Controlling the quality of the content you see on your newsfeed has been a massive priority for Facebook in recent months. Now the social network is taking that a step further, updating the newsfeed algorithm to reduce the reach of links to ‘low-quality web pages’ that contain ‘little substantive content and [are] covered in disruptive, shocking or malicious ads’.
In a similar vein, the social network shut down tens of thousands of bogus Facebook accounts in the UK this week. It comes as the company continues its crackdown on ‘fake news’. The site has also introduced a series of educational tools to help users spot fake news ahead of the UK General Election.
Twitter stirred controversy when it rolled out its feed algorithm almost one year ago. But the move seems to have paid off! Twitter has managed to noticeably improve engagement and increase users since then. Now the platform has pulled back the curtain to reveal how it is using machine learning to show users more relevant Tweets. Take a look.
TweetDeck is many social media managers’ best friend. And this week, Twitter announced a few small but handy updates to its native social monitoring tool. For instance, you can now monitor what people are saying about a particular Tweet with the new ‘See who quoted this Tweet’ option, allowing you to easily keep track of conversations around particular Tweets or topics.
Visual
In a bid to attract the advertising dollars of some smaller businesses, Snapchat this week launched a new self-serve ad manager for buying video Snap Ads, a new Snapchat Mobile Dashboard and a Business Manager site. These tools will likely broaden the range of advertisers on the platform – and hopefully bring in some much needed revenue for the company.
As user numbers continue to climb, Instagram is looking at new ways to increase its functionality outside of the app. This week, the platform began allowing users to upload images direct from the mobile website – a move which takes it a step closer to allowing users to upload from the desktop version of the site. It is a move that is particularly relevant to users in developing regions.
Winner
You may recall a few weeks ago we wrote about a US teen who was aiming to win a year’s supply of Wendy’s chicken nuggets by gaining 18 million ReTweets. Well… he’s still only about one-sixth of the way there, but Carter Wilkerson’s Tweet has managed to rack up 3.4 million shares in the past month, making it the most retweeted Tweet of all time – a record previously held by Ellen DeGeneres.
Loser
BBC was forced to apologise after it published a tasteless Facebook post comparing missing woman Renata Antczak to its own newsreader Gemma Dawson. The post, from BBC Look North, read: “When your newsreader @GemsDawson looks like a missing mum. Here’s a link to the story.” It obviously attracted a flood of criticism and was later deleted – but not before BBC attempted to justify the post by saying it was a move to attract publicity for the search.
Creative Spot
It is Mother’s Day in many parts of the world this weekend and advertisers are using the occasion to show off some creative flair. From Kraft Mac & Cheese’s foul-mouthed mummy to Skittle’s disturbing umbilical cord toting mum (don’t ask, trust us), here are five of the most creative Mother’s Day ads doing the rounds on social media this week.
