So-Called Social: Week of April 9 – Info UI

It’s Friday (the 13th!) and you know what that means… It’s almost the weekend! While it was a BIG week for Facebook, the rest of the social world was a bit quiet. Here’s what went down.

Social nets update stuff

It looks like Snapchat might be backing down on their feed redesign. It’s been reported that the social platform has revived its chronological Stories feed for some users. Maybe, just maybe, they are acknowledging that some aspects of its big redesign haven’t exactly gone over well.

Instagram is testing scannable images called Nametags that would make it easier for people to follow Instagram users. A Nametag is basically a special image that people can scan with the Instagram Stories camera to follow you. I’m not totally convinced this is necessary, but we’ll see.

And then there were GIFs on LinkedIn. Last month, in an attempt to catch up with other social networks and become a little more “hip,” LinkedIn added filters and text styles for videos. Now, LI has partnered with Tenor to enable users to search and add GIFs to messages.

Adobe does stuff

Hey hey! Project 1324’s Instagram account was nominated for a Webby Award for Best Photography & Graphics (alongside Nat Geo, BBC, and Canon, OH MY!). We all like to win things, so let’s go vote!

Other brands do stuff

Nike’s Tiger Woods ad has officially made the viral video chart. I know, I know. He’s a bit controversial. But that’s what makes Nike’s huge push so interesting. The ad not only ran on TV but got significant online and social media support.

NBA Finals has picked YouTube TV as the first-ever presenting sponsor. Its logo will appear on all TV, digital, on-court, and stadium branding. Talk about disruption, YouTube.

In an non-sports-related campaign, Minute Maid has launched a new social campaign called “This is Good.” It’s focused on celebrating slightly imperfect family moments and began with a survey (in partnership with Edison Research) to better understand how parents are using social media to share their families with the world. It’s pretty heartwarming.

Interesting stuff

We’ve known for a while that Twitter has a bot problem. A big one. Welp, in a new study by Pew Research, two-thirds of tweeted links to popular websites are posted by bots, not actual humans… Also according to the study, just 500 of the most-active suspected bots shared 22 percent of links to the news and current event sites tracked.

As you can imagine, the coverage of Zuck v. Congress is pretty…robust. I tried (very hard) to find a balanced recap of the hearing, and let me tell you, it was hard. Here’s a good one that actually provided live updates throughout (Day 1 | Day 2). And if you don’t want to rummage through the live updates, here’s a good summary of what went down (Day 1 | Day 2). Andddd here’s a 5 minute recap video. You’re welcome.

Fun stuff