The 2016 Social Media Trends report outlines major updates across platforms like Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, emphasizing the rise of live video and personalized feeds. Key changes include Snapchat's transition to Snap Inc. with new features, Twitter's live-streaming for NFL games and introduction of stickers, and Instagram's shoppable ads and ephemeral stories. Facebook is focusing on reducing click-bait and enhancing video content, while Pinterest is improving user interaction and shopping experiences.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS 2016 The Social Lights®
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Keeping up with social media updates
and trends can be overwhelming.
That’s why we put together this trend report
which includes a summary of major updates to
social networks and how businesses can benefit.

2. SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS 2016 The Social Lights®
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Keeping up with social media updates
and trends can be overwhelming.
That’s why we put together this trend report which includes
a summary of major updates to social networks and how
businesses can benefit.
See what happened in Q3 2016 on:
• Snapchat
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest

3. SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS 2016 The Social Lights®
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What’s Trending on
Social Media?
Video keeps rolling…
Live video continues to dominate the social
media conversation, as we’re seeing an
ongoing focus on this across numerous
platform updates. Live streams are being used
for everything from product releases to music
album announcements to event coverage.
The continued focus of live video, combined
with the looming presence of virtual reality,
shows that social media platforms are
continually looking to remove the walls in
communication.
Personal, customized feeds…
Social platforms are taking a consumer-first
approach, giving individuals the control to see
only the content they want to see.
These updates are being put in place to
moderate brand penetration and improve the
personal experience. Measures are also being
taken to eliminate cyber bullying and re-
establish these platforms as safe, welcoming
communities.

4. SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS 2016 The Social Lights®
WHAT’S
HAPPENING ON
SNAPCHAT?

5. SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS 2016 The Social Lights®
Snapchat Introduces
Playlists
Snap Inc. has removed the autoplay
feature when viewing stories. Users are
now able to watch one story at a time,
or select a series of stories from their
preferred friends, rather than having to
view the whole feed.
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How Brands Can Benefit
By focusing on creating strong and
interactive stories, the views generated
result in a high-value unit of
engagement, as users are consciously
choosing to view the material.
SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS 2016 The Social Lights®

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Snapchat = Snap Inc.
Snapchat is now Snap Inc., as the
company moves away from being a
one-hit wonder and works toward
developing a wider range of
products, like SPECTACLES.
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What are Spectacles?
Spectacles are a pair of glasses that
feature a tiny HD camera near the
lens that make it easy for users to
create and share memories via
bluetooth or wifi (coming soon).
Image drawn from spectacles.com

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Bitmoji &
Geostickers
An increasingly popular trend among
Snapchat users has been the recent
integration of the Bitmoji app. Users are
able to use their self-constructed
caricatures to show off what they’re up to.
Also, the app has added location-specific
stickers that Snapchatters can add to their
snaps. The stickers are currently available
in select major cities around the world.
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Image pulled from mashable.com
Image pulled from mashable.com

8. SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS 2016 The Social Lights®
Resource:
Want to Know How
Brands are Using
Snapchat?
Discover how some of the top
brands are using Snapchat to
engage and entertain their
followers.
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Learn More....

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Resource:
Learn How to Tell
an Engaging
Snapchat Story
If you want to grow a following
on Snapchat, you need to learn
how to tell entertaining stories.
Get an understanding of story
structure along with Snapchat
Story content ideas when you
read our Snapchat Story guide.
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Learn More....

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WHAT’S
HAPPENING ON
TWITTER?

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WAITIN’ ALL DAY FOR
THURSDAY NIGHT
Twitter’s biggest headline of the quarter
comes in its launch of a live-streaming
service for Thursday Night Football.
Reviews have been mixed on the
product, but its viewership is increasing
weekly (3.1 million on Oct. 6) and the
platform is continually updating the
viewer’s experience. Twitter has also
announced partnerships with MLB, NBA,
and the NHL, as well as several TV
outlets.
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Learn More....
How Brands Can Benefit
NFL partners, as well as outside brands,
can grow awareness by tapping into a
centralized conversation. Not only can
brands interact with Twitter users and
engage in hashtags, but it’s only a
matter of time until sponsored content
makes its way into the feed.

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Get that
Think you deserve to be verified?
Sell yourself. Twitter opened an
application process for users who
believe they’re worthy of the blue
checkmark in an effort to identify a
wider range of key individuals who
are involved areas of public interest.
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Learn More....

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Stickers!
What could be considered a ripple-effect
of Snapchat’s success, Twitter has
introduced stickers to images / videos,
letting users further express their
creativity outside of 140 characters.
Did we mention that images no longer
count against the 140-character limit?
Tweet on, tweeters.
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Learn More....
Image pulled from firebrandgroup.com

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Your feed, your
way
Twitter also introduced a few updates to
help users better control what they do and
don’t see within their feed.
Notifications: Customize your settings so
that you only receive notifications from the
people you want to hear from.
Quality Filter: Feel like your feed is being
littered with irrelevant content? You can
apply Twitter’s new quality filter to
eliminate that undesired content from your
feed. This filter will not apply to the
accounts you follow, only outside content.
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My moment
In the past, Twitter has used moments to
chronicle important events, putting
collections of related tweets in one place.
This feature is now available to the public,
letting users create moments around their
favorite events.
How Brands Can Benefit
Brands can use moments to curate
conversation around events, product
launches, trending topics etc. Sharing
these moments across platforms not only
showcases conversation, but also drives
traffic and conversation around a brand’s
work as users look to have their tweets
shared within the moment.
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WHAT’S
HAPPENING ON
INSTAGRAM?

