Ready for our fifth instalment of #SocialSpeak? This week we’re talking fake news, bookmarked tweets, and the blurred lines of influencer marketing.
Verifiable fake news
We’ve been hearing “Fake News” tossed around a lot these past few years, and it’s been one of the most annoying aspects of navigating through social media. It’s not fun reading or watching something, getting emotionally attached to it, and then finding out it’s not true. Social media experts have not been taking this lightly, in a continuous struggle to fight back against the sharing of fake news, Facebook announced the integration of a new “i” button, currently being tested out on a few of the social media giant’s users.
Also known as the context information button, this new feature contextualizes the source of the information to be shared, giving the user the option of deciding the credibility of the shareable post. By simply clicking on the button, users would be able to see information about the publisher, any additional or relevant articles about the topic, and a break-down of how the post is being shared on Facebook. From there on, it’s up to the user to figure out whether or not to share the post, but Facebook believes that this button would lessen the virality of shock-value fake news.
So, next time a someone tags you in yet another post saying Kim Kardashian named her baby South East, you have a button that can easily prove them wrong!
Twitter soon to roll out its new Bookmark feature
Tweeters, rejoice! You can now save tweets to read later without having to share it with the rest of the world.
The popularity of the #SaveForLater hashtag and the constant demand for a bookmarking feature has made sure that will be rolling out their new Bookmark feature to help users save content they want to view for later. Currently, users have to either “heart” a tweet or DM it to themselves to be able to read it again later. This is a bit of a problem, especially since whatever you like on Twitter shows up on your follower’s feed, and it may look like you’re endorsing something you just wanted to read later.
The new feature should be able to clear that up, giving Twitter users complete privacy when it comes to bookmarking content. The new feature should be able to simplify this process, and a prototype is already underway. Twitter has already released a video showing how the prototype works.
The only problem seems to be the process in which tweets would be bookmarked: Users would have to click on the drop-down menu of the tweet they want to save and click “Add to Bookmarks”. To view the bookmarked tweets, the user has to click on their profile photo, which currently shows a drop-down menu for Lists, Privacy Settings, and Moments, and go to the Bookmark listings. Not a quick and user-friendly process at all.
A more transparent future for influencer marketing
Influencer marketing and advertisement is all the rage on social media, with more brands choosing to utilize the social media celebs to help on campaigns or for product promotion. At the beginning, not all tapped influencers would show that these promotions were because of a partnership with the brand being promoted, and while most influencers now use hashtags like #sp, #spon, and #ad, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) just isn’t buying it. They released an updated version of their Endorsement Guidance rubric last month, focusing on the language in which influence marketing can become more transparent.
To support this new direction, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have already stepped up their game. Facebook’s new “Paid” option for branded content makes sure that any content created and paid for by a brand is publicly posted as such, while Instagram’s new sub-header tag will clearly say “Paid Partnership With” to show users which posts are a result of a commercial relationship with a specific brand.
Both platforms are releasing these options starting with a select amount of content creators, but the future does seem way clearer than before.
Stay tuned for more #SocialSpeak next week, and we’ll let you know all about the ever-changing world of social media.
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/22/facebook-fact-checking-tool-fake-news
http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-building-save-for-later-bookmark-tweets-2017-10
https://lifehacker.com/suspicious-of-fake-news-on-facebook-use-the-new-contex-1819217472
http://fortune.com/2017/10/05/facebook-test-more-info-button-fake-news/
http://www.adweek.com/digital/instagram-paid-partnership-with/
http://www.adweek.com/digital/facebook-paid-branded-content-pages/
