May Social Media Roundup
Twitter is to stop counting photos and links in character limit – It’s happening! Twitter is about to give users the freedom to compose longer messages by removing the 23 characters required for URLs and 24 characters for photos, leaving the full 140 character limit available for text. Removing these character requirements for links and photos is expected to encourage users to add more media to their posts. This change could come into play in the next few months and comes after CEO Jack Dorsey’s comment that the social media network was planning to experiment with new ways to display text based on users’ habits.
Google unwrapped two new messaging and video apps – Google’s social offensive continues with two new text and video messaging apps for iOS and Android phones slated to arrive this summer. The search giant has released Allo, for text messages and emojis, and Duo for video messaging. The former is a bot-powered take on messaging, with “smart replies” available to answer messages and photos, and the latter a simple, cross-platform FaceTime replica that supports switches between WiFi and cellular service. These two apps come in addition to the already-existing Google Messenger, Hangouts (both messaging apps that handle texts as well as video calls) and the new Google Spaces social network.
Silent Facebook videos – Multiple publishers have recently announced that up to 85% of Facebook video is watched without sound. Facebook boasts 8 billion views per day but it seems that without the addition of text and captions, video content might be falling on deaf ears. It is becoming clear that text and captioning are not just good practice but are actually necessary for the success of Facebook-specific video content. Facebook counts a video as having been “viewed” at three seconds, and so marketers must capture the user immediately with their visual content.
Who are LinkedIn millennials? – LinkedIn has made its demographics analysis available for an eBook, revealing that 87 million millennials (out of a global total of 2 billion) use LinkedIn, making up 38% of the platform’s total user base. Furthermore, over 12% of total millennials across the world are on LinkedIn, accounting for more than 11 million global millennial decision makers on the network. It is therefore not a surprise that LinkedIn has recently launched a job search app for graduates
Facebook produced its first 360* film, featuring Grand Central Terminal – Facebook has released its first 3-D/360-degree short movie, entitled ‘Here and Now’. The Facebook Surround 3-D 360-degree camera that the social network introduced in April has produced its first film: a fully immersive, 360 experience focusing on the main hall of Grand Central Terminal in New York. The viewer “stands” in a single spot in the station and can choose whomever or whatever they want to focus on, creating an entirely immersive experience. Watch it here.
Six in ten Americans are getting their news from social media – 62% of all Americans now get their news from social media according to a new survey by Pew Research Center. Pew surveyed over 4,600 people and found that they’re increasingly using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and even Snapchat to get their news. 39% of Facebook users who go to the platform for news still watch the local news, and 15% of them still read newspapers, whilst only 8% of those who get news from Twitter still consume content from print. Will this be the same in the UK soon?
Twitter is changing the way @mentions work – Twitter is making a few changes to make engagement on the platform more simple. Currently, if tweeters use a handle at the beginning of a tweet, the tweet will be deemed ‘a reply’ and will only be visible in the streams of those who follow both the tweeter and recipient. Many users use a ‘full stop’ before the handle to ensure the tweet is broadcast to everyone. Soon – this won’t be necessary. New tweets which begin with a handle will no longer be classed as ‘replies’ and will be broadcast to everyone. In addition, users may soon be able to retweet their own tweets.
Traditional media is losing its influence and trust ratings – Finding the right place to broadcast your company’s message is key, and well-known does not mean trustworthy. A new report from Kissmetrics shows that newspapers and broadcasters are rapidly losing trust with users, whilst search engines are now considered more trustworthy than traditional media. It finds that users trust influencers more than brands, and they remain loyal to those influencers. In addition, trust in online-only, owned and social media are all increasing.
Chinese WeChat with 700 million monthly users is eyeing up new markets – Chinese chat app WeChat has seen a 29% increase in users from March 2015 to this year, with 700 million monthly active users by the end of the first quarter of this year. WeChat allows users to order a cab, make a doctor’s appointment, make peer-to-peer payments and more. WeChat is now eyeing up emerging markets such as India and Latin America and hopes to expand its reach even further. Watch out, Whatsapp and Snapchat!