Tag Archives: Social Media Today

After years of working around the edges, and trying to find ways to make a bigger dip into eCommerce, the COVID-19 pandemic has finally given Facebook the push is needs to take the next major step. Today, Facebook has launched ‘Shops‘ on both Facebook and Instagram. As explained by Facebook: “Facebook Shops make it easy for businesses to set up a single online store for customers to access on both Facebook and Instagram. Creating a Facebook Shop is free and simple. Businesses can choose the products they want to feature from their catalog and then customize the look and feel of their shop with a cover image and accent colors […]

Wow, TikTok must have offered Kevin Mayer a lot of money to take on this role. Today, The New York Times has reported that Disney executive Kevin Mayer, who recently helped oversee the successful, global launch of the company’s new Disney+ platform, has taken on the role of TikTok CEO, while he’ll also serve as the COO of parent company Bytedance, which is based in China. Well, technically – according to NYT: “A TikTok spokesman on Monday stressed that TikTok was not owned by a Beijing-based company. Instead, its parent company, ByteDance Ltd., is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, though he could not say how many people are based there. […]

Google has added two new ad bidding options for Display and Video 360 campaigns, giving marketers more control over how their ad budget is allocated through its programmatic process. Google’s Display campaigns enable marketers to place ads on a range of websites across Google’s network,  while Video 360 campaigns are specific to video across the same. First off, Google’s adding a new Custom Bidding option which will enable advertisers to set the parameters for their campaign budget allocation. As explained by Google: “Here’s how it works: first, you identify a key performance indicator (KPI), such as revenue or brand lift, that you want to optimize. Next, you define the proxy […]

Twitter’s making a slight correction in its approach on its visual presentation options within tweets. As you may recall, last year, Twitter rolled out an updated Twitter Camera, which included a new way to add colorful caption panels to images captured through the native camera option, while those images also appeared larger in timelines. Yeah, nah, that’s not working for Twitter anymore. Today, the platform has announced that it’s rolling back these changes, along with a couple of other tweaks to the native camera function. And to make Tweeting *pictures and videos* easier, we’re making some changes to the camera. Photos and videos will no longer appear larger in the […]

Despite US President Donald Trump repeatedly noting the ways in which social media helped him win the 2016 Election, and singling out Twitter, specifically, for how it’s benefited both his campaign efforts and subsequent presidency, social platforms are still not being widely utilized by politicians, with new research showing that the vast majority of legislators fail to gain significant traction with their tweets. That could highlight a significant missed opportunity for political campaigners. The data from Pew Research, which incorporates analysis of public tweets from each of the 2,056 members of the national legislative bodies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and U.S., shows that despite the majority of […]

This is a relatively small update, but relevant to note either way. Today, on the Twitter Developer Forums, Twitter has announced a change to the way tweet embeds will be displayed on websites, which could cause some presentation impacts. As explained by Twitter: “Starting today, we will begin rolling out a new version of embedded Tweets that has an updated design and better infrastructure that will soon help load Tweets faster on your sites and apps. As we roll it out, you might see your Tweet embeds rendering with a slightly new look.” And yes, the changes do appear to be slight, but again, worth noting for your posts and […]

Google has created a new, centralized hub of its various business resources and guides designed to help brands maximize their use of Google’s tools for marketing and outreach amid the COVID-19 pandemic. As explained by Google: “It’s important to understand the potential impact of changes in consumer behavior on your business. As you evolve your short and long-term digital marketing strategies, we want to be there to help. That’s why we’ve created a single destination for product guidance and business considerations for managing your campaigns through COVID-19.” As you can see above, the listing isn’t elaborate in its presentation, but it includes a range of overviews and helpful hints for […]

While it’s still a way off being the next transformative platform, the use of VR is growing, and Facebook is leading the pack, which could set the company up for significant success with the next generation of consumers. Indeed, amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, Facebook has been struggling to meet demand for new Oculus Quest headsets. That, in part, is due to production line impacts caused by COVID-19, but interest is also beyond what many had expected. Which is why this new update from Facebook-owned Oculus is worthy of note. This week, Oculus is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Oculus Quest, the company’s most successful VR headset to date, and […]

Instagram has today launched a new ‘Guides’ option for profiles, which will enable selected business users and creators to highlight recommendations, tips, and other content in a new, dedicated tab. As you can see in the above sequence, chosen partner profiles will now display a new tab – in addition to ‘Posts’, ‘Mentions’ and ‘IGTV’ listings – on their profiles. The Guides tab will highlight collections of posts under dedicated topic tiles – which has a Pinterest-like feel to it. As explained by Instagram: “When viewing a Guide, you can see posts and videos that the creator has curated, paired with helpful tips and advice. If you want to learn more about a specific post, […]

After first announcing the option late last month, Facebook is now making its new Messenger Rooms multi-participant video hangouts option available to all users globally. Messenger Rooms enables users to host video chat rooms of up to 50 people, with friends able to see when you have a room active at the top of their Facebook feed, and drop in if they want to join the discussion. Rooms are also available within Facebook groups and events. The option first became available to users in Australia last week – and having tested it out a few times, it does feel a little clunky and rushed at this stage. Initially, when Rooms […]