SOCIAL MEDIA ROUNDUP: Facebook Keeps Busy as it Aims to Stay Number One

In this week’s social media roundup, we take a look at Facebook’s trial of live video broadcasting and the launch of photo and video ‘Collages’. We also dive into Snapchat publishers sharing links to their content on Facebook and Twitter, and research showing that YouTube is the most popular social network amongst teens.

Facebook tests live video broadcasting

Last week Facebook began testing its ‘Live’ streaming video broadcasting feature with iOS users in the US. The feature was made available to celebrities and some high profile users earlier this year.

‘Live’ differs from Periscope, as only close friends receive notifications about video broadcasts and the videos are automatically saved and remain visible, rather than being deleted 24 hours later.

According to Product Managers, Vadim Lavruski and Thai Tran, Facebook hopes this expansion of ‘Live’ will “help friends and families feel like they’re in the moment with you”.

To share a ‘Live’ video, users can select ‘Update Status’ and then choose the ‘Live’ video icon. A quick description can be written and the audience can be chosen before the video goes live. During the broadcast, the number of viewers, the names of friends who are tuning in and a real-time stream of comments will be accessible.

The video will be saved on the user’s timeline like any other post.

According to Lewis Wiltshire, Senior Director of Media Partnerships at Twitter, this emoji has been used 6.6bn times on Twitter so far this year.

According to Lewis Wiltshire, Senior Director of Media Partnerships at Twitter, the ‘crying with laughter’ emoji has been used 6.6bn times on Twitter so far this year.

Emojis are becoming increasingly popular in sport, increasing the online engagement around tournaments and teams.

The recent Rugby World Cup featured various emojis including a rugby ball and a player scoring a try that appeared when the user typed #RWC2015, the official tournament hashtag, and flags appeared for each competing nation when the user typed the country’s respective hashtag on Twitter.

The English Premier League celebrated the beginning of the 2015/16 season with club logo emojis that appeared when their official hashtags were tweeted and Wimbledon tennis and the NFL are just a couple of high profile sports events and leagues that have incorporated the new language.

The New York Cosmos soccer team has its own tailored emoji keyboard and it won’t be long before many other teams follow suit.

Publishers can now link to their Snapchat content on Facebook and Twitter

Last week, Snapchat launched a new feature letting publishers ‘deep link’ their Snapchat-specific articles, videos and animations in the ‘Discover’ channel on Facebook and Twitter.

This means users can now access Snapchat articles through other social networks, taking people away from the platform they are on and onto Snapchat.

This process is much easier on a smartphone, where the link automatically takes the user to the article in the Snapchat app. On desktop computers, the links appear as QR codes that the users can scan using their smartphone to take them to the article.

This new feature should help the 16 publishers on ‘Discover’, such as ESPN and the Daily Mail, drive more people to their content and increase the number of people using Snapchat.

Facebook launches photo and video ‘Collages’

Last week Facebook also launched their new media sharing format on iOS (coming to Android users in 2016), enabling users to group photos and videos into a collage-type post, suitably called ‘Collages’.

‘Collages’ is similar to the multi-photo stories people share on Facebook but allows videos to be shared, as well as giving users the option to resize images to a white-bordered tile similar to Instagram’s ‘Layout’ app.

In ‘Photo’ (located in Status options), recent moments from the camera roll are automatically organised into collages based on location and timing. The collage can be edited by adding, removing or re-arranging the photos and videos and a title can be added before sharing.

Both of Facebook’s new features show the platform’s willingness to stay relevant and in tune with its audience by adopting sharing mediums that are currently popular.

It is also expected that Facebook will launch a new drop-down menu in the near future, which is currently being tested amongst some users in the US. This will give users more video options, such as the ability to post 360-degree video content. There are exciting times ahead for Facebook!

YouTube considered the coolest social media channel by teens

A study by Forrester Research found that just 65% of US online users aged between 12 and 17 consider Facebook to be cool, lagging behind YouTube (80%), Snapchat (79%), Instagram (78%), Vine (72%), Twitter (69%) and WhatsApp (67%).

Surprisingly, the study found that more than 60% of respondents use Facebook the most out of all social networks, with more than a third saying they are ‘on it all the time’.

The key reason for this is reported to be Facebook’s ability to help users keep in touch with friends and organise meetings or events.

With all of Facebook’s new changes being tested and launched, it will be interesting to see if the platform manages to change this perception around and further increase the amount of people using the platform.

#FIFAWWC tweets viewed 9bn times in a month

Today, Twitter released a roundup of 2015, showing the most influential moments of the year on Twitter.

The only sporting event to feature in the top ten most influential moments was the FIFA Women’s Football World Cup in Canada in the summer.

#FIFAWWC was created to help estbalish a global conversation around the tournament and, according to Twitter, tweets with #FIFAWWC were viewed 9bn times from the 6th June to the 5th July, making the tournament the most talked about global sporting event in 2015.

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