The News Feed: YouTube Takes The Esports Trophy
31st January 2020
Ben Hordos & Gabby Hurn – Team Social at Think Jam
From Snapchat’s new Bitmoji TV series to Facebook’s Super Bowl Ad, get up to date on all things social.
FACEBOOK
Facebook Launches First Ever Super Bowl Ad
Starring Chris Rock and Sylvester Stallone, Facebook launched a teaser for their Super Bowl advert. According to a release from Facebook the ad aims to highlight Facebook Group’s with the tagline ‘Whatever you rock, there’s a Facebook Group for you’ – part of their wider ‘More Together’ campaign.
The campaign aims to highlight the breadth and depth of communities that exist within Groups and shine a light on people connecting over shared interests. As we’ve already seen over the past few months, we expect Facebook Groups to become an even bigger part of user behaviour on the platform – a great opportunity for brands to connect more deeply with their audience.
Quick Bites
Facebook Settles In Facial-Recognition Legal Battle
Facebook Launches New Filters and Stickers on Messenger For Super Bowl
TWITTER
Twitter Updating Search Results to Stop Fake News
In a bid to squash fake news circulating around the Coronavirus, Twitter will prevent automated search results that are “likely to direct individuals to non-credible content” and, instead, direct users to authoritative information. The prompt will appear at the top of the page to ensure users are given the correct and credible information first.
Quick Bites
Overload of Love Island Tweets Crashes Twitter
Katie Hopkins Suspended from Twitter
INSTAGRAM
Instagram Testing Emoji Reactions in DM’s
It seems obvious given that Twitter and Facebook both offer this feature in DM’s, however, Instagram has only just started testing the feature with internal employees. The platform aims to tap into organic messaging behaviour to facilitate and promote more user engagement.
This update aligns with Facebook’s wider goal to integrate it’s messaging platforms to allow cross-communication, which would enable users to send messages between the Facebook owned platforms.
Quick Bites
Cristiano Ronaldo Becomes The First To Break 200m Followers on Instagram
YOUTUBE
YouTube Ups It’s Esports Offering
YouTube has announced that three different esports organisations; The Call of Duty League, The Overwatch League, and Competitive Hearthstone will stream matches exclusively on its platform. The platform will be switching their strategy from signing deals with huge gaming streamers, in a bid to become the new home of esports – a title that has been owned by Twitch up until now.
This is a huge opportunity for YouTube with the esports sector growing exponentially. As well as live streaming, YouTube also has the ability to provide VOD with stream highlight compilations and play by plays.
Quick Bites
YouTube Music App Now Lets You See All New Album and Single Releases
Justin Bieber’s ‘Seasons’ Launches on YouTube
TIKTOK
New App ‘Byte’ Launches to Rival TikTok
From the co-founder of Vine, the new social media app Byte allows you to shoot up to 6-second videos, complete with a rolling feed, an explore page and profiles – with plans to introduce a section which will allow you to view posts handpicked by Byte’s editors too.
Although it doesn’t have features like remixability, augmented reality filters and transition effects that TikTok boasts, Byte does, however, offer a partner programme to creators which will allow people to start monetising their Byte videos and profiles. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how users compare it to TikTok in the coming months…
Quick Bites
TikTok Rolling Out ‘Dark Mode’
TikTok is Reshaping How Brands Market To Youth
Google’s Area 21 Launch TikTok Competitor, Tangi
PODCASTS
Spotify Canvas Links To Instagram
Last week Spotify announced they were testing Playlist Stories with key influencers. Building on this, artists will now be able to share their video art from Spotify’s Canvas feature directly to Instagram. After seeing much success with sharing individual tracks via Stories, Spotify is aiming to integrate and increase shareability across other social platforms.
This new feature will allow artists to interact and engage with their Instagram followers on another level. A great example of this is Billie Eilish, who has used animated versions of fan art for each of her tracks on Spotify and shared these with her 51.4M+ Instagram followers via Stories.
Quick Bites
Spotify Getting Rid of ‘Listener Count’ in Discovered On Section
SNAPCHAT
Snapchat Launching Bitmoji TV, Their Own Personalised Show
Snapchat has announced the launch of Bitmoji TV, which are weekly videos that put you and your friends’ customizable Bitmoji avatars into animated scripted adventures. The episodes will go live within the ‘Discover’ section, and users will be able to select their co-stars from who they last interacted with – their friends, relatives or someone completely random. Who users select will change the way your Bitmoji interprets the jokes and scenes. Your Bitmoji won’t talk, but their’s will.
Snapchat is taking original content to the next level, putting users front and centre of the series. They are yet to announce if ads, or even talent will be involved, but we’ll be keeping an eye on the developments.
Quick Bites
Snapchat Announces Image Recognition Lenses For The Super Bowl
TRENDING THIS WEEK
Jake Paul and AnEsonGib Go Head-To-Head in Professional Boxing Match
James Corden Reveals He Doesn’t Actually Drive in Carpool Karaoke
More Than 2.5 Million Fans Want Kobe To Become The New NBA Logo
Get in touch with our social experts at teamsocial@thinkjam.com
