We Are Social’s Tuesday Tune-Up #190

News
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Facebook wants you to play games in Messenger
Prepare to deny Candy Crush and Farmville invitations on a whole new app. According to Mashable, Facebook has confirmed it is in talks with several developers to make games for Messenger. It’s currently unclear how exactly these games will work with the messaging app and when the first games might arrive.

Facebook also launched Instant Articles

Announcing through its blog, Facebook has introduced Instant Articles which the level-headed Forbes.com is heralding as “The Biggest Media Shift Since The Internet”.  They explain:

“For consumers, this is a much faster, richer, and easier experience for reading articles directly on their News Feeds and primarily on mobile. For Facebook, this is a big improvement to the user experience and to its app “stickiness.”

Facebook are saying that “Instant Articles is a tool for publishers to create fast, interactive articles on Facebook and was designed to give them control over their stories, brand experience and monetization opportunities”. BuzzFeed and NBC News were the only ones to go all in committing to using the product straightaway, who the other publishers will be is as yet unknown.

Zuckerberg hosts another Q&A

The Zuck was out and about hosting an in-person public Q&A at Facebook in Menlo Park. This time a question was “Given declines in organic reach, how should businesses be thinking about their Pages?” watch his response here:

No official response yet to the news a Belgian regulator has urged people to install privacy software to prevent Facebook from tracking their accounts.

Facebook is also celebrating its third anniversary since floating
On the third anniversary of a $16 billion IPO that many labeled as “disastrous” or worse, Facebook now consistently impresses investors with strong revenue growth, mind-blowing user numbers and a suite of applications and features with potential to bring in even more money as soon as the company flips the switch. Its stock, which fell to half the $38 IPO price after the first few months, is now trading above $80 a share.

Pinterest is taking a hard look at international markets:

Good news for international markets as Pinterest has launched “Jumpstart”; a programme where five members of the Pinterest head office travel to a remote office with the aim to make the platform more relevant in that market. The team have three months to work their magic.

According to TechCrunch: It’s about a month and a half in on the first marketplace in Japan, and so far the results look good. The team has started experiments with a new discovery tab in its iOS app, a page of uniquely curated content that local users can see on the search tab before browsing categories. Pinterest has a new onboarding experience tailored to Japanese users and a new discovery experience. The company’s monthly active users in Japan have more than doubled in the past year, and today international usage accounts for 40% of Pinterest’s users.

Pinterest users more likely to purchase… probably.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting on a study Pinterest has undertaken with MillwardBrown into the purchasing habits of its users, finding good correlation between pinning and intent to purchase.

According to the survey, about 52% of roughly 1,500 active Pinterest users agreed that the site helps them find items they want to buy,  including a little over 60% of participants who identified themselves as “Millennial Moms”. Slightly less than half of respondents said Pinterest recommends relevant product to buy. This writer maintains a healthy skepticism due to the small number surveyed, but is happy to concede that this is strong evidence.

Pinterest Likely to buy

 

Twitter’s New Search Results Interface Expands To All Web Users
Twitter is now rolling out a new search results interface to all logged-in users on the web, introducing a cleaner look-and-feel and more filtering options that let you sort results by top tweets, “live” tweets, accounts, photos, videos, news and more. The rollout follows tests that began in April which then made the new interface available to a “small group” of Twitter users.

Screen Shot 2015-05-19 at 11.18.41 am

 

Tumblr launches an Anti-bullying campaign

#PostItForward is a new campaign launched by Tumblr to combat online bullying. Quite naturally, it takes the form of a dedicated blog on Tumblr—one that focuses on curating inspiring, positive posts and encouraging open communication about taboo subjects like sexuality and mental health.

USA President Joins Twitter

If you thought that the @BarackObama Twitter feed was actually Barack Obama… you’d be wrong as it’s his staff. The President finally has his own, verified, Twitter feed; @POTUS

Mr. Obama has furnished his account with a short description — “Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States”

He’s also using the opportunity to answer questions, providing they are from former presidents. well, at least the ones he likes.

Goodbye Mad Men

Mad Men finished up last night so to play out this Tuesday Tune-up, here’s the cast Rick-rolling everyone back in 2012.