What didn’t Facebook announce this week at F8? Plus, it’s Periscope vs. Meerkat. Learn more!
Instagram Launches Layout, Its Own Photo Collage App
- Instagram announced the debut of a new application called Layout, the company’s next standalone creation tool outside of its flagship photo-sharing application.
- With Layout, Instagram users will be able to quickly build collages using their mobile photos, which they can then choose to share to Instagram, Facebook, or elsewhere.
- One in five monthly active users on Instagram use a collage app at least once.
- In Layout, Instagram offers a new take on how collages are built by changing the order of the steps involved in the process.
- As you tap to select the photos you want to use, Layout then presents previews of custom layouts you can scroll through at the top of its screen.
- Another interesting feature in the collage-building process is the ability to tap onto a “Faces” button at the bottom of the screen to filter your Camera Roll to show only those photos with pictures of people.
- There’s also a “Photo Booth” button that lets you use Layout to capture more spontaneous moments. When you tap this button, the app starts a countdown timer and then captures a series of photos that you’ll see appear instantly in a layout.
- Layout also offers a few differentiated tools, including the ability to tap buttons that flip images upside down or make photos mirror each other.
- Layout is currently an iOS application, but an Android version will be released in the months ahead.
Facebook Is Testing Continuous Autoplay for Videos
- The social network is testing a new Netflix-like video feature that automatically plays another video once the one you’re currently watching ends.
- In this new test, if you don’t click on a “related video” after a certain amount of time following the end of your video (Facebook is testing different lengths), the next video in the queue will start playing on its own.
- A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the company is testing the feature for some users on iOS and Android.
- In fact, YouTube started rolling out a similar autoplay feature for some videos in February
Marketers Weigh In on Periscope vs. Meerkat
- Twitter released its live-streaming mobile app, Periscope, competing against Meerkat.
- The main difference between the two is that after someone stops filming via Periscope, the video can be seen up to 24 hours later. Conversely, Meerkat’s clips disappear, unless you download an additional app to work around that feature.
- Periscope users can also “like” videos by clicking on virtual hearts, similar to the way people favor Instagram photos and videos. Currently, there isn’t a similar function on Meerkat.
- “Meerkat smashed SXSW, and brought social livestreaming center stage in the new-media revolution,” said Julian March, svp of editorial and innovation at NBC News. “Having played with Periscope, however, I found it dialed up the real-time social interaction—picking up Meerkat’s ball and running with it.”
- “The main difference between Meerkat and Periscope is that Periscope broadcasts can be watched for up to 24 hours after they end,” said Sam Sheffer, social media manager at The Verge. “Oftentimes, you’d open a Meerkat only to find a dead stream with no way of replaying it.”
- “Livestreaming as a content experience is still in its infancy,” said Matt Wurst, vp and social media manager at 360i. “That said, Periscope is more developed and further along in terms of available features and usability than Meerkat. It is far too early to tell if Meerkat will survive, but Periscope has a well-established network of content creators, curators and consumers thanks to Twitter.”
Facebook Unveils Embedded Video Player for Non-FB Websites
- Facebook described its new embedded video player in a post in its developer blog:
- A new full-bleed, responsive and interactive video player to embed Facebook videos on your site. The player features controls like play/pause, HD/SD toggle and full-screen mode, and also lets people like or share the video right from the player.
- The social network also hinted at future plans for video in a Facebook Media blog post:
- Over the coming months, we’re redesigning the video upload flow for pages with new control and customization features including expiration dates, audience restrictions and more.
YouTube Is Experimenting With Ultra High Def, Ultra Smooth Video Playback
- Just a few months back, YouTube bumped up the quality of the videos it hosts by allowing for gorgeous, 60 FPS video playback.
- Now they’re cranking things up to an almost absurd level. 60 FPS video, on YouTube… at 4K.
- The very vast majority of videos on YouTube aren’t shot at anywhere near this resolution/framerate yet.
