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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
Snapchat Launches Native Video Ads: Snapchat’s new native video ad product, 3V, is “built from the ground up for mobile, just like everything else on Snapchat.”
Instagram Updates the Search and Explore Features: “The all-new Explore page, with trending Tags and Places, and more powerful search that makes it easier to find the people, places, and tags you’re looking for.”
Periscope Now Enables Web Replays: Users can click the link to a Periscope stream and hit the play button to rewatch it on the web.
Web Replays are here! 🎉 Just open a Periscope broadcast link in the browser & you’ll be able to rewatch within 24 hrs pic.twitter.com/lYz6KfHWuj
— Periscope (@periscopeco) June 23, 2015
Facebook Account No Longer Needed to Access Messenger: “With this update, more people can enjoy all the features that are available on Messenger – including photos, videos, group chats, voice and video calling, stickers and more. All you need is a phone number.”
Facebook Introduces Desktop and Mobile App Ad Updates: Facebook is “enabling a more consistent buying experience across mobile and desktop app ads, as well as launching a new carousel format that gives you more creative real estate for your mobile app install and mobile app engagement ads.”
Meerkat Updates Point System for Rewarding Engagement: With this latest update from Meerkat, “viewers and streamers now earn points for interacting with upcoming streams and participating when the content is live.”
Other upcoming social media news worth following:
Facebook Tests a Simpler Way to Fill out Forms on Mobile: Facebook is “testing different versions of lead ads that would let people sign up for things like newsletters, price estimates, follow-up calls and business information”.
Twitter Tests Curated Product and Place Collections: Twitter is “beginning to test new ways for people and brands to create and share Twitter collections of products and places. You’ll be able to browse rich collections from influencers you care about and get more information about the products or places you find interesting.”
Here are a couple of cool social media tools worth checking out:
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CLICK HERE TO LEARN MOREGoogle Tag Manager Fundamentals: This Analytics Academy course shows “how to use tools like Google Analytics and Google AdWords tags to improve your data collection process and advertising strategies.”
News Lab: “A new effort at Google to empower innovation at the intersection of technology and media.”
Weekly Video Tip:
How to Use Facebook Insights to Spot Trends in Your Stats
Some interesting studies to note:
2015 Online Trust Audit and Honor Roll: Each year, the Online Trust Alliance analyzes the security, privacy, and consumer protection of thousands of websites across a wide range of industries. Their report evaluates current standards, best practices, and leading causes of data breaches. For third consecutive year, Twitter is recognized at the top of this list for its security efforts.
B2B Social Media Case Study: Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc.: This case study examined how this leading diagnostic imaging company used video content and a thoughtful social media strategy at one of the largest medical industry trade shows of the year in order to double video views and increase interactions on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Survey: Americans’ Attitudes About Privacy, Security, and Surveillance: This year, the Pew Research Center conducted two surveys on American attitudes towards privacy, security, and surveillance. The study found say that being in control of who has access to and the type of information being collected about them is “important” or “very important”. Yet, very few feel a they gave any control over the data being collected about them. Trust is very low. For example, most are not confident that records maintained by the social media sites (69%) or online advertisers (76%) will remain private and secure.
Attitudes Towards Native Advertising: According new research conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 43% of news readers in the US and 33% of those in the UK have felt disappointed or deceived after reading native ad content that they later discovered was sponsored. However, in the US, a significant majority (62%) of respondents had neutral feelings toward publishers serving native ads and sentiment toward the brands who placed the native ads was 68% “neutral” and 22% merely “less positive”.
2015 SMBs Planned Digital Services: According to a survey by Borrell Associates, more than 7 in 10 US small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are buying some type of digital services today. The services most commonly planned for purchase this year revolves around their websites: design and maintenance (39%), hosting and support (38%) and SEO (29%). Still, more than one-quarter of those surveyed plan to invest in social media management services. More than 1 in 10 plan to purchase mobile media management (12%) and online video production (11%) services.
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What do you think? Have you tried Instagram’s New Search and Explore Features ? Please share your comments below.
