Platform Five: This Week’s Most Important Social Media Changes and Updates
We’re back with another edition of Platform Five, our weekly look at the social media changes and updates that have surfaced in the last seven days.
You’ll also find the occasional new social media tool which you should have on your radar.
Let’s jump in!
1. Instragram reveals how ads will appear within the platform – A few weeks ago, Instagram announced its plans to introduce ads to the popular photo-sharing service.
This week, we got peek at what the ads will look like (see right).
The introduction of a ‘sponsored’ tag at the top of a relatively native image doesn’t appear to be too intrusive but we’ll get a better idea of how users feel about once they get rolled out.
2. Improvements made to Google+ Hangouts and Photos – The main thing to be aware of here is that the Hangouts mobile experience has been improved, including a full screen option and enhancements made to cam lighting.
You’ll also notice that a number of changes have been made to the photo functioalityn thanks to the team at Snapseed who Google acquired last year.
Google is really focused on developing and releasing innovative features on Google+ at the moment as it gently starts to gain more traction with the masses.
3. Vanity URLs rolled out to Google+ users – We told you the Google+ factory has been busy of late!
After more than two years in existence, vanity URLs are finally being rolled out to users with a minimum of 10 followers and a uploaded profile picture.
This means the Google+ profile address have changed from http://plus.google.com/u/0/b/104517094700375458188/ to http://www.google.com/+KamberAu.
Not only does it make it easier to feature and share Google+ profiles and pages, but it is another signal that Google+ content will be even more deeply integrated into Google search.
4. Pinterest introduces related Pins, will feel similar to YouTube related videos – Direct from the Pinterest blog: Related Pins are picked specially for you based on the unique things you’re into, such as other Pins you’ve saved or liked . So if you’ve been collecting recipes for your big holiday feast, we might show you a related Pin for fool-proof pie crust, or the perfect double-stuffed sweet potato.
5. A cross-platform video and audio content search engine is launched – A new web-app called Solayo.com has been unveiled and it allows you to search for video and audio content across a number of platforms.
It also saves the content you’re interested in and allows you to play it back at a later time.
That’s it for this week’s recap of the social media changes you need to be across.
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About Kamber
Kamber is a specialist content marketing and social media agency based in Australia.
We help brands and businesses plan, produce, publish and promote digital content that people crave.