Users constantly adopt new behaviors, preferences and technologies. Social networks play catch up, adding new features and making changes to the user experience.
This creates new opportunities and challenges for PR and marketing pros. Because the updates roll out so quickly (and sometimes without much fanfare), it’s easy to miss the latest changes.
Here’s a roundup of this week’s social media news and updates that may impact how you conduct social PR or marketing:
Exposing [Satire] – Never be fooled by an Onion post again. Facebook this week launched a [Satire] tag to mark posts from sites such as the Onion, Clickhole and Empire News as satire, so users won’t be duped by fake news stories anymore.
A Major Gain for ALS Research – The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge continued to sweep the nation this week, reaching figures such as Justin Timberlake, Steven Spielberg and the cast of the Today Show. As of Monday, the ALS Association raised more than $15.6 million in less than a month thanks in part to people sharing their chilling videos across social networks, including Facebook.
What’s Really in Your Timeline – Don’t know where that tweet in your timeline came from? Twitter officially announced that it now takes tweets that are popular among users in your network and inserts them into your timeline, regardless of the source.
Censored Tweets? – In light of the death of Robin Williams and the James Foley case, Twitter is staking a stand to censor gruesome content and block abusive users. But this move, while seemingly reasonable, is a direct contradiction of Twitter’s vow to free speech, and is stirring up some controversy.
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New Advertising Suite – At long last, Instagram announced Wednesday an update to its advertising features. Over the new few months, the company will roll out its new suite of business tools, which will include account insights, ad insights and ad staging.
Free Slideshare! – Good news, Slideshare users. The LinkedIn-owned platform for sharing presentations and documents is now completely free. Slideshare will begin rolling out one premium feature per month to its free users starting in September.
Google +
For the Kids – Since its introduction, Google+ has been unavailable to children under 13, but that’s now changing. Google has been experimenting with its social network and YouTube to offer kid-friendly accounts under parental supervision. Advertisers looking to take advantage of this new online market will still have to abide by the FTC’s s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
Snapchat
Discovery – Ads, movie clips and news articles coming soon to a Snapchat account near you. The company said this week that its new news network, Snapchat Discovery, is set to release in November and will offer paid advertising opportunities for the first time.
Vine
Uploading Existing Content – Finally! Vine announced Wednesday that users can now upload and edit existing content. And what’s more, the company is encouraging users to find the oldest video on their phones and share it with #VintageVine.
Are there any other social media updates or pieces of news that we missed? Let us know in the comments.
Featured Image: webtreats (Creative Commons) Google+ Image: Yoel Ben-Avraham (Creative Commons)