- You’ll need a display capable of handling 3840×2160 to take advantage of the resolution.
Facebook Transforms Messenger Into Platform To Distribute Apps
- Facebook is turning the service into a platform for developers to directly distribute their apps to Messenger’s roughly 600 million users.
- Brands and agencies welcomed word of the new Businesses on Messenger service.
- “Brands will now be able to communicate directly with customers in threaded conversations on an integrated platform, which will enhance customer care and improve shopper experiences,” said Elizabeth Closmore, Sprinklr.
- To begin, the Messenger Platform will feature about 40 apps, which offer unique ways for users to communicate from GIFs to videos to audio clips.
- Launch partners include ESPN, JibJab, The Weather Channel, Selfied, Stickered, Sound Clips and Meme Generator.
- Trying to upend customer relationship management, Facebook also announced plans to position Messenger at the center of business-to-consumer communication.
- After consumers complete purchases on various ecommerce sites, they should soon expect to see an option to receive a purchase confirmation via Facebook Messenger.
- In addition to purchase confirmations, the Businesses on Messenger program will also facilitate direct conversations between businesses and consumers, and provide a direct channel for various updates and notifications.
Facebook Helps Millennials Keep Up with Headlines
- eMarketer estimates that 88% of 18-to-24-year-old internet users in the US will use Facebook this year, as will 78.6% of those in the 25-to-34 range.
- According to February 2015 research, 57% of US millennials checked Facebook at least once a day to get news and information, with 30% logging on several times a day and 14% doing so nearly constantly.
- Seven in 10 millennials said they regularly read or watched news stories and headlines posted by other people on Facebook.
Pinterest Links to Branded Content Shared Get More Shares
- Pinterest has become a major hub for brands that want to connect with consumers who love to share content.
- Interestingly, users share branded links to Pinterest content 1.5 times more frequently than general branded content from around the web, possibly due to Pinterest’s visual nature.
- According to the study, moms are highly represented on Pinterest and over-index in many categories and topics. For example, moms shared 6 times the amount of home and garden content, 5 times the amount of fashion and style content, and 4 times the amount of food and drink content.
Page Likes Down 3% to 4% After Facebook Cuts Inactive Accounts
- Social analytics provider Quintly broke up pages into two groups — those with fewer than and more than 1 million likes — and found that pages in the former group saw their like totals drop by an average of around 3 percent, while that figure was approximately 4 percent for the latter group.
- With the new metric adjustment, Facebook does not count inactive accounts anymore. Accounts are considered inactive after users have not logged into the social network for more than six months.
- Additionally, Facebook stopped including deleted profiles in the total fan count.
Facebook Tests Immersive Video Newsfeed
- Facebook is testing “spherical videos,” which create a fully immersive 360-degree video experience for users similar to 3D games, as part of the newsfeed.
- Users who choose to immerse themselves can manipulate the view in the interactive videos by panning around with their mouse button.
- The immersive videos are produced with two dozen cameras arranged in spherical form.
- As Wired points out, the video looks a little weird on a conventional flat screen, but will presumably look much cooler on the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, which Facebook acquired.
Facebook Introduces New Analytics For Apps
- Facebook introduced a new Analytics for Apps service.
- “It’s designed to help developers and marketers understand their app’s audience, measure how people use their app, and grow their businesses by running better ads,” Avdin Ghjar, a product manager at Facebook, explains in a new blog post.
- Among other benefits, the new service should help developers and marketers to better understand their traffic across various devices.
- App owners can also now look at segments, or groups of people who have certain characteristics, like women or people using Android phones. They can then look at metrics for these groups to see how they use your app differently than the overall population.
- In addition, app owners can also look at cohorts, or groups of people who took a set of actions in your app.
Twitter Tests Auto-Play Video Ads
- Following Facebook’s lead, Twitter is testing auto-play video ads among consumers with iPhones and other iOS-supported devices.
