The Week in Social News and Trends
Facebook Adds Chat Feature to Live Video, Instagram Now Offers ‘Direct-to-Messenger’ Ads, and Pinterest Grows Ad Offering with New Auto-Play Video Pins
Published in
4 min readJun 1, 2017
- “Facebook addded chat, and joint video tool to their ever-expanding Facebook Live product offering last week. The updates are encouraged to add greater social interactivity and engagement according to a recent statement by the company. Live Chat With Friends lets users chat privately with a selected group during real-time broadcasts without exiting the video. During the actual broadcast, users click the “chat” button with one or more friends to discuss what’s happening in the video. It’s being tested in several countries and will be released later this summer. The Live With feature gives users the chance to invite a guest into their live video to interact directly with the broadcaster. Last year, the social media platform launched a similar tool, but only for public figures. Now, it’s available for all users.” — Via Mobile Marketer
- Pinterest now displays auto-play video ads throughout all of it’s pages. Adidas, JCPenney, L’Oréal Paris, Pillsbury, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Tesco, Universal Pictures and Visa are among the major brands that have tested the videos, Pinterest’s Jenny Chiu said in the post. Pinterest will also roll out new features to its Ads Manager dashboard this summer in order to better measure brands’ promoted video content. — Via Pinterest.
- Lowe’s has announced its latest Lowe’s Vision mobile app, which leverages Google’s Tango augmented reality technology on the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, the first smartphone enabled with Tango, to help customers with in-home design needs, according to Lowe’s Innovation Labs. “The Lowe’s Vision app enables customers to easily measure any room in their home with the touch of a finger, and style it with virtual Lowe’s products in real-time through augmented reality,” according to a statement on the Lowe’s Innovation Lab’s website. “This is a big step forward into our vision for how customers will use these technologies to design, build and enjoy their homes, from the comfort of home.” — Via RetailDive
- “Warby Parker has developed a new Prescription Check app that allows consumers to self-administer an eye test through their smartphone and computer. The results can then be reviewed remotely by an eye doctor who can provide a prescription, the company announced in a video on its web site. The retailer currently is testing the app in four states — California, Florida, New York and Virginia — where at this stage it is available only to existing Warby Parker customers between the ages of 18 and 40, according to TechCrunch.” — Via RetailDive.
- “Report: 45% of retailers expect to use AI within 3 years. Retail management consulting firm BRP released its 2017 Customer Experience/Unified Commerce Benchmark Survey and found 55% of retailers are focused on optimizing the customer experience to increase customer loyalty with tactics including improving the mobile shopping experience and creating a unified experience across all channels per a press release. The survey also found that 45% of retailer intend to begin using artificial intelligence within three years to enhance the customer experience. In the press release, Perry Kramer, vice president and practice lead at BRP, described the customer experience in unified commerce as more complex than in pure e-commerce or brick-and-mortar retail environments adding the complexity “expands exponentially” as technologies including social media, the Internet of Things, (IoT), artificial intelligence and machine learning impact the retail sector and its customer journey.” — Via RetailDive
- J.Crew’s Mickey Drexler Confesses: I Underestimated How Tech Would Upend Retail. Retail legend didn’t understand how speed and price would drive internet shoppers; 10 quarters of falling sales. — via the Wall Street Journal
- “ Dove is making a big push into content with the launch of its first video series under the helm of Dove Real Beauty Productions, the in-house studio it announced in March that boasts Shonda Rhimes as creative director. Written by Rhimes and the Dove team, the series is being directed by award-winning documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus — known for “Bobby Fischer Against the World” and “What Happened, Miss Simone?” — signaling the most significant investment in content the brand has made to date. The first installment, titled “Meet Cathleen,” rolled out this week on YouTube and its website, alongside promotional content on platforms like Instagram and Twitter. It follows a real woman named Cathleen Meredith on her journey toward self-acceptance through her body-positive dance movement, Fat Girls Dance. In the three-minute film, which opens with a Dove logo but does not feature any Dove products, Cathleen encourages women to take their self-image into their own hands, rather than rely on the warped standards of society at large.” — Via Glossy
- Instagram now offers ad placements linked to Facebook messenger. The new adds allow customers to directly reach businesses and brands on Facebook’s Messenger service by clicking the link in a promoted Instagram post. The ads direct users to a businesses’ content, and takes them direct into a text-based conversation. Click to messenger ads will also likely help close the loop between seeing an ad and engaging with it directly. Marketers can place the ads through its Ads Manager and Power Editor dashboards or the app program interface. — Via Mobile Marketer
