With approaching New Year, it is time to predict something new for Social Media’s future plans and activities. It is necessary to understand we are headed and what kind of resolutions will be beneficial in the next 12 months. Social media platforms play an important role in our lives nowadays therefore it is important to know what our favorite platforms are aiming in future.

Facebook:

Adding 197 million active users to its already swarming platform, Facebook spent 2016 as the social media giant. For the first time, it reached the billion mobile MAU and earned the recorded earnings. Facebook added a variety of features to its platforms which made it a more interesting place for users to stay connected.

Video: 2016 was spent focusing on video for some time and Facebook announced the testing of a new camera option. This camera is considered to be accessible from the home screen and will appear as SnapChat interface. This is predicted to become more popular in future Facebook posts.

Facebook Live: Another great addition was Facebook Live which has engaged a lot of audience. The broadcasting increased to 4X since May leaving behind all the other type of posts on the network. Facebook is now working for improving the way to stream Facebook’s content to TV through Apple TV or Google Chromecast.

Virtual Reality: Virtual Reality is expected to prove as the next road for Facebook. But it is not going to happen just the next year and the platform is going to boost the appeal for VR by ramping-up mid-step options such as 360 content. The platform will add the augmented reality elements to its Facebook Live feature, Instagram Stories as well as to the latest camera option.

Facebook Search: The on-platform search has also increased tremendously and Facebook is now facilitating more than 2-billion on-platform searches every day. Facebook is enhancing the working of its search tools and we can expect to some new releases of more capable search tools via machine learning.

Messenger Business: Messenger is built to directly connect with brands but it has yet not captured the attention of a wider audience. In 2017, we can expect Facebook starting providing more captivating use-cases from the business standpoint.

Reaction: The “Reaction” emoji-set that was made available to users back in February was developed with the view of providing people with an option to express their feelings regarding a post. But according to research, this feature was almost a failure as users do not use it much. For 2017, the ‘Reactions” would remain the same as Facebook has got other important issues to deal with rather than focusing on a less popular feature.

Twitter:

Twitter remained under discussion in 2016 as the micro-blog giant faced a lot of challenges and issues. It wasn’t a good year for Twitter as none of its problems got solved. For 2017, following are the possible elements that Twitter might focus on.

Live Streaming: Twitter is focusing a lot on enabling its users to stay connected with the platform with the help of live streaming feature. But this journey towards live streaming will have a lot of challenges on the way.

Data Value: In 2017, Twitter is expected to emphasize on showcasing the importance of their data to its regular users not just to businesses. The platform will provide better data tools that will highlight its data usage.

360 Tweets: Twitter will also be focusing on the 360 and VR content as these are becoming the biggest attraction. The platform’s VP of AD Development John McFarland has stated that the 360 content releases in the next year would be better than what is available today.

Edit Tweets: As these are not of much interest for the users, there is no addition to be seen with Tweets in future.

Instagram:

Stabilization: Some big changes took place on Instagram in 2016 such as the introduction of feed algorithm, expansion of ads on the platform, and arrival of “Stories”. 2017 is very much predicted to be a period of stabilization of Instagram to allow its new feature to settle completely among its audience.

eCommerce: “Shopping tags” is another form of ad option added already by Instagram to flag the next level of product ads. The introduction of shopping tags will transform the opinion of the platform but these will be rolled out slowly.

Stories: Instagram’s Stories is a challenge to SnapChat which is being used by 100 million users on daily basis. It is predicted to incorporate more improved visual features such as MSQRD Video Masks and Facebook’s new reactive filters in order to augments “Stories”.

Insta Live: Instagram is expected to launch its own variation for live streaming. Although initial tests for the feature are being under process but it is not to be seen going far in 2017.

Visual Search: Visual Search is an area that can be helpful for the platform to make better progress in 2017.

SnapChat:

Trying Times: For SnapChat the New Year would be more challenging. With Facebook on the verge of imitating SnapCHat feature’s to increase its audience. SnapChat may have emerged as an innovator for new features in 2016 but everything will not be the same in 2017.

New Option: For upgrading platform’s credibility, SnapChat is working on new formats and ad types. The younger audience will stick to the platform only if SnapChat continues to introduce innovative tools.

Spectacles: because of the 155 degree angle lens, Spectacles is expected to prove popular among audience. SnapChat is working for a next level integration with Spectacles.

Pinterest:

Search Evolution: Pinterest has made a lot of developments with its on-platform search functionality in 2016. It has particularly focused on image recognition within pins. It is expected that Pinterest will move towards introduction of augmented reality shopping to enable users to place virtual objects within their homes to see how they adjust.

Pinterest Video: Video ads have been recently introduced by Pinterest and these are expected to be extremely popular in 2017. As more platforms are making “video” a must option for attracting audience, Pinterest has also come forward with a bigger step in mind.

LinkedIn:

Data Evolution: With the support of Microsoft, LinkedIn is now in a better position to develop the key platform offerings and transform HR. the recent signs of LinkedIn utilization of professional data is predicting a lot for the future. With LinkedIn data banks, recruiters will be able to make smart hiring decisions. Similar process will be helpful for job seekers and graduates as well to improve their standing. The platform’s data resources will place forward the courses for job seekers, the jobs that suit them and the carriers most appropriate according to their skills.

More Content: On-platform content creation and consumption has seen a lot of growth and the company is focusing on improving the content recommendations along with on-platform search tools. Apart from this, LinkedIn also want to incorporate “native video” with the aim of becoming the center for information and professional updates.

Currently, new features such as Instant Articles/Google AMP, Facebook’s Trending News debacle, and Twitter’s image recognition-triggered ads are added regularly to platforms and in 2017, a lot more is expected to happen in the social media circle.

Via: Social Media Today