- For the time being, select Twitter users will see complete videos play in a loop, while others can expect to receive a looped six-second teaser. In each test case, the videos will be muted until users choose to tap on them, at which point the video screen will also expand.
After years of testing, Facebook releases On This Day personal history reminders
- On This Day, a tool launched by Facebook, takes anything from birthdays to wedding anniversaries logged on the site and notifies you of the special moments on a dedicated page on the site, through your News Feed or via mobile app.
- Facebook has been testing the feature for several years, but this is its official debut after the company took in user feedback to develop the current iteration of the feature.
- Currently, there’s no way to completely opt out of the feature on your News Feed, but Facebook has confirmed that an algorithm will work to filter out potentially unpleasant memories.
- And these On This Day reminders aren’t just for weddings and special events, they also extend to posts you’ve been tagged in.
Why is Twitter Partnering with Foursquare?
- Twitter announced that its tagged location data would be powered by Foursquare, once the leader in check-in technology.
- The Twitter/Foursquare relationship creates an opportunity for businesses (such as large enterprises with multiple locations) to create more location-relevant information, such as offers and recommendations.
- What businesses need to succeed online, both with regard to local search (Google) and social media (Facebook) is full, correct and up-to-date information. While Google is getting better at this, users of apps such as Foursquare are more apt to update information and give a better picture of the business.
Facebook May Host News Sites’ Content
- With 1.4 billion users, the social media site has become a vital source of traffic for publishers looking to reach an increasingly fragmented audience glued to smartphones.
- In recent months, Facebook has been quietly holding talks with at least half a dozen media companies about hosting their content inside Facebook rather than making users tap a link to go to an external site.
- Facebook intends to begin testing the new format in the next several months, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. The initial partners are expected to be The New York Times, BuzzFeed and National Geographic.
- Facebook has said publicly that it wants to make the experience of consuming content online more seamless. News articles on Facebook are currently linked to the publisher’s own website, and open in a web browser, typically taking about eight seconds to load.
Facebook launches ‘Blueprint’ training and certification program for brands and marketers
- Facebook is launching new free educational resources for marketers on its platform, both big and small.
- First up, ‘Blueprint‘ is a new program for training brands on the best practices for advertising and marketing campaigns.
- The courses are organized by category or otherwise cater to specific roles. You can also choose from full-on “tracks” you’d like to follow if you’re looking to learn a specific collection of skills.
- There are currently over 35 courses.
- For newcomer businesses on Facebook, the company has launched ‘Learn How,‘ an online learning center offering simplified guides to frequently asked questions.
Twitter’s New “Quality Filter” Starts Rolling Out To Verified iOS Users
- Over the past few months, however, the company has taken several major steps to stop trolls. The latest is a new “quality filter” that lets verified users weed out problematic tweets from their notifications.
- Twitter told TechCrunch that the feature is currently rolling out to verified users on iOS.
Facebook Like Button Tops Social Net Actions
- GlobalWebIndex examined the top five actions performed by users of Twitter, Google+ and Facebook over the past month, and clicking the latter’s like button came out on top.
- All of the top five actions performed on Facebook outperformed all of those from Twitter or Google+:
- Clicked the like button: 70%
- Commented on a friend’s photo or video: 55%
- Messaged a friend on a one-to-one basis: 55%
- Read an article: 53%
- Commented on a friend’s status update: 52%
- The top activity on Twitter was reading a news story, at 42%, while reading an article also topped Google+, at 45%.
Sour comments harder to find on Facebook’s corporate pages
- A recent revamp by the social media giant has quietly changed the game by collapsing users’ comments so that they no longer are readily visible on corporate pages. Rather, members have to click an icon to view them or look down the left-hand side of the page.
- Facebook spokeswoman Meg Sinclair said it collapsed the comment posts because “it creates a better experience for people” especially as more members shift to using the site on mobile devices. The change was not made in response to requests from brands, she said.
