10Yetis - Weekly Dose of Social - Instagram API, Facebook Live streaming, #GBBO

It’s Friday, we’re nearly done with our working week but first check out what’s happened this week in social!

Instagram API

The Instagram advertising API has officially been switched on. This is a big move for the app as it means that the platform will be able to transform into a mobile advertising business instantly, this will help it in the race against rivals Google and Twitter. (It’s Facebook owned).

The opened API means that partners and marketers can start buying Instagram ads and get their advertisements up on the platform to work alongside any of their other social ads. No longer do you have to be a select partner to get your ads seen on Instagram. Anyone can now go in and manage their advertisement campaigns like you would on Facebook or Twitter. Basically this is all great news for brands and advertisers and less great news for the users of the ‘gram.

Facebook live streaming

If you’ve heard of Facebook mentions, which you should have, then this should be easier for you to understand. Facebook now has a live streaming options for all blue tick verified users on Facebook. This basically means that users can watch their favourite celebrities live, doing whatever they like; it’s most likely going to be behind-the-scenes videos or live from the red carpet.

Also I was only joking before. A quick run through of Mentions… It’s basically a way for celebrities to interact on Facebook, fans can get involved with commenting and liking posts as normal. Essentially it’s a tool which allows celebs to see what other influential people are up to, to manage their own posts, as well as seeing what their fans are talking about. Now it allows celebrities to broadcast live from the app. They’ve partnered up with a few celebrities already to get the ball rolling and to get fans involved. This includes Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Serena Williams and Ashley Tisdale as well as others.

#GBBO

The sweetheart of Great British tv, Great British Bake Off aired this week on Wednesday and the Social Media world went collectively mad, well, as did the whole internet really. You couldn’t click on a web page without seeing Mary Berry’s face. #GBBO was trending for the entirety of Wednesday as well as Thursday morning. The main focus on the Thursday morning was the fiasco with the black forest gateaux. Dorret, one of the contestants tried to make up a chocolate mousse part to her cake and unfortunately it didn’t set in time. The resulting cake looked a lot like a cake the dog had eaten and thrown back up. Reading Twitter whilst the show is on increase enjoyment by 50%, we recommend it.

Dorret's just gateaux get through this #GBBO #BakeASong pic.twitter.com/tFN04l67EQ
— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) August 5, 2015

Google to buy twitter?

On Monday Twitter saw an all-time low in their share prices which led many to report that it was soon to be the death of Twitter and that there would have to be a big shake-up for them to keep afloat. Since this news broke there has been many-a suggestion that Google could be in the market to buy Twitter. Google’s struggle to create a strong universally accepted social platform has been long documented. Google Plus has never quite reached its expected heights; so entering in to the market with an existing user base could really help. The only problem with this is Twitter likely has a very high asking price, one even Google would feel uncomfortable with.