What Are The Facebook Updates For November, December & Expectations For 2021?

The eventful year 2021 is finally coming to an end. This past year was full of challenges that pushed digital transformation on the speed track. By bringing in more features and innovations, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are improved and updated. Let’s check out all the Facebook rolled out in November and December and what Facebook updates we can expect in 2021.

Facebook Updates: Updates For November

1. Facebook – Shops Discount Feature

With the holidays approaching, Facebook introduced a new discounting feature for all Facebook businesses as a Facebook update. So, if you have a Shops on Facebook, you can offer discounts and deals to your customers. Some features include, promo codes, carry on sales, or create automatic discounts for an order. You can either apply the discounts or deals to specific categories or your entire store. To set up the discounts, you can simply go to the Facebook Commerce Manager. Once you’re done, let your customers know by adding a banner.

2. Facebook Messenger – Vanish Mode

With this Facebook update, once you leave the chatroom, the messages you wrote will disappear (you can also send reactions and GIFS). Remember that the Vanish mode will only work for one-on-one chats. You need to be connected on Messenger or Instagram and it’s optional. Moreover, this Facebook update also notifies the other party if you take a screenshot of the chat.

3. Gaming On the Facebook

Recently, Facebook launched some new games as a part of the Facebook update and also added a new destination for them. On your Facebook app, it is on the right whereas on the browser, there’s a Gaming tab. Plus, you can play these cloud-streamed games on the Gaming tab or from the News Feed. Additionally, you can play these games from your phone or with a mouse and keyboard on a desktop. Here are some games that are included:

• PGA TOUR Golf Shootout

• Asphalt 9: Legends

• WWE SuperCard

• Adventure

4. Finding Videos On Facebook Watch

Sometimes watching videos on Facebook seems like a rabbit hole. But don’t you worry because now you can easily find Watch videos according to your preferences. This social media platform lets you follow Topics and uses your preferences to personalize the videos on your feed. It has so many topics to choose from, like Cooking, Crafts, Beauty, and much more.

Facebook Updates: Updates For December

1. Make Your Music With Collab

Facebook opened the music-making app ‘Collab’ to U.S users, after launching this invite-only beta around May. As a result of the Facebook update in December, it’s time to join your friends and create short musical videos that combine up to three separate clips! The music videos that users will create are posted on the public feed. This way other users can view and build their collaborative music from their account. In order to prevent lags or timing problems, this in-app tool syncs everything which means you can now create music even with strangers. As of now, this Facebook update is available on iOS and it’s free to download.

Furthermore, you can add music from your guitars, keyboard, and electric drum kits into recordings. It’s time to get the family for a jam session! The next goal is to incorporate the app with Instagram. By doing this, users will be able to export videos to Instagram Stories and Feeds. Time to create a band with your friends!

2. More For Businesses – New CRM tool

Over the past year, Facebook acquired the CRM tool Kustomer. They intended to help businesses communicate with and manage their audiences. This app uses AI to accumulate customer management processes, which reduces costs and improves your customer’s experience. On a centralized dashboard, you can see multiple conversations from various other channels and this will allow you to detect and automate responses to all the frequently asked questions. After the integration of Shops and other updates, this Facebook update is another step to complement Facebook’s focus on business and retail.

3. Privacy and Personalized Advertising

In their news, Facebook posted a summary about their approach to privacy protection and personalized advertising. Facebook mentioned how personalized advertising is one of their signature features. This feature helps users to discover new brands and products. Also, it levels the playing field for small businesses. This feature allows small businesses to reach potential audiences without the need for a big advertising budget.

However, this leads to a concern about if online advertising impacts your privacy. So, what Facebook did was, as a part of the Facebook update, they now launched  tools that explain how the ads are personalized. For instance, as a Facebook user, you must’ve seen ‘Why Am I Seeing This?’. This added feature helps you understand why you are presented with a particular ad. If you want to know more, you can go to Ad Preferences and manage which ads you wish to see and which ones you want to hide.

Moreover, this Facebook update also comes handy if you want to know about the apps and websites to whom Facebook sends information about your online activities or if you want to clear this information, simply go to Off-Facebook Activity and you can do it. By doing this, you will stop getting ads for a new hairdryer if you are no longer looking for one!

4. New Datasets To Help Small Businesses During The COVID-19 Pandemic

The pandemic is not over as of yet. Plus, its effects on the global economy will probably last for years. Some research suggests that, due to the pandemic, the global economy might suffer about 80 trillion dollars in losses. In December, a Facebook update launched four datasets that might help support economic recovery. They were: Business Activity Trends, Economic Insights, Commuting Zones, and Future of Business. As countries are desperately trying to forecast how and when their economies will recover, with the help of these datasets we might identify which areas might need the most support. Check on Facebook Newsroom, for more information.

Facebook Updates 2021: What To Expect For The Year 2021?

Various Facebook update made during last year set the stage for Facebook 2021:

Facebook Redesign

Just like every new Facebook update, the new design also got a mixed reception. Some users loved it, meanwhile, others did not like it. Anyway, it is here to stay. This new design displays the two main activities which users tend to perform every day, visiting Groups and Events. Hence, when you plan your strategy for 2021, remember to include posting to groups and organizing events for your audience.

Reduction Of 20% In Image Rule For Facebook Ads

Before September 2020, you got penalized, if you had more than 20 percent text in the main image of a Facebook ad. As a part of the Facebook update in 2021, however, they changed this criterion and now Facebook no longer penalizes ads. Nonetheless, Facebook still encourages advertisers to add less text in images as they’ve found that these ads tend to perform better.

Using Hashtags On Facebook?

In September 2020, inside the post composer, Facebook started testing tag listings. Now that Instagram and Facebook are closer than ever, this can be considered as good news as it could be good. For Facebook in 2021 and (most likely) even beyond!

In Conclusion

Apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are already part of our everyday lives. You cannot possibly ignore this huge platform in your marketing plans, seeing how an average U.S consumer spends over half an hour every day on Facebook. Just like every social media platform, Facebook will continue improving its features for businesses by rolling frequent Facebook updates and we need to brace ourselves for those! So, you better take advantage of this and plan your social media strategy accordingly for 2021! Good luck!

Essential Facebook Updates 2021 FAQs

1. Has Facebook changed their format for 2020?

Mark Zuckerberg announced changes in Facebook a year earlier, but they took their time and started rolling out a new, updated look to Facebook during mid-2020. The older version is now called the old Classic Facebook and the updated version New Facebook.

2. What does the new Facebook look like in 2021?

Facebook’s new 2020 design comes with more white space. This makes it easier to read on a desktop.

3. What is the new Facebook update?

The “New Facebook ”, has an interface update that will emphasize Groups and Events. They are the biggest reasons why people visit Facebook daily.

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