Facebook’s data management troubles remained the top social media news subject throughout 2018, long after the company suspended Cambridge Analytica in March. There was limited room for other social platforms to create waves due to the company’s ongoing stream of customer privacy concerns, yet some nevertheless managed to do so. Twitter has focused on protecting the honesty of the elections by deleting millions of fake accounts. Even while Facebook and Twitter worked to improve their timelines, Snapchat, Pinterest, and LinkedIn expanded their advertising options.

Almost every service introduced new rules for political advertising, and you couldn’t open an app without coming across a Story. (The real question is why Pinterest doesn’t have them now that Snapchat’s original concept has spread to Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.) Facebook has been making an effort to increase its pool of video producers, while YouTube has expanded its creators’ ability to monetize their work, and Instagram has introduced its own video platform. The social news website Reddit has also recently completed its first significant overhaul in more than a decade.

Responses to how user data is handled

Facebook’s management of user data has been under scrutiny for a while, but this year was the first time the firm was compelled to take real action against the companies that had been allowed access to its servers. Facebook’s year-long effort to prove it was serious about data security and user safety began with the March 18 statement that it had suspended Cambridge Analytica.

While Facebook has gotten the most criticism for failing to protect its users this year, Twitter is also at fault. During a March 45-minute livestream, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey fielded concerns concerning the proliferation of fake news and harassment on the network. The CEO at the time stated that public and accountable metrics for Twitter’s health were the company’s top priority. Even after four months, the corporation has not shifted its attention away from platform health, putting other projects on wait to ensure the integrity of the elections. Google escaped relatively undamaged, despite the fact that their data harvesting net reaches virtually every part of the internet.

While Facebook suspended apps, restricted API access to user data, and got rid of third-party data brokers, Twitter deleted thousands of accounts, altered how conversations occur, and made it harder for brands to Tweet the same content simultaneously across multiple accounts in an effort to reduce spam. Twitter likewise prohibited usage of its API.

Since the EU’s GDPR went into effect in May, marketers have been thinking more about privacy.

Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook developed up advertising functions gradually
The ad departments of Snapchat, Pinterest, and LinkedIn were all major priorities for the companies in 2018. Although Snapchat saw a decline in its user base this year, the company saw an increase in its ad income. This year began with the debut of the company’s open advertising application programming interface (API). Ad marketplace for Discover partners, ecommerce ad alternatives, Commercials and AR Lenses in Ads Manager, Sponsored Snappables, and location-based ad targeting capabilities all helped Snapchat reach record revenue growth by the third quarter of 2017.

A chief marketing officer was recently hired by Pinterest. The company’s dedication to growing its advertising business was reaffirmed by assigning a C-suite executive to head the marketing department. Pinterest has released a variety of new advertising options in 2018. These include Promoted carousel advertisements, an improved ads manager, wide format video ads, and new categories for Pinterest Marketing Partners. As a result, it now has 250 million unique monthly visitors.

In order to better assist marketers with high-volume accounts, LinkedIn completely rebuilt its Campaign Manager. There are now objective-based personalisation features, one-click campaign breakdowns for reporting, and enhanced search functionality in the social network’s ad management interface. Dynamic Ads are now available through LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager.

Repeatedly relating narratives

Instagram said in June that 400 million people were using Instagram Stories on a daily basis, more than double the number of users Snapchat had at the time. Facebook’s Stories feature, introduced that same year, also experienced a rise in popularity. Ads in Stories were first tested in May, and by September, Facebook had made them available to all marketers. In November, YouTube introduced its own take on Stories, making it available to channels with 10,000 or more followers.

A new look for Reddit

Reddit, which debuted in 2005, has now released a big redesign of its website. In an effort to move away from what its CEO dubbed a “dystopian Craigslist” interface, the network completely rebuilt its platform from the bottom up. According to Reddit’s vice president of brand partnerships in an interview with Marketing Land, the company has seen an increase in user engagement of three to seven times since the makeover.

Advertisers have been sluggish to open their wallets to Reddit, but this might change if more companies see the value in advertising on the site. With an average daily session duration of 11:36 minutes — longer than the top four websites it follows by as much as four minutes — Reddit is now listed as the fifth most frequented website in the United States by Alexa.