Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Will.
1. Facebook’s manifesto comparison tool
With the General Election just days away, Facebook is encouraging its users to become more politically aware with the release of a new manifesto comparison tool. The tool is designed to pair individual news articles with each political party’s standpoint on the topic. Users will see a location-sensitive insert at the bottom of election-related news articles that will outline each party’s stance on housing, the economy, and foreign affairs. Facebook is hoping it will build upon the success of a similar tool it used throughout the French presidential election.
2. Skype succumb to stories
Skype has become the latest messaging app to undergo an all too familiar redesign, with the addition of a ‘new’ set of features that are proving popular with other rival apps. Skype has introduced its own stories feature called Highlights, where you can share photos or videos and decorate them with typed or handwritten text, as well as with its own set of stickers – this sounds very familiar indeed!
However, Skype has chosen to slightly tweak its new stories feature so it is not an exact replica of other apps. The main difference is that your Highlights can be viewed for a week, not just 24 hours, as is the case with Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram. Furthermore, these updates are not shared with everyone you have connected with on Skype, instead, it uses a follower/following model meaning only people who follow your Highlights will see your posts. You can also choose to share these updates with specific contacts or groups.
This new feature also includes Facebook-style reactions where users can like, favourite, or send emoji reactions like sad, laughing, or angry in response to other people’s Highlights. Overall, it seems as though Skype has realised how popular this feature has been on rival apps and decided to jump on the bandwagon.
3. Social media and fake news
According to research conducted by the7stars, only 7% of online audiences feel Facebook and Twitter are doing enough to protect them from fake news. Of the 1,000 British individuals that took part in the study, 45% stated it is difficult to understand what is and isn’t fake news, and 70% of the respondents feel social media companies should be doing more to tackle the issue. Frances Revel, associate director of insight at the7stars, states that “the study clearly shows that confidence in real news could be damaged unless action is taken to help consumers”.
If you’re after a full roundup of the stats and findings, then check out this overview of the research.
4. Marketing masterclass
Alan Partridge has taken to Twitter this week to promote the fact that his book Nomad is now available in paperback format. When asked to promote the book in his own words, Partridge chose to simply share his PR team’s marketing plan – which he describes as “one of the finest rollout strategies I’ve EVER read”. Be sure to read through his tweets as they are quite simply brilliant!
5. Covfefe?
Donald Trump has done it once again, he’s whirled up a social media storm by posting a rather ‘interesting’ tweet.
Covfefe… what? What does that mean? Well, to be honest, I have no idea, but as always you can trust the internet users to give their opinion, and they certainly didn’t disappoint.
My favorite one so far #covfefe pic.twitter.com/zOvYE5j6gs
— Mateo (@_justmateo_) May 31, 2017
#Covfefe in the North pic.twitter.com/n5EOusJD45
— Jon Snow (@LordSnow) May 31, 2017
This is why I love Twitter. #covfefe
pic.twitter.com/JKJLPDF08W— Ebad (@simplyebad) May 31, 2017
