Facebook Enables Post Edits: This Week in Social Media

Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.

What’s New This Week?

Facebook Lets You Edit Posts After Sharing on Web and Mobile: You now have the option to edit your Facebook updates. This works now on the web and the Facebook Android app, and iOS capability is coming soon.

You can now edit posts after sharing them.

Twitter Adds Rich Photo Experience in Embedded Tweets: Now photos in embedded tweets are bigger and there’s a “bold visual focus on the media.”

Embedded Twitter posts with photos now look better.

Pinterest Article Pins Share More Information: Articles pinned on Pinterest “will now have more information—including the headline, author, story description and link—right on the pin.”

"When you find articles about things you're passionate about—such as science, travel, parenting or health—they're easier to save and organize on Pinterest."

YouTube Integrates Comments With Google+: “In the coming months, comments from people you care about will rise up where you can see them, while new tools will help video creators moderate conversations for welcome and unwelcome voices.”

"Starting this week, you'll see the new YouTube comments powered by Google+ on your channel discussion tab. This update will come to comments on all videos later this year." Here's what comments will look like later this year in a sample video from SoulPancake.

Twitter Announces New Push Notification: “With this new feature, you’ll receive personalized recommendations when multiple people in your network follow the same user or favorite or retweet the same tweet.”

YouTube Launches Audio Library: “Any YouTube creator now has access to more than 150 royalty-free instrumental tracks you can use for free, forever, for any creative purpose (not just YouTube videos).”

"You can browse the tracks by mood, genre, instrument and duration."

LinkedIn Introduces Sponsored Jobs to Feed: LinkedIn gives Sponsored Jobs “even more visibility by incorporating them into one of the most engaging spots on LinkedIn: the LinkedIn feed on the member homepage.”

"This change gives your Sponsored Jobs even more opportunities to be seen by the best passive and active candidates as they browse through news, content and updates from their network—and brings Sponsored Jobs to mobile for the first time."

Instagram Redesigns Mobile: For iOS 7 Instagram has “increased the size of photos and videos in your feed so that they expand to the edges of your screen.”

Instagram has "made profile pictures circular so Instagram feels at home on your phone."

Klout Redesigns Profiles: The profile page now has “a fresh new design so that it’s easier for others to get a sense of who you are online.”

"When viewing your friends' profiles, you'll have an opportunity to give them +K in the topics you think they're influential about."

Klout Introduces Cinch: Cinch is a new mobile app for iOS that delivers a way to get personalized advice. “Cinch uses Klout’s technology platform and data assets to understand the questions you ask and then match them to the most relevant potential advisors.”

"Cinch helps everyone get timely advice about a range of lifestyle-related questions, such as home improvement, parenting and more, from knowledgeable advisors."

Don’t miss this:

Social Media Success Summit 2013 Starts Next Week!

Social Media Success Summit 2013 is a special online conference designed to help you master social media marketing (brought to you by Social Media Examiner).

Social Media Success Summit 2013.

Forty-five of the world’s leading social media pros will show you how. Instructors include Jay Baer (author, Youtility), Chris Brogan (co-author, Impact Equation),Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner), Mark Schaefer (author, Return on Influence), Jesse Stay (author,Google+ for Dummies), Amy Porterfield (co-author, Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies) and experts from General Electric, Sony, E! Online, Kelly Servicesand Discovery Channel–just to mention a few. Fully online. Click here to learn more.

What do you think? Please share your comments below.

Social Media's Impact on Journalism

With the growing use of social media to report news the consumer perception of real time news is changing - people now expect to receive news instantaneously and expect constant updates of developments. This is significantly influencing the direction and practice of journalism. The availability of these online blogs and social media networks has changed the way that journalists are able to operate and it can be a valuable tool aiding journalists in their newsgathering, audience engagement and it can act as another platform for content.

Image – http://roymorejon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/social-media-news-facebook-twitter.jpg

It is important to note that social media and blogs are not replacing journalism, but they are adding another layer of information to existing news sources. One key way that social media has changed how journalists approach the news is through helping journalists in newsgathering and crowdsourcing. This has helped them to collect more material on news stories and has provided access to a wider range of voices who are able to tell their own stories and opinions on the matter. Social media also helps journalists to source eyewitnesses quickly, as people are keen to tweet or post about interesting things they have witnessed to tell their friends about what they saw. This can be a significant benefit making it easier for journalists to track down those who might have a first-hand account of an event.

