Social media changes so much in a week that it can be hard to keep up. Check back every Friday for our roundup of stories we think you should know about in our Social Media Snap.
This week was packed full with Facebook news and VMA buzz. (Really, who could get away from that performance??) A few more developments in the social media world took place, though, and I’ve listed the big ones below.
As an admin for multiple client Facebook pages, I can’t tell you how excited I was to learn that Facebook removed restrictions from contests this week. While contests used to be required to go through a third party app that cost money and had many hoops to jump through, the only real rules to know now are:
1. Admins cannot run contests on their personal timelines.
2. Contests cannot ask people to tag themselves in photos they are not actually depicted in.
Easy, right? While in a way it feels like the training wheels are off and we can cruise into a whole new world of contest promotion, some industry experts are wary. Read their responses in this summary from Inside Facebook.
Another big announcement from Facebook this week was the introduction of shared photo albums. Here’s how it works: one user creates a photo album and grants access to up to 50 contributors. Those contributors can upload photos to that one central photo album to make memories together. I wish I would have had this for 1. College 2. Experience abroad and 3. My wedding, but I’ll deal. There are always two sides to a coin, though. Venture Beat reports that nearly 100 startups are now useless with the announcement.
Everyone knows that the Internet went wild over *NSYNC’s reunion at the VMA’s last week (yes, I’m aware that I’m dating myself by knowing the correct punctuation and capitalization of the boy band). Something I found more interesting took place later in the week when Justin Timberlake sent a region of 20-somethings into a tizzy with a simple Instagram post, Tweet and photo:
Join me & @Target tonight for just one song. Let’s “Take Back the Night.” First 150 get in. See you there! #MoreJT pic.twitter.com/mxHkgHOhQL
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) August 28, 2013
Needless to say, fans waited hours for a one-song performance and if I wasn’t so far away from NYC, I would have gladly been one of them. Oh, the power of a Tweet.
Would you ever make a purchase with a witty prompt of 140 characters or less? Twitter seems to think so and that’s why they brought in a new head of commerce this week. Twitter has already rolled out Sponsored Tweets but has its sights set on much more than promotions; they want to enable direct sales on their website through what they call “T-commerce”. Retail shopping hasn’t found success as of yet on social media platforms but who knows what could happen?
YouTube quietly rolled out a new logo last week – have you seen it? YouTube reps told Mashable that they are not getting rid of the old logo – which hasn’t changed since it launched in 2005 – and are simply using this for apps and icons, but I personally wouldn’t mind if it gave itself a little refresher.
In celebration of Labor Day, this video of a Navy lieutenant reuniting with his dog after deployment is a must-watch. It’s already racked up nearly 4.5 million views on YouTube. I’ve seen countless reunions like this on YouTube (and yes, I get misty-eyed at most of them), and this one tops the list. Who knew dogs could cry like this??
Happy (long) weekend,
Kelly