This week in social media news, Snapchat’s Stay Tuned show gets 25 to 35 million views, Twitter’s private tweets were public, Pinterest interviews bankers for its IPO, Facebook claims the 10-year challenge isn’t to collect data, new data shows Instagram is still plagued by fake followers and Snapchat loses their CFO.
Snapchat’s Show ‘Stay Tuned’ Gets NBC A New Audience
Snapchat’s original news show Stay Tuned averaged between 25 million and 35 million viewers per month last year.
Why it matters: NBC News gained a new audience from Snapchat and they want to attract them to other platforms.
Details: In 2017, NBCUniversal invested $500 million in Snap during the company’s IPO and have since made original content for the platform. According to Digiday, Comscore’s data found around two-thirds of Stay Tuned’s audience is only found on Snapchat and only a third of those viewers also “watch, read or listen to NBC News content on other platforms including Apple News or Google AMP.”
Twitter’s Private Tweets Could’ve Been Exposed
Twitter announced private tweets by Android users became public because of a bug.
Why it matters: It’s another statement revealing how social media platforms aren’t completely secure in regards to privacy.
Details: The company said users that had protected tweets turned on in their settings and changed the email address associated with their account between November 2014 and January 2019 were vulnerable to the privacy issue. Twitter apologized for the defect and suggested users check their privacy settings. They also informed people affected by the issue.
Pinterest Interviews Bankers In Preparation To Go Public
Pinterest interviewed a few bankers last week to find one that will underwrite its IPO.
Why it matters: Some believe that Goldman Sachs is the leading choice to underwrite Pinterest’s IPO. The social media site was last valued at $12 billion in 2017.
Details: According to Recode “some people close to the company” say Pinterest is interviewing bankers. If Pinterest selects one in January, it could go public during the second quarter.
Facebook Says 10-Year Challenge Isn’t To Mine For Data
Many social media users have jumped on the 10-year challenge, however, some question its innocence and if its real intention was to harvest user data for facial recognition.
Why it matters: Users want privacy and the idea that the meme is to train Facebook’s algorithms isn’t helping to change its image from its former data mining scandals.
Details: Some critics suggested the 10-year challenge might have been created by Facebook so it can generate photographs to train an AI that would be able to calculate people’s age. WIRED editor Nicolas Thompson tweeted his speculation on the meme. Facebook said they have nothing to do with the challenge and the user-generated meme is just for “fun.”
Instagram’s Fake Influencers Still Have Followers Despite Crackdown
A report found Instagram accounts with mostly fake followers are still going strong and the numbers haven’t really changed even after the site’s war against these inauthentic followers.
Why it matters: This new information shows filtering fake followers and regulating it could be much harder than expected.
Details: Points North Group, a social measurement company, gathered data on 500 influencers who “showed signs of having inauthentic followers and engagement,” and they discovered nothing has really changed and their numbers remain the same. Instagram responded by saying the data isn’t indicative of their progress.
Snapchat’s CFO Resigns
Snapchat lost their chief financial officer after less than a year on the job.
Why it matters: Tim Stone isn’t the only resignation Snapchat has experienced in the last year and their stock took a hit following the departure news—down more than 8 percent in after-hours trading.
Details: On February 5, Snapchat is expected to announce fourth quarter results and they expect revenue to be between $355 million and $380. Things weren’t going too well under Stone. During his time at the company, Snapchat’s stock price has dropped more than 35 percent. However, the filing confirmed Stone’s resignation wasn’t due to any sort of accounting or financial disagreement with the company.
Android Users Can Switch Timelines
On Tuesday, Twitter announced to Android users—via a tweet—that they can now switch between latest and top tweets.
Why it matters: In October, Twitter disclosed the site creates “filter bubbles” and recognized that they needed to offer an option to avoid them. This was formerly a feature on Twitter before it was taken away. Twitter rolled out the “best tweets” option back in 2016… nine months before the election.
Details: Android users now have the choice of seeing tweets picked by an algorithm or chronological ones from the accounts they’re following. In order to switch Android users can tap sparkle icon to shift between the latest and top tweets.
