Social media and online platforms have been a saving grace in these isolating times. During the challenges of COVID-19, social media usage has surged with a 61% increase worldwide, according to a study of 25,000 consumers across 30 markets. Live video usage has doubled on Facebook and Instagram. WhatsApp has seen a 40% increase in usage. Twitter has 23% more daily users than last year. TikTok reported a 27% increase during the month of March alone.

Our technology has given us an imperfect but vital substitute for human connection.

It was back in 1999 that RSS feeds originated as a way of getting an overview of new articles and blog posts. They are still around today and can still be useful if you want to tailor and streamline your reading content.

RSS feeds can be used to bundle news from any number of websites within a program, browser extension or app. The only requirement is that the pages must support the.rss or.xml file extensions.

The advantage of RSS feeds and readers is that not only are they often free of charge, they also reduce your data use, as only a section of the article is loaded, Neuhetzki says.

In addition, the user does not have to provide personal information such as an email address or register in order to use a feed.

The rise of social media has changed the information landscape in myriad ways, including the manner in which many Americans keep up with current events. In fact, social media is now among the most common pathways where people – particularly young adults – get their political news.

A new Pew Research Center analysis of surveys conducted between October 2019 and June 2020 finds that those who rely most on social media for political news stand apart from other news consumers in a number of ways. These U.S. adults, for instance, tend to be less likely than other news consumers to closely follow major news stories, such as the coronavirus outbreak and the 2020 presidential election. And, perhaps tied to that, this group also tends to be less knowledgeable about these topics.

Through several surveys over the last nine months, the Center’s American News Pathways project has been exploring the connection between Americans news habits and what they hear and perceive about current events. One important aspect of this project is taking a deeper look at the pathways, or platforms, Americans use most often to access news – such as news websites or apps, social media, local, cable and network TV, radio, or print.

As of late last year, 18% of U.S. adults say they turn most to social media for political and election news. That is lower than the share who use news websites and apps (25%), but about on par with the percent who say their primary pathway is cable television (16%) or local television (16%), and higher than the shares who turn to three other pathways mentioned in the survey (network TV, radio and print).

RSS Feeds are a simple way to keep yourself updated of the latest articles from your favorite sites. Some prefer desktop programs like QuiteRSS, while others prefer a web-based service.

A good browser extension can offer the best of both worlds, that is what Drop Feeds does.

The extension supports RSS and Atom feeds. Once you have installed the extension, click on its button on the toolbar. Drop Feeds has a three-pane sidebar, and a reader pane taking up the rest of the space.

Of course not everyone can become the next YouTube or Instagram star, but many like Lipovetsky have used social media as a platform to spread a message, and in turn make it a career in the process.

Content can not be more of the same however, and being relevant while standing out remains crucial. Right now more of the same is not going to work. Creators need to think about what is working today and how to change it up for tomorrow.

Last week, we ran a few polls in the newsletter to learn more about how marketing goals vary between social media platforms. You may use a platform to accomplish many goals, but there is most likely one goal that you both have invested in and have consistently seen a great return on that investment.

We selected four common social media marketing goals to focus on:

Brand Awareness
Lead Generation & Sales
Customer Service
Community Engagement

Instagram and Facebook were the first two platforms we selected for the polls. Given the immense user-base of both platforms, plus the diversity of interests and communities found on each, it's not a huge shock that brand awareness took the lead in both of these polls.

If you are reading this article, chances are you found it through social media. And that means the platform that used it to get your attention knows you are here. While you are reading these words, Facebook, Twitter, or Google are likely reading you.

That is the premise of the new Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma from filmmaker Jeff Orlowski, which features repentant Silicon Valley figures sounding the alarm that big tech companies are doing three very dangerous things: (1) Spying on you. (2) Manipulating your feeds to keep you engaged. (3) Deepening your biases and blind spots by pushing away everything else.

~ Brands must shift from their pre-pandemic social media strategies
~ More organic and engaging approaches are crucial when it comes to winning back customers or retaining new ones
~ Select the most appropriate platform that fits the target audience, even if it’s uncharted territory for your brand
~ Authentic influencer campaigns, user-generated content challenges and conversational tones are among the most effective ways to engage with customers

Convenience, but not only
At first glance, it could be said that the price of the product and its technical characteristics are decisive aspects when it comes to an expenditure. When two products have the same level of performance, the quality-price ratio always wins. But this is not true! The market is full of examples of products that are more popular even though there are competing goods that have similar characteristics.

