Social media platforms undergo changes all the time. We look at the latest changes to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram & LinkedIn.

1. •Prof. Amy Vernon
•Spring 2016
What’s new
on old platforms
AMY VERNON
DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT

2. • 20 years in newspaper
journalism
• Miami Herald staff
Pulitzer, 1992
• Top female submitter of
all time to Digg.com
• 15th most influential
woman in tech on Twitter
(Business Insider/Peer
Index)
• Mommy, wife & Siberian
Husky owner
Photo courtesy of Social Media Week

4. Twitter

5. Founders: Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, Evan Williams
Basically founded as a way to send group SMS.
Name: Twttr was 5 letters because that was the length of SMS
shortcodes and Twitter.com domain was taken.
Length of tweets: 140 characters to ensure fitting in SMS length,
which was 160 characters (140+ 20 for phone number, etc)
The SMS integration is what makes it work so well in countries where
there’s Internet restrictions (i.e., you can tweet via SMS)
A little history

6. Timeline Personalization

7. Anti-harassment measures

8. Kermit gif
Gifs

9. @ Mentions

10. Character limit extensions
Photos, videos, GIFs, quoted Tweets and links to DMs won’t count
in character counts.
URLs typed in will.

11. This photo doesn’t

12. This URL does

13. Facebook

14. A little history
Founders: Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum,
Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. With lawsuits from the
Winkelvoss twins
Predecessor: Facemash in 2003 when Zuckerberg was a
sophomore. A kind of Hot or Not.
Created Facebook the next year, a way to create an online college
Facebook.
Originally only open to Harvard students. Then only to college
students. Then to anyone with an alumni email address. Then
everyone.

15. Facebook Live

16. Live Around the World

17. Branded Content

18. Trending Topics

19. Video Comments

20. Instant Articles

21. Charitable Giving

22. Pinterest
• Founded in March 2010 by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp
• Was a closed beta, staying invitation-only until August 2012.
• Silbermann personally wrote to the site's first 5,000 users offering his personal
phone number.
• Hitwise data said it became one of the 10 largest social network services,
December 2011.
• In January 2012, it drove more referral traffic to retailers than LinkedIn,
YouTube, and Google+ combined.

23. Pinterest IRL

24. Visual Search

25. API Development

26. Different-sized embeds

27. Affiliate Links

28. Instagram

29. A little history
• Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in
October 2010 as a free iOS-only app
• It was an offshoot of their check-in app, Burbn. The most popular part of
Burbn was photo-sharing. They ditched the rest and focused on photos.
• Instagram was a combo of “instant camera” and “telegram”
• Hashtags were added in January 2011, to help users discover photographs &
users
• April 2012, Android app was released
• April 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for a gazillion dollars (approximate)

30. Advertising

31. Algorithm
Illustration via Tech Times

32. Business analytics

33. LinkedIn
• In late 2002, Reid Hoffman gets old colleagues from
SocialNet and PayPal to work on a new project
• Six months later in 2003, LinkedIn launches
• 2004: Address book uploads added
• 2005: First revenue models introduced, jobs and
subscriptions
• 2006: First public profiles and first year of profitability

34. Homepage redesign

35. Company insights

36. Jobseeker updates
Screenshot via Forbes.

37. Thanks!
Facebook.com/AmyVernon
Facebook.com/DailyDot
@AmyVernon
@DailyDot
DailyDot.com
AmyVernon.net