Facebook Extends Its Ad Rules To Other Countries
Facebook will broaden its political advertising rules to Nigeria, India, Ukraine and European Union before their elections begin in 2019.
Why it matters: Facebook wants to control election interference to avoid another election scandal.
Details: In Nigeria and Ukraine only advertisers located in the country will be able to run electoral ads. In India, Facebook will place electoral ads in a searchable online library starting in February. It will contain contact information for some ad buyers or their official regulatory certificates. The European Union will get a similar system as the other countries.
Pinterest Wins With Boards And Luxury
Pinterest is finding value in not just being a board for images, but it’s finding success as a luxury ecommerce site according to Seeking Alpha.
Why it matters: The company is expected to go public this year and the growth of Pinterest selling luxury goods could make it more attractive to premium advertisers.
Details: A survey by SharePost found the percentage of respondents who sold products valued greater than $10,000 jumped to 58 percent in 2018, up from 37 percent in 2017. The company doesn’t get money from transactions but should help attract luxury advertisers.
Facebook Launches Its First U.S. Podcast
Facebook announced its new podcast Three and a Half Degrees, focusing on entrepreneurship and diving deep with business leaders to “share values, visions, experiences and ideas.”
Why it matters: This is probably another way Facebook is trying to “give back” after a flurry of bad press and consumer backlash.
Details: The podcast is hosted by David Fischer, Facebook’s VP of marketing and partnerships. The first episode “The Power of Social Good” features Bradford and Bryan Manning from Two Blind Brothers and Blake Mycoskie from TOMS.
Facebook Is Investing $300 Million In Local News
Facebook announced it’s investing $300 million over the next three years. It’s their response to the demand for more local news and supporting local newsrooms.
Why it matters: News is always shared on Facebook and some of it has been inaccurate or fake. This move shows Facebook’s support for legitimate news organizations—an industry that has been struggling.
Details: Facebook will invest $300 million over the next three years to news programs, partnerships and content. One of their plans is to give the Pulitzer Center $5 million to launch ‘Bringing Home Stories,’ for local newsrooms with reporting grants to better cover local issues.
Pinterest Creates Various Travel Personas To Help Brands
The pinning social platform is focusing on its most popular category travel by creating terms for different types of travelers.
Why it matters: The specific personas will help brands market to their audience better by understanding more of what they want.
Details: Pinterest commissioned a study by comScore to find these personas. About 2,000 respondents—between the ages of 18 and 64—participated in the online survey. From the data, Pinterest created five personas: Group Vacationer, Culture Chaser, Spa Sojourner, Adventure Lover and Eating Explorer.
Survey Finds Most Americans Don’t Trust Social Media Sites
Taptalk, a mobile platform to easily access forums, released a survey showing Americans are having a hard time trusting information on social media sites.
Why it matters: This isn’t necessarily surprising, but will distrust in these social media platforms begin to hurt user retention?
Details: Taptalk’s social consumer survey polled over 1000 Americans to analyze how people use mainstream social media sites and also decentralized forums. Around 74 percent of respondents agree or strongly agree that social media’s integrity has declined. About 80 percent of respondents said that “they would trust responses on a specialized forum more than those on Facebook.”
Facebook Will Combine Its Events Feature With Stories
Facebook announced is taking its next step with Stories with its most popular feature, Events.
Why it matters: For Facebook users, Events is still the go-to for creating a birthday party invite or details for a concert or backyard BBQ. While Facebook Stories hasn’t quite caught on—at least in comparison to Instagram’s version—combining it with Events could help boost use of the feature.
Details: Users will be able to share event details with their friends through Stories. Your friends can toggle themselves as “interested” or “going” and there will be a link to the event page built in. Users can also start a group chat on Messenger with those who responded. The new feature will be available to both Andriod and iOS users.
Editor’s Note: Our weekly social media news post is updated daily. This installment will be updated until Friday, January 18. Have a news tip? We’re looking for changes to and news surrounding social media platforms as they relate to marketing. Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.com.
