This week in social, it’s reported that Facebook will soon collect data from Oculus, Instagram is working on a feature that would create quick clips of different images and TikTok evolved its green screen video effect.
Oculus Owners Must Log Into Facebook To Access New Features
Facebook will soon harvest data on Oculus for use in most relevant content including ads.
Why it matters: In the past few years, Facebook has been criticized for a number of privacy failures.
The details: Oculus has added various new Facebook-powered social features including messaging friends while using the Oculus virtual reality (VR) headset and automatic joining with friends in multi-user apps and games. New and existing social features on Oculus will now prompt users to log in with Facebook. Facebook may soon collect data for purposes such as recommending VR apps and Oculus events.
Instagram Developing Stop-Motion Style Stories Feature
The new stories camera option, called “Poses,” will stitch multiple photos together into a stop-motion story.
Why it matters: With news of a surge in ad spend on stories, Instagram is keeping the momentum going with new features such as Poses, Layouts and Shoutouts.
The details: “Poses” will create quick clips of different images, similar to photo booths.
TikTok Upgrades Its Popular Green Screen Video Effect
The green screen effect has been used in more than 54 million creations. Now, TikTok is updating it so that users can shoot over videos playing in the background
Why it matters: The update comes at a time when TikTok is receiving backlash for postponing meetings with lawmakers over its privacy practices and ties to China.
The details: Due to the popularity of the green screen effect, TikTok has evolved it so that TikTokers can choose a video from their album to use as a background for other videos.
Instagram Stories Ad Spend Jumps 70 Percent In Q3
Growth on Instagram Stories outpaced the 0.3 percent adspend gain that Facebook Stories made—a similar product— according to Socialbakers, as Mobile Marketer reported.
Why it matters: The engagement aspect of Instagram stories has made it appealing to mobile marketers, so much so that they’re seeing better results from campaigns on Instagram than on Facebook Stories.
The details: Ad spend on Instagram Stories saw a 70 percent surge in Q3 from a year prior. While 62 percent of total ad spend on Facebook apps went to Facebook’s news feed, Instagram feed’s share of total ad spend on Facebook grew to 21 percent in September, compared to 18 percent a year earlier.
Pinterest Rolls Out Trend-Tracking Tool For US
In a company post, Pinterest announced Pinterest Trends, a new feature that gives brands a view of the top US search terms within the past 12 months.
Why it matters: The new tool will give brands deeper insight into planning behaviors on the platform, and help them allocate budgets accordingly.
The details: Pinterest’s trends tool will show trending terms in the US as well as when the top search terms peak. Albertsons has already successfully used the feature for a holiday campaign that drove in-store sales for their private labels. The feature will be available to US users over the coming weeks on desktop.
YouTube Announces New Harassment Policy To Include All Creators, Public Figures
YouTube outlined updates to its harassment policy after hearing from creators about offensive incidents time and time again.
Why it matters: YouTube’s expansion of its anti-harassment policy comes after long-standing criticism that it hadn’t done enough to protect users and creators.
The details: YouTube is taking its video removal process a step further by prohibiting explicit threats but also veiled implied threats including content simulating violence toward an individual or language suggesting physical violence may occur. The platform will also no longer allow content that maliciously insults someone based on protected attributes such as race, gender expression or sexual orientation.
YouTube plans to remove comments that clearly violate its policies. It has already removed over 16 million in Q3. It is also giving creators the power to review a comment in question before it’s posted, and this feature has already resulted in a 75 percent reduction in user flags on comments.
YouTube will use machine learning to identify offensive comments, a feature that has been applied to YouTube’s largest channels and will roll out to most channels by the end of the year.
Twitter To Fund Team To Create Decentralized Social Media Standards
In a series of tweets, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey explained the initiative, which will involve a small, independent team of five open source architects, engineers and designers that will create decentralized standards for social.
Why it matters: Twitter has become increasingly centralized, making it tricky to enforce global policies around misinformation and abuse. It’s Twitter’s goal to be a client of the new standard which Dorsey intends on helping create.
The details: Dorsey wrote that he expects the team to build an open community, inclusive of companies and civil society leaders, around these decentralized social media standards.
Facebook Adds Cross-Account Reporting And Custom Ad Metrics
Facebook introduced new reporting tools that streamline ad measurement across accounts, channels and different publishers just in time for the holidays.
Why it matters: Facebook’s new ad metric features will give advertisers more specific insights into their ad performance, especially for those who work on broader scale ad initiatives.
The details: Users can now view overall ad performance across multiple ad accounts within the Ad Manager dashboard, eliminating the need to manually extract data for each account. Facebook also introduced an ad metrics option that enables advertisers to create metric formulas tailored to their goals then save the formulas for ongoing tracking.
Snapchat Publishes Monthly Trending Topics Report
The platform released its monthly “Snap Chatter” report on what trended in November globally.
Why it matters: Marketers can use Snapchat’s monthly report to gauge the evolving interests of Gen Z which combined with millennials make up 90 percent of the platform’s user base.
The details: Trending Snapchat topics in the US included Starbucks’ reusable holiday cups, Popeyes’ restocked chicken sandwich, Disney+ and Black Friday. In Australia, Snapchatters kept a close eye on bushfires and observed fallen soldiers on Remembrance Day. Meanwhile, in Iraq, users cheered on their favorite teams during the 24th Arabian Gulf Cup.
Snapchat Prepares To Launch Bitmoji-Like Selfie Chat Feature
According to TechCrunch, Snapchat Cameo lets you use your selfies to replace the faces of people in videos and then share the resulting video.
Why it matters: An alternative to Bitmoji, Cameo could make Snapchat messaging more interesting. Given Instagram and WhatsApp have successfully copied Snapchat’s Stories feature, Snapchat must stay ahead of the chat game.
The details: Today Snapchat announced that it’ll launch Cameo on December 18 globally for iOs and Android users. The feature, which lives inside the Bitmoji button in the Snapchat messaging keyboard, lets users “deep fake” their faces into videos. In the meantime, the feature is being tested in limited availability in some international markets including France.
Editor’s Note: Our weekly social media news post is updated daily. This installment will be updated until Friday, December 13. Have a news tip? We’re looking for changes to and news surrounding social media platforms as they relate to marketing. Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.com.
