The post The top 10 places to get a dose of good news on Positive Media Day first appeared on 24 fingers.

The post The top 10 places to get a dose of good news on Positive Media Day appeared first on 24 fingers.

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Snapchat has done something strange, it’s gone in for a bit of long-form content. Yes, we know.

It’s a platform made famous by photos and videos that disappear in seconds and now it’s asking its users to sit down, put their feet up and read for a bit.

From the end of June (well, now really) it will release its own digital magazine, Real Life, with daily articles that examine how we live with technology and how that shapes our daily lives. It sounds intriguing, if nothing else then just to see how it sits with Snapchat’s existing user base.

Lights, camera, action

Eagle-eyed social media watchers will have been keeping tabs on Periscope since it appeared on the radar last year (see what we did there?). Not least because the live video-streaming app for iOS and Android was bought by Twitter before it had even launched.

So what did Twitter have planned? Certainly its first development to allow users to use the app while on the Twitter platform suggests that it saw a way to compete with other platforms that already have live video streaming capacity. What’s more, Twitter has now made it as easy as posting a picture or video and if it is posted through Twitter, then viewers won’t need the Periscope app to watch it either. It encourages users to post current events, as they happen, and raises the profile of the platform as a source of breaking news as well as opinion. That is unless users just want to stream themselves doing stupid stuff.

A tweet a day keeps the Dr away

Twitter has once again stolen the show. As a platform for wit and humorous commentary on current affairs and PR blunders, Twitter is unsurpassed. Take Donald Trump’s tweet congratulating Scotland on its vote to exit the EU; Twitter lit up within seconds as people pointed out his obvious error. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee felt this was too funny to just be enjoyed by Twitter users so decided to dedicate a segment of the show to the responses. And then it had the brilliant idea to ask everyone’s favourite Dr Who and Scot homeboy David Tennant to read them out. What happened next was an utter joy to behold and it got the whole of of social media talking.

That’ll learn Trump to try to get involved in politics… oh, no, wait.

Image: TBS

The post Social snippets 1/7/16 first appeared on 24 fingers.

The post Social snippets 1/7/16 appeared first on 24 fingers.

See other professionals in your network

Microsoft is buying LinkedIn.

For £18.5bn.

So, to recap, that’s a PC-based software developer buying a professional social networking site. Does this strike anyone else as odd?

For LinkedIn, that has seen its share price slump by a quarter since a £5.6m loss was reported in February this year, the financial gains are obvious – but for Microsoft the transaction seems less beneficial; especially in light of LinkedIn’s assertion that it will “retain its distinct brand, culture and independence.” So Microsoft has bought a loss-making platform, won’t even get mates’ rates. What am I missing here?

No wonder LinkedIn’s peeps are looking so happy.

Je suis Orlando

As reports of another horrifying mass shooting in America filtered through the media on June 12th, there was little chance of finding any element of good news amid the tragedy. That is until Facebook stepped up and put into action its ‘safe’ button feature that allows friends and family to see the status of any loved ones they may be concerned are caught up in the event. The same feature was used in the Paris attacks in November but this was the first time it had been used in the US. The ‘safe’ status will have brought instant relief to hundreds in Orlando.  Well done Facebook.

Emojify me

All hail the power of the emoji. I remember when these little faces first started to appear – primarily at the end of curt emails to show that the sender was being neither rude nor angry, just time-poor.  Now these little smiley faces (amongst other things) are everywhere and being given pride of place by Apple on its latest round of updates to iOS and Siri.

The new range includes improved image sharing, the ability to add animations to messages and an ‘emojify’ function that will automatically translate text into an appropriate emoji. It’s the latter feature that is the cleverest move on the part of Apple. It helps people that aren’t emoji-confident to use them and it shows Apple’s made progress in text-recognition AI that still leaves the power in the hands of the user.

Snapads

Snapchat, still reeling from the news that its user base has passed that of Twitter with 150 million people using it daily, is keen to capitalise on its popularity. By ‘capitalise’, I mean make some money.

It will begin showing ten-second vertical video ads in between users’ stories though it promises not to interrupt photo and video feed from friend’s updates to do so.

The shortness of the ads could encourage advertisers to get as creative as the platform they are on and, based on the user’s feed, ad placement could be an advertisers dream. It’s a win-win, if done well.

It’s not the first social media platform that has allowed advertising in order to stay as a free service; Facebook for example allows ad placement and ‘suggested posts’ on user’s home feed, supposedly based on the user’s interests. Not sure why are mine are always for slippers though.

The post Social snippets 16/6/16 first appeared on 24 fingers.

The post Social snippets 16/6/16 appeared first on 24 fingers.

Video killed the… 140-character star

Bloomberg reports that Snapchat sees an average of 150 million users a day, up from 110 million users in December. Wait a minute, that’s more than Twitter.

It’s likely that the video and image sharing site has overtaken Twitter as a source of ‘breaking news’ thanks to its Discover section. Or it could be down to the fact that users can draw pictures of vomiting unicorns to share with their friends and that’s always going to be more fun that trying to express yourself in 140 characters.

Breaking news

Pew Research Center’s ‘News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2016’ report found that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat are the new go-to sources for the latest news. Increasingly, consumers are rejecting mainstream media in favour of updates and social comment on the day’s stories while browsing friends and family’s activities.

Facebook saw the biggest jump from 47 per cent in 2013 to 66 per cent in 2016. Plus it’s possibly the only place you’ll see the sad news of Muhammad Ali’s death next to a picture of your sister’s new car.

Nosy neighbours

If you are the sort of person who gets their kicks from snooping around properties for sale and salivates over property porn (let’s face it, who doesn’t?) then you’ll love this.

Rightmove is testing a virtual reality viewing platform for exploring properties from the comfort of your own home. Admittedly there’s a fair bit of faffing with hardware and software compatibility and at the moment there’s only two properties that have been given the GoPro tour treatment but still, it has to be easier than this approach

The post Social snippets 10/6/16 first appeared on 24 fingers.

The post Social snippets 10/6/16 appeared first on 24 fingers.