Gen X more addicted to social media than millennials In your face Gen X (35-49 year olds)! A new report from Nielsen has found that it’s not us lazy, unmotivated and vain millennials that spend the most time glued to our phones, it’s actually you. Generation X-ers spend an average of 6 hours and 58 minutes a week on social media networks, compared with the 6 hours and 19 minutes of the younger group.
Facebook launches new Snapchat-alike Stories feature in Ireland Facebook has got in on the ephemeral action with a new Stories feature on top of its newsfeed for users in Ireland. What’s more, small circles will now appear in its main app above the newsfeed, where you can select to watch your friends’ Stories. Other countries will get the new service in the coming months. With Facebook users can able to access almost all of Snapchat’s cool features, could this be the end of growth for Snapchat?
Facebook scraps personalised trending topics Facebook’s trending topics hasn’t experienced much love since it was introduced, with allegations of it pushing ‘fake news’ among other things. To curb the backlash, Facebook has decided to scrap personalised topics, instead citing official news sources for trending stories. What’s more, everyone in the same region will see the same stories.
Longer videos “may see a slight increase in distribution on Facebook” Facebook is always looking for the best way to choose which content is best for newsfeeds and now it has announced that the metric “percent completion” will be its focus when it comes to video. Facebook says that if someone watches most or all of a video, it shows that they like the content – particularly if it’s a longer one. What does this mean? If you’re a regular user you may start seeing longer videos in your feed – and if you have a Facebook page, you may find longer videos getting an increase in distribution and shorter ones seeing a dip.
Facebook begins testing newsfeed-style ads in Messenger Facebook has started placing ads within Messenger in Thailand and Australia. The ads will appear in users’ most recent chats and but are apparently designed not to interfere with conversations. Facebook has already warned investors that revenue growth would “come down meaningfully” this year as it reduces the number of ads in the main newsfeed. This new ad product suggests further movement towards more mainstream-like ads on Facebook (with the end goal of TV-like prices) such as those in video form, embedded within Instant Articles and as full-screen canvas ads.
Nielsen partnership gives brands guaranteed Snapchat audiences Snap Inc. has revealed a partnership with Nielsen’s mobile Digital Ad Ratings (mDAR) unit, giving brands the ability to target guaranteed audiences by age group and gender. This is a big move for Snapchat as this is similar to what marketers are accustomed to with Nielsen’s TV offerings.
Twitter launches new-(ish) Explore tab Twitter has made it easier to find the best, best, BEST content on the platform with its new Explore tab which houses the top tweets, hashtags and moments in one place ?. It has a hint of the old Moments tab, which turned out to be a bit of a flop but you can’t argue with the trendingest of the trending content can you!
McDonald’s gives away Big Mac Sauce via social livestream
McDonald’s has taken to a livestream on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and its branded iMessage app for a giveaway promoting its Big Mac sauce. today at 2 p.m. ET today. The initiative is designed to push the Golden Arches’ new Big-Mac-minded menu additions—the Mac Jr. and Grand Mac. Tasty.
