During holidays, we are doing things a bit differently. December 18-22, we’ll be taking a look back at 2017 and share our best articles of the year with you again, one category a day. December 25-29, we’ll take a little break and come back January 2, with lots of new and exciting things for you. Happy Holidays! The Loomly Team.

We conclude our #BestOf 2017 with the best fun articles of the year.

1. Create Hilarious, Custom Merch With Bitmoji Swag

Bitmoji Swag is an online service allowing you to custom print your Bitmoji on cool pieces of merch, and the process is dead simple! Read more here.

2. Check Whether You Will Have A Robot Boss Anytime Soon

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) progresses, voices are raising about technology taking up human jobs: but don’t worry, if you want to check whether you will have a robot boss anytime soon, WillRobotBeMyBoss.com has you covered! Just type in your job title and discover your odds of ending up working for a bot. Learn more here.

3. Get The Best Of Twitter Printed On Beautiful Photobooks

140books is a collection of beautifully designed photobooks featuring the best tweets from celebrities of all horizons, from politics to entertainment & business, including: President Donald J. Trump, Kanye West & Paul Graham. Read our original story here.

If you enjoyed this selection, you can find similar articles in our fun section.

Loomly is a visual social media planner that helps you create and schedule better content for your audience: start your 15-day free trial now.

During holidays, we are doing things a bit differently. December 18-22, we’ll be taking a look back at 2017 and share our best articles of the year with you again, one category a day. December 25-29, we’ll take a little break and come back January 2, with lots of new and exciting things for you. Happy Holidays! The Loomly Team.

Today’s part of our #BestOf 2017 is dedicated to our Top 3 “resources” of the year, and the least we can is that Facebook has been dominating this category!

1. Get All Facebook Video Requirements In This Cheat Sheet

Here is Facebook’s official, visual reference guide providing all criteria for videos aimed at Newsfeed, Instant Articles, Instagram, Stories, et Audience Network, including specs in terms of: aspect ratio, video length, objectives, caption support & sound requirement.

2.Learn How Facebook News Feed Works

If you want to learn how Facebook News Feed works, then the best way is probably to watch this video by Facebook themselves:

If the video does not appear in your browser, click here to watch it on Facebook.

3. Discover Growth Opportunities With The New Facebook IQ

Facebook IQ is Facebook’s research department and shares insights drawn from the platform’s two billion users’ activity & behavior: in order to make these insights even more accessible, Facebook launched earlier this year a new version of the portal.

If you enjoyed this selection, you can find similar articles in our resources section.

Loomly is a visual social media calendar tool that helps you create better content for your audience: start your 15-day free trial now.

During holidays, we are doing things a bit differently. December 18-22, we’ll be taking a look back at 2017 and share our best articles of the year with you again, one category a day. December 25-29, we’ll take a little break and come back January 2, with lots of new and exciting things for you. Happy Holidays! The Loomly Team.

Our #BestOf 2017 goes on with a selection of our Top 3 “Long Reads” of the year:

1. Explore Fred Cavazza’s 2017 Social Media Landscape

Fred Cavazza published the first version of his Social Media Landscape back in 2008. Here is the 2017 edition.

2. Make Creative Use Of Social Media

Two inspiring long reads including ideas to make creative use of social media, with 12 innovative digital formats and a proper way of misusing Facebook’s Ads Manager tool.

3. Acknowledge These Positive Social Media Evolutions

It’s no secret that change is hard, be it within a company, an industry or platforms used by millions — or even billions — of people: that being said, change is also good, and we want to feature today some positive social media evolutions.

If you enjoyed this selection, you can find similar articles in our long reads section.

Loomly is a social media calendar tool that helps you create better content for your audience: start your 15-day free trial now.

During holidays, we are doing things a bit differently. December 18-22, we’ll be taking a look back at 2017 and share our best articles of the year with you again, one category a day. December 25-29, we’ll take a little break and come back January 2, with lots of new and exciting things for you. Happy Holidays! The Loomly Team.

Keeping on with our #BestOf 2017, here are the Top 3 data articles of the year.

1. What Happens In One Internet Minute In 2017

Just like every year now, Excelacom sums up what the Internet does in 60 seconds with its famous What happens in an Internet Minute infographic, 2017 edition: check it out here.

