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! 

• Have you used Facebook’s new ‘Profile Expression Kit’ yet? It’s suppose to let users make silly, animated profile videos.

• That was a announcement from the Facebook F8 conference. Here are a few more, including Facebook’s plans with virtual/augmented reality and chat bots for Messenger.

•  Here’s a list of 40 Facebook chat bots you can use right now.

• I can’t read this whole article because the website wants me to subscribe, but the first part of it is telling enough: Facebook and Twitter are putting pressure to its partners over use and promotion of Snapchat on its platforms.

• When emojis get dissected in a court room… it’s been interesting to see how our language / communication is evolving with emojis. Now I’m getting accustomed to ‘Sticker Speak’ through Snapchat.

• Snapchat has overtaken Instagram as the more popular social network of choice for teens.

• Snapchat’s bringing augmented reality to the masses – ugh. So cool – and so fun! The platform has announced 3D stickers that can be pinned to objects in a video and will stick with the object no matter how they or your camera moves.

• A fascinating read (with great pictures) on how Instagram is ruining vacation. “Eating, praying, and loving may be a stated goal of travel. In reality, we seem more obsessed with nabbing the perfect photo.” Remember to take a moment to enjoy your sights, not just take pictures of it.

• This ties into that thought as well – a new film examines our relationship with social media: “The life you lead online isn’t always the life you’re actually living.” 

• Facebook and Twitter also appear to be taking steps to making social media TV more than just a pipe dream.

• Also: Instagram’s added a new video spotlight feature in its ‘Explore’ tab.

• Vine’s offering different video viewing experiences – the latest change is a ‘Watch’ feature that lets users watch all videos in a channel automatically.

• Apparently Twitter’s getting into the Food Video business.

• Reminders that there is no such thing as privacy in this social/digital age are important – here’s one: “Your face is big data.” A Russian photography student took photos of people in public then tracked them down on social media using facial recognition software.

• Definition of selfies aside (is it still a selfie when two people are in it? lol) I’m surprised Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have never posted one together – until they recently ‘took over’ Sephora’s Instagram account.

• Lol. Im not sure what Microsoft is doing with its all its artificial intelligence tests lately but here’s another one gone wrong.

• New data suggests that just 1.5 of traffic to a news organization’s websites comes from Twitter. Ouch (to news orgs).

• Is this the beginning of the end for the millennial media bubble? “BuzzFeed’s business model—which includes customized content campaigns for brands—is hard to do at scale” and it’s not meeting projected revenues.

• An interesting look at private companies mining social media data for organizations like the CIA. “There is a dangerous trend toward government relying on tech companies to ‘build massive dossiers on people’ using ‘nothing but constitutionally protected speech.’

• Lol. KFC Australia got into some trouble with a pretty Not Safe For Work tweet.

• This is great. How social media helps people with depression – from giving them a voice to breaking down stigma. 

• Here’s the week’s Cat Saturday photos! My favourites are 2, 5, 12, 18, and 21!

Thoughts on these stories? Tweet @ me or leave a comment below!

Linda

Follow @lindork