News & Analysis – Michmutters
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LinkedIn Decides to ‘Lean Into’ Visual Content With New Tools

LinkedIn has introduced new tools for people looking to share photos and videos on its platform.

That might seem like a strange announcement from a company dedicated to helping people share a semi-public version of their resume, form professional relationships, and look for jobs. But it turns out LinkedIn users have started to share more photos and videos on the platform.

The company says it’s seen a 20% year-over-year increase to “people adding visual content in their posts on LinkedIn.” So now it’s rolling out new features “to make it even easier to create visual content that helps you stand out and inspire your professional community.” (Emphasis theirs.)

The first of those features: clickable links in photos and videos. These links are displayed as buttons that LinkedIn users can resize and reposition to fit the composition of their “visual content,” thereby giving viewers one-click access to a “website, an upcoming event, recent newsletter, or other resources.”

LinkedIn has also created a variety of templates people can use to “easily create visually engaging content” by adorning their posts with their choice from “dozens of customizable backgrounds and fonts.” (Which is similar to the custom backgrounds Facebook allows people to use with posts on that platform.)

Both of those features are supposed to roll out “over the coming weeks.”

LinkedIn is also testing another feature, “carousels,” that it describes as “a new content format that allows you to mix images and videos to help your community learn in a digestible way.” The company says it’ll be “experimenting with carousels to see how members engage with it over the coming months.”

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Technology

Who’s Afraid of a Facebook Hack? A Lot of People, Apparently

Are you worried about your social media accounts getting hacked? You aren’t alone. That fear seems to be growing, as a survey from NordVPN found that 76% of respondents are more concerned about the possibility than they were the previous year.

Facebook is the platform that people worry about the most, with 32% of respondents fearing their account will be hacked. This makes sense, after years of high-profile security breaches and the reality that you may never get your account back after a breach. We previously reported that millennials are more concerned about Facebook breaches than bank account hacks.

infographic covering American concerns about social media hacks

After Facebook, Americans worry about their TikTok accounts the most, with 26% of respondents concerned about a hack. Americans using other social media platforms are less concerned: only 21% of Snapchat users worry about a hack, followed by Instagram (20%), Twitter (19%), and YouTube (18%).

Think your accounts are safe? Eighty-nine percent of survey respondents know someone who has been compromised, 47% know up to five people, 27% know up to 10 people, and 15% know more than 10 people.

About 37% of Americans say they’ve been the victim of a hack themselves. The most commonly breached app is, of course, Facebook, followed by Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok.

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Technology

Twitter Is Tweaking the Design of Spaces, Experimenting With New Features

Twitter has confirmed it’s currently experimenting with the design and features on offer to users of Spaces audio chat rooms.

Screenshots of an early test version, published by TechCrunch, suggest an updated concept which has yet to be finalized; Twitter noted that these images are “inaccurate and outdated,” representing “an initial version” of the new experience. However, a new look, personalized daily digest, and themed stations are teased in the shots.

The redesign looks set to reorganize the audio chat room into different topics, for example Music and Sports. Topics were launched last year for creators to tag their audio programs, but were limited. They could now become a core feature of the Spaces experience.

As to when we’ll get to see the “new” Spaces, an official announcement is expected “further down the road,” according to Twitter, but no time frame was given.

Twitter introduced Spaces to a “very small” feedback group in late 2020, inviting select members to join its experimental audio chat rooms. By the summer of 2021, Spaces was available to mobile and desktop accounts with over 600 followers, with the option to include co-hosts and charge for exclusive live audio experiences.

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