We’ve all been there. You log on to Facebook, and the platform suddenly looks like a completely new website. You log on to Twitter, and your profile now includes updates on who you’ve followed. But these aren’t the only ways the two social media giants are expanding their reach. The companies have started creating new apps, buying other apps and even venturing into endeavors outside of their current genre. This social media growth is evident in many ways.
How Social Media Growth Is Real
The newest update from Facebook (one of them, at least) is a change to the Facebook mobile app. You will no longer be able to Facebook message from the app itself. You will have to download the separate Facebook Messenger App to do so. Although we are avid Facebook fans, this is just one more way Facebook has decided to create social media growth for themselves. Anyone who wants to use Facebook and also message with friends, will now have two apps on their phones dedicated to the company.
You might be thinking, “What’s next?” for social media growth. Well, Twitter has some ideas. Recently, a few users have started seeing a “Payment & Shipping” option in their settings. This could mean that Twitter is soon to unveil a mobile shopping or mobile payment platform. It did acquire CardSpring, a payment infrastructure company, last month. Twitter found a new way to lure in businesses and advertisers and promote more social media growth. Again, we and our tweeps (yes, it’s a word) will most likely be Tweeting until we no longer can, so this does not mean we are not in support of the company. We love social media growth and are interested in how the social media giants are going to continue to grow.
As more evidence of social media growth, Facebook is not just creating new apps, it is also chasing after different forms of social media. Hence: its new app Slingshot. Slingshot works like Snapchat in that it is a picture/video messaging app in which the pictures/videos disappear after being seen. Facebook has also acquired WhatsApp and developed other apps to share with the world. Instagram, a Facebook-owned company, released Bolt in several countries as another shot at the disappearing-picture-messaging-app.
It seems these two companies, Facebook and Twitter, will continue on their social media growth spurt for as long as they can. It isn’t a brand-new trend. Twitter owns the video-based social network Vine, and we are sure there will be more branch outs like we’ve already seen. Social media growth is an exciting and sometimes surprising trend that Facebook and Twitter have seemed to have taken control of. We look forward to seeing what’s next.