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?
Google+ Expands Availability of Custom URLs: “If your profile meets the following criteria, you’ll now be able to claim a custom URL: has a profile photo, has at least 10 followers and has an account that’s at least 30 days old.”

Pinterest Introduces Related Pins: “Related pins are picked specially for you based on the unique things you’re into, such as other pins you’ve saved or liked.”

Twitter Makes Timelines More Visual: “Timelines on Twitter will be more visual and more engaging: previews of Twitter photos and videos from Vine will be front and center in tweets.”

Google+ Improves Hangouts and Photos: The “improvements to Google+ Hangouts and Photos aim to take a lot of the work out of messaging, video calling and photo editing.”

Tumblr Introduces New Search Feature: “The new Tumblr Search has been rebuilt, front to back, to help explore all of your 65 billion(!) posts.”
Social Media Marketing Workshops (Online Training)

Want to improve your paid and organic marketing on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or LinkedIn—and secure your future? Get ready to be coached by 14 of the world’s best social marketing pros in the most comprehensive social marketing training we've ever offered. You’ll receive step-by-step live instruction so you can increase your reach, create amazing engagement, and sell more with social media. Become the marketing hero for your company and clients as you implement strategies that get proven results. This is a live online training event from your friends at Social Media Examiner.
LEARN MORE - SALE ENDS JANUARY 26TH!

Here’s some upcoming news to follow:
Facebook Tests New Messenger Experience: Facebook is “testing an update to Messenger on Android that makes it a faster and more reliable mobile-to-mobile messaging experience.”

Instagram Reveals Sample Ad: “If you’re in the United States, you’ll see the sample ad below sometime in the coming week. This is a one-time ad from the Instagram team that’s meant to give you a sense for the look and feel of the ads you will see.”

Here’s an interesting tool worth noting:
OptinMonster: a lead-generation plugin for WordPress that allows you to create attention-grabbing opt-in forms that convert.
Introducing Social Media Marketing World: 60+ pros help you master social media marketing! Join Chris Brogan (co-author of The Impact Equation), Mari Smith (co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day), Michael Hyatt (author of Platform), Jay Baer (author of Youtility), John Jantsch (author of Duct Tape Marketing), Amy Porterfield (co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies), Mark Schaefer (author of Tao of Twitter), Michael Stelzner (author of Launch) and experts from more than a dozen brands as they reveal proven social media marketing tactics at Social Media Marketing World 2014—Social Media Examiner’s mega-conference in beautiful San Diego, California.
Check out this overview of the conference or click here for more details.
What do you think? Please share your comments below.