Written by Fani Sánchez
Índice
With the new year we all get nostalgic. It’s time to cross off the list the fulfilled resolutions to write down new ones in their place and it’s also time to make a final balance of the year. In this particular article, we are going to focus on reviewing the best that the main social networks brought us during 2013. The best, or newest, because truth be told, not all new products are “the best” and not all “the best” are new.
While I was writing this article, new features and tools have been launched in some of the most popular and widespread social networks, and it has been a little difficult to incorporate some of the most interesting ones to this compilation of the best in social networks in 2013. So I inform you now that more than one has been left out, but I had to stop at some point!
The best of Twitter in 2013
We begin our review of the best in social networks during the past year 2013 talking about Twitter, the microblogging social network queen and mistress par excellence.
Twitter Cards
Twitter CardsTwitter Cards is something like a rich format for tweets or the counterpart of Facebook’s Open Graph. During this year, we told you about the arrival of Twitter Cards from our blog. Providing this tool to our tweets gave us more visibility and personalization in our tweets.
Twitter Analytics
It is the analytics tool that the microblogging social network launched this year. In this article we showed you its main features and how to configure it, but the truth is that this tool was only available to the general public for a short time. Currently, Twitter Analytics is only available for Twitter Ads users, but we know of cases of users who can use it. When we asked Twitter about this fact, they confessed that “they are very happy with the results.Twitter often conducts experiments by offering different functionalities to certain groups of users. So sometimes the user experience and availability of features may vary from one account to another.“.
The best of Facebook in 2013
And, although Facebook has already made its own summary of what users have shared on its platform during 2013, we want to review what it has contributed to the community. Although many of the new features that Facebook has developed are still in beta or have not yet arrived in Spain, we already know what they consist of and what they can bring us.
Graph Search
At the beginning of the year, Mark Zuckerberg presented in Menlo Park its “social search engine”. Graph Search part of the idea of offering a much more personalized user experience, exploiting as much as possible the data we provide to Facebook. The search engine is designed to answer questions such as Which contacts live in Madrid? or search for people in a certain age range with certain interests, for example. The objective changes from a mere indexing of publications to an indexing of the relationship between these publications.
Reviews on local business pages
With the apparent aim of making the user interact more with brands, Facebook enables the possibility of rating a page with a score from 1 to 5 and accompanying the rating with a comment. This functionality has been offered by Google+ for Local pages for years.
This functionality is only available for pages with a physical address in their information section. The pages of brands, online stores and others do not have this option. In addition, the site administrator has no control over the opinions expressed on the site, making it a democratic system in principle.
The best of Foursquare in 2013
Foursquare has been one of the most static tools during 2013 and has introduced few notable changes, perhaps because it is based on mobile (which is no longer an excuse).
Promoted ads
Foursquare was the last bastion resisting sponsored results. In April it opened the possibility for a few businesses to advertise, and finally in October, Foursquare Ads reached all businesses in the U.S., with plans to expand internationally very soon.
The ads will be activated after the user checks in near your location, checks in at places similar to your business or performs relevant searches. The payment model does not contemplate the impression: the advertiser would pay only with each achievement of objectives such as a check in at your business, accessing your business’ Foursquare page or other types of interactions.
The best on Pinterest in 2013
One of the social networks with the most important growth in recent times has been Pinterest, showcase of many companies and digital media today. It has always been based on aesthetic appeal and the power of images. But, little by little, it has been evolving to offer itself as a very valid tool for companies, with its own although poor Analytics, and some other functionalities that we detail.
Rich Pins
Rich Pins are a rich format for pins, currently only available in the United States. At the moment there are three types of pins that contemplate the most shared content on Pinterest: rich pins for recipes, rich p ins for products, rich p ins for movies and finally for articles.
These rich pins work similarly to Twitter Cards, and are intended to add more detail to our pins to make them more usable. Soon we will publish an article where we will explain in detail what they are and how to prepare your website to host rich pins.
Place Pins
Foursquare and Pinterest joined forces in late 2013 to create Place Pins and we told you about it in our blog. Now we can generate interactive dashboards, which contain maps where you can geolocate your images. This will make the pins more useful, allowing you to create boards about what to see around your hotel, routes of the vacation package you sell or simply collaborative boards to plan vacations with your friends. An interesting option for users, but also for brands.
API Now Trending
This December 2013 comes out Now Trending, the Pinterest API with which you will be able to show on your site which items from your online store or website are trending on Pinterest.
Websites such as Elle Magazine, Zappos or Mashable already integrate this API. This can serve as a study for e-retailers, for example, to provide stock for a particular item that is having a lot of success in this social network.
The best of Google Plus in 2013
+Post Ads
+Posts Ads is the advertising format in Google Plus is in beta since early December. In fact, you can request access to the tests here. Companies such as Toyota or Cadbury.
Ads on Google+ have the advantage that in addition to being shown on the social network, they would be shown on the pages that are part of the Display Network, so their visibility skyrockets and becomes more contextual. In addition, it would be possible to interact with the ad (comments, answers, etc.) without even having to leave the page we are browsing.
Hangouts
The middle of the year saw the launch of Google Hangouts, an instant messaging application, an evolution of its previous platform Gtalk and mainly associated with video calls. This application is equally available on various supports: cell phones, tablets or computers and you need to have a Google+ account to use it. This tool, a direct competitor of Microsoft’s Skype, already allows high-definition video transmission and simultaneous conversation between up to 10 users.
Live Hangouts
But it would be odd for Google to stop the experiment here. With this tool you can also broadcast live. Numerous companies have used it to broadcast concerts, events or webinars to promote themselves. These Hangouts are automatically recorded When your live broadcast is over, the tool
Helpouts
And that’s not all. Helpouts are the latest in Hangouts, launched at the end of October. Although currently only available in (surprise) the United States, this tool has a lot of promise. This service puts “solvers” or tutors at the disposal of the public. These tutors are professionals who offer, for a fee, videochat services of all kinds such as guitar lessons, cooking classes or psychological therapy. The duration and price of each class or service is set by the tutor, and Google pockets 20% of the fee.
Custom URLs
At the end of 203 Google + offered its users the possibility to change the cumbersome URLs of their profiles, full of unmemorable numbers, for a more usable name. As we told you, they did not always give you the freedom to choose a name (just tell me, I stayed with Piesucios) or if they did, the margin was very limited. However, one has to start somewhere, and we felt that this initiative, although long overdue, should be well received.
The best on LinkedIn in 2013
Product Pages or Showcase Pages
Linkedin Showcase pages are designed for those companies that have a second brand, line of business or product that is sufficiently outstanding to be developed individually on one of these pages.
These pages are independent from the main page but accessible from the main page. They must generate their own posts and get their own followers, since migration between company page and product page is not an option.
These new pages will help to increase brand visibility and refine their ambiguity: users will be able to follow the line or sub-brand in which they are really interested and brands will be able to segment your publications in a way that ensures that each one reaches its intended audience.
No doubt I have left behind a lot of very good discoveries in social networks for this 2013 but, at the rate this area is advancing, the subject would end up with an infinite scroll article… so I had to leave it here. Don’t be shy and collaborate! What have I left out? What has been for you the best thing in social networks in 2013?
