New Snapchat features, Instagram replies and some much needed LinkedIn updates

Everything you need to know about what has happened in social media this week

Spotlight Story: New LinkedIn Features

LinkedIn has been working on making their platform more user-friendly and looking to keep up with other popular social media networks by introducing some exciting new features:

• You will now be able to find out when you first connected to a person.
• Ever wondered how your being discovered on LinkedIn? Use LinkedIn's Search Appearances, to see how many people found you in search, as well their companies and job titles.
• Personalize your profile by reordering the experience section of your LinkedIn profile, as well as your volunteer and education sections. Just hover on the right of the position and drag to up or down.
• Comment with images on any post or discussion you are taking part in, giving you richer, more expressive ways to have conversations.
• Expanded profiles are back on desktop after feedback that people preferred them.
• For the busy bees among us, they have added quick reply suggestions on both desktop and mobile. Tap on the reply suggestion when a short response.

Instagram cracks down on fake engagement

Getting likes and comments have become more important than ever, due to the rise of social media influencers. Without large followings or the substantial amount of likes per post, they are no longer influential to their followers or brands.

Instagram has been shutting down third-party sites and apps like Instagress, InstaPlus, and PeerBoost. Apps such as these have been violating Instagram’s Community Guidelines and Terms of Use. Hundreds of apps are still out there for you to download and increase your following by paying for likes. Often they function by charging for likes or for every post you like you gain coins to spend on more likes. Find out more about how you can avoid fake engagement on Instagram and spot fake influencers in my latest blog post.

Snapchat adds some fun features

Snapchat is breaking its long-standing “no links” rule today while also providing some novel new creative tools to keep it one step ahead of Instagram. Snapchat introduced three key features:

• Voice Filters let you remix the sound of voices in your Snaps. You can just tap the speaker icon and choose from a range of character voices.
• Paperclip has been introduced to let you attach a website to a Snap that friends can swipe up to open. this was originally only available to ad campaigns. Just tap the Paperclip button and enter your link.
• Backdrops will let you cut out an object from your Snap and put a pattern behind it. To access this feature tap the scissors icon and then the Backdrop icon. This will allow you to insert a layer of imagery between objects.

Although Instagram stories receive more daily active users than Snapchat, they are doing a good job at introducing new, fun features to keep their users active and engaged.

Instagram introduce photo and video replies to stories

Instagram now allows friends to respond to stories with photos, videos, and boomerangs of their own. Previously, users could only respond to stories with text. To access this feature by tapping the camera icon while you’re watching a story. You can use any creative tools in the camera, including face filters, stickers and rewind. Instagram said this update aims to make direct messenger the best place to have fun, visual conversations with friends on Instagram.

Facebook uses Pop-Up Messenger Chat Feature for Select Pages

Facebook introduces a new Messenger chat pop-up for Facebook pages. The chat pops up when a user visits their page. The purpose of this feature is to prompt visitors to start a conversation with the page via Messenger. This currently only shows up on desktop and has not been rolled out across all pages yet.

Let us know what you think of these updates by connecting with us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Don't forget to join us next week for another weekly round up.