We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #363

Mashup
ross.mctaggart
Facebook Stories goes public, and desktop
You can now share your Facebook Stories publicly so that anyone can view your posted pictures and videos. This will likely see popular stories from celebrities and leading figures appearing in the horizontal scrolling feed at the top of the mobile app. The Stories feature is also being tested on Facebook for desktop.



Instagram improves the quality of our lives beyond measure
Sometimes a piece of tech comes along that takes your breath away. And sometimes a piece of tech comes along that allows you to overlay digital rabbit ears and glittering stars onto a video of you and your friends. Thanks to the people at Instagram for delivering on the latter.



Google rumoured to be stepping into the Stories ring
With basically every major social platform now offering some kind of Stories feature, Google is reported to want in on the idea. The search giant is said to be introducing a function called ‘Stamp’, which may resemble what publishers have created for Snapchat’s Discover section – a combination of photos, videos, and text.

Snap’s first lockup shares go on sale
The first batch of Snap ‘lockup’ shares have gone on sale, bringing the value of the company’s shares down to their lowest since its IPO. Some early investors are barred from selling their shares for a certain period after the IPO, but they are now finally able to cash out on their holdings.

Snap’s new data deal boosts measurability
Snap has recently inked a fresh ad measurement deal that it hopes will attract more advertisers to the platform with the promise of greater transparency and measurability. The new deal will add four new analytics partners to its existing roster of 15.

Snaps Advanced Mode ad builder has arrived
Hold on to your ad hats, folks, Snapchat is rolling out a new Ad Manager platform that will blow your minds, or at least make it easier to build and scale campaigns. The newly launched Advanced Mode has been rolled out to a handful of advertisers and includes new features such as audience and media libraries.

Twitter rolls out $99/month auto-tweet ad service
Twitter has launched a monthly subscription service that will see brands’ promoted tweets automatically posted to the platform. That $99 monthly fee also includes some basic analytics and comes with a cancel-at-anytime policy and a plushy Twitter bird toy for the first 500 customers. (Part of this story is fake news.)

Line opens flagship store in Times Square
Hugely popular Japanese messaging app Line has opened a Line Friends store in the heart of New York. The store is selling merchandise from its Line Friends brand including popular characters such as Brown the bear and Cony the rabbit.

Rimmel launches filters on Facebook’s Camera Effects platform
Cosmetics brand Rimmel is using Facebook in-app augmented reality features to help sell its eyeliner products. The brand has a launched filter in the Facebook Camera Effects platform which allows users to try out different products and cycle through them by saying “wow”.

AmEx hides GnR freebie in silent autoplay video
No one listens to Facebook ads with the sound on, but apparently some people still listen to Guns N’ Roses, so AmEx decided to make a fun campaign around this. The credit card company rewarded fans who switched on the sound in their ads with the chance to win tickets to see Axl Rose and co in concert. Nice one, AmEx.