28th Jul 2017 by Helen Stirling

Facebook Live Video, Instagram metrics, Snapchat copycats, Twitter dating - Weekly Social News

Welcome to this weeks round up of all things social. Again I'm uploading on behalf of Sam and taking all the credit. Thanks Sam!

Facebook fixes live videos

Gone are the days of shaky live 360 videos on Facebook. And if you don’t know what we are talking about then get up and out from under the rock you’ve been living under!

Facebook has faced many issues with live videos and it has pushed past them and it’s doing the same again in pursuing improvements to their Live 360 videos. First on the list of improvements is stabilisation, a god send for everyone watching and sharing videos on the platform while on the move. Facebook will automatically stabilise your video if it gets shaky as soon as you decide to upload it to the platform. This will further benefit users when Facebook allows us to stream live in 4K resolution. And the company is planning to roll this feature out soon too! In just a few weeks Facebook is hoping to roll out 4k.

But the fun doesn’t end there! You can now schedule alerts to followers about your upcoming Live 360 video streams, and you can also add a ‘Donate’ button, which will be great for charities.

And finally Facebook is offering its seal of approval to camera manufacturers, and software developers. By launching the ‘Ready’ program developers and manufacturers can now apply for their products to be pre-approved for Live 360 streaming, this is a great opportunity to rise above their competitors as the products can be recognised with a Facebook Live logo on their packaging.

Instagram ads metrics and insights to its platform API

Last year Instagram introduced business accounts, and thus businesses have been able to view their account and post insights on their Instagram app. But now, businesses will be able to access their insights and metrics in Instagram’s Platform API. The API has already been upgraded to Facebooks Graph API, due to the ever growing and changing needs of modern businesses.

Businesses will be able to keep track of their insights and metrics through third party tools of their choice, without having to open or log in to Instagram itself. This will also benefit them as they will be able to extract the data and visualise it in ways that Instagram does not offer. With this the API businesses will also have the ability to moderate their comments by hiding them and turning them on and off.

Snapchat can stop copycats!?


Snapchat has already turned down an offer of a buyout from Facebook and since then Facebook has plotted its revenge by developing similar ideas on their own platforms. Snapchat may have a great audience of young impressionable users, something that all platforms strive for. But Facebook has the upper hand with the best advertising platform going, with an enormous user base to go along with it. Not to mention Instagram, the most engaging social media platform.

To tackle their copycat problem Snap Inc. have made some strategic hires in Switzerland. And who they hired is very important, because they hired the team behind Strong.Codes – a company that specialises in hiding code for software. But it doesn’t stop there, Snap is sponsoring the Black Alps 17 cybersecurity conference as well in order to attract new workers.

While we will have to wait to see whether this works in preventing future copycats it surely is a step in a more secure direction. It will be very interesting to see what Facebook does next to combat the new security steps that Snap is introducing. Will Facebook work around it or develop their own features? But what Snap also needs to do is develop its platform to draw in a more diverse audience, and to attract advertisers by creating an environment for them, by offering a wide array of advertising options.

Dating just took a step up

Being verified on Twitter is a big thing, it’s about a mixture of popularity and fame. And now with Blue a new dating app which only allows users who are verified to sign up, can lead you to your true blue ticked love.

Loveflutter the makers of the new app are looking to match their users with people of a similar social level to them. But Blue is not a new app, it’s a remodelled and updated version of the original, Loveflutter. It works in the same way, has the same features, but now only people who are verified on twitter can look for love.

Blue is launching in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, London and Tokyo. But there’s a catch, the app will only go live once it has 1000 local users. Could this be a flop? I can’t wait to find out. But this just goes to show how important our social standing has become over the last few years.

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