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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?
Instagram Unveils Clickable Carousel Ads: The new carousel ads on Instagram are “a new way for brands to share more images with people interested in their posts.”
Twitter Announces Embeddable Videos: “With the new embedded video widget, you can highlight Twitter-hosted video on your website.”
Twitter Introduces Friend-finding and Two-step Verification to Digits: Twitter made two updates to Digits: “adding friend-finding to help you grow your audience and introducing two-step verification.”
Facebook Adds Explore to Slingshot: Explore is a new feature on Facebook's messaging app Slingshot. It's “an easier way to discover other creative people around the world.”
Other social media news worth following:
Google+ Splits into Photos and Streams Products: This change is meant to be seen as “positive improvements” in both Google's products and how they reach users.
Google Releases a Preview of the New Google Contacts: “The new Google Contacts that makes it easier to keep track of the people you know and get the info you need, fast.”
Here are some cool social media tools worth checking out:
Kik Adds Native Video: Kik adds the ability to “create and share videos of up to 15 seconds, and watch videos in full-screen or in the chat window.”
BriefMe: This news-ranking app shares the 10 most consumed and shared articles of the moment.
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Meerkat: This app allows you to stream live video from your phone to all of your Twitter followers.
Weekly Video Tip:
 How to Tag Another Facebook Page from Your Facebook Page
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GET THE DETAILSSome interesting studies to note:
New Research: Five Ways Brands Can Use the Internet of Things: A new report for Altimeter Group shares how consumer brands can embrace the Internet of Things to create value for their business and consumers across the following five use cases: reward, information and decision-making, facilitation, service, and innovation.
Relationship Impacts Customer Recommendations on Social Media: Social Media Link's annual report, Social Recommendation Index, surveys 24,000 active social media active users on how online product and service recommendations impact purchase decisions.  93% of those surveyed say the most valuable reviews are those containing personal stories, both positive and negative. Relationship is also a huge factor in buying decisions with  77% of those surveyed saying that close friends and family impact purchase the most. Only 11% say that celebrities impacts their purchase.
Case Study: Product Videos are 174% More Likely to Convert: Leading toy manufacturer, Step2, partnered with a video marketing agency and retailers to showcase their products in action. Over time, they have found their video viewers are 174% more likely to convert than non-viewers.
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