can be misinterpreted, threads offer context.

Technically, threads aren’t a new feature. But, like all the best Twitter features (including @replies and hashtags), they are user innovations.

So far, companies haven’t adopted threads. But why couldn’t you use the same strategy that helps unwrap health care policy to create a “how to” manual or to live tweet a conference keynote? Stay tuned.

Feature photo by Ross Findon; Hush by Kristina Flour; Threads by Terri Bleecker.

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