Super Social - The Best of Social Media
Super Social - A regular feature about the best things we spot in the world of social media. The might of social media is clear for all of us to see in our day to day lives. We constantly talk about things we've seen on social media and check our phones constantly - especially after posting something! It also shapes the fortunes of our old influencer, the newspaper. Facebook's push towards having more friends and family posts (rather than brands and news) in news feeds has publishers scrambling for a solution. A one percent overall drop in visibility can cause dramatic declines in engagement and eventually revenues too. However, Mr Zuckerberg's announcement that Facebook will try to prioritise trustworthy news led to a huge 9% jump in The New York Times' share price, pushing it to levels not seen in about a decade. Now that is power.
Twitterrific
Bringing video and photo sharing front and centre seems like an obvious move for twitter, but it's not something that they've exposed themselves to. When composing a tweet you normally have to touch to select the camera. Twitter are now testing a method of 'tweeting' that enables you to open the camera without first clicking to compose a tweet. It's only one step away from the previous method but that can make all the difference. Snapchat opening to a camera is part of his charm, enabling you to capture the current moment as quickly as possible. Twitter is the text feed of unfolding events, and may become the photo feed too...
Facebook Gets To Work
Facebook are set to launch a major ad campaign spanning TV, print, online, cinema and outdoor. The campaign showcases 16 small British businesses that have benefitted from being present and active on social media. Pushing the value of social to small businesses not only helps Facebook gain personal account traction as business owners become intrigued with the value of the platform, but also many small amounts of advertising pounds. We certainly know how possible it is to grow a small business through social media, as we have done so in the past. Hopefully this will inspire more businesses to venture out into the digital world!
Snap Won't Break
After being boldly usurped by Instagram as the number one medium for social stories, Snapchat has seen investors and the general public alike start to doubt its value. A new option for celebrity and publisher accounts is to save their snap stories and share them via a link. The link would send people to snapchat.com where they would be able to view the story without logging in. Saving a story like this would also extend its lifespan to 24 days. This may serve Snapchat well as a way for those not on the network to become more aware of it, in the same way that Twitter, Instagram and Facebook posts are used on television. Limiting the lifespan would also encourage people to join Snapchat and view stories before they end, keeping its limited ephemeral quality.
Anti-Social - The Bad Side Of Social Media
Anti-social: A regular feature on the not-so-great things we spot in the world of social media. We recently saw a statement by Rupert Murdoch about tech companies and social media holding too much power which may be leading to a political bias. Whilst this has shown to be true in the US election, the sway comes more from third parties than the companies themselves. Does the devil recognise his own, or is he simply scared of losing the throne? Here's an excerpt from his statement - 'There has been much discussion about subscription models but I have yet to see a proposal that truly recognises the investment in and the social value of professional journalism. We will closely follow the latest shift in Facebook’s strategy, and I have no doubt that Mark Zuckerberg is a sincere person, but there is still a serious lack of transparency that should concern publishers and those wary of political bias at these powerful platforms. The time has come to consider a different route.'