Somewhere in an air conditioned Cupertino office Mark Zuckerberg is fist pumping. Why? Because Facebook has finally hit the two billion user mark. Growth has been fuelled mainly by developing markets, and the number of users logging on daily has risen from 55% to 66% since it first breached the one billion mark.
Australian businesses are struggling to find the time for social Part 2 of the Sensis Social Media Report dropped this week and it shows that there has been a reduction in businesses with a social media presence, particularly in small and medium businesses. The main reason they pointed to was the time it takes to produce content, and manage and monitor their accounts. Tell me about it…
Facebook tests text overlays for cover photos Facebook is testing a new featurethat allows you to add text overlays to cover photos. Word on the street is that it may add some SEO benefit to pages, but it may just be a way of helping brands say more about what they do. It seems we’re a long way off Myspace glitter backgrounds, folks.
A community manager’s dream: a Brissy bookshop has unloaded on trolls
Avid Readers, an indie bookshop in Brisbane, copped a wave of angry trolls last week after promoting Clementine Ford’s new book. Rather then going wild with the ban-hammer, they decided to tackle the trolls head on, to the joy of all watching.
Facebook launches household-wide ad targeting Facebook is launching a new ad targeting featurethat allows brands to target users who all live at the same address. It’s aimed at families, students or any group that might make a shared purchase such as a holiday or new vacuum cleaner.
Facebook Messenger brings emoji overlays to video chat 🙂
Human faces can sometimes be so limiting when it comes to emotions. Thankfully, Facebook Messenger now lets you overlay emojis, filters, masks and screenshots to video chats so your complex feelings about Love Island contestants will never go unexpressed.
Messenger introduces Discover tab and M gets new features
Unless you work in tech or marketing, you probably have no idea what a chatbot is. That’s why those helpful folks at Facebook have introduced a Discover tab in Messenger that users can browse for brand or business bots. It’s like the Yellow Pages, says Facebook, but for automated robot correspondence. So yeah, similar…
Messenger’s helpful AI ‘M’ has also been upskilled with three new features. The handy assistant will now prompt users to save important content for later, give you birthday greeting reminders and also issue call prompts based on chat activity.
Haters gonna…get hidden!
Instagram has introduced a new setting that allows you to block offensive comments. The feature can be switched on in settings and will automatically hide any of that nasty shade that’s being thrown your way.
Facebook is heading into the TV business
The Zuck has just greenlit two original shows to go directly onto the platform. The shows are expected to be about 30 minutes each including ads. I, for one, cannot wait to jump into the comment section of the video for some polite, engaged and thought-provoking discussion.
Geo-whizz! You can now make filters in Snapchat
You can now design geo-filters directly in the Snapchat app rather than having to head over to the online studio. Although only available in the US for now, app-based geo-filter creator makes it easy to build filters directly on your phone. Thanks, Snap.
Twitter-streamed tennis? We’re in love. Twitter has struck a deal with the All England Club to stream news live and direct from centre court at this year’s Wimbledon tournament. There is also a hashtag-triggered emoji for tweets featuring the #wimbledon tag. Ace!
Bacardi X Major Lazer feat., well, YOU!
Rum brand Bacardi and dancehall banger purveyors Major Lazer have teamed up to create a set of Snap lenses that let you make your own short music video. The brand and band plan to also feature some of the UGC in the group’s upcoming music video.
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