Tuesday Tune-Up #253

Tuneup
cat.may
Twitter profiles Aussie Dads
Australians took to Twitter on Sunday to celebrate their fathers, and Twitter seized the opportunity to release an infographic looking at the 2.5 million tweets about dads and fathers in Australia over the past year. I just searched back for gems from my Twitter account about my dad and found nothing, so instead please enjoy this family photo from Chris Hemsworth.

Facebook launches Instant Video for Messenger
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After Instagram launched their rip-off version of Snapchat Stories last month, Facebook has adopted another Snapchat feature as its own – users can now share instant video with each other while using Messenger. When two friends are both looking at the same chat thread, a button will pulse encouraging them to send a vid. Creepy or encouraging? I’m really not sure.

Instagram Stories suggests people to follow
Instagram Stories is developing beyond its Snapchat counterpart to now suggest new people you should follow for new stories they think you’ll like based on your current following habits (cat feeds) and areas of interest (cats). Instagram is sure that their suggestions will get lots of attention, as currently 100 million people visit the Explore tab every day. The feature is yet to roll out to everyone, so keep an eye out for app updates.


Instagram now lets you zoom
Finally, users on Instagram can zoom in and out of videos and images, which is great for up-close snooping, but also could increase the likelihood of deep-liking an ex’s photo from 42 weeks ago. Brands have already started using the feature for all sorts of things, from getting to know Iceland better, to scavenger hunts, to taking a closer at KFC chicken nuggets. Why anyone would want a closer look at KFC nuggets is beyond me…

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Facebook Offers becomes mobile-friendly
Facebook Offers launched in 2012 and has now re-vamped itself to become more mobile-friendly. Businesses can create two types of Offers for users with just a few clicks of the thumb. These can either be used online or in-store, with the ability to fully track a social ad all the way to purchase – even IRL. Users can save offers they see to a dedicated section to be used at a later date.

Facebook wants your website to load faster
Facebook has advised brands to build better websites that load quickly and noted that the speed with which a website will load is one factor their ad delivery system uses to determine which ads to show which people, even warning that it could even prevent ads from being shown to users if the website they lead to is slow to load. Facebook is giving guidance on how to build more mobile-friendly sites with less code and smaller files, stating that 40% of users click away if a page takes three seconds or more to load.

Facebook launches vertical video ads
It’s time to think outside the box (well, square) when it comes to Facebook video. Vertical videos are now all the rage and  Facebook has launched its own vertical video ads, with initial results showing they are three times more efficient than square video in terms of cost per impression.

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Snapchat make geofilters easy for all
We’ve been able to make custom geofilters for a while, but it hasn’t really been the easiest process. Now those good folks at Snapchat have made things a little easier for those of us staring blankly at a Photoshop screen. Now even MS Paint users can have a go as Snapchat has created customisable geofilter themes that are super easy to use. I henceforth refuse to go to any party unless there will be a custom geofilter in action.

Twitter offers influencers a new way to monetise
Twitter has announced that influencers will now have a new way to monetise their content on a bigger scale by opting in to run preroll ads in front of their videos for a share of the profits. The influencer will take home 70% of the revenue (more than the 45% currently offered by YouTube), with Twitter keeping 30%. Only Twitter-approved users will be able to use the programme, so don’t try adding ads to your next cat video.

Pinterest announces new targeting options
Pinterest has announced new and clever ways brands can target users more effectively. The first is by targeting people who have already engaged with your brand on Pinterest. For instance, if they’ve looked at a leather brand’s whip collection, they might target you with paddles next. Secondly, Pinterest ‘tags’ now mean they can track users’ activity on your website, so if someone has previously bought a year’s supply of butter, you could then re-target them with a year’s supply of bread. And finally, there is now an ‘actalike’ re-target option – once they’ve found your most valuable customers who love your brand and buy a lot of cutesy homewares, they will find people with similar behaviours and target them with hopes of similar success.

Apple (maybe) joins Twitter ahead of iPhone 7 launch
As the one brand mentioned as the exception in every presentation about social media ever, Apple has had a curious Twitter account surface this week. The @apple Twitter account has appeared ahead of the iPhone 7’s rumoured launch on 7th September. The bio states that @apple joined Twitter in September 2011, but the account has been dormant and unverified until now (how very Willy Wonka’s factory of them!). Is something brewing pre-launch at @apple, are the cogs whirring for a huge social explosion from the brand? Only time will tell…

This week’s edition courtesy of Cat May.