Looking to implement a content marketing plan for your business, but not sure where to begin?

Used well, content can help you maximize connection with your target audience, and become a key resource in your niche. Your content can boost brand awareness, exposure, and eventually, lead to greater business success as potential customers become aware of your brand and its expertise.

So where do you begin?

The key to content success is mapping out a full strategy from the beginning, so you know not only what you're going to create, and where you'll share it. But also, what metrics you'll be using to measure its success, and how you can track performance over time.

An effective content strategy does take time to generate results, and if you have not aligned with the right metrics, you can come off the rails quickly.

Today, almost everyone is a critic, complete with an unfiltered opinion. Be it the clout chasers or active advocates, many take to social media to air these opinions and grievances where the views are met with either support or scorn; and the line between the two is often blurred.

To be present online, one must plan well and be equipped with a solid risk register to deal with any potential reputational damage that could occur. While a tweet may lead to brand tragedy, it could also lead to business popularity.

It's all dependent on metrics; a well-planned social marketing and content plan that considers all options should be viewed as your lifeline. Here are three ways to implement such a plan:

1. Make your metrics matter
2. Improve stakes and stakeholder management
3. Take online and offline conversations seriously

Social Marketing Predictions for 2020-2025

Think about learning. We all experience learning differently. Most of us took part in one or other forms of formal education — took a course, went to university or even attended a workshop. More often than not, we associate learning experiences with these formal settings. However, that’s not always the case; learning occurs throughout one’s life and well beyond the classroom.

In a world where social media is becoming part of our lives, it’s more relevant than ever to explore its potential as a learning and teaching tool. Research shows that social media and mobile devices can support learning and create a positive impact on both educators and learners.

The extension supports RSS and Atom feeds. Once you have installed the extension, click on its button on the toolbar. Drop Feeds has a three-pane sidebar, and a reader pane taking up the rest of the space.

It was back in 1999 that RSS feeds originated as a way of getting an overview of new articles and blog posts. They are still around today and can still be useful if you want to tailor and streamline your reading content.

RSS feeds can be used to bundle news from any number of websites within a program, browser extension or app. The only requirement is that the pages must support the.rss or.xml file extensions.

For example, if you just want to read headlines on the go, there are smartphone apps such as Feedly, Newsblur, Inoreader, and Feeder.

These applications have modernised the classic RSS service and offer, for example, the synchronisation of the RSS feed between smartphones, desktop computers and laptops.

The modern type of RSS feed reader also offers other advantages. Providers like Feedly also make suggestions about possible feeds based on keywords or interests, Neuhetzki says.

Smart RSS Reader is a feed reader extension for Firefox and Chrome.

Install the add-on and click its toolbar icon to open a new tab with the extension's RSS reader. It has three panes, each of which has a toolbar at the top. The left pane is the feeds pane and lists all RSS feeds that you are subscribed too. Selecting a feed displays the title of the articles published by the site in the center pane. It also displays the author's name and the date when the article went live.

Google Podcasts is finally getting a feature that’s already standard across most listening apps: private RSS feed support. The head of product for Google Podcasts, Zack Reneau-Wedeen, made the announcement on Twitter today and shouted out some networks that are especially reliant on private feeds, including Patreon, Slate, RedCircle, and Supercast.

To access the feature, tap over to the activity tab in the bottom right-hand corner and slide over to the Subscriptions tab, then tap the plus symbol.

It is reported today in Hong Kong that more RSS apps are disappearing from Apples App Store in China in a new crackdown on feed readers. Apple removed two additional apps that pull content from RSS feeds, allowing Chinese users to access articles that might normally be blocked by the countrys Great Firewall.

Fiery Feeds and Reeder both acknowledged on Twitter that their iOS apps had been removed in the country. They cited a 2017 tweet by Inoreader, another popular RSS service, which posted a letter from Apple saying its app was removed in China because it included content that is illegal in the country. Inoreader said the entire service was blocked in April this year.

Facebook is often considered the 800-pound gorilla of the social networking market. Its family of apps -- which includes its main app, Instagram, and WhatsApp -- grew its monthly active users 14% year over year to 3.21 billion last quarter. Facebook also shares a near-duopoly with Alphabet's Google in the digital ad market.

However, several major social networks are still growing in Facebooks shadow. Lets take a closer look at three of them, how they withstood competition from Facebook, and what that resilience means for Facebooks long-term prospects.

