We’re here to help you keep your finger on the pulse of the ever-changing world of social media. Don’t miss the latest changes, updates and happenings on your favorite social media platforms.
Livestreaming moves mainstream. In a move to appeal to the masses, Twitter now allows users to sign in or sign up for Periscope with just their phone number – no account needed. Meerkat, a Periscope-competitor, isn’t slowing down its forward progress either. The company recently made two key hires: former media heads at Tumblr and Twitter. The goal: Get Meerkat in the hands of celebrities and influencers.
Around the carousel. Speaking of a mobile takeover, Facebook built upon the carousel ad format unveiled a year ago with new mobile app ads. The carousel format allows advertisers to showcase multiple images (up to five) and links in one ad. According to a Facebook for Business post, “Carousel format insights also tell advertisers which links in the ad are performing best and give the option to let Facebook optimize the order of the images based on engagement and expected performance. Early analysis shows that this optional feature has helped increase click-through rates by an average of 12%.”
Safely tweet with Tweetdeck. If you tweet from multiple accounts, a new feature from Tweetdeck is here to give you peace of mind. TweetDeck, a social media dashboard owned by Twitter, now gives users the option to require a confirmation step before sending a tweet.
New on TweetDeck! You can now add a confirmation step before Tweeting from any account. https://t.co/8eKB5u3yMh pic.twitter.com/HYc3Gq46SA
— TweetDeck (@TweetDeck) May 11, 2015
Reddit enters video arena. Reddit, the social news site that has more than 170 million monthly visitors, announced the site’s foray into video content creation. Reddit will focus on turning the popular “Ask Me Anything” interviews into videos. Ultimately, Reddit will look to bring stories from users and the forum to life through video content creation.
Googling on the go. It’s official: Google says there are now more searches happening on mobile than on desktop in 10 countries including the U.S. While Google didn’t release official figures, representatives said that smartphones and tablets have officially taken the top spot in Google queries over desktops or laptops.
Pinterest and Tumblr: Growth spurt. After taking a look at the number of active users across mainstream social networks (Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook), GlobalWebIndex discovered that Pinterest and Tumblr had the most amount of growth over the past year. The only social network to see active user numbers drop? Facebook.
Did you join Pinterest or Tumblr this year? What do you think of the platforms? We’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment or tweet me, @carolaskyn.