2.Facebook Hits The 2 Billion Users Mark

On June 27, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had hit the 2 billion users mark (no pun intended). This number basically means that almost 1 in 3 persons on the planet is a Facebook user. Read more here.

3. Browse The 2017 World Map Of Social Networks

Since 2009, Vincenzo Cosenza has been publishing a world map of social networks every year, as a mean to visualize which platform is the most popular in each country. Here is the 2017 version:

If you enjoyed this selection, you can find similar articles in our data section.

Loomly is a visual social media calendar for teams & individuals: start your 15-day free trial now.

During holidays, we are doing things a bit differently. December 18-22, we’ll be taking a look back at 2017 and share our best articles of the year with you again, one category a day. December 25-29, we’ll take a little break and come back January 2, with lots of new and exciting things for you. Happy Holidays! The Loomly Team.

Let’s start this #BestOf with our Top 3 tools of the year.

1. Plotagraph

Plotagraph is an incredible online tool that lets you animate static photographs and create hypnotic visual effects for your audience:

2. Linklay

Linklay helps your audience go faster from picture to purchase — literally, to checkout — by helping you create beautiful clickable images.

3. Solo

Solo is a 100% free mobile app that combines over 10 different financial & business tools so you can hustle from anywhere.

If you enjoyed this selection, you can find similar articles in our Tools section, as well as more social media management software reviews at FitSmallBusiness.com.

Loomly is a visual social media planner that helps you create better content for your audience: start you 15-day free trial now.

During holidays, we are doing things a bit differently. December 19-23, we’ll be taking a look back at 2016 and share our best articles of the year with you again, one category a day. December 26-30, we’ll take a little break and come back January 2, with lots of new and exciting things for you. Happy Holidays! The Loomly Team.

We conclude our #BestOf 2016 with the best fun articles of the year.

1. Unwind With This Hilarious Clickbait Generator

Developer & Designer Christine Cha created a very cool “tool” that generates (spoof) clickbaits, from randomly selected images, buzz words, controversial topics and celebrities names.

2. Get Your Top 9 Instagram Photos Of 2016

It was worldwide hit last year and it will be a hit this year again: 2016bestnine lets you find your Top 9 Instagram photos of 2016 and combine them instantly into a square collage.

3. Create Hilarious Puns To Share With Pun Generator

Pun Generator is a free online tool that — well — generates puns and as well as phrases containing a specific word, which can be useful to make rhymes for instance.

4. Meet Coby The Cat

We all know Grumpy Cat, but have you heard of the new rising start in the industry, Coby The Cat?

5. Play Chess On Facebook Messenger

If you like Easter Eggs, you are going to love this one: you can play Chess on Facebook Messenger. You just need a secret code…

Credit: TechNewsToday.com

If you enjoyed this selection, you can find similar articles in our fun section.

Loomly is a visual social media planner: start your 15-day free trial now.

During holidays, we are doing things a bit differently. December 19-23, we’ll be taking a look back at 2016 and share our best articles of the year with you again, one category a day. December 26-30, we’ll take a little break and come back January 2, with lots of new and exciting things for you. Happy Holidays! The Loomly Team.

Today’s part of our #BestOf 2016 is dedicated to our Top 5 “tips” of the year.

1. Embed Twitter Timelines Without Coding Skills

Twitter introduced three new ways to embed Twitter timelines: two potentially reserved for developers — factory functions and the oEmbed API — and that does not require any coding skills: Twitter Publish.

2. Avoid Hashtags In Facebook Posts

The team at BuzzSumo analyzed one billion — 1,000,000,000 — posts and found out that Facebook posts including hashtags resulted in significantly less engagement.

3. Save Photos From Instagram With Instaport

Instaport is a simple way to download & save Instagram videos, pictures, and posts to your local hard drive.

4. Make The Most Of Facebook Pages To Watch

Pages to Watch is a powerful native Facebook native feature that allows you to get performances of other pages and benchmark these with your own. Of course, other brands and businesses can also watch your page, as long as you have more than 30 likes.

