As the world continues to become increasingly digital, it’s important to stay on top of the latest social and digital media updates. In this blog, we’ll take a look at the biggest developments in the world of digital media over the last three months, from new platforms to emerging trends. We’ll also discuss the implications of these changes on businesses and marketers alike, so you can stay up to date with the latest strategies and tactics to ensure you’re making the most of your online presence.
OpenAI Releases New Version of GPT
This month, OpenAI released GPT-4, an AI model that can achieve ‘human-level performance’ on a range of tasks. It is an improvement on the previous ChatGPT model, which has been criticized for providing fake or biased information in its outputs. In response, OpenAI has implemented guardrails that are meant to protect users from the potentially harmful effects of GPT-4. AI tools are becoming more prevalent—likely one of the most impactful digital media updates—and they can offer a wide range of benefits to both individuals and businesses. However, it is essential to understand the full context of their outputs and to use them responsibly, as they can have serious implications if used incorrectly.
Meta Developing a Twitter Alternative
Amid the disruption of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, Meta is looking to capitalize on this opportunity to seize the market by launching its own, Twitter-like social app, codename P92. This platform is decentralized and will be focused on short, text-based updates. It is important to note that decentralization is more complex than traditional social media and requires users to understand and apply different processes, something that could be a challenge for the majority of users who are used to the simplicity of Web 2.0. If Meta can successfully make a functional, viable Twitter alternative that is more efficient than Mastodon and is able to promote it to a large audience, it may have the potential to dominate the social media space.
Facebook Re-Integrating Messaging into the Main App
With over 140 billion messages sent across its apps daily, Facebook is looking to capitalize on this trend as its internal report revealed that fewer people are posting personal updates to the platform. This could be a positive development for users, making it easier to share content with close friends and family, but could devalue the Messenger app. Marketers should also take note of this shift, as more of their interactions with audiences could be happening through direct messages, resulting in less visible engagement numbers. This news is a reflection of the broader shift towards private messaging.
Twitter Blue Subscribers Can Post Tweets Up to 4,000 Characters Long
Twitter has recently rolled out a new feature that allows Twitter Blue subscribers to post up to 4,000 character tweets. It seems that this addition is part of Twitter 2.0—Elon Musk’s plan to monetize the app. With this new feature—one of many digital media updates on the app—Musk hopes to have more people post content on Twitter rather than other long-form focused formats. However, the only downside is that only Twitter Blue users will be able to use this feature, meaning that only a small fraction of Twitter’s total user base will be able to take advantage of it. Although it remains to be seen whether this new feature will be successful or not, it could make it easier to post what would have been multi-tweet threads in a more engaging and interesting way in the app.
Instagram Re-Focusing on Photos
Instagram’s Adam Mosseri announced that the platform had focused too hard on video content in 2022 and would be re-focusing on photos in 2023. For the last two years, the app has become heavily influenced by the latest trends, as opposed to establishing or maintaining its own niche. Instagram rose to popularity on the back of still images, with users posting their memories and compositions as a sort of interactive photo album online. But the arrival of Stories changed that and made video a key focus for growth in the app. If Instagram sees more engagement and more time spent as a result of showing people more photos, it’ll keep moving down that path. However, the signals of people engaging with more photos must be sent in order to make this happen. With the rise of more authentic social apps like BeReal, it could be a key trend in digital media updates to watch throughout the year.
The world of social media is changing rapidly, with new platforms and emerging trends. It is important for businesses and marketers alike to stay up to date with the latest strategies and tactics in order to make the most of their online presence. From OpenAI’s release of GPT-4 to Meta’s Twitter alternative to Twitter Blue’s 4,000-character tweets, these digital media updates provide plenty of opportunities to stay ahead of the curve.
