We Are Social 'Headline of the Day'

Today’s headline, courtesy of Techcrunch, is that Twitter’s Moments feature, which allows users to tell stories through a collection of tweets, is no longer going to be front-and-center in the Twitter application. Instead, Twitter will replace the Moments section with a new tab called “Explore.” This area will serve as the home for finding out what’s happening on Twitter, including trends, Moments, search, and featured live video streams. This will be the last in We Are Social’s headline of the day series for a few months. It’s been interesting experimenting with Voice Tech on the amazon echo and seeing how the content worked as a podcast. But we’re going to take what we’ve learned and be going off air to plan a bigger and better broadcast later in the year. But you can still keep up to date with the biggest social stories with our Monday Mashup blog series on wearesocial.com. Keep an eye out on twitter @wearesocial for updates.

Today’s headline, courtesy of The Telegraph, is that Facebook is updating its "trending" feature as part of its bid to clamp down on fake news. Facebook's trending list will now consist of stories being covered by several publishers, rather than the stories attracting the biggest number of shares or comments. Facebook also will stop customising trending lists to cater to each user's personal interests. Instead, everyone located in the same region will see the same stories.

Today’s headline, courtesy of The Verge, is that Instagram’s Live Stories, the social network’s take on live video, will soon be available for users outside of the United States. The company plans to roll out the feature to users around the world over the next week.

Today’s headline, courtesy of The Verge, is that Snapchat is rolling out a new design which features a search bar and new guidelines for publishers using Discover. Snapchat will now restrict publishers from using images or headlines that lack editorial value. This move is part of an effort by Snapchat to make Discover a more serious news source, and to cut down on clickbait or outright fake news.

Today’s headline, courtesy of CNN Media, is that The New York Times is investigating an apparent hack of one of its Twitter accounts. The newspaper's video account, @nytvideo, sent a tweet at 9:40am on Sunday about a missile attack from Russia against the United States. The tweet was quickly deleted, but subsequent tweets soon popped up claiming to be from OurMine, a group that has hacked high-profile social media accounts, including Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Today’s headline, courtesy of AdWeek, is that Snapchat has now signed a deal with Oracle Data Cloud to arm marketers with more intelligence. This means that Oracle's treasure trove of data will let advertisers serve ads in Snapchat based on offline purchases and loyalty reward programs. Snapchat already lets advertisers target its 150 million daily users based on their behaviour in the app, but this is the first time that it's used a third party to target ads.

Today’s headline, courtesy of Forbes, is that Facebook has been accused by nearly 80 different rights organisations of doing too little to combat harassment on the platform. The groups, who include Colour of Change, the Centre for Media Justice and SumofUs, have challenged Facebook to consider a list of steps to improve its policy, which currently relies heavily on users or law enforcement to flag content.

Today’s headline, courtesy of The Telegraph, is that Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, is on the lookout for social media savvy girls aged 13 to 15 to help tackle its image as “male, pale and stale”. The security and intelligence organisation has launched the competition as part of a plan to recruit more female spies, dubbed ‘Jane Bonds’, to its ranks.

Today’s headline, courtesy of CNBC, is that WPP’s chief executive Martin Sorrell has warned Snapchat is a real threat to Facebook when it comes to advertising spend. Clients of WPP, the world's largest advertising firm, spent $90 million on Snapchat last year, helping the ephemeral messaging app to become a threat to Facebook.

Today’s headline, courtesy of The Verge, is that Facebook will begin fact-checking and flagging fake news for users in Germany over the coming weeks. This move comes in time for Germany’s federal elections, which are due to take place later this year.

Today’s headline, courtesy of Techcrunch, is that Snapchat has launched a search bar to make it easier to find friends, groups, Discover publishers and Stories. Snapchat has previously been criticised for being confusing because of its unique layout and reliance on users knowing how to navigate their way around the app, so the launch could be seen as a way to make the platform more accessible.

Today’s headline, courtesy of Business Insider, is that a secretive new research division created by Facebook is developing "brain-computer interface" technology that sounds a lot like telepathy. Several recent job postings listed by Facebook describe a project involving "neuroimaging" and "electrophysiological data" to create a "communications platform of the future." Facebook has declined to elaborate on the job listings, but in 2015, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he hoped one day to “send full rich thoughts to each other directly using technology." Just in case you’re wondering, it is not April 1st.

Today’s headline, courtesy of Mashable, is that Snapchat is testing a feature in Snap Ads which will allow advertisers to take users directly into other apps. This means, for example, that a streaming music service could purchase a Snap Ad which takes users directly to their service after seeing a 10 second video. The new feature aims to make it easier for advertisers to meet sales, download and sign-up targets.

Today’s headline, courtesy of Recode, is that Facebook is going to trial a new ‘mid-roll’ ad format, which will allow video publishers to insert ads into their clips after people have watched them for at least 20 seconds. For now, Facebook will sell the ads and share the revenue with publishers, giving them 55% of all sales. If the new ads take off, they could represent the first chance many video publishers have had to make real money from their Facebook content.

Hello and welcome to We Are Social’s headline of the day on Monday, 9th January. Today’s headline, courtesy of Campaign, is that Facebook has appointed former CNN anchor Campbell Brown to strengthen the platform’s ties with news organisations. Brown will lead the Facebook team that liaises with media in each of its markets, but will not be in charge of content decisions. Her appointment follows criticism of the platform for not tackling so called fake news in the wake of the US Presidential Election. Check back tomorrow for more updates on Amazon Echo or your favourite podcast player, or follow us on twitter @wearesocial.

Hello and welcome to We Are Social’s headline of the day on Friday, 6th January. Today’s headline, courtesy of The Guardian, is that Facebook has refused to explain why a live torture video wasn’t taken down for 30 minutes. Their failure to remove the video meant a brutal attack of a young man in Chicago was broadcast and watched by 16,000 people. Facebook did eventually take down the video, but not before it had been copied and widely shared on YouTube. Check back next week on Amazon Echo or your favourite podcast player, or follow us on twitter @wearesocial.

Hello and welcome to We Are Social’s headline of the day on Thursday, 5th January. Today’s headline, courtesy of Techcrunch, is that Facebook has launched a free, automatic captioning tool for videos on all its US English language Pages. Powered by voice recognition software, the tool aims to take the hassle out of transcription, making it easy to edit the platform’s suggested subtitles. The new captioning feature could potentially be rolled out to user-uploaded videos, but Facebook has not commented on future plans. Check back tomorrow on Amazon Echo or your favourite podcast player, or follow us on twitter @wearesocial.

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