5. Make GIFs Even More Awesome With Giphy’s GIF Editor

Giphy’s GIF Editor is a great way to customize GIFs with stickers, effects and captions for your social channels.

If you enjoyed this selection, you can find similar articles in our tips section.

Loomly is a visual social media planner: start your 15-day free trial now.

During holidays, we are doing things a bit differently. December 19-23, we’ll be taking a look back at 2016 and share our best articles of the year with you again, one category a day. December 26-30, we’ll take a little break and come back January 2, with lots of new and exciting things for you. Happy Holidays! The Loomly Team.

Our #BestOf 2016 goes on with a selection of our Top 5 “Long Reads” of the year:

1. On The Trap Of Optimizing Facebook Campaigns For CPM

SocialCode Director of Ad Insights James Donner explains why you should not aim for lower CPM, which factors really affect CPM and how you can really optimize the ROI of your campaigns.

2. Get A Social Media Manager’s View On SEO

Dennis Yu SEO teaches how SEO works and why social media managers should care about it.

3. The Facebook Supremacy

These two long reads highlight how powerful Facebook is and will become: one clearly shows why Facebook is king, while the other stresses out how Facebook has become a platform of platforms.

4. How People With Chronic Illness Use Social Media To Soothe Their Pain

Reporter Amanda Hess expresses a very refreshing perspective on social media and their curative potential: definitely a must read.

5. Learn How Artificial Intelligence Is Shaping The Future Of Work

More than a “conventional” long form article, this pick is actually an interactive documentary by The Economist on the potential and challenges of artificial intelligence in the workplace.

If you enjoyed this selection, you can find similar articles in our long reads section.

Loomly is a visual social media planner: start your 15-day free trial now.

During Winter Holidays, we are doing things a bit differently. December 19-23, we’ll be taking a look back at 2016 and share our best articles of the year with you again, one category a day. December 26-30, we’ll take a little break and come back January 2, with lots of new and exciting things for you. Happy Holidays! The Loomly Team.

Keeping on with our #BestOf 2016, here are the Top 5 data articles of the year.

1. The Six Degrees Of Separation Are Shrinking

Each person in the world used to be connected to every other person by an average of five other people: now, this number is down to three and a half (at least among the 1.59 billion people active on Facebook).

2. Facebook Daily Post Frequency

Facebook daily post frequency increased by 36% in 2015, according to a significant study led by Quintly, whose team analyzed more than 180,000 brand pages between January and December of last year.

3. Percentage Of Paid Reach On Facebook

According to a study from April 2016, by Locowise, 32% of Facebook Pages’ total reach is actually paid reach.

4. One Minute Of Social Networks

For the fourth time, Domo published their amazing infographic showing how much data is generated every minute on the Internet.

5. Percentage Of Instagram Users Who Watch Videos

According to Global Web Index, 37% of Instagram users watch videos on the plaftorm.

If you enjoyed this selection, you can find similar articles in our data section.

Loomly is a visual social media planner for teams: start your 15-day free trial now.

During Winter Holidays, we are doing things a bit differently. December 19-23, we’ll be taking a look back at 2016 and share our best articles of the year with you again, one category a day. December 26-30, we’ll take a little break and come back January 2, with lots of new and exciting things for you. Happy Holidays! The Loomly Team.

Let’s start this #BestOf with our Top 5 tools of the year.

1. Printerest

Printerest is a free Chrome extension that lets you print your Pinterest pins:

2. Compressor

Compressor is a free online service that help you reduce drastically the size of an image or a photo, whilst maintaining a high quality with almost no difference before and after compression.

3. Adobe Spark

Adobe Spark is a free online tool that makes it incredibly easy to create impactful social media visuals (as well as other forms of graphics).

4. Adobe Color CC (Formerly Adobe Kuler)

Adobe Color CC is a free online platform that allows you to build color combinations according to seven different color rules — Analogous, Monochromatic, Triad, Complementary, Compound, Shades and of course Custom — or from an existing picture.

5. Giphy Catpure

Giphy Capture is a small, simple and free Mac app that lets you create GIFs by capturing what’s on your screen, from web pages, to workflows and videos.

If you enjoyed this selection, you can find similar articles in our tools section.

Loomly is a visual social media planner: start your 15-day free trial now.