April Social Media Roundup
YouTube announces 360 live-streaming and spatial audio – This may be one of the most exciting innovations from the Google-owned platform in recent months – 360-degree live streaming and spatial audio for on-demand videos. ‘Spatial’ or ‘3D’ audio means soundscapes are recorded with special microphones to match the view, simulating the source of a noise moving around the user’s head. Political rallies and business events can all benefit from this innovation, which will deliver those who cannot attend an event an incredible sense of presence.
The Sun makes video the priority and launches on Snapchat Discover – “Did you watch the Sun last night?” is soon set to be the question to ask as readers of the paper will be able to watch its content on YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat Discover. The Sun’s content is already being pushed through more channels than ever before in its 52-year history with Facebook being a priority. Its Head of Strategy has a bold ambition for News UK; he wants The Sun and The Times to be known for their high quality video content as much as for their print content.
Have you trademarked your brand’s hashtags? – According to some sources, you may need to trademark your brand’s hashtags soon. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that just under 1,400 hashtag trademark applications by brands were filed across the globe last year. In the past, campaigns have been ‘hijacked’ by users posting irrelevant or inappropriate content under a branded hashtag, so it makes sense for brands to moderate (and in some cases sanitise) offensive user-generated content.
Why senior execs are using Facebook – A growing number of business leaders have been creating their own Facebook pages as a way to communicate with the public directly. The Facebook Live (live-streaming) video feature, which launched in August and rolled out to all users in December, is assumed to be behind the major pull for execs to the platform as they can stream updates, talks and events.
Whatsapp adds end-to-end encryption – You may have noticed a message crop up on Whatsapp earlier this month stating ‘Messages you send to this chat and calls are now secured with end-to-end encryption.’ This means that messages are now scrambled as they leave the sender’s device and can only be decrypted by the recipient’s device, rendering all messages ‘unreadable’ if they are intercepted.
Reddit launches its first official app – Reddit, the online bulletin board, has announced the launch of its first ever app, which will be available on both Android and iOS (iPhone only). As you would expect, the app will feature comments, threaded comments, messages and the ability to post replies amongst other functions. It will be available in a few countries initially with a view to being rolled out more widely in the future.
Twitter has introduced an easier way to share Tweets privately – Direct messages on Twitter are becoming increasingly popular, having grown by over 60% in 2015. It’s no surprise then that Twitter added a DM (Direct Message) button on all tweets to allow its users to DM responses to public tweets. Until recently, users had to select a tweet by tapping it, then use the Settings option to select Send via Direct Message in order to send a private message to another user.
New ‘LinkedIn Students’ mobile app will help graduates find jobs – LinkedIn has announced the launch of its ‘LinkedIn Students’ mobile app which has been created especially for university graduates looking for a job. This innovative app provides users with job information based on ‘real data from the career paths of hundreds of millions of successful professionals.’ Currently the app is only available for US graduates but should roll out to other countries if it proves successful.
Facebook makes the 20% rule optional – A major gripe for digital marketers is the rule that blocks Facebook ads if they contain a visual with too much text in (text that occupies over 20% of the visual). Luckily, this rule has now been dropped and marketers are free to use as much text within images as they want. However, if visuals are used with too much text in them, Facebook will penalise these posts by giving them a smaller reach…