Twitter Updates – Q2-2015

Twitter Placing Ads within User Profiles: As of April, Twitter starting displaying promoted tweets to people’s profile pages, meaning visits to another user’s Twitter profile may now show a targeted Twitter ad in that user’s stream.

Periscope Uncouples from Twitter:  Periscope, Twitter’s iOS live streaming app, Periscope, uncoupled from the social media giant in May, enabling its users to create separate user accounts for the app, rather than having to sign in via Twitter.

Social Media Science Study Determines Best Times to Tweet: Twitter analyzed over 4.8 million tweets across 10,000 profiles to determine the best times of day that tweets are received. The findings?  On average, for each timezone, the highest volume of tweets are sent between 11:00am and 1:00pm.

Autoplay and Viewability Updates: Just last month, Twitter announced that it was the latest social network to up their viewability game and autoplay videos, GIFs and Vines by default, enabling a “more streamlined consumption experience for all native videos”.

Twitter Begins Testing Dedicated Product Pages: Twitter has begun testing a new experience, as a way to surface and organize relevant tweets about products and places on dedicated pages.  These pages will feature images and video about the product alongside information such as a description, price, and an option to buy, book or visit the website for more information.

Facebook Updates – Q2-2015

Facebook Introduces Riff: At the very beginning of Q2, Facebook announced a fun side project called Riff, which enables you create and collaborate on videos with your Facebook friends.  Anyone can start by creating a video; all you have to do is give it a topic. Then your friends can view it and begin adding their own clips to that same topic…creating a colloborative project between a circle of friends that can be shared on Facebook.

New In-App Search Engine: TechCrunch reported that Facebook had begun testing its own in-app search engine as of May.  This new feature will be an “extension” of Facebook’s status updates, where the option to “add a link” will appear, just like tagging a location or a person.  Clicking on “add a link” will then allow you to search for content by keyword and you can share it instantly with your update.

Author Tags: Author tags are now live on Facebook, which mean publishers can make it easier for Facebook readers to start following authors of articles published.

Shopify Partnership: Shopify and Facebook announced a partnership to test, and eventually launch, a “Buy” call-to-action button on the social media platform.

YouTube Updates – Q2-2015

TrueView for Shopping: In early May, YouTube announced TrueView for shopping, which they say is a new way fo promote products with video.  TrueView allows users to showcase product images and product details, along with the ability to click to purchase, all within your video ad.

Newswire Launch: In partnership with Storyful, YouTube launched Newswire in June: “the world’s first social media news agency”.  This new channel displays a curated feed of newsworthy, eyewitness videos, vetted and edited by the team at Storyful.

Pinterest – Q2-2015

Smarter Search: Pinterest search got smarter in June, with streamlined search suggestions and trending searches.

One-Click Shopping: Pinterest has launched “Buyable Pins” where users can purchase items directly on Pinterest, directly through the app.

Instagram – Q2-2015

Search and Explore Improvements: Instagram reimagined their explore page to “discovery on Instagram immediate and effortless. The new Explore now surfaces trends as they emerge in real-time, connecting you to events and conversations both near you and around the globe.”  They also dramatically improved their search functionality, including the new ability to search by location.

Conclusion

That wraps up our summary of social media updates from April through June 2015.  Stay tuned for our next post at the end of September, where we can expect even more exciting movements as the digital marketing world continues to innovate.

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