This Week in Social (Week of July 20)
This Week in Social is a weekly digest of some of the biggest stories in social media marketing news. These stories are the show notes for the Brave Ad World Podcast. Each story is discussed at a deeper level on the podcast.
Instagram Brings Search to Desktop (Read more at Mashable)
Instagram has been working diligently to make its search stronger by making it easier to search for specific accounts, hashtags and photos taken from specific locations. The updated search was first unveiled on mobile. Now, it’s available for desktop users as well, meaning Instagram search, for the first time ever, is available on desktop computers.
Search works the same as it does on mobile with the ability to search for accounts and location-specific photos.
Instagram is working to bring its desktop experience on par with its mobile one slowly but surely. Users still can’t share photos from their computers, but search is making Instagram.com more of a lean-forward destination, instead of one meant to just look at photos.
It will be interesting to see if this is a sign of more updates to come that make Instagram.com more like with the mobile experience.
Facebook Gives Brands More Video Tools (Read more at Facebook Media)
Facebook Pages are getting yet more tools to help them better publish and distribute videos on the platform over the “coming weeks.” Facebook is quickly ramping up to offer features similar to those of YouTube.
The new tools include options for how videos are distributed as well as a video library to better manage video assets. Specifically, page admins can now restrict a video by age, gender, location and language. They can also set expiration dates for videos while retaining insights. Videos can be distributed to the videos tab without sharing to the News Feed or Timeline. Video embeds can be enabled or disabled. Custom thumbnails can also be uploaded.
One question many have been asking is Facebook vs. YouTube. Facebook is certainly making it so marketers can’t dismiss it by making sure it is at least offering the same features. As for Facebook vs. YouTube, it really depends on the content of the video and in some cases it’s not a matter of which one. It’s beneficial to post to both.
Twitter Allows Advertisers to Buy Around Events Ahead of Time (Read more at AdAge)
Twitter is rolling out event-based ad targeting that will allow marketers to see a calendar of upcoming events months in advance. Advertisers can then buy Promoted Tweets around a seven-day window. AdAge compares it to TV upfronts, but unlike the upfronts, there’s no limit to the number of advertisers who can buy around the events.
Once advertisers place their buy, they can pause it and make changes to the tweets to ensure they’re in line with the actual event, such as the Super Bowl or Grammys. Advertisers will be able to see how big a Twitter audience will be for an event and the general demographics of who will be talking.
Twitter’s move is a good one. It is always the place where real-time event conversations take off first, so giving advertisers the ability to plan content around those events early makes sense. Advertisers are certainly interested in tapping into those real-time events, but it will be important for advertisers to follow these events and not take a “set-it-and-forget-it” approach to this offering.
News Quick Hits
- Twitter is experimenting with a Related Videos section in the desktop version of Twitter.com. Related Videos display on the right side of tweets and user profiles. The feature is only in testing at this time. (Read more at Venturebeat)
- Google+ Photos will be shut down on August 1. Google encourages users to move over to Google Photos instead. This is part of Google’s plans to make Google+ more about connecting people of similar interests. Part of focusing means closing down Google+ Photos. (Read more at The Next Web)
- Twitter has removed custom wallpapers from user profiles and replaced them with plain white backgrounds. The backgrounds do still appear on individually linked tweets and lists pages. The move is motivated by Twitter’s desire to bring the desktop experience more in line with the mobile one. Users still have cover photos on their profiles, however. (Read more at Digiday)
- Yahoo has reported that it was able to sell the highest number search and display ads since CEO Marissa Mayer took over. It’s also been able to sell those ad units for more than it was able to one year ago. The move shows that Yahoo may be on the rebound. (Read more at AdAge)
- Twitter has launched a new Safety Center to serve as a hub to show users the best practices in regards to dealing with harassment and threats. Twitter has been working to make users feel safer on the platform, and while Safety Center offers no new tools, it does organize everything in one place. It can be found at safety.twitter.com. (Read more at The Next Web)
- Pinterest has added the ability for users to save pins for later, instead of deciding which board to put it on right away. The feature is available on Pinterest for iOS. (Read more at SocialTimes)