Social Media Notes
Here’s this week’s round-up of social media (& sometimes tech) news. Come back weekly for what I hope to be a fun & informative blog post on social stories that caught my eye throughout the week!
- How interesting is this? The next step in a social wedding is… the hiring of a ‘Maid of Social’ – who will live-tweet/Instagram/ensure your big day is well covered on social media!
- There are some new Twitter features launched just in time for the Golden Globes including a Snapchat-like camera/filters, Twitter Q&A, and Twitter Mirror – though the features currently are just for celebrities. I saw an interesting tweet that said Twitter doesn’t actually care about its regular users.
- The other big Twitter announcement this week was that it is looking at expanding the 140-character tweet limit up to 10,000. This is because more and more users (brands, companies, etc.) are attaching images with lengthy text as a way to include more in one tweet. Twitter doesn’t like this because the text in an image isn’t searchable. Initial reactions were pretty negative to this announcement, but as the CBC article indicates, longer than 140-character tweets would likely include some kind of a ‘click to read more’ or expand-type of button, which is mostly what users do now if they want to click off and read longer articles or read images with lots of text on it. I will be curious to see when this gets implemented, and how it will look because obviously one of Twitter’s big usability perks is how you can quickly scan your feed and absorb multiple, short tweets at once.
- It looks likes Facebook is working on a Facebook Messenger for Mac desktop messaging app. An interesting move that Techcrunch writes would allow users to “escape the chaos of Internet browser tabs” and increase the number of people who would be instantly available/using the Messenger app (making it highly valuable, regardless of what device they access it through).
- Facebook Messenger is also now reporting 800 million monthly active users (up 700 mill in June, and 500 mill last November). Text messaging is so passe – it’s all about the messaging apps now.
- Seems a bit disconnected (or maybe I am not thinking big-picture enough here), but it looks like Snapchat is developing a service that would let users invest their money through the app – then have it managed by algorithms.
- Apparently Snapchat is also ending the feature where you can purchase their funny selfie filters to focus on more branded, sponsored lenses. They’ll still cycle through 10 free lenses per day (up from 7) but you won’t be able to purchase or have permanent selfie filters (unless you’ve already purchased). I think Snapchat is so incredibly smart with how they’ve been monetizing. I’m sure part of why they’re ending the selfie filter purchases because they’ve already made millions on it.
- One of the best and worst parts of Snapchat is how the photo and video moments you share will disappear but a new app called Slinger wants to be the permanent home for your vertical videos.
- Instagrammers can expect to see more curated ‘Spotlight’ feeds when they log in – showing user-generated photos and video for certain events and now regular topics including things like ‘rad skateboarding videos’ and ‘odd animal couples’. Very similar to Snapchat’s Live Stories and Twitter’s new Moments tab which curates tweets from specific events allowing for easier access to information about a specific topic, but taking it a step further by spotlighting pretty random, simple topics.
- Pew Research has released a new report on parents, teens and digital monitoring.Some results include: 60% of parents check teen’s social media profiles, 61% check what websites their teens visit, and 48% look through a teen’s phone calls and messages. 92% of parents also talk to their teens about what is appropriate for them to share online.
- Stories like these are some of the best online – this live broadcast of a puddle in England has become a global Internet hit. LOL.
- Perhaps a new social network to watch: Peach, from the co-creator of Vine, is getting lots of media attention. How Peach describes itself: Peach is a refreshingly fun and simple way to keep up with friends and be yourself. Share tiny updates as you go through your day. Posting is as easy as texting—with a twist. Some words are ‘Magic Words’ that give you quick access to fun and insightful things to share. On Peach, a little says a lot. Easily share pictures, looping photos, videos, and links, along with GIFs, the weather, your current location, what you’re watching tonight, how many steps you walked today, and much more.
- More than a third of Human Resources professionals say that what they find on social media has disqualified candidates. More reason to be mindful of what you’re sharing online.
- It’s real-life Minority Report: check out this article on the new way police are surveilling you – scanning loads of information including social media to calculate your “threat score.
- A new year, a new batch of Cat Saturday photos! Check out this week’s Cat Saturday images here.
Thoughts on these stories? Tweet @ me or leave a comment below!
Linda