We are back in January 2018 and continuing our series of this week on social media which recaps some of the top stories in the world of social media from across various platforms.
Facebook is attempting to give chatbots more personality
One of the biggest changes to be expected in 2018 is the emergence of AI and we have all witnessed the liberal use of chatbots by various companies to deal with customer care. Well Facebook is taking this one step further. It is now attempting to give chatbots distinct personalities.
Some companies have attempted to do this and they tried using movie script dialogues to teach AI how to converse. It was found that while movie dialogue is not the best example of a real conversation users did find the chatbots using movie scripts a bit more interesting than the normal ones.
Facebook is basing its bots off Amazon’s Mechanical Turk marketplace, which uses hundreds of thousands of lines of realistic dialogue. In the medium term bridging the two approaches will help but it just goes to show the rate at which chatbots are improving.
You can now schedule posts on Instagram!
Finally, Instagram has paid heed to the No.1 request from over 16 million users. Now you can truly schedule content on your Instagram account.
This is one the several big changes made possible thanks to Facebook. Instagram started updating its API based on Facebook’s API and has already brought features for businesses, such as organic Insights, and comment moderation.
In a way it does feel like Christmas again for businesses as they can now schedule posts on Instagram through its Facebook and Instagram Partners – accredited social content scheduling platforms like HootSuite and Sprout Social. Both platforms already offer the service.
Twitter to organize a contest for the best social media ads during Super bowl
As Super Bowl approaches while the football fans turn their eyes on the action on field all marketing teams are gearing up to come up with innovative campaigns to drive awareness and buzz around their brands.
A lot of marketing teams have been using social media only to drive awareness and buzz and this year twitter seems to be fueling that effort by launching a contest for the most innovative campaigns to be used during Super bowl.
Twitter is taking the first step to facilitate the discussion, by launching its inaugural #BrandBowl52, an official competition to honor the best-in-class campaigns, as played out on the platform. If you want to be part of the conversation, all you have to do is Retweet the following tweet and you will be subscribed to receive alerts in real time, whenever a new ad airs during Super Bowl. The ads will be included in a Twitter Moment for users to watch again and review.
After the game is over, subscribers will be alerted on which ads have made the cut and have won the prizes. Twitter has defined the following categories:
- #MVP: Brand with the highest percentage of all brand related Tweets during #SB52
- #Blitz: Brand that drove the highest velocity of most Tweets-per-minute
- #QuarterBack: Brand with the most Retweets on a single Tweet during #SB52
- #Interception: Brand without a national TV spot that drove the highest percentage of brand conversation
Lucky winners will get a lot of goodies from Twitter and its partner, BuzzFeed. Among them, access to special insights and data to fuel their Twitter campaigns throughout 2018, custom trophies, and merchandise, as well as a special inclusion in BuzzFeed News’ live morning show, AM to DM, the morning after game day. Roll on #BrandBowl52!
Snapchat stories can now be shared outside the app
As part of Snapchat’s big new redesign and general overhaul, the company is launching a feature that allows Stories to be shared outside the app.
Snapchat’s Public stories – Official Stories, our stories and search stories- will now be sharable using a special link via email, message or other social platforms. The stories can be natively viewed in twitter but on Facebook they will be visible as Youtube Videos. If one clicks the link then he/she will be directed to Snapchat’s website.
The move is a smart one. By lifting the restriction on where its content is seen, Snapchat will undoubtedly appeal to more users – especially those who just want to consume content, and who may find Snapchat’s UI a tad too difficult to comprehend. Hopefully, it will give Snapchat the boost it needs to grow and to increase engagement on its app – and its content in general.
Of course, not all content is shareable. Sharing will be available on Snapchat’s editorial team’s hand-picked Stories, any crowdsourced Stories, and content from verified accounts. It won’t be possible to share anyone’s Stories publicly.