19: "Likes" ain't nothing but a number...

Facebook Dating, location security options, possible like-count-hiding test; YouTube hides follower counts; Facebook and Instagram in-ad checkout; “Private” Instagram posts not so private; no more text-to-tweet (for now); Twitter Agency Playbook.

Politics and vulgarity aside, one important user lesson on social media is to know who you’re dealing with.
(#TeamChrissy)

Moving on to more universally applicable social media news…

Let’s be real; you’re going to Facebook-stalk your online date anyway (I MySpace-stalked mine, back in 2006!). Why not just find them on Facebook Dating to begin with?

Facebook is tightening up location security on mobile, allowing for greater nuance and defaulting to whatever the user’s most restrictive settings are (device settings and app settings are often at different levels) unless otherwise specified.

Facebook’s also considering a test to hide like counts on posts, following a similar test by Instagram still in progress. YouTube has also recently removed follower counts from accounts with over 1,000 followers.

Facebook and Instagram are stepping up their ecommerce game, working on in-ad checkout functionality on Facebook and the ability to turn an organic shopping post on Instagram into an ad.

Watch those “private” Instagram posts - they’re apparently easy to access and share via web browser. (Whoopsies!)

If you’ve been posting your Tweets via text, you’re out of luck for a bit - Twitter is temporarily suspending that function after CEO Jack Dorsey was hacked via a SIM card swap.

Twitter doesn’t want to be a mystery to you; they want you to succeed (and thus keep using them). Hence their latest Agency Playbook, full of basic - yet key - tips on what’s proven to provide the most engagement on the platform. Helpful, right?

#MidweekMinute 5/15/19: Breakin' up is hard to do

Is Facebook too powerful?; Birthday Stories & new small business features; WhatsApp payments; Instagram @shop, fact-checking, and possible music video sticker; MailChimp gets serious about small business tools.

Hot take: I don’t think we should break up Facebook. But plenty of people do. (Facebook itself, unsurprisingly, doesn’t.) Moving on…

Facebook is introducing Birthday Stories, which function like an event story insofar as they compile content from multiple users to tell a singular story, and even feature birthday song stickers. They’ve also got some new tools for small businesses, including automatic ads, appointment functionality, and new video editing tools within the platform (you can do text overlays! Fun!).

Facebook’s been testing a WhatsApp payments tool in India, and is now creating a new team to develop the feature’s international rollout, with primary offices in London and secondary staff in Dublin.

Instagram introduces @shop , an of-course-shoppable account to highlight shops and makers from across the platform. They also might be developing a Stories sticker that plays a music video snippet with some lyrics over it (though this whole story might just be one epic Rick Roll).

Instagram is also introducing some of Facebook’s fact-checker technology (that’s not really where I go for news and information… but people are, I guess?), and is going to be flagging anti-vaccination posts - though exactly what effect that “flagging” will have, I’m not sure.

MailChimp is introducing a bevy of new features, including websites (domains, templates, and hosting), ad retargeting on Google and social media, social posting, smart recommendations, recurring postcards, and a CRM (they already integrated well with several existing CRMs, but now are straight-up introducing their own), in the hopes of becoming a one-stop shop for small businesses’ digital needs. Not exactly social media, but worth having on the radar, as the new platform increases their integration with social media platforms.

#MidweekMinute 4/25/19 (just past midweek...)

A day late… and WAY TOO MUCH news!
Basically, everyone’s making tweaks to their layouts and ads…

Disclaimer: this blog features 95% less scandal than that Wired expose.

Facebook is once again refining (read: changing everything around in) Ads Manager. They’re also testing upvotes and downvotes for comments, a la Reddit.

Facebook is also expanding their 3D image offerings - 3D images can now be added to Stories, Android users can now create and post 3D images, and even desktop users can make 3D images (though it’s a slightly more elaborate process).

Many had originally speculated that AI assistant functionality - much like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, or Google Home - would be part of Facebook’s Portal videochat device… it wasn’t, and isn’t yet, but Facebook has confirmed that they are now developing one. (Any bets on names? Mark? Zuck? Comrade?)

Instagram has rolled out a multiple-choice Quiz sticker for Instagram Stories (a welcome upgrade to the previous “yes or no” surveys), and announced plans to introduce a “Donate” sticker, bringing the ease of Facebook Donations to the Instagram Stories platform.

Instagram is also considering tinkering with possibly hiding “Like” counts on pictures. (But how will we know who’s popular???). This echoes comments from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who, in an interview at TED, expressed regret at the platform’s early focus on follower count and likes, and said that he would like to see Twitter move away from followings and more towards interest-based browsing - echoing Facebook and Instagram’s shifts towards “meaningful interaction.”

For now, Twitter is testing updated desktop layouts, has announced the upcoming rollout of a mute replies button and other options to combat abuse, and has acquired Highly, an app that turns article quotes into tweets.

LinkedIn has added the ability to label your “team mates,” to better prioritize updates from your most relevant contacts. They’re also discontinuing their standalone Job Search app, reabsorbing the app’s functionality into the main LinkedIn app, and added a calendar integration feature for Android.

LinkedIn has also revamped its advertising tools, adding Lookalike Audiences, Audience Templates, Interest Targeting, and Bing search data (because Microsoft).

#MidweekMinute: Suggested stories, business DMs, more Snap

Instagram now recommends stories; Twitter empowers businesses with stronger direct messaging tools; Snapchat expands shareability beyond the app and increases ad strength by disabling immediate skips for some clips.

Christine Gritmon Inc. 7/26/17 Christine Gritmon Inc. 7/26/17

#MidweekMinute: Spark, more Groups, REAL NEWS, and a not-phone

Are you using Amazon Spark? Have you joined a "group" for a page yet? Will you pay Facebook for news? And, last but not least: is Facebook developing a modular smartphone?

Last week, I caught the news about Amazon developing Anytime, but somehow missed the big Spark announcement...
Facebook, in the meantime, has a few updates: groups for pages, development of a subscription option for news, and a mysterious patent application for a modular device that may or may not be a smartphone (my money's on "not").

Amazon Spark:
Amazon’s New Social Network Is Looking a Lot Like Pinterest (New York Times)
Amazon Launches an Instagram Clone Because Shopping (Mashable)

Facebook: Groups for Pages
Facebook Is Now Letting Brands and Media Companies Create Their Own Groups Within Pages (Adweek)
Facebook Lets Brands, Publishers Connect Groups to Their Pages (Marketing Land)

Facebook: News Subscriptions
Facebook Is Launching a Subscription News Product (Investopedia)
Facebook To Start Supporting News Subscriptions (USA Today)

Facebook: Mysterious Patent Application
Facebook Patent Spells Rumors For a Future ‘Modular Device’ (The Daily Dot)
New Patent Reveals Facebook is Exploring a Modular Phone (Mashable)
No, Facebook isn't making a modular smartphone (Techspot)