The week in social: Messenger for business, Kodak Moments, and Reddit guidelines

Facebook tweaks news feed algorithm for content hiders

As part of one of the latest posts on the Facebook Newsroom, Facebook employees Sami Tas and Meihong Wang announced a change to the news feed algorithm for users who frequently hide content from their feeds. Although the percentage of users who take this action on a regular basis is small, it highly affects the content that appears in the feed, so Facebook is lessening its affect for specifically these users. Facebook expects that this will lead to a higher number of posts hidden overall as a warning to Page admins, but they also do not expect this to have a massive impact on those Pages overall metrics and performance. Organic reach for Facebook Pages, has been steadily decreasing and usually rests at between 1-2%, depending on audience size and active fans.

More information on Facebook Newsroom.

Pinterest hires former Apple designer

Susan Kare, a former Apple design lead who created popular icons such as the lasso and the paint bucket for the Macintosh OS, has just joined Pinterest as a design lead. There are no exact details on what she will be doing, but her overall role will be to improve the user interface, and she will work for the head of product, Bob Baxley, according to a press release from the company. Additional notable achievements for Kare include designed the typeface that was used in the first several generations of iPod, and working with Steve Jobs on the company he started after Apple, called NeXT, before starting her own design company.

More information on VentureBeat.

Kodak releases new photo-sharing application

In a market flooded with potential competitors, Kodak has released a brand new photo-sharing mobile application named Kodak Moments, after its famous branding tag line. The app allows users to take photos from the app itself, or pull from a photo library, share photos on Facebook, Flickr, and other social networks, and send photos wirelessly to retailers that have Kodak Kiosks and print their photos in a variety of sizes. It remains to be seen if this new app’s functionality will sway users from other popular photo-sharing apps such as Instagram.

Facebook introduces live-streaming for public figures

In a move to potentially compete with live-streaming services Periscope and Meerkat, Facebook has just released its own service, but aimed at use for only public figures, with regular users being encourages to followed their favorites. Officially called “Live”, it is part of the Mentions app, and users can only get it if they have a verified Page. Users who can stream have the ability to post the stream onto their Facebook news feed, have comments displayed in line, and also permanently save their recording for future viewing. There are no official details on where or if this will become available for all general Facebook users.

Reddit revises content guidelines

Amid a large amount of controvery about censored content, and the general treatment of moderators and community managers over the last several months, Reddit has refreshed its content policy for all users. Previously, moderators were in charge of what content was acceptable on their subreddits, but now the company has put in place an official policy on what is and is not acceptable content to be posted to the site. In addition to this, subreddits are now subject to being either quarantined or banned for inappropriate content, according to part of the announcement from Reddit CEO Steve Huffman.

More information on Social Times.

Instagram has a strong image in the eyes of millennials

According to new data from YouGovBrandIndex, Instagram has higher levels of satisfaction and a better brand image than competitor social networks Vine and Snapchat. Based on simple prompted questions to a sample group, it was shown that Instagram users have a 64 point (from a 100 to -100 scale)) satisfaction average, a peak that was in in 2015 in late July. In comparison, Snapchat had a 31 point average, and Vine was lower at 20. Satisfaction also extends to average usage, where 37% of millennial Instagram users have logged in during the past 30 days, with only 29% on Snapchat and a lower 15% for Vine.

YouTube updates its video views counter

A problem that has plagued YouTube for a very long time has now been fixed. For content creators who upload videos that quickly rise in view count, it has been difficult to measure the true number of views as they increase in real-time. Previously, once a video went past 300 views, YouTube would display a “301+” view count, as the system attempted to calculate how many views were from true users, and how many were from bots. Now, the technology exists for YouTube to review video views more quickly, and accurate view counts will be displayed for all videos, according to an infographic that dictates their new process.

Hootsuite adds Instagram scheduling

Popular social media management tool Hootsuite has just added support for scheduling Instagram updates as part of its core features. It includes the standard scheduling features that are common to other networks that are featured on Hootsuite, but it also allows assignment of messages to team members when more than one person is accessing the account. Team workflows can also be created, including setting a process for content posting approvals, a feature generally critical for brands across other social networks. Hootsuite announced the new feature as part of a blog post and is seemingly aiming the new management features at brands and social media managers.

More information on Hootsuite Blog.

Facebook Messenger launches for businesses

Earlier this week, Facebook introduced a new way that users could get in touch with brands through a Facebook propertyl; with Facebook Messenger for business. Users who visit a brand’s website can sign up to be contacts with that business on Messenger, and brands can send customized messages for a number of different functions, including order confirmationss, general information, and more. Access to a business on Facebook Messenger also means that it can be used as a customer service channel for users directly through their mobile device without the need for a phone call. Currently, Facebook is offering this solution through a sign-up process only, and it remains to be seen if this will see wider adoption and roll-out.

Twitter introduces ads editor

In a move done likely to compete with Facebook’s power editor, Twitter earlier this week unveiled its own ads editor, which allows marketers and advertisers to edit multiple running ad campaigns at once. Users can download multiple campaigns worth of data into an Excel spreadsheet, and then make modifications to the spreadsheet and upload them back to Twitter. News campaigns can also be created by adding the necessary data into an existing spreadsheet and uploading it back to Twitter. The move is made in an effort to streamline the effort it takes to edit and create ad campaigns. Ads editor is currently only available to a select number of advertisers, but according to a blog post from the company it will be available across territories in the coming weeks.

More information on Twitter Blog.