You’re on your favorite social media website and you realize that something is… different. Maybe it’s a new logo or new colors—or maybe it’s a totally new feature that leaves you feeling like you’re learning how to navigate the website all over again. Check out this list of some of the most memorable social media changes made over the years.

Facebook’s News Feed
Facebook is a social media pioneer that has seen a variety of changes since its introduction in 2004. When it started, users would see their own profiles upon logging in. In September of 2006, Facebook officially introduced the News Feed. This new design allowed users to see a list of updates and other actions from their friends upon logging in. The News Feed has undergone many changes over the last nine years. Currently, users can customize their News Feed to show either the most recent updates or the top updates based on which users they interact with most often.

Instagram’s Videos
While other social media websites focused on letting users share long messages, Instagram gained popularity by letting users share and comment on photos. After launching in 2010, Instagram quickly attracted users who were interested in sharing selfies, pictures of food, and other photos online. In the summer of 2013, Instagram introduced a video feature, letting users upload 15-second videos in addition to their collections of photos. Many believe this was a response to Twitter’s new Vine app that allowed users to upload six-second videos.

Twitter’s New Heart
If you’ve used Twitter at all in the past month, you’ve likely noticed that the classic star icon used to “favorite” tweets has transformed to a heart icon that is used to “like” tweets. When users first noticed the change, they took to the social media platform to express their thoughts. Some users expressed disappointment in the change, though many were simply jumping on the trending topic to make a joke. Even with the controversial tweets, it seems the hearts and likes are actually more popular than their predecessors—Twitter reported a 6% increase in the use of this feature since introducing the new icon.

Why should your small business care about social media trends and changes? Pennington Creative can help you find out! You can learn about our services by contacting us today.

About the Author

Jessica - Digital Marketing Manager, Social Media Services
Jessica DeMilt

Digital Marketing Manager, Social Media Services