Welcome to This Week on Social Media. Here’s a recap of all the notable things that happened in Social Media in the last week.
Instagram can now tell you when someone screenshots your
Instagram has started testing this feature on randomly selected users. Hence this is not a global roll-out yet. This feature seems inspired from Snapchat, where when a user takes a screenshot of something you posted, you will be notified. Instagram’s intentions are more legal and less stalker-ish. The new alert feature is meant to let users know when or if their content might be reused by others. It is a form of self-protection, but also a warning that we should all be conscious of what we share on the so-called “ephemeral” platforms.
As the author of a Story, you will not receive a direct notification when someone takes a screenshot. You will be able to find out by looking at the “seen by” section of your Stories insights: a circle shutter icon (see tweet below) will be displayed next to the name of the account that has taken a screenshot of your content.
Snapchat to give more insights to content
The insights available on Snapchat have always been limited and the platform has been reluctant to share insights and data. This has made the platform unattractive for advertisers and influencers alike. Influencers need data in order to convince brands to work with them on paid partnership deals. After all, all other platforms already provide them with insights.
Until now the insights shared were the same for everyone. How many users saw the story while the story was live and this is hardly any data at all.
This is changing. After pushing to verify its most popular users back in the summer of 2017, Snapchat is now going to give them a lot more information on how their content performs, including:
• Total views
• Unique viewers
• Completion rates
• Time spent watching
• Audience demographics for their followers, including gender data and popular age groups
• Topics their followers care about (travel, food, fashion, sports)
• Popular geographic regions where their followers live
This will definitely help Snapchat influencers who can now convince brands better of their value on the Snapchat platform.
YouTube TV is now adding new
YouTube TV, the paid service that allows you to watch live TV and broadcast over the internet, is adding new channels and will now cover 100 US markets and 85% US households.
YouTube TV, which has in its sights traditional cable offerings, has grown steadily and is making an aggressive bid to grow by adding channels like: TNT, Adult Swim, TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network, truTV, and Turner Classic Movies. Those new additions come to complement key existing channels like ESPN, ABC, USA, FX, Fox News, Fox Sports, E! and the CW, among others.
The company is also poised to become a sports fan’s favourite with users gaining the ability to stream nationally televised NBA games, the NBA All-Star weekend (coming up this Sunday!), the NBA Playoffs, MLB post-season games, the PGA Championship, and UEFA soccer.
Unfortunately, that also means that the monthly cost for YouTube TV is set to increase from $35 to $40. But worry not, you can get in at the current rate if you sign up by March 13. Existing subscribers will continue at their current rate.
Facebook’s ‘Portal’ video chat device will double as a smart speaker
We’ve heard for some time, that Facebook is working on launching its own hardware device. Last month, it was given a name – Portal. According to recent reports from DigiTimes – a Taiwan-based IT publisher – Portal won’t be just one device. It will be two. And we’re just starting to get a better idea of what they will actually be all about – that is, other than just “video chat devices.”
The two devices will be smart speakers that will also work as video chat devices – and will reportedly feature 15-inch screens. As products go, they will compete with Amazon’s Echo Show, but may not compete that effectively in terms of price, as at least one of them will be significantly more expensive. The devices, codenamed Aloha and Fiona, will allegedly be launched later than we originally thought – in July – so that Facebook’s team can work on them further.
Aloha is the one that will be called “Portal” at launch, but we don’t know more about Fiona. Also, it is highly likely that Portal will be the “more sophisticated” of the two. Finally, while both will be voice-operated, Portal will allegedly also use facial recognition technology as well, “to identify users for accessing Facebook via a wide-angle lens on the front of the device.”