This week in social media, YouTube aims for TV viewers, Twitter touts live video, Snapchat defends its redesign and Facebook joins the dating game.
YouTube On The Boob Tube
With over 150 million hours of watch time per day, TV screens are now YouTube’s fastest-growing segment, the company reported on Sunday. To help advertisers reach and tailor campaigns to this demographic, YouTube will add a TV category to AdWords and DoubleClick Bid Manager in the coming months.
In the meantime, a new AdWords segment called “light TV viewers” has been added for brands who want help reaching cord cutters.
Twitter: New Kid At NewFronts
Hot off the heels of a profitable first quarter, Twitter hosted its very first NewFronts presentation on Monday, which focused heavily on live video.
The social network showed up ready to unveil 30 new content and renewal deals, including NBCUniversal, ESPN and Viacom.
Twitter’s biggest selling point for marketers was transparency about where ads appear on the site. During the company’s NewFronts presentation, Matthew Derella, Twitter global vice president of revenue and content partnerships, told marketers that they could say goodbye to unsafe brand environments and “hello to you being in control of where your video aligns . . . we say hello to a higher measure of transparency, we say hello to new premium inventory and a break from the same old choices.”
Snapchat: Sorry, Not Sorry
Backlash over Snapchat’s app redesign contributed to lower than expected daily active users (DAU) count in March, but the company stands behind the move . . . or does it?
During its first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told investors that they will continue to optimize the app redesign, especially for Android users.
“We are already starting to see early signs of stabilization among our iOS users as people get used to the changes,” Spiegel said.
Despite Snap’s apparent lack of concern, the company is quietly testing a design that undoes some of February’s controversial changes. The design would reportedly reunite Snapchat Stories from friends and celebrities—the biggest complaint from users.
Facebook’s Status: It’s Complicated
Facebook’s annual F8 developer’s conference tried its best to instill hope during a time of controversy and privacy concerns. Mark Zuckerberg poked fun at himself for his congressional testimony but otherwise assured developers that the site will continue to evolve, albeit with a new attitude of accountability.
Among the biggest announcements at F8 was an upcoming dating profile feature. The new opt-in dating feature only suggests other Facebook users who are not already friends. The tool will allow users to build separate dating profiles that use first names only, which will be hidden from regular friends and news feeds.
Other notable reveals include the ability for users to clear their Facebook tracking history, WhatsApp video calls, live commentary on Facebook videos and the launch of Oculus Go—the latter of which was gifted to attendees Oprah-style.
