Social media takes up the majority of the public’s attention. Now, the creators and developers of the most well-known site names are asking for more.
In the past year, various social networks have pushed “exclusive” content to the forefront as their focus has shifted from gaining new users to keeping current users returning to their feeds each day.
Major networks, such as Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook, added new sections and algorithms to bring special content to users.
Networks should take a cue from Instagram and streamline what users see without compromising the content they care about.
First up is Snapchat.
The app started its content monetization trend earlier this year when it launched the Discover tab.
The tab changed the way Snapchat users consume content by bringing major news networks such as CNN and Fox News to Comedy Central and ESPN, to the app.
These different channels provide videos, news and articles curated daily from the provider.
Part of the problem with Discover is it changes why people come to Snapchat entirely. What started as a service to send photos to friends, now provides news and videos. It seems unecessary.
From snaps to tweets, Twitter has jumped on the increased consumer interaction bandwagon just recently.
Much like Snapchat, Twitter needed to figure out how to use its own strengths to appeal to users already on the social network.
Twitter released the Moments section in its app last week in order to help users figure out how to use Twitter.
The Moments feature was an attempt to bring breaking news to one convenient location, while crediting those who started the news.
For users that already have a self-curated feed and would prefer not to use the Moments feature, Twitter recently released Highlights, a short list of the most noteworthy tweets the user missed while away from the network.
The new features give guidance to Twitter to capture and keep users’ attention.
Onto the holy grail of social networking — Facebook.
One of the biggest additions to Facebook is Instant Articles which attempts to streamline news and entertainment consumption by embedding these articles directly into Facebook.
These stories are designed to speed up how quickly a user can engage.
These articles have strong launch partners, including National Geographic and BuzzFeed.
With Facebook full of these controversial topics and adorable animal videos, the company decided users needed to be able to do more than “like” or comment.
The introduction of the emoticon buttons that accompany the “like” button have already started being tested in Spain and Ireland and will hopefully roll out to the United States very soon.
The new engagement system includes a heart, a smiley face and an angry face among others.
While Facebook is trying to engage more with users, some feel it should engage less.
“Facebook is full of spam and advertising that I do not want to see,” biochemistry junior Kelsey Renard said.
And finally, Instagram.
Instagram seems to be following the “if it’s broke, don’t fix it” ideology among its social media siblings.
The only major change in the past year has been the addition of portrait and landscape photos last month.
“There isn’t anything I would add or remove to Instagram,” Renard said. “I like Instagram because the feed is only things I choose to see, without many ads or people posting things I don’t like.”