Changes to Social Media and the Impact on Marketers

Old Bob Dylan sang it best: ”…you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changing.”

Let’s be real! As marketing and communication professionals, we’re used to change. We’re constantly adjusting our strategies to fit into the current marketing and business landscape. [Psst… if you’re not adjusting your strategy frequently, you’re doing it wrong.] Change is the only true constant. And if you refuse to adapt – if you’re not flexible – you’ll break!

This year, we will see some pretty significant changes from some of our most beloved social media platforms. These changes will directly affect how we do business and reach our customers.

Here’s what you should know…

• Facebook Zero – Facebook is yet again making changes to the algorithm that aggregates our glorious News Feeds. The goal: prioritize personal posts in an effort to enhance and encourage more meaningful engagement among people. The change will directly impact brands, businesses and media. Facebook users will see less content from Pages causing the organic reach of Pages to drop. Learn More Here

• YouTube monetization – YouTube will be changing its monetization rules. This will impact smaller businesses and creators the most. In a nut shell, the new rule states “in order for creators to be eligible for the Partner Program, a collective whose channels can be monetized through Google AdSense, they must have a total watch time of 4,000 hours in the past 12 months and a minimum of 1,000 subscribers.” Crazy, right? As you might expect, the announcement is being met with quite a bit of backlash. Learn More Here

• Twitter – While the platform is still around, it’s falling short of platforms like Facebook and Instagram. It was the slowest growing platform in 2017 and many marketers are actually leaving Twitter altogether. Don’t be surprised if Twitter rolls out some pretty substantial changes in the near future in an attempt to stay relevant.

With these changes, it’s a great time to reevaluate your social media strategy and how you approach each channel. Should you look into boosting Facebook posts? Does your YouTube channel need some attention? Will you continue with Twitter? Be thoughtful, consider your audience (always!), and adapt.

What are your thoughts on these changes? How will they affect your business?