Blog

In the second of my series of top stories from the world of digital and social media, I look at what’s been making the news over the past seven days.

Facebook are beta testing the Shopify Buy button.

We’re seeing big moves on social to implement easier ways for consumers to purchase without leaving a social network.

Last week we featured Pinterest’s announcement to include ‘Buy It’ buttons on Pins, and following on from that, Facebook have announced they are testing the “buy” call to action button in partnership with Shopify. This will potentially allow eCommerce businesses in future to offer products within the News Feed, an exciting move for those selling online.

Learn more: http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/facebook-shopify-expand-beta-test-buy-button/621619

Twitter – Stars or Hearts?

Twitter is currently experimenting with changes to the familiar ‘Favorites’ icon on the Android app. For some users the star icon has disappeared and been replaced with a heart. The only question now is will there be a circle surrounding that heart or not?

Find out more here: http://mashable.com/2015/06/17/twitter-favorite-hearts-stars/

Pinterest Rolls out Video Ads

Pinterest has begun rolling out what it has termed ‘Cinematic Ads’, a variation on the familiar video ads we’ve now come to know and recognise within the Facebook News Feed. The key difference on Pinterest will be in the motion of the video, which will change depending on how the user scrolls.

Read more here: http://mashable.com/2015/05/19/pinterest-video-ads/

LinkedIn Redesigns the Pulse App.

LinkedIn has released a new version of their Pulse app. The app has been completely redesigned to focus on showing you personalised news powered by your professional connections.

The new ‘cards-based interface’ has been designed to allow users to skim through lots of content quickly. There are new options to dismiss or save articles, and the ability to follow users directly from the news feed.

Find out more:
http://blog.linkedin.com/2015/06/17/introducing-the-new-linkedin-pulse-your-daily-news-powered-by-your-professional-world/

Twitter Seamless Video.

Twitter this week introduced auto play, ensuring that native videos like Vines and GIFs will begin playing back automatically within the home feed. We wait to see if this causes users as much of a problem with their data plans as it did when Facebook launched a similar feature.

Read the announcement from Twitter here: https://blog.twitter.com/2015/introducing-a-more-seamless-video-experience-with-autoplay

Facebook Moments.

Facebook has released a new application called ‘Moments’. Moments is a standalone app that allows users to synchronize photos from their phone and other devices, and share them privately with friends and family. It’s a kind of Facebook Photos meets Dropbox, see for yourself here:
http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/06/introducing-moments/

I hope you’ve found these stories interesting. Perhaps you’ve seen or read something I’ve missed? Get in touch with your recommendations.