 However, this also means that in some cases journalists are having to compete with the average citizen for breaking news as sites, such as Twitter, are increasingly being used as a source of news and a way to spread news by the younger generations. Furthermore, journalists still need to check, verify and evaluate news claims found on social media before they report on them.

Image - amijounalist.blogspot.com

The demand for instant news stories has changed the way that journalists traditionally function. For example, when the bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston marathon in April 2013, many of the members of staff of the local news team – the Boston Globe - were actually running in the marathon or were already covering it live. The changing consumer perception of news and the desire for real-time updates has encouraged journalists to step into their roles in situations like this, live-tweeting from the scene and updating readers with vital information on the events. Twitter has even created a new system , released yesterday, that reflects the way that emergency news can instantly be relayed to a large audience in times of need. Twitter Alerts enables public institutions to send out emergency alerts via text message and push notifications – “a new feature that brings us one step closer to helping users get important and accurate information from credible organizations during emergencies, natural disasters or moments when other communications services aren’t accessible”.

One of the greatest positives of social media for journalists is the way that it has the power to engage with greater audiences. Social media is able to move information quickly among a large group of people, and can provide a valuable two-way engagement with the audience, changing significantly how journalists talk to their audiences and listen to the audience’s response. This can mean that local news is able to transform into international news very quickly as social media has the power to transfer information across the world instantaneously.

The power of social media to expand audience engagement can also be seen through the way that it can act as a platform for content to redirect viewers to branded news sites. For instance the Telegraph has detected a significant upsurge in the importance of social networks as a form of distribution with over 8 per cent of all page views to the Telegraph Online now as a result of recommendations in networks like Digg, Facebook and Twitter. Established journalists may also choose to utilise social media because it can act as another way to distribute their content which they have researched but been unable to use in TV or radio – this way it ensures that their hard work and research does not go wasted.

What do you think?

Do you think social media has changed the way journalists report the news?

Pinterest Promoted Pins: This Week in Social Media

Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.

What’s New This Week?

Pinterest Tests Promoted Pins: Pinterest experiments with ads as its traffic moves from the web to mobile and will be ”promoting certain pins from a select group of businesses.”

Pinterest says promoted pins will be tasteful, transparent, relevant and improved based on your feedback.

Pinterest Makes Pinning Smarter: “Now when you click the Pin It button for browsers, you’ll see the images look a lot closer to how actual pins appear on Pinterest. You’ll see how big different images will be, and you can even edit the description before clicking Pin It.”

Check out the new features for the Pin It button.

Facebook Tests Easier Way to Watch Video: “Now when you see a video in your news feed, it comes to life and starts playing. Videos initially play silently, and if you want, you can tap to play with sound in full screen.”

Videos on mobile will also be easier to watch in the coming weeks.

Facebook Redesigns Mobile App: “The Facebook app for iPhone includes a new menu at the bottom that makes it easier to get around. The app also has a new look designed with iOS 7 in mind.”

"Now it's easier to switch from news feed to your friend requests, messages or notifications—just tap along the bottom of the screen."

Twitter Introduces New Version of Mobile App: The “new versions of Twitter for iPhone and iPad for iOS 7,” have “a refreshed design that looks and works great on iOS 7.”

"In addition to these updates for Twitter for iPhone and iPad, there are some new features on iOS 7 that make Twitter easier to use and more enjoyable."

Tumblr Adds Push Notifications: The “Android update features push notifications along with a newly designed activity screen. Now you can get updates whenever someone follows your blog or interacts with your posts.” Push notifications are also available on iPhone and iPad.

"To control which ones you see, go to the Account tab and tap Settings."

SlideShare Tests New Design for Mobile: The new design has a “more visual element, which better showcases presentation thumbnails to help you discover content more easily.”

"The design includes the ability for you to easily like, share and save SlideShares from any mobile device."

Here’s some upcoming news to follow:

YouTube to Allow Offline Viewing on Mobile in November: This new feature will “allow people to add videos to their device to watch for a short period when an Internet connection is unavailable. So your fans’ ability to enjoy your videos no longer has to be interrupted by something as commonplace as a morning commute.”

What do you think? Please share your comments below.