WE ARE SOCIAL ASIA TUESDAY TUNE UP #298
By Erasmus William, Candice Novia, Ayeshah Mirzha
Facebook’s latest newsfeed update will prioritise trustworthy publishers
Facebook is prioritising trustworthy publishers in their latest newsfeed update. The update will be released in the US first, followed by an international roll out.
Trustworthy content is tracked by Facebook’s ongoing quality surveys – whether or not they’re familiar with a news source and if they trust it.
According to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook also now expects news make up four percent of content in the News Feed. Prioritizing news from trusted publishers is part of Facebook’s broader effort to revamp the News Feed and “encourage meaningful social interactions with family and friends over passive consumption,” Zuckerberg wrote.
It is an encouraging step, which might steer the general public to be more responsive to content posts from businesses, brands and media sources.
Instagram is testing “Type” and Giphy Library on Stories
Instagram is testing a new Stories feature “Type” that allow users to create text based stories, similar to “Text” option on Instagram Direct, but with the option to change fonts and backgrounds. The platform is also testing integrating Giphy to expand its stickers library on Instagram stories where users are able to attach backgroundless GIFs sourced from Giphy. The update is similar to the mechanic of Facebook Status and Tweet updates. This also allow users and potentially brand to create content on Instagram Stories with just text and stickers.
Facebook is testing “Watch Party” for Groups
Facebook is combining its “Live Video” and “Groups” feature together by testing “Watch Party” Watch Party allows members of a group to watch videos and interact on them together. This further shows the emphasis of Facebook’s drive to build a community and active networking on the platform following the News Feed update.
YouTube raises requirements for channels to reach monetization through ads.
YouTube’s step towards raising its requirements aids in protecting creators who have a positive effect in the YouTube community; driving more revenue ad. This would also prevent potentially inappropriate videos from monetizing and ensure brand safety for advertisers. To apply for monetization, creators now must have at least 4,000 hours of overall watch time on their channel within the past 12 months and have at least 1,000 subscribers. This is a significant change from previous monetization requirement of only 10,000 public views.
In addition, Youtube is also increasing the amount of human vetting as part of Google Preferred to avoid ads running alongside inappropriate videos that have been verified by an actual person.
Whatsapp for Business launched in select markets.
Whatsapp launched its Whatsapp for Business app in Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the U.K. and the U.S. The app is avaible on Android only for now and aims to help small businesses connect better with their customers. Businesses on the app can use features such as smart messaging tools, quick replies and access messaging statistics. However, the business accounts will only be able to contact people who have agreed to receive messages from the business and provided their phone number. Whatsapp planned to expand the Business app for large businesses with global customer base as well.
MGAG Magic
MGAG’s success as a meme and trends page on Facebook turned major business is a testament to the fact that there is no comparison to localised, relatable content.
The best part about them: they lean in to their reputation. In their latest sponsored post for Asus – MGAG takes a novel approach to paid advertisements by poking fun at the content trends of past years while showcasing a caricatured version of their team and their ideation process.
It’s slapstick, it’s funny and it gets the message across to the average Malaysian (and arguably, their Singaporean counterparts as well)
Also shoutout to Asus for having the guts to commission something as unconventional as this – Malaysia Boleh!