1. Snapchat
2. Pinterest
3. Tiktok

Rather than using aggregated statistics and sentiment analysis, the research team used a qualitative approach to drill down into all the tweets posted around the two case studies, and divided them into key topics, positions, purpose and arguments, in order to determine how users engaged in the debate around sustainability and ethics in fashion.

They found that the two main ethics and sustainability issues raised by social media users were environmental concerns, in the first case study; and labor conditions in the supply chain, in the second. Analysis revealed that only a small proportion of tweets were explicitly critical and that those that were, were actually prompting a relatively sophisticated debate that fashion brands may benefit from engaging meaningfully with.

Figuring out a strategy that improves social media engagement and conversion rates — and aligns with business goals — is a common challenge for marketers. There are many solutions for improving social metrics and business ROI, but no part of a digital-marketing plan works in isolation, and social media engagement and conversion rates are a perfect example. Despite being on different levels of the marketing funnel, they can improve simultaneously.

The onset of the coronavirus pandemic ramped up social media usage across all major platforms across the globe—and there's no sign of a decline anytime soon.

social network users worldwide
The coronavirus pandemic ramped up social media usage across all major platforms. eMarketer
But just how many people actually use social media? Insider Intelligence analyzed social network usage trends across multiple platforms and localizations. Here are some of the key social media stats to help navigate this shifting landscape.

How many people use social media?
Over three billion people, or 80.7% of internet users worldwide, will use a social network at least once per month in 2020. This is nearly 150 million more global social network users than Insider Intelligence's pre-pandemic estimate.

Slack is a great communication app, but it can do much more than just hold a back-and-forth conversation between you and your colleagues. Here’s how to keep up with your favorite websites by adding RSS feeds to Slack.

Despite social media feeds and mobile apps, RSS feeds are still one of the easiest and simplest ways to consume the output of a website.

Like SMS and email, RSS feeds are robust, simple, and supported just about everywhere, which is why—like SMS and email—they are likely to be around for a very long time. So if you want to keep an eye on whats published by a website or blog, then RSS feeds are the best way to do it.

Slack allows you to connect as many RSS feeds to whatever channels you like as you want. The first thing you’ll need to do is install the free RSS app from the Slack directory.

Relationships come and go, but friends are forever. At least, that is the direction dating apps are swiping.

Social media is getting crowded, with nearly half of the worlds population using one of Facebooks apps every month. The market for connecting with existing friends may be well saturated, but it seems finding new ones is still something of an unmet need.

Friendship finding is, apparently, very hot right now. An analysis recently published by venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz showed friend discovery is the fastest-growing category of mobile social app in the U.S. Citing data from Apptopia, the firm showed friendship apps like Itsme, Wink and Yubo are some of the fastest-growing apps nationwide, solving for various pain points that exist in social media today.

Facial recognition technology is getting more sophisticated, more reliable, and more pervasive as the world eases its way toward becoming an all-encompassing surveillance state. That surveillance state does not even have to be built; it is increasingly ready for deployment as law enforcement agencies cut deals with private companies that have already assembled the tools and databases for use. As with cell phone tracking, that plug-and-play quality does an end-run around safeguards that, at least nominally, restrict government actors, and invites legal challenges based on civil liberties concerns.

Social media moderation services gradually dominated every online business and most industries. Thanks to the unceasing number of new customers flocking to use and try it, social media became a catalyst for introducing and sustaining big and small businesses today. Several entrepreneurs and business owners have taken to the digitally fueled networking channel to spark discussions with their customers and market their brand to the people they want to be a part of their growth and success.

What is social media moderation? And why is it essential for businesses at present? Simply, content moderation enumerates what needs to be carried out to review, check, and filter posts sent by your followers to align with your company’s branding and strategy.

Is your social media marketing approach in line with the latest usage and behavioral trends?

The use of digital platforms changed significantly over the course of 2020, with the lockdowns and COVID mitigation efforts forcing people to find alternate ways to socialize, to shop, and to work, all of which have flow-on effects. That's sparked new trends, like audio social, and new approaches in how businesses connect with their target markets.

If you're not aware of these shifts, you may limiting your marketing performance. To provide some more perspective, the team from tech.co recently put together a listing of six key digital usage trends that could influencer your strategic approach.

You can check out their six key trends in the below graphic, which might help in your planning.