It's difficult to stay up to speed when the social media landscape is constantly shifting and shaping – we get it! That's why we provide our partners with a monthly e-newsletter with the top social media news and updates. We highlight the biggest changes in social media monthly and share these updates and insights with you! We've compiled the best of the best and are happy to share them with you in What's New in Social Media: July 2018 Edition. Facebook Tests the Ability to Cross-Post Facebook Updates to Instagram: The new test furthers the gradual integration between Facebook's various owned apps. The capacity only appears to relate to single image posts at this stage, though it seems logical that multi-image updates would be added in future. Facebook Announces 'Brand Collabs Manager' Platform to Connect Influencers with Brands: Facebook is officially launching its new 'Brand Collabs Manager' dashboard, which will highlight relevant influencers to brands, and enable them to make connections. The platform highlights relevant influencer matches based on your specific promotion requirements. Facebook Tests New Tool to Track the Amount of Time You're Spending on the Platform: After releasing a report last year which looked at the potential negative impacts of social media use, Facebook vowed to make future changes more focused on user well-being, and less on boosting its engagement metrics. Facebook is now testing a new 'time spent in app' measure, which would show your total Facebook usage per day, your average daily usage, and would also enable you to set alerts to let you know when you've reached a certain usage threshold. Instagram is also testing a 'Usage Insights' feature. Facebook Users Will Be Able to Add Licensed Music to Their Videos: Facebook is testing the ability for people to include music in the personal videos they create and share in their feeds. It has also introduced a new Lip Sync Live feature. Twitter Introduces New Measures to Tackle Trolls and Bots on the Platform: Twitter is cracking down on the misuse of its platform by introducing a measure that will require confirmation of an email address or phone number in order to sign up for an account. The platform has also begun efforts to improve their detection measures to stop people from creating multiple accounts in quick succession. Twitter's recent purchase of digital spam detection platform Smyte will also further support these efforts. The platform says it is now removing 214% more accounts for violating its spam policies, and its machine learning algorithms are detecting more than 9.9M problematic accounts per week. Instagram Explains How Your Personal Feed Chooses What You See: In an effort to better ingratiate itself with its community – both of users and brands – and provide more transparency into their process, Instagram identified what factors are considered in its feed algorithm at a recent media tour in San Francisco. The top three factors are interest, "recency," and relationship. The algorithm also weighs a trio of secondary considerations: how often you look at Instagram, how many people you follow, and how much time you typically spend browsing. Instagram Rolls Out Group Video Calls & New Explore Layout: Instagram has announced a few new features, including group video calling capabilities (available within direct message threads), a new Explore layout (now organized into topic channels), and a few AR filter options (designed by celebrities and brand accounts). Snapchat Reveals Major Updates to Ads Manager: Snapchat has revealed major updates to its self-serve platform that will provide performance-focused marketers with the full suites of tools needed for end-to-end campaign optimization. Snapchat talks with Hollywood about bringing shows to the platform: The messaging app is looking for deals with major networks and studios that would transform the Discover section, where publishers like People and Cosmopolitan and Refinery 29 host daily channels. Snapchat wants to see Discover evolve from its roots as a publishing destination into more of a premium video destination. Snapchat is holding up its channel called "Good Luck America", a running political news program following the presidential campaign, as an example of what the networks could do with shows there. Stay tuned for the August 2018 Edition. Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau  |  2201 Second Street, Suite 600  |  Fort Myers, Florida 33901 Local: 239-338-3500  |  Toll-free phone: 800-237-6444  |  Fax: 239-334-1106 Manage your Newsletter Subscriptions or Unsubscribe %%Member_Busname%% %%Member_Addr%% %%Member_City%%, %%Member_State%% %%Member_PostalCode%%