As a successful marketing agency Surrey, Thunderbolt Digital make sure to keep on top of current goings on in the industry, as well as closely following what the social media giants like Facebook are up to. Facebook always seems to be adding a new feature or other, but have you ever wondered as to how they decide just what to develop and include? In case you haven’t noticed, Facebook keep a very close eye on their competitors and have managed to remain so popular by playing them at their own game and “borrowing” rival features when required.
Instagram and Snapchat
Snapchat has been something of a problem for Facebook, especially since the app was voted the favourite amongst teens back in 2016; it seems that younger audience were more drawn to picture based form of content sharing, as opposed to the more text-centric updates from Facebook (and Twitter). Of course, here’s where Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram came in handy – the picture-sharing platform was able to launch a feature called Stories, which was nothing other than a blatant duplicate of Snapchat, complete with filters and stickers. However, despite the brazen duplication, Instagram now has more daily users than Snapchat has accounts thanks to Stories.
Workplace Chat and Slack
Not content with its success in recreational social media, Facebook is working to secure a place in enterprise solutions a la Microsoft and Slack. Slack is a useful communication tool specifically meant to help employees to be able to communicate and collaborate with each other without becoming distracted by social media – of course, Facebook wasn’t happy about that, and in line with its general policy, went about making its own competitor app, Workplace. With the aim of making Workplace company-wide (rather than used by a select few employees like Slack is), the release of a free version, and the new addition of Workplace Chat, Slack has every right to feel threatened.
Work History and LinkedIn
You may have already noticed in your search results that Facebook have been posting job vacancies for a while, but they may be looking to further cash in on the job market by implementing a hidden CV feature that allows users to detail their work history. Interestingly, any information added to this section will not be displayed publicly, so seems reserved for the act of job hunting – something previously left to the realm of LinkedIn.
Sets and Pinterest
So what’s left for Facebook to conquer? The answer seems to be Pinterest, the inspirational site used to discover and organise ideas, tutorials, recipes, and more. Facebook’s answer to this is the newly announced “Sets” which is (ironically) being touted as a “new way to share” things like plans, memories, and style. So what does Facebook have to gain from this? Pinterest’s audience is mainly comprised of women and has a very large active user base of creative hobbyists, a market which Facebook does not tap into as fully as it could.