If the upcoming release of Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens is the reason why you live, don’t miss the new mobile app released by Disney Interactive and Lucasfilm to give fans an outlet for keeping up with the latest franchise news and fellow fans.
It has anything you want, and much more: fan community, social updates, GIFs, special content, breaking news, special events, augmented reality, countdown to the release date, and even a Star Wars-themed weather experience. Download it* for free on the (US) iTunes App Store and Google Play, then take and share a Star Wars selfie as Jedi, Princess Leia, Han Solo’s carbon freeze, and more.
* Disclaimer: Your productivity will drop dramatically.
Facebook Messenger testing Moneypenny to help you find and buy products
Facebook Messenger is getting its own virtual digital assistant code-named Moneypenny, which will allow users to ask real people for help researching and ordering products and services, among other tasks. It’s in internal testing at the moment, but it makes sense in the context of what Facebook announced during Mark Zuckerberg’s latest keynote about allowing users to interact with businesses via Messenger, placing orders and getting updates on them all in the same place. Keep us posted, Mark. Thanks.
Instagram stats on organic performance
Locowise recently analysed 2,500 Instagram profiles and their organic growth and engagement results in the month of May. Here what you need to know:
Organic follower growth averaged 1.5%, compared with 0.2% for Facebook.
Brands averaged 2.41 posts per day. The largest profiles are the most active posting just over 6 posts per day.
91.8% of all posts were photos.
Only 8.2% of posts were videos, but they accounted for 11.6% of all comments.
#nofilter still rules with the most popular filter being “normal”
Organic engagement per post was 2.6% of the total audience, versus 0.5% for Facebook.
Photos engage 2.7% of the total audience, while that number drops to 1.5% for videos.
97.2% of all engagements were <3 (hearts)
Snapchat focuses on media content
Snapchat updated its iOS app – and is updating the Android one in the near future – with a redesigned Stories screen to put a bigger emphasis on media content. A very prominent shortcut to Discover partners is now positioned beneath your stories and above those from your friends. Same thing for the Live section, which has also been moved up to this spot, above the Recent updates from your friends.
Google indexing nearly five times more tweets than it was After Google gained access to Twitter data earlier this year, some were surprised by how few tweets were being indexed. The figure has since shot up; Google is now indexing 466% more tweets than four months ago, though 96% still go unindexed.
Facebook changes its CPC ads Facebook has made what could be a very significant change to its cost-per-click ads and will now only register ‘link clicks’, meaning clicks that do one of the following: link to another site, contain a call-to-action (e.g. shop now), install an app, link to Facebook canvas apps or watch a video on another site. The move is expected to have a big impact on advertisers. CPC ads will be more expensive (say 16 cents vs. 5 cents) but more valuable and directly linked to commerce. We might well expect to see Facebook ad spend increase, as advertisers can measure their ads more directly with the likes of Google.
Facebook adds ‘See First’ News Feed feature Facebook has added a new set of News Feed preferences, initially for iPhone and iPad users in the USA, including a feature named ‘See First’. Users can now choose friends or pages that they consider particularly important and add them to a list, meaning that their content will always show up, sort of like the opposite of ‘unfollow’. It’s likely to have an impact for brands, who have seen reach drop hugely over the past year or so among those who like their pages; if a brand isn’t added to ‘See First’, its posts may appear even lower in users’ News Feeds.
Vine adds ‘Suggested Viners’ and 720p posts The latest version of the Vine app comes with two updates: ‘Suggested Viners’, which lets users find high-quality content publishers, chosen by the network, and the ability to post in HD.
Meerkat unveils Cameo Meerkat has added a new feature called Cameo, which allows one broadcaster to invite another to take over a stream for up to 60 seconds. Expect to see celeb cameos in branded content.
Amazon blocks certain reviewers due to social interactions Amazon has been monitoring social media and subsequently banning users who have been interacting with authors from leaving book reviews on the Amazon site, in case they are ‘friends’ rather than impartial reviewers. It has since been accused of ‘Big Brother’ style tactics in a change.org petition.
MoveOn wants supporters to donate their social profiles Progessive political giant, MoveOn, is asking its followers to donate their social profiles to allow the company to post messages from them. Benjamin O’Keefe, social and cultural producer for MoveOn said that the move was an opportunity for donation in an non-financial sense:
This is a different way for people to donate in a way that really matters. It’s great when people can chip in and donate money, but not everyone can.
Coca-Cola teaches Twitter users about their names Coca-Cola has created a tweet-powered billboard in Times Square, NYC, asking users to tweet their name with the hashtag #CokeMyName for the chance to learn facts about it. Sorry to any Laurens reading, we’ve kind of ruined the surprise.
first direct and We Are Social launch ‘no, thank YOU’ first direct and We Are Social created a campaign to show the bank’s customers just how much it cares. Rather than just replying to messages saying ‘thank you’, the bank went one step further. Here’s an example:
Discovery uses Meerkat during Shark Week Are you ready for a tenuous attempt to shoehorn a link between meerkats the animals and Meerkat the live streaming service? Good, here goes.
