As we’ve already seen, social networks have become a ubiquitous part of French people’s daily lives, and continue to develop with ever more new functionalities. And 2023 promises to be just as promising.
According to the annual report by We Are Social and Meltwater, 80.5% of the French population is connected on these platforms. This represents a community of over 52.1 million French people, who spend an average of almost two hours a day browsing social networks.
The most popular social applications include Facebook, still at the top of the ranking, followed by WhatsApp and Instagram, which largely dominate the market with billions of users worldwide. Over 56% of users use social networks to keep in touch with loved ones, while 45.6% use them to keep themselves busy in their free time. Searching for information is also an important factor, with 32.2% of users using social networks to follow the news.
Social networks are also a source of inspiration for many people, whether it’s finding ideas for activities or purchases, or discovering content such as videos. This wealth of content and interaction makes them fertile ground for further advertising development, which is reflected in the 9% year-on-year increase in advertising spend on social networks in 20222.
In short, social networks have become an integral part of French life, offering opportunities for connectivity, content discovery and social interaction, as well as a playground for advertisers seeking to reach an ever-widening audience.
With the rise of social networks on the rise, everyone’s updating and introducing new features. Discover the latest social media features at the beginning of the year.
The new Meta Verified feature
Meta’s big announcement at the start of 2023 is the creation of “Meta Verified”, a paid subscription system that will enable Facebook and Instagram subscribers to enjoy certain exclusive features and benefits. For $11.99/month, you’ll be able to have your account verified and thus earn the famous badge, obtain protection against identity theft and gain even greater visibility.
This formula was largely inspired by “Twitter Blue”, the new paid subscription created by Elon Musk at Twitter.
Messenger launches a new feature: online chat
Also new at Facebook: the launch of a more encrypted, and therefore more secure, version of Messenger, as well as the optimization of its online chat platform, which will be more personalized, allowing users to have different themes for each of their private conversations (colors, background and emojis). Links will also be accompanied by a page preview for more convenient viewing.
As usual, Instagram is no slouch when it comes to new features.
New on the home menu
One of the main updates at the start of the year is the reorganization of the home menu, with the removal of the “shop” tab replaced by a “more” button, making it easier to create content.
The little + Instagram now lets you create your own avatar integrated into your profile in the same spirit as the one you can already find on your Facebook account.
The “Notes” format, a new insta-feature
Another new feature, and not the least, is the creation of the “Notes” format, enabling users to write short texts (up to 60 characters) which are displayed for 24 hours, at the top of the messaging area.
This feature is designed to encourage interaction between users.
Optimizing your social media communication
We have selected five ideas that may be relevant to your social media communication:
- Ask a question to generate in-depth exchanges with your audience.
- Share a funny or inspiring quote with your subscribers to put a smile on their faces and boost your goodwill.
- Use surveys to generate more interaction, as the response is quick.
- Ask for recommendations: travel destinations, products, things to do… It’s the ideal way to share common interests and get valuable advice.
- Communicate on an event: As a brand, you can communicate on an upcoming trade show or webinar, for example.
This new feature can be interesting to use in addition to your posts, stories or other real ones. Instagram offers us another way to create a special bond with your followers, so make good use of it.
Broadcast Channels
Broadcast Channels” are another feature that allows you to forge closer ties with your subscribers. Currently reserved exclusively for content creators, their purpose is to provide a new discussion space for their subscribers. Indeed, the social network is well aware that for content creators, creating a special channel would make it easier to promote content, offer exclusive information, and also involve the community in various decision-making processes. For subscribers, participation in a channel will enable them to truly belong to a community, and gain a certain closeness to their favorite content creator.
Stories
Finally, when it comes to Instagram’s famous stories, you’ll find “souvenir” stories in the stories bar, which let you revisit old content that you can easily re-share.
A little plus, it will now be possible to zoom in on stories to see all the juicy details.
So be careful to share quality content and make sure your confidential files have stayed in the closet 😊
Considered a true social network, WhatsApp is not to be outdone. While this channel is much more widely used as such in many countries, in France it’s mainly used as an instant messenger for easy exchanges with loved ones, even abroad.
It intends to tip the balance by bringing its share of new features at the start of the year, to further optimize the customer experience.
Stories on Whatsapp
We’ve talked about Instagram stories before, but did you know that you can also share stories on WhatsApp? It’s called “Stories”. Very few people do, which is why WhatsApp has announced 5 new options to make better use of your Stories space:
- Private audience selector: now, for each status posted, you can define who can see them.
- Voice status: you can integrate voice messages of up to 30 seconds into your status.
- React to statuses: you can react to your contacts’ WhatsApp statuses with an emoji.
- Status rings: as on Instagram, your contacts’ profile photos will be encircled by a green ring to show that you’ve posted a story.
- Link previews: when you add a URL link to your story, a preview will automatically be generated so that your contacts can find out more before clicking on it.
Ephemeral messages
To better protect its users, WhatsApp has decided to develop a new “Show once” option to create ephemeral messages that disappear once viewed, for greater privacy. This was already the case with photos.
It will also soon be possible to edit sent messages, for a limited time. No more deleting messages or using an asterisk to highlight an error in one of your messages.
A shopping offer
Finally, WhatsApp is developing its “Shopping” offer, enabling you to pay directly from the application. All you have to do is send a message to the WhatsApp Business number of the store of your choice, which will promptly reply via a Bot. This response will allow you to access the catalog, which will show you the names, images and prices of each product. Once you’ve made your choice, all you have to do is press the “+” button to add it to your virtual basket, and you can pay for your order directly in chat with your credit or debit card. Practical, isn’t it? 😊
TikTok
As we’ve seen here, TikTok has evolved enormously in 2022, and continues to do so in 2023.
