Welcome to this week’s episode of Social Chatter where we cover the latest social media news from this past week.
Each episode of Social Chatter is available as a blog post or video.
Let’s see what’s cooking in social media this week with your hosts, Christian Karasiewicz and Vincent Orleck!
This week, we’re also joined by Nick Rishwain.
Watch This Week’s Social Media Updates
Facebook Running Out of News Feed Places for Ads
This week, shortly after Facebook announced their blowout quarterly earnings, Re/Code published an article that Facebook was running out of places to put Facebook Ads in their flagship product.
This means they’ll have to find other places to put Facebook Ads because they have essentially maxed out how many Facebook Ads they can show. Our likely guess is that we’ll start to see Facebook Ads come to Messenger if they want to continue growing their revenue from advertising - this quarter it was $6.2 billion._
In the meantime, if you notice your Facebook layout changing, they’re likely testing out designs to incorporate more positions in the news feed for ads.
Facebook Testing New Mobile Video Features
There's no doubt that Facebook is all-in on video and they’re looking to make it a more integral component on Facebook’s mobile platform.
They’re also now looking to compete with YouTube.
Currently, they’re testing out the following features on Android.
- A dedicated video tab
- Subscription-based video channels
If you’ve ever used YouTube, these features should seem familiar. In fact, we would love to see Facebook offer a way for Facebook Pages to create a dedicated video channel that fans and customers could subscribe to on Facebook._
This way as pages are creating new Facebook Live video for their business, fans can easily find them on their page or get notified whenever a page is live.
Facebook Live Comments Display Time
This will be a handy feature as you have more and more users comment on your Facebook Live videos. Having the timestamp will allow people to go to that part of the video to see what someone was commenting on.
Hat tip to Jeff DeHaven for highlighting this (source).
Canva
Last week, Canva (iOS | for work) launched an iOS app.
This week, they’ve improved their desktop site.
Instead of seeing the controls for an object you need to change on-top of your design, it’s now available at the top of the Canva interface.
Here is what it looks like now.
It’s good to see Canva improving their already easy-to-use interface.
Periscope Introduces Replay Highlights, Tweet Embeds and Live Autoplay
Also this week, Periscope announced replay highlights, tweet embeds and live autoplay._
Replay Highlights
“Highlights is a new feature that automatically creates a short trailer of each Periscope replay. You can watch Highlights of your home feed to quickly catch up on broadcasts you missed, Highlights of somebody's Periscope profile to see a quick series of their previous broadcasts, or Highlights for any search result (like "#Turkey") to get a convenient overview of any topic.”
Tweet Embeds
With tweet embeds, you’ll be able to embed Periscopes anywhere on the web just by embedding the tweet.
Here is an example of a tweet embed.
LIVE on #Periscope: On the range with Jason Day https://t.co/0NhfLaEeNA
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 21, 2016
Live autoplays
The other update to Periscope is to live autoplays.
If you’re using an Android device, Periscopes will autoplay without sound if you’re in the watch tab.
Should you want to view the broadcast, you can tap on it to begin viewing it.
Tumblr Introduces Ads to All Blogs
One last piece of social media news this week is from Tumblr.
They plan to “introduce ads on Tumblrs, so that later this year people can start making money from their blogs.”
The good news is that if you don’t want ads on your Tumblr blog, you can turn them off via the settings menu.
In order to begin displaying ads on your Tumblr blog, you’ll have to register.
They will be updating this form so be sure you bookmark it if you have a Tumblr blog.
Tools
In addition to sharing the latest in social media news from this past week, we also highlighted some great tools and apps to check out.
LinkedIn Job Search
LinkedIn updated their mobile app.
With the LinkedIn Job Search app (iOS | Android). If you’re in need of a job (possibly in social media) or you’re looking to hire someone as a freelancer, be sure to check out their mobile app.
It has received a lot of positive reviews and makes it very easy to search for jobs from your mobile device, which is rare.
Download LinkedIn Job SearchPolaroid Swing
How many of you remember Polaroid?
They made this awesome camera.
Although they have changed hands a number of times, they have a new app out called Polaroid Swing.
With Polaroid Swing, you can create moving photos with just one tap.
In addition, the Polaroid Swing app also does the following:
- Reverse the moving photo to perfect the moment
- Take 3D selfies by rotating your phone around you
- Select live filters for inky smooth Polaroid moving photos
- Create your own moving profile image – and add a tint via settings
- Connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts to find friends
- No passwords to remember! Sign up with Facebook, Twitter or magic link
This free app is sure to help you create images that will work great on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to help you better engage with your audience through exciting content that you share!
Download Polaroid SwingMicrosoft Pix
The last tool we wanted to share this week is Microsoft Pix.
Microsoft Pix (iOS) is a new camera app.
Their aim is to replace your default camera app on your mobile device.
With the Microsoft Pix app, you can do some amazing things without needing to be a professional photographer.
Here are a few of the things that Microsoft Pix can do to help you save time and improve the quality of your photos.
- People-First – People are the most important photo subjects, so Microsoft Pix uses many intelligent features to help them look their best, without creating extra work for you
- Smart – Microsoft Pix is a bit like having a pro photographer inside your camera, tweaking settings, selecting the best shots, and enhancing them on the fly
- Fun – Microsoft Pix helps you have fun with photos and videos, by doing things like creating a short, looping video clip when it senses motion in a photo, or helping you stabilize and time lapse your videos
We’ve been testing out Microsoft Pix for a few days and it’s amazing what it can do (and how much time and space) it can save.
If you take and post a lot of photos for your business on your social media channels, you should definitely be sure to download this free app from Microsoft to help improve the quality of the photos that you share.
Download Microsoft PixWrap-up
That’s it for this week’s episode of Social Chatter.
Be sure to tune-in to our next episode on Blab to find out what’s cooking in social media!
If you have any questions about anything mentioned this week, share them with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or in the comments below.
