A year’s time in social media is the equivalent of a century in real time. With the pace of innovation and constant change, social media industry news is non-stop. Keeping up on the latest features and newest opportunities is a full time job.
The year 2011 exemplified the always-on nature of social media. From an Internet giant jumping into the social mix to a number of revolutionary new features for social’s biggest player, there was hardly a dull day in social media this year.
Let’s take a look back now on the top 10 stories that made the biggest waves during 2011 in social media:
10. Facebook makes changes to the News Feed: In September, along with the other major announcements during f8, Facebook made major changes to the News Feed. Our Chief Client Officer, Michael Jaindl, explored the updates, highlighting the combination of highlighted stories and recent activity into one Feed. Facebook also unveiled the Ticker, which provides a real-time update on friends’ interactions on the site. Facebook later tweaked things again, giving users the ability to sort between Highlighted and Recent Stories.
9. Tumblr Grows Rapidly: Tumblr, the micro-blogging platform, saw an incredible rise in usage. In 2011, the social network passed 10 billion posts, and continues to add 40 million more every day. About 72 million people visit Tumblr a month, with more than half coming from outside the U.S.
8. Social networks take the next step in mobile: As smartphones continue their meteoric rise in market share, social networks have continued to innovate to try to keep up. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and other platforms released major updates to their mobile apps throughout the year. Europe, for instance, saw a 44% increase in mobile usage over the last year, according to figures released by comScore. Whether it was the addition of Timeline to the Facebook app or the new “Discover” section for the Twitter app, social networks made mobile a priority in 2011.
7. YouTube channels undergo a makeover: YouTube underwent a significant makeover in early December, updating its design and making changes to the home page and Channels. The home page allows users to personalize their YouTube channel lineup and link their YouTube account to their Google+ and Facebook accounts to see what friends are watching and sharing. The upgraded Channel functionality is designed to help users easily find great video content, with popular and tending videos showing up directly from the home page.
6. LinkedIn announces Certified Developer Program: The LinkedIn announcement allowed select third parties the ability to work within the LinkedIn platform to help innovate on how brands use LinkedIn. The results of the program, according to LinkedIn, will allow marketers to publish content to targeted audiences, acquire and manager followers and drive traffic to the LinkedIn site while tracking insights.
5. Google+ Announces Google+ Pages for brands: Marketers took note when Google+ unveiled Google+ Pages for brands. Among the highlights: the ability for Pages to easily segment and target users through Circles, the Hangout feature to video chat with fans, and Google+ Page Badges, which brands can place across their online channels.
4. Twitter Reveals Brand Pages: Twitter joined the brand Page wave in early December by launching its own brand Pages for marketers. The Twitter brand Pages have two free elements. The first is a customizable, large header image that displays alongside a prominent tagline at the top of the Page. Brands are also able to keep a particular tweet at the top of the Page so that it does not get lost. And to simplify customer service usage, brands can now separate out @ replies and mentions.
3. Facebook’s New Page Design and iFrame Transition: In February, Facebook made a few groundbreaking announcements about Facebook Pages. The most obvious change was the redesign of the Page, which moved tabs from the top of the Page to the left-hand navigation rail. The announcement that had the biggest ramifications for developers, however, was the news that Page tabs could be created using an iFrame. This allows tabs to serve as a portal to content elsewhere on the web, and also marked a shift away from Facebook’s FBML coding. iFrames give marketers the ability to do innovative things on the tab, such as dropping tracking pixels on content, or using flash objects.
2. Google Launches Google+: Google unveiled its social layer in June, implementing a social network on top of the search giant’s many products. The most widely-discussed Google+ feature was Circles, which allows users to segment people into different buckets based on real-life interactions. The ubiquitous +1 button also started to appear in search results and on sites all over the web.
1. Facebook makes major f8 announcements, launches Timeline: Among the major announcements Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook made at f8, the new open graph objects made an enormous splash. The implications are tremendous, and have already started to play out in apps created across Facebook. The social network has stopped limiting actions on Facebook to a simple ‘Like.’ Instead, users can now take a number of actions that more accurately reflect interactions on Facebook. So instead of ‘liking’ a song, users can now ‘listen’ to a song, and that information will show up in the News Feeds and Tickers of their friends.
After a legal battle, Facebook also released the new Timeline to everyone. Among the highlights: a large cover photo at the top of the Page, new modules to highlight app interaction and the ability to easily add past events, all the way back to birth, to the Timeline.
What a year! We couldn’t have possibly covered everything in one post. What do you think should be on the list? Let us know in the comments.
