Twitter Rolls Out Mobile Video: This Week in Social Media

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?

Twitter Rolls Out Group Direct Messages and Mobile Video: “Starting today, everyone will soon be able to seamlessly capture, edit and share videos right from the Twitter app, too.”

“Use Direct Messages to speak privately with a group of up to 20 people.”

Facebook Announces Conversion Lift: Facebook Conversion Lift helps “marketers better understand the impact of Facebook ads.”

“Conversion Lift allows advertisers to accurately determine the additional business driven by Facebook ads and make future marketing decisions based on this information.”

Facebook Releases Facebook Lite App for Low-End Android Phones: “This version of Facebook uses less data and works in all network conditions.

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Facebook Lite is designed for 2G networks and areas with limited network connectivity.

Twitter Launches Bing-Powered Tweet Translator: “You can read tweets in multiple languages.”

We’re introducing tweet translation with @Bing Translator so you can read tweets in multiple languages: https://t.co/RuraBeYa5S

— Twitter (@twitter) January 22, 2015

Pinterest Search Gets Smarter: “If you do a lot of searching on Pinterest, you may already have noticed the results you’re seeing are better than ever.”

“Everybody’s results should feel a lot closer to what they’re looking for.”

Other News Worth Noting:

Snapchat Introduces New Content Platform: “Snapchat Discover is a new way to explore stories from different editorial teams.”

Snapchat Discover is “a storytelling format that puts the narrative first.”

Cool Social Media Tools Worth Checking Out:

PicStats: A free tool that allows you to analyze any Instagram account.

To use PicStats, simply login with your Instagram account to see a report for your account.

Weekly Tip: How to Add the New Facebook Call-to-Action Button on your Timeline Cover Photo

Some Interesting Studies to Note:

2015 State of Marketing: According to the 2015 State of Marketing study from Salesforce Marketing Cloud, 38% of marketers plan to shift spend from traditional advertising to digital advertising in 2015. The top five digital areas where marketers plan to allocate more of their 2015 budget are social media advertising (70%), social media marketing (70%), social media engagement (67%), location-based mobile tracking (67%) and mobile apps (66%).

Instagram Offers Highest Average Engagement: TrackMaven’s report, the Content Marketing Paradox, based on 24 months of marketing activity across seven digital channels for 8,800 brands, found the output of content per brand has increased 78%, while content engagement has decreased by 60%. Twitter has the lowest average engagement of the platforms examined, with 73% of tweets receiving 10 or fewer interactions. Instagram has the highest average engagement, with 49% of photos and 60% of videos receiving more than 250 interactions on the network.

Snapchat Was the Fastest Growing Social App of 2014: According to the GWI Social: Q4 2014 report, Snapchat was the fastest growing social app in 2014, rising 57% between Q1 and Q4. It was also the app where teens indexed the most strongly, especially in the UK (39%) and US (35%). Facebook Messenger increased its audience by 50% as users were compelled to adopt it in place of sending messages through Facebook’s main app. The more organic growth of Instagram and Pinterest (each up by 43% in 2014) is noteworthy.

SMB Internet Marketing Survey 2014: A November 2014 study from BrightLocal found that three-quarters of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in North America consider digital marketing effective for attracting customers. Thirty-seven percent planned to spend more on digital this year, but a lack of skills, budget (17%) and time (10%) could prevent this from happening. The percentage of SMBs that feel they understand social media and can manage their own digital marketing efforts fell from 40% in 2013 to 29% in 2014. Yet 28% of those surveyed are taking steps to learn more about digital marketing.

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