Social Media Notes
Here’s this week’s round-up of social media (& tech) news. Come by each week for what I hope to be a fun & informative blog post on social stories that caught my eye throughout the week!
- Facebook is piloting a feature that would allow you to search through a user’s posts. That’d be interesting! And handy. For example you could search “social media” on my page and it would bring up all the posts I’ve made that contain those words.
- Expect to see more virtual reality/immersive video coming as Facebook makes a bigger VR push, bringing virtual reality video to iPhones and Gear VR. They’re also launching a dedicated site for people who want to start tinkering with the videos. The site will offer tips, FAQs and other guidelines from Vrse, a virtual reality studio.
- Maybe good news for Twitter: use of the new “like” button (old favourite button) has increased by 6% after its first week.
- Twitter has announced something called “ScrappyGIFs” – a way to engage with GIFs on the app or on desktop. Looks like it lets you scrub back and forth on those specific GIFs.
- Facebook has never been as good as Twitter is at breaking/developing news but that could change now with its new news app Notify.
- Facebook activated its Safety Check feature after the Paris attacks, letting people in the area let Facebook friends know they are safe. They now say they’ll activate it for more emergencies after criticism (why didn’t they activate for Beirut for example).
- Speaking of the attacks on Paris… Here are some good/bad that came out of it on social media.
- And a good read on how fast fake news on Twitter can travel – and how users can believe a lot (and retweet a lot) of misinformation/parody as fact. But I do believe fake news tends to be corrected as fast it travels.
- Google now has an “About Me” page you can use to edit privacy settings across a number of Google platforms.
- I sure disagree with this overly negative article on how social media ruins wedding days lol but listing it here because it is nice to know the differing perspectives.
- Social media jobs can be pretty sweet: this one sees a photographer work with brands to take photos specifically for Instagram – ensuring they fit the Instagram aesthetic.
- Here’s one way to ensure lots of social media exposure (and hopefully ratings): The Amazing Race has cast a bunch of YouTube and Vine stars for their upcoming season.
- I actually meant to post this when I first read it a couple of weeks ago but better late than never – this is a really great read on why technology and social media is NOT causing social isolation and it’s okay to be on your phone.
- Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery: Facebook is testing disappearing messages, similar to Snapchat’s disappearing photos/videos.
- Did you see this week’s Cat Saturday photos?!
Thoughts on these stories? Tweet @ me or leave a comment below!
Linda