Twitter changes character rules to attract new users Community managers and copywriters rejoice! Twitter has announced it will be changing its rules about what counts as characters on its platform. Media attachments and @s will no longer take up your precious allowance but beware links, which will use up your limit. As well as this, tweets now beginning with a username will not be hidden from your feed, so you might want to keep a lid on your trolling of reality TV stars, unless you’re proud of it and in which case you’ll no longer need to put a full stop at the beginning to reveal your Twitter tyranny. Advertisers will also see the benefits of the changes, with more scope to enjoy free visibility because when users tweet using using their handles to share content, the tweets will go to all of the sender’s followers.
Facebook Live lets you skip to the best bits Facebook doesn’t want you to waste time sitting through the boring bits of videos which your friends (and kindly brands) have taken the time to live stream to you. In a world that very easily shouts ‘BORING!!!!’ to people baring their souls, you can now skip forward to the most exciting parts thanks to Facebook’s handy engagement graph which shows where videos received the most engagement from other viewers.
*Important announcement about stickers* As climate change looms large on the environmental agenda and the Brexit debate rages away across the U.K., I bring you some very important news about Snapchat. Now not only can you add emojis to your pictures and videos, you can add THE WHOLE RANGE OF CHAT STICKERS TOO! I do hope the papers received my memo about holding the front page!
Snapchat announces 10m UK users and three year Wimbledon deal
Only a couple of weeks ago, Wimbledon’s digital boss Alexandra Willis told We Are Social’s Sports Summit that Wimbledon wanted to innovate to ensure the tournament reached new audiences. Now, just as Snapchat has revealed the number of British users it has for the first time, the platform has announced a groundbreaking three year deal with the tennis club. The deal will see Wimbledon sending live stories from the tournament using the platform, and will enable Snapchat to sell ad spots to sponsors including Stella Artois and Haagen-Dazs.
X Men’s Snapchat takeover enrages Dog Filter enthusiasts Twentieth Century Fox has bought the first Snapchat Lens Takeover, meaning that for one day, users could only use the X Men filter on their pictures. Snapchatters could choose from Beast, Professor X, Quicksilver, Apocalypse, Storm, Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Mystique and Magneto. But the move did not go down a Storm (geddit?) with everyone. Twitter erupted with protest from people enraged at being forced to face a day without their prized dog face filters. Calm down Fido fans. It’s back now.
McDonald’s host Facebook Live hamburger art show To celebrate National Hamburger Day, McDonald’s hosted its first Facebook Live video; an art show called The Starving Artist, reminiscent of Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting. The video was hosted by an improv actor playing a sweater-and-fanny-pack-wearing artist named Bevin. It reached 884,300 people in 40 minutes according to the brand, with no paid media support. Paul Matson, McDonald’s U.S. director of social engagement, said:
Doing something live is a little bit of a calculated risk. It’s inherently interesting because you don’t know what’s going to happen so we’re trying to take advantage of that and see how that might work for a business that’s 60 years old, such as ourselves.
St Pancras Hotel installs Instagram Hashtag Kiosk Free newspapers? Over. Turndown service? Boring. What the discerning hotel guest is crying out for these days is a bespoke Instagram printer. Guests at the posh St Pancras Renaissance Hotel who use the hashtag #StPancrasHotel will be able to get free prints of their snaps using a kiosk installed in the hotel lobby. Madeleine Duxbury, marketing manager at the hotel said the idea was to incentivise guests to become influencers.
Kohl’s jumps on Chewbacca mom bandwagon One slow Friday afternoon, Candace Payne, a 37 year old mother of two, posted a short film to Facebook Live in which she tried on a new Chewbacca mask, which she had bought from her local Kohl’s store. Her unbridled delight in this small pleasure became an instant hit, racking up 135m views. Now, Savvy marketers at Kohl’s have made a subsequent video, in which they visited her at her house with armloads of Star Wars goodies, shopping vouchers and reward points, which reduced her to tears, and gained Kohl’s 30 million views and 483,000 shares…