On the one hand, TikTok is updating its moderation policy to reinforce its support for creators. From now on, undesirable content and behavior on the platform will be removed. Thus, if a user posts content that violates one of the Community Rules, the content in question will be deleted and the account will receive a penalty. Beyond a certain penalty threshold, the user will be permanently banned from the platform.
TikTok launches its instant messaging service
There’s also something new in terms of TikTok functionalities. In this respect, the giant wants to be more and more like its competitors, and above all wants to keep users on its platform. Whereas until now, to talk to each other or send videos, you had to go through another network, like Instagram for example, TikTok is launching its own instant messaging service.
A new photo format
TikTok has developed a new photo mode: the carousel format. Very popular on Instagram, this format, which allows you to post several photos one after the other, is now available on the platform, with the difference that you can add music that follows key trends to energize your content.
TikTok understands that creating a photo post takes less time than a video post, so it offers viewers the chance to create their own content, again without having to go to a competitor.
New payment functions
Last but not least, TikTok is introducing a paywall for content creators, starting at $1 (or more), in order to gain access to certain content, somewhat along the lines of platforms such as OnlyFans. In other words, Internet users will have to pay to access certain videos, enabling creators to earn more money from popular content. This would be a way of attracting more content creators and thus growing the network’s user base.
Following various complaints from creators, TikTok is also rethinking its payment system, which is considered too weak, with too high a subscriber requirement to benefit from the remuneration program. Currently, to qualify for payment from the platform, you need at least 10,000 subscribers and more than 100,000 views on your videos over the last 30 days.
A more controlled policy for minors
From 2023, use of the TikTok app will be more controlled for younger users. Indeed, the platform has decided to introduce new features to protect young users. The decision was taken with a view to raising teenagers’ awareness of their screen time.
As a result, the company has indicated that it will set default usage time limits, with a second parental control feature enabling parents to better monitor their children’s social networking use.
Users under the age of 18 will therefore be automatically limited to 60 minutes of screen time per day. Of course, younger users can bypass this new feature and deactivate it. In this case, after 100 minutes of daily screen time, they will be obliged to set a daily screen time limit.
Twitter is also at the heart of what’s new for 2023, and has been in the news a lot since its takeover by Elon Musk.
Twitter Blue, a new paid feature
Firstly, the platform is launching “Twitter Blue”, a paid subscription available from 9.60 euros per month that will allow you to :
- Obtain verification badge,
- Edit tweets after publication (up to 30 minutes after sending),
- Cancel a tweet before publication,
- Download full HD videos,
- Display an NFT profile image (owned by you),
- Get a “Popular articles” shortcut, Customize the interface
As a result, from March 19, two-factor authentication via SMS will become chargeable, except for Twitter Blue subscribers. To secure your account, we recommend using an authentication application (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Twilio Auty or 2FA Authenticator) or a security key.
A personalized news feed
Directly inspired by TikTok , Twitter is launching a “For You” news feed that offers you tweets recommended by the algorithm based on the content you like, read or share. From now on, when you log on to Twitter, a new home page divided into two news feeds will appear by default:
- The “For You” tab: Twitter recommends tweets chosen by an algorithm of people you do and don’t follow.
- The “Subscriptions” tab: Twitter will offer you a classic chronological feed incorporating tweets shared by people you follow.
The arrival of Twitter Articles
Last but not least, another perplexing feature has been announced: “Twitter Articles”. Whereas today, to get around the 280-character limit, tweets are “stacked” one under the other to form what is known as a “thread”, in 2023 it should be possible to write longer messages of up to 2,500 words under the name. That would be a major change for Twitter!
However, we don’t yet know whether this option will be reserved for Twitter Blue subscribers or valid for all users.
And here’s the latest: it’s now possible for anyone to find out how many views a tweet has had on any account. Pretty handy for your monitoring and benchmarking 😉
Newsletter programming
For LinkedIn, new functionalities are also on the agenda. Available to companies for the past 1 year, Linkedin’s Newsletter tool was not widely used, as it was not very visible. Linkedin has therefore decided to perfect this tool by now offering the possibility of programming your Newsletter and making it more visible. On the one hand, from your profile, you can share the link on the front page, and on the other, from the LinkedIn search bar. So when you type a user’s name in the search bar, if a newsletter is associated with them, it appears directly in the search results.
SEO customization will also be enhanced to make it more visible.
Newsletter subscriptions will also be simplified: simply click on the “Subscribe on LinkedIn” button to receive your newsletter.
Finally, in order to display your content more prominently, the “Activity” section of the LinkedIn profile has been redesigned. Now, whether it’s images, videos, newsletters or documents, you can directly choose which type of content your Activity section displays first.
Snapchat
Augmented Reality
Snapchat, for its part, is betting on augmented reality at the start of this year, with the rollout of two new options designed to push augmented reality. One is aimed at introducing a music recommendation tool when creating your Lenses, and the other enables uploaded photos and videos to be automatically synchronized to the beat of selected music.
The latest example of augmented reality: the possibility of trying on a Cartier watch directly on your wrist from home, thanks to augmented reality. What a great communication operation!
With all these new features, we can see that platform optimization is a key concern, and that every social network aims to simplify use and optimize the customer experience. However, this optimization is leading to an increasing number of similar features, some of which have to be paid for in order to maintain the premium feel of the new features. The question today is whether this will be a success, when we’ve always known social networks and their services to be free and accessible to all. More in the next episode!
