If there's one thing that is constant about social media, it's that it is ever changing. Some of your favorite social media platforms rolled out big changes this month. Here are the highlights of what you should know:

-Facebook Cracks Down on Engagement Baiting: Be honest, we've probably all written these types of posts. "Like if you agree!" "Share this post to be entered to win!" "Leave a comment below!" Well, Facebook is putting an end to it. The algorithm will now demote people and pages that use this type of Engagement Baiting syntax on Facebook.

-Youtube Tests Its Own Stories Feature: Youtube followed in the footsteps of Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram and debuted a "stories" feature last month. Called Reels, these stories will be housed in a separate tab on each channel and unlike the disappearing feature Snapchat made popular, Reels don't expire.

-Instagram Now Allows You to Follow Hashtags: When I first saw this, I honestly wasn't that excited. "Great, more push notifications...just what I need." However, after diving into this feature, I have to say I was too hasty in my judgment. Rather than adding to the push notification noise, when you follow hashtags they will appear in your feed just like any other user you follow. This is a great way for local businesses to connect with people in their city or brands to find people using and posting about their product.

-Facebook Introduces New Ad Targeting Options: This new Facebook ad targetting option is pretty cool: you can now target people who spent time viewing your ads. Even if they didn't engage with a like, click, or comment, you'll now be able to target those lurkers who saw your ad and spent time looking at it before moving on. Pretty neat!

-Instagram Introduces New Story Options: Did you create a story you absolutely loved? Wish you could keep it around forever? Now you can with Instagram's new options for Stories! Feature a story publicly on your profile by adding it to your Stories Highlights or save it privately for your own use with the Stories Archive feature.

-Snapchat Launches a Redesigned Platform: When Snapchat announced they were redesigning their platform, many people were worried that the redesign would result in a product that felt too much like Instagram, their main competitors. But we shouldn't have been worried. One of the biggest improvements in the redesign is that your friend's content is now separated from content produced by businesses and content creators. This is a nice change from Instagram where stories are all lumped together, regardless of who created it.

What do you think of these changes? Which one are you most excited to try out? Let me know in the comments below!

Social Media News: December 2017