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Instagram
Instagram has announced a handful of
updates to supply brands with valuable
insights and revenue opportunities. At
the top of the list, the app is now
shoppable. Brands are able to add a
Call to Action to ad campaigns,
shortening the path between the initial
impression and desired outcome.
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Learn More....

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Business Profiles
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With launch of its analytics interface,
brands are able to gather intel such as
audience demographics, periods of
high traffic, and engagements vs.
impressions.
How Brands Can Benefit
By using these insights as a driver for a
brand’s Instagram strategy, businesses
are able to key in to their target
audience and maximize performance
across posts.
Learn More....

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Stories
In a move that was met with mixed
reactions, Instagram added a look-
alike feature nearly identical to that of
Snapchat. Users now are able to post
an image that expires after 24 hours.
The image can be edited with text,
drawing tools, and select filters.
This feature eliminates one of the
more daunting tasks faced by
individuals/brands looking to make
the move to snapchat, the need to
grow an audience from scratch.
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How Brands Can Benefit
Tip: Use these stories to provide
exclusive content (i.e. behind the scenes
looks, product reveals, announcements,
etc.)

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Stop the hate
As cyberbullying becomes more and more
prevalent across social interaction,
platforms are taking action against it.
Twitter announced it’s quality filter this
quarter, and Instagram is making strides in
maintaining an open and welcoming
community.
By tapping the gear in your profile’s upper-
right corner, you can access comment
settings. By adding a customized or default
list of keywords, Instagram will filter out
comments that are identified as offensive.
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WHAT’S
HAPPENING ON
FACEBOOK?

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Pay to Play
Facebook announced an algorithm
update that not only reduces click-bait
content, but also cracks down on
branded posts. The update has
drastically reduced the impact of
organic content and has forced brands
to re-evaluate their paid strategies on
the platform.
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Learn More....
How Brands Can Benefit
It’s hard to look past the obvious dent
this update is going to make on a
brand’s social budget, but there is a
hidden benefit for brands that are
highly in-tune with their audience.
Strong targeting strategies drastically
reduce variable costs such as CPE,
CPC, and CPM.

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Improved Ad-blocker
An update to Facebook’s consumer
experience allows individuals to provide
ongoing feedback to the platform on
which ads they do or do not want to
see.
How Brands Can Benefit
By creating relevant content that your
audience wants to see, your brand will
not only reach the target audience, but
it will continually improve the sentiment
surrounding the brand.
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Learn More....

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Messenger is gaining
momentum.
The latest app to break the billion-user
milestone, brands are moving to
Messenger in what has become the
most personal form of communication
available to marketers, bringing
customer service to the forefront.
How Brands Can Benefit
Messenger now connects individuals
with a brand representative directly. A
consumer-first approach creates
valuable earned media opportunities for
brands.
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Learn More....

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Video, video, video.
Facebook continues its push for marketers
to create video, announcing an array of
updates on both Facebook and
Messenger.
• New tools for 360-degree video
• Cross-posting for multi-page managers.
• Improved insights to better evaluate
video performance.
• Instant (live) video added to Messenger.
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Branded Content
in Instant Articles
Brands are now able to piggy-back off the
Facebook product, as instant articles can
be saved to a reading list in a virtual
magazine.
How Brands Can Benefit
Placement is key for brands when working
with Instant Articles. As consumers will
associate the sponsor with the content,
marketers need to focus on brand-relevant
articles.
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Learn More....

27. SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS 2016 The Social Lights®
WHAT’S
HAPPENING ON
PINTEREST?

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Customization and
Communication
Pinterest is taking notes on what its
users want. In recent months, the
platform has upgraded search features,
added the ability to share pins through
external apps, and given users the
ability to choose what appears on the
home feed.
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Learn More....

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Shopping made
easier
With fashion, cooking, and DIY projects at
the center of Pinterest content, shopping
has long been a focus for the platform.
Pinterest has improved the shopping
experience with:
• Improved product discovery
• Virtual shopping bags
• User options to save ‘Favorite’ brands
• Streamlined checkout
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Learn More....

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Video keeps rolling
Video continues to be a content giant
across every social platform. The how-to
and activity-focused environment
created by Pinterest makes the move an
obvious one.
How Brands Can Benefit
Consumers appreciate content which
encourages participation. If brands
feature recipes, how-to projects, or
step-by-step assembly, these videos
provide an eye-catching option outside
of the traditional static-image.
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Learn More....

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