The Status Update is a weekly roundup of the social media news stories that occurred during the past week. If you’d like to submit a news tip for a future post please feel free to contact us.
With that, lets get into this week’s news.
Pinterest?s Big, Beautiful New Showcase
Probably the biggest social media news this week is Pinterest?s new showcase.
This is a new rotating showcase of pins that appears at the top of your profile.
It?s now the first thing people see.
The showcase area lets you feature 5 of your boards. If you have Buyable Pins you can highlight them as well.
They?ve also updated the design to be more consistent across the web and the mobile app. Your showcase and board cover images now look the same on every platform.
Pinterest also added a tab for boards and a tab for pins.
If someone wants to see your ideas they switch to your pins tab.
On mobile the showcase is now where the most recent pins used to be. This allows you to control the first thing people see.
These changes rolled out a couple of days ago and should be available for everyone worldwide.
Promoted Pins are Now Available in Canada
Canadians will be pleased to hear that Promoted Pins are now available in Canada.
Promoted Pins are the main form of advertising on Pinterest. The ads are targeted and blend in with the rest of the content so they aren?t distracting.
Pinterest also shared some interesting stats about Canada:
- In 2015 the number of Canadian users increased by 50%
- More than 4.4 billion ideas have been saved by Canadian users
- Every day Canadians save 3.9 million pins
If you?re an agent in Canada it?s definitely a good time to take a look at Pinterest if you?re not already.
Facebook Adds Games to Messenger
This is a fun bit of news. Facebook has just added the ability to play games directly inside your Messenger conversations.
This feature is rolling out to 30 countries right now. It?s also only available for newer iOS and Android systems.
To play a game you simply have to tap the controller icon below where you type your message.
The game will start playing instantly.
When you finish a game people in your conversation will see your score and can challenge you back.
Currently there are 17 launch titles including games like Pac-Man, Galaga and Words with Friends.
Facebook also plans to add more games in the future.
Facebook Launches Creative Hub
A few days ago Facebook launched the Creative Hub.
This is a destination where both marketers and advertisers can get inspiration for creative design.
With the Creative Hub designers can easily discover what other brands and agencies have created on both Facebook and Instagram.
This includes 360 video, carousel, canvas and video.
You can also mockup your own creative and share it with the hub for feedback.
Once you?ve created a mockup you can also preview it as if it were a live ad on Facebook or Instagram.
You can access the Creative Hub at: www.facebook.com/ads/creativehub/
This definitely sounds like a fantastic resource if you need inspiration for your own campaigns.
Twitter Moments are Now Available on Mobile
A couple of months ago Twitter made Moments available for all users. Now it?s available inside the mobile app as well.
Moments brings together multiple tweets to ?share your perspective on the topics you care about.?
Twitter posted a series of tweets here that explains how to use the feature.
Twitter Quietly Adds Conversation Ranking and Direct Reply Count to Conversations
Twitter also quietly rolled out two new features to conversations.
Firstly the new Conversation Ranking system groups replies by sub conversations. This is done in order to show the best content first and what Twitter thinks you?ll be most interested in.
Some factors that affect the order of conversations is if the original author has replied or if a reply is by someone you follow.
You also might have noticed a small number appear by the reply button. This is simply a count of how many replies the original tweet has received.
Note however that this is not the totally number of replies from all conversations.
Yelp Adds Option to Take ?Yelfies?
Yelp just launched a new feature that allows you to take a photo when you check in at a business.
The app will switch to the front camera allowing you to take a ?Yelfie.? You can then add the business name and a star rating and share the photo with friends.
Check out this video to see it in action:
The feature is currently rolling out on both iPhone and Android devices.
If you don?t have it yet you should soon.
Snapchat Shuts Down Story Explorer
A year after it?s introduction Snapchat announced that it?s shutting down its Story Explorer.
Story Explorer was originally introduced as a way to ?provide depth? to Live Stories. These were collections of snaps stitched together from public posts at live events.
It was meant to be a ?like you were there? stream.
There were multiple issues with the feature however. Sometimes the snaps shown had nothing to do with the initial moment or the same snap might be featured more than once.
In the end this feature was decided to be too complicated and chose to go in a different direction.
Snapchat has been taking more control themselves over the Live Stories recently. During 2016 the Snapchat team has been featuring their own snap selections in Live Stories.
They?ve also been adding text overlays, illustrations and even video.
With the removal of Story Explorer Snapchat has decided that it will act more like a traditional media company, providing depth to Live Stories in their own way.
Instagram Now Sends Alerts When You Take a Screenshot of a Temporary Message
When you send a photo or video as part of a temporary direct message through Instagram Direct you?ll now receive a notification when someone takes a screenshot.
This only applies to temporary direct messages though. Users are still free to screenshot other Instagram posts without anyone knowing.
Snapchat already sends screenshot alerts like this. Both of these platforms don?t want you capturing what are supposed to be quick, one-time moments.
If Instagram is going to add Snapchat like features they definitely need to come up with a better name than ?temporary direct message.? A ?Snap? is much more convenient to say.
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