Happy Friday! We’re back with another installment of The Weekly Download.
In this week’s digital roundup: ZoomerMedia acquires blogTO, Twitter tests new ‘Flocks’ feature, Instagram adds scheduled live badge to profiles, and Pinterest tests new Idea Pin Highlights, plus some Friday Fun.
ZoomerMedia Acquires blogTO
blogTO shared some exciting news this week that it was acquired by ZoomerMedia, a massive Canadian media outlet founded by industry leader Moses Znaimer, responsible for creating innovative TV stations like Citytv, CP24 and MuchMusic.
In the announcement, Tim Shore, founder of blogTO reminisces about the early stages of the blog, how they cultivated a community pre-social media and smartphones, and helped locals find whatever they needed in the city. From the best patios to late-night food spots, the blog has been a trusted space to find all things Toronto and beyond for nearly two decades.
As its expanded, blogTO has also grown into a Canadian social media leader on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook and has had many incredible contributors along the way. Plus, grown a massive (and loyal) fan base.
We can’t wait to see what’s to come!
Twitter Tests New ‘Flocks’ Feature
Twitter is testing a new feature called “Flocks” that allows users to send out tweets to a select group of people. Similarly, to the Instagram feature “close friends,” you can curate a specific group of individuals to share with, and select them as an audience when sharing particular content.
Flocks can have up to 150 members which is a seemly large list for ‘private’ conversations. To help users identify when they are included in Flock tweets, they are notified, and the tweets are marked to help keep their identity separate.
Through these efforts, Twitter is hoping drive engagement by offering a space for more niche conversations, however, these types of features are adding more closed doors to a social media platform built for public conversation.
We’ll keep you posted on the feature’s outcome!
Instagram Adds Scheduled Live Badge to Profiles
Instagram has added a new display to profiles to help expand awareness and turnout for scheduled Instagram Lives on creator profiles.
According to Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri,
“Creators have been able to schedule lives for a while now, but now, you can separate scheduling a live from creating a feed post, or even now a Story post, about that Live. You also get a little badge on your profile that’s lets followers know, or anybody know that goes to your profile, that there’s a Live coming up and they can subscribe to be reminded.”
🎉 New Features 🎉
Some fun ones this week:
– Live in Profiles
– Remix VideoLet me know what other features you’d like to see 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/Y0QIR7PgPF
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) January 26, 2022
Because Stories was the only way for creators to set reminders up until this point, their reach was somewhat limited because they are generally seen only by followers. Now, any user that visits a creator’s profile can opt-in to receive notifications about upcoming Lives without viewing their 24-hour story.
Pinterest Tests New Idea Pin Highlights
Similar to Instagram, Pinterest is adding a new ‘Highlights’ feature on the top of creator profiles where their top Idea Pins (read: Stories) can live permanently as opposed to only 24-hours. This feature is located above profile content tabs and below the bio, making it easy for users to find and increase engagement.
As explained by Social Media Today:
“Idea Pins link into the rising popularity of short-form video, and the full-screen presentation of Stories, with users able to add up to 20 frames per sequence – either still images or video – to create a more comprehensive overview or narrative.
The capacity to present your best Idea Pins could be a big step in getting optimal value out of the option, and guiding profile visitors to the exact Idea Pins that you want to drive interest and traffic.”
Pinterest continues to create new ways to increase in-platform engagement with users and discovery highlights are a great step in the right direction.
Friday Fun
Check out some of Hollywood’s favourite actresses share their MANY iconic roles in trending social media videos!
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