Tag Archives: Social Media Today

Social platforms could be up for a significant challenge in France, with French legislators today approving a new law that will require rapid response from moderation teams on highly offensive content posted in their apps. As reported by Reuters: “Social networks and other online content providers will have to remove paedophile and terrorism-related content from their platforms within the hour or face a fine of up to 4% of their global revenue under a French law voted in on Wednesday.” Such regulation has been in discussion over the last few years, with authorities keen to put more pressure on social networks to take more action on these fronts. But it’s […]

While it’s still in the process of rolling out its new Messenger Rooms group video chat feature to all users, Facebook has today announced that Messenger Rooms will also be available within groups and events, providing another engagement option within smaller audience subsets. First off, on groups – Facebook says that both group admins and members will be able to create dedicated group Rooms from the Groups composer, in which they’ll be able to host video chats of up to 50 people at a time. Though there are some additional control options for Group rooms. The main point of note is that group admins will have the ability to allow Messenger […]

US users get excited – Facebook’s Bitmoji-style Avatars are coming to you. After initially launching them in Australia last June, then rolling them out across Europe last month, Facebook’s Fidji Simo today confirmed that the cartoonish likenesses will be available in the US from today. Avatars, much like Bitmoji, provide users with an alternate, cartoonish character likeness, which they can use in a range of stickers and tools that can be applied across both Facebook and Messenger. And you may soon be able to add them in even more places – as per Simo: “There are so many different ways you can use your avatar, including in comments, Stories, Messenger – […]

LinkedIn has added some new tools to its Sales Navigator platform to help marketers glean more insights into their on-platform efforts, and establish stronger connection with potentially interested users. First off, LinkedIn’s adding a new ‘Smart Links’ option, which will provide more insight into who’s viewed your posted updates, for how long, and when. As you can see here, Smart Links is similar to UTM tracking for URLs, but with LinkedIn links specifically. When you add a Smart Link to your LinkedIn update or InMail, you’ll then be able to see who opened the link, how long they read it for, and which elements were of most interest to them. […]

US users get excited – Facebook’s Bitmoji-style Avatars are coming to you. After initially launching them in Australia last June, then rolling them out across Europe last month, Facebook’s Fidji Simo today confirmed that the cartoonish likenesses will be available in the US from today. Avatars, much like Bitmoji, provide users with an alternate, cartoonish character likeness, which they can use in a range of stickers and tools that can be applied across both Facebook and Messenger. And you may soon be able to add them in even more places – as per Simo: “There are so many different ways you can use your avatar, including in comments, Stories, Messenger – […]

Google has added new support link options for business profiles which will enable organizations to list gift card and donations links on their Google My Business listings in order to call on people for assistance amid the COVID-19 lockdowns. As explained by Google: “With this feature, merchants will be able to add a donation link, gift card link or both to their profile. They can also share a personal message in their post to inform customers how funds will be put to use.”  The links will be displayed wherever people can view your Google My Business profile, including in search listings and in maps. The options will be available to […]

LinkedIn has this week published an overview of its new ‘dwell time’ metric, which is now being factored into its feed algorithm, which defines what each user sees on the platform. Dwell time, as it sounds, calculates how long a LinkedIn user spends looking at an update or link. As explained by LinkedIn: “At a high level, each update viewed on the feed generates two types of dwell time. First, there is dwell time “on the feed,” which starts measuring when at least half of a feed update is visible as a member scrolls through their feed. Second, there is dwell time “after the click,” which is the time spent […]

As more businesses begin to look to the future, and a return to regular operations after the COVID-19 lockdowns, Twitter has announced that it will let its staff work from home indefinitely – forever if they like – even after the restrictions are lifted. As per Twitter: “We were uniquely positioned to respond quickly and allow folks to work from home given our emphasis on decentralization and supporting a distributed workforce capable of working from anywhere. The past few months have proven we can make that work. So if our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so […]

Remember that time, just after Donald Trump was elected, that speculation was rising around a potential presidential run by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2020? That was an interesting side note to the 2016 Election result. In an unrelated, but sort of related, development, The Washington Times has reported that Facebook is one of several tech companies behind a new pro-tech advocacy group in Washington called ‘American Edge’. American Edge aims to represent ‘American innovators’ in the tech sector, with the goal of improving the image of tech companies among politicians. As reported by Business Insider: “American Edge is registered as a non-profit, which enables it to raise money and spend on […]

Facebook has published the latest version of its Community Standards Enforcement Report, which outlines all of the policy and rule violations that Facebook has taken action on, across both Facebook and Instagram, over the preceding three months. The report now covers 12 policy areas on Facebook, and 10 on Instagram, with this latest version providing more insight into Instagram content specifically. As explained by Facebook: “The report introduces Instagram data in four issue areas: Hate Speech, Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity, Violent and Graphic Content, and Bullying and Harassment. For the first time, we’re also sharing data on the number of appeals people make on content we’ve taken action against […]