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Welcome to our weekly edition of what's hot in social media news.
To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.
What's New This Week
Facebook Introduces New Features for Purchasing and Planning Mobile Video Ads: Facebook introduced “new features to make it easy for advertisers to plan and purchase ads on Facebook in ways that align to how they have traditionally bought television ads.” These new features are also available for Instagram video ads.
Google Announces Official Launch of Podcasts on Google Play Music: “Starting on the web and on Android in the U.S. and Canada, [Google will] connect you with podcasts based on what you're doing, how you're feeling and what you're interested in.”
Google News Gives Preference to AMP-Powered Sites: Google News on all mobile platforms will now feature “a new AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) carousel filled with important headlines and stories of the day” at the top of the page.
Facebook Rolls Out Group Calling in Messenger: Facebook announced “the global rollout of group calling in Messenger.”
Google Redesigns Google Analytics App for iOS and Android: Google is “making it easier to monitor and share your key Google Analytics data on the go with a new, updated Google Analytics mobile app.”
Our Take on Top News This Week
In this blab from Friday, April 22, 2016, Michael Stelzner and guests discuss the top news in social media. Topics include the new Facebook Live API and the future of live video (1:30) and major updates to Facebook Messenger including group calling, bots, and Dropbox integration (30:31). Subscribe to future shows here.
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More News to Note
YouTube Launches Spatial Audio for On-Demand Videos: “Just as watching a concert in 360 degrees can give you an unmatched immersive experience, spatial audio allows you to listen along as you do in real life, where depth, distance and intensity all play a role.”
LinkedIn Unveils LinkedIn Students App: “LinkedIn unveils the first-of-its-kind LinkedIn Students app available for iOS and Android, tailored specifically for soon-to-be college graduates.”
Pinterest Updates iOS App: The updated Pinterest app for iOS features “a new modern look that lets you focus more on Pins” and “crazy fast loading, for everyone in the world.” Similar updates to the Android and web versions of Pinterest are coming soon.
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Facebook Updates News Feed Based on Time Spent Viewing Articles: The most recent update to Facebook's news feed ranking considers “how likely you are to click on an article and then spend time reading it.” Facebook has “started rolling out this new update and will continue over the coming weeks,” but anticipates “that most Pages won't see any significant changes.”
Snapchat Rolls Out 3D Stickers in iOS: Snapchat rolled out “the ability to ‘pin' emojis to objects in your videos and have those emojis track that object and move around with them” in iOS.
Upcoming Social Media News Worth Following
Facebook Announces Upcoming Partners for Ad Viewability Verification: “In the next few months, Nielsen, comScore and Integral Ad Science will start to verify ad viewability and attention metrics for photo and video ads on Facebook, offering more advertisers the transparency they need to trust their ad delivery data.”
Katch Will Shut Down Service: Katch, a service that records and distributes your Periscope and Meerkat streams, announced it “will be shutting down on May 4th, 2016.”
Some Interesting Studies to Note:
The Race Against Digital Darwinism: Six Stages of Digital Transformation: A new report by Altimeter Group principal analyst Brian Solis outlines a framework for businesses that are looking to compete in the digital economy. Based on several years of research and interviews, this report identifies six stages of “digital transformation” and maps a path to “digital literacy and leadership.”
Marketing Budgets 2016: A new report from Econsultancy and Oracle Marketing Cloud compares spending trends and unmeasurable ROI across different traditional and digital channels. Based on a survey of almost 500 company and agency marketers, this study reveals key trends in budget planning, customer experience and allocations for earned, paid, and owned media. The study also shows solid grow for digital marketing in 2016 with 72% of those surveyed planning to increase their digital marketing budgets and 54% planning to recruit more people for their digital teams this year.
Facebook Q1 Data – Local Business Marketing Trends: According to a new report from Alignable, small- and medium-sized businesses are most successful on Facebook when it comes to generating new business and local awareness. Of those surveyed, 50% of local businesses rely solely on organic reach through Facebook and 61% of those who pay for Facebook ads spend $50 or less per month. The results suggest that more local marketing education and dedicated programs will likely increase ad usage and spending on Facebook.
The Content Marketing 50: SMB Edition: LinkedIn identified the 50 most effective small- and medium-sized businesses on the LinkedIn platform to engage, educate, and inspire their target audiences. These rankings were determined by using LinkedIn's Content Marketing Score, which is the ratio between the total target audience and the unique users who engaged with the content, and by evaluating all content-based activities on the LinkedIn platform. This includes company page updates, influencer and employee posts and sharing, and sponsored updates on LinkedIn.
The Global Content Impact Index: The latest study from Acrolinx used survey data from over 800 professionals worldwide to demonstrate the connection between good content and business results. This report examines how content quality can positively impact brand trust, conversions, lead generation, and sales.
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What do you think of Facebook's new purchasing and planning features for mobile video ads? Have you discovered any new podcasts through Google Music? Please share your comments below.
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