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Two New Updates in Social Media

Just yesterday, Google+ and Twitter unveiled two changes to their service that impact individuals who work with social media strategy: Google+ vanity URLs and Twitter photo preview in feeds. Social media offerings and features are always in flux, but here’s why we’re excited about these two small tweaks.

Google+

The service has been notoriously slow to offer custom URLs, frustrating anyone who, when sharing their URL, had to rattle off a strand of 20+ numbers. The inability to customize your URL is a rarity in the social media world, existing virtually nowhere else. The process before for assigning vanity URLs was confusing and somewhat arbitrary, but now Google’s streamlined the process. Phew.

The businesses and brand URL claiming process isn’t exactly one-click, but as an individual, if you have:

  • 10 profile followers

  • an account more than 30 days old, and

  • a profile photo

then you’re good to go. Brand and business verification information is available in the Google+ Help Center. Even if you have these attributes, Google is still rolling out vanity URL upgrade ability to accounts throughout the coming week. Boom! Sharing made easier. Now you’re not account number 920934801223010. Just remember that if you obtain a vanity URL, you’ll need to change it wherever it appears: on your website, on newsletters, etc.

Twitter

Twitter’s getting more visual. It’s a curse and a blessing— there’s now an incentive to making social media content more graphics-heavy, but that’s often resource-intensive. A lot of us here at Spark Growth are fans, however. Our fingers get tired of clicking to find photos and read links, so Twitter serving us up friends’ Halloween costumes and media photos right there in our feeds makes us smile.

How does this impact your strategy? Facebook and Google+ are excellent for graphics. Adapt those (or create new ones) for Twitter when you post out to social media channels. Photos make you stick out on cluttered feeds and can create a deeper level of engagement with customers. We’re looking forward to seeing what they’ll continue to cook up.

If you’re unsure of what’s best for your company, a more detailed and custom-made consultation with us is just an email or phone call away. Schedule a 1-on-1 to see how we can help you.