The week in social: Twitter launches Curator, Instagram ads, and Facebook raises its video game

Twitter introduces Curator

Curator leads the news in Twitter updates this week. Publishers, broadcasters and other media organizations can take advantage of the new product to mine relevant content for their own readers and viewers. Complex searches can be constructed to find posts by keywords, authors, location, follower count, retweets and more. Curator provides a platform-native set of tools that span Twitter and Vine, and are focused on surfacing content in real time, rather than “after the fact”. The development will have a deep impact on live monitoring and engagement during broadcasts and events

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Facebook Scrapbook

In a few years, Facebook will become a teenager. So too will the countless children that have been featured in photos by their parents over the years. Facebook will now allow official presences of children under 13 years of age, but those presences will rest safely in the confines of a Scrapbook maintained by the parent. The new tagging will allow proud parents to share pictures of their children in a consolidated space among their networks. Facebook reports they are looking into a means to allow teens to control that tagging once they’ve come of age and take on the profile for themselves.

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Snapchat ousting third-party devs

Ephemeral messaging was SnapChat’s value proposition from the day it launched. On the second day, outside developers began working on ways to defeat Snapchat’s native impermanence. VP of Engineering Tim Sehn reports that every security issue the company has experienced has related to API abuse. Snapchat has maintained that the use of third-party apps is a violation of the terms of service. In a recent series of releases and interviews, the mobile-messaging giant states they’re doing everything from blocking third party apps, to locking accounts for repeat offenders.

Facebook: Preferred Page Audience

Along side the ever dwindling reach of organic posts, Facebook is rolling out options to let page admins designate their preferred audiences. With precious few impressions coming from organic content, the feature will allow brand pages to target their primary market among the mass of followers they’ve already curated. These early signs allow designation by location, interest and age. We expect to see further refinement in the coming months

Facebook Riff | Exquisite Corpse

An early 1900’s parlour game gets a mobile reboot with Facebook Riff. The app provides an easy point of entry: create a 20 second video using your mobile device (no importing possible – yet), send the video to your friends with a prompt to add their video to the chain, and send on to the next friend. Each new user in the chain can view/share the video collage as it grows and spreads. Facebook has no public plans to monetize Riff yet, but will most certainly incorporate video ads if it gains traction within the user population

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Ventoura connects travelers and locals

The latest entry into travel networking apps, Ventoura has a unique approach, offering 2 distinct profiles. “Travelers” can connect with other travelers for advice based on common destinations or impromptu meetups. “Locals” can sign on to the app to provide small services and expert advice to Travelers in the area. Ventoura will offer payment options via the app, which will open up quite a few possibilities for travelers seeking more specialized experiences

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Facebook raising its video game

Facebook continues to grow competitive offerings with the likes of YouTube and Vimeo by up’ing its native video capabilities. The F8 developers conference revealed that the user path for uploading videos will be redesigned in the coming months to include factors like expiration dates and audience restrictions. Along with that announcement, Facebook released a new set of Embed tools that allow public videos to be shared on outside sites. Videos can be controlled, liked and shared from the remote viewer, though the prevalence of use will remain to be seen

Instagram report: 6 months of ads in the UK

Instagram has posted on the results on their first 6 months of ad unit testing in the UK. The visual storytelling platform has been very carefully testing paid placement in user feeds since witnessing a large community backlash last year. John Lewis, Channel 4 and Cadbury were among the brands that have reported significant lifts in ad recall and purchase intent since participating in these early stages of Instagram’s advertising platform

Smartphones & Social Media

A recent Pew study found that 91% of respondents between 18-29 use their smartphones to access social networks. 75% of those respondents indicated having used social networks over mobile within the previous hour during the survey. 64% of U.S. adults are now smartphone owners, having grown 35% over the last 4 years

Twitter Ads on Profile Pages

You’ve seen your fair share of promoted tweets in your regular Twitter feed. Starting this week, you’ll begin seeing them in a new spot – profile pages. Twitter has begun putting paid ads in the native profile page under the heading “Suggested by Twitter”. The move prompts a discussion about what happens when brands can buy placement on the profile pages of specific users, though verified accounts are not yet subject to these new ads