The Week in Social: Facebook News, LinkedIn Reactions, and PINS

Are you ready for what’s on the ‘horizon’ for Facebook?

Facebook Stories and their News Feed formats are often scrutinized when changes are implemented. The future of the News Feed is being questioned since CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would be pivoting away from permanent public posts to focus on private, encrypted messaging. Commentators took this announcement to mean that the News Feed would become a legacy product. Following an executive shuffle, a week later, The Verge’s Casey Newton declared that “Facebook’s News Feed era is now officially over.”

They are now testing merging News Feed and Stories into one feed. I get their reasoning as no one really uses stories on Facebook unless automatically linked through their Instagram, but I really don’t like the potential aesthetics of how it will be rolled out. Horizontal verse vertical? Hmm…Does anyone else remember when people freaked out when Facebook “accidentally” made Instagram horizontal scrolling? Yeah, I think they should head back to the drawing board on this one. Note, as of right now they claim not testing it publicly

Like It, Love It, Celebrate It – LinkedIn’s Way Forward

With Facebook being more of a consumer platform it’s understood why users need options to show emotions other than ‘like’. But do you feel that LinkedIn should offer the as professional network? Product Manager Cissy Chen insists such options are more in demand than you might think.

“One of the things we regularly hear from all of you is that you want more expressive ways than a ‘like’ to respond to the variety [of] posts you see in your feed. At the same time, you’ve also told us that when you post on LinkedIn, you want more ways to feel heard and understand why someone liked what you said.”

Following the user demand for more engagement, LinkedIn based their reaction development on three admirable principles: constructiveness to a poster, meaningful interaction drive (versus vanity metrics), and global universality – LinkedIn design team insisted that “reactions should be understood globally so that every member of the global workforce can have productive conversations with each other on LinkedIn.”

Pinterest’s big day on the NYSE

Pinterest began its first day of trading Thursday at $23.75, up 25%. The company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ‘PINS’, and originally said in a regulatory filing it would sell 75 million shares at a price range between $15 and $17 per share. That would have valued it as high as $9 billion. Pinterest CEO Benjamin Silbermann tried to distinguish the company from other major tech firms such as Facebook and Twitter, saying in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” following the debut that “Pinterest isn’t a social network. We really think about it as a utility,” he said. “We’re less focused on making it a place where you talk to your friends every day or you follow celebrities.”

Twitter acqui-hires Highly team

No social channel wants to direct you off their site to another. Quotes are one way the user can get a peek at what’s smart about an article, so they know if it’s worth diving deeper without immediately leaving the platform.

Twitter confirmed to TechCrunch that they have acqui-hired the, highlight-sharing app Highly. A spokesperson from Twitter said: “We are excited to welcome the Highly team to Twitter. Their expertise will accelerate our product and design thinking around making Twitter more conversational.” Highly lets you just rub your finger over text to turn it into an image with a link back to the article for easy tweeting. You could also search an archive of your past highlights and follow curators who spot the best quotes.

FTC verses Zuckerberg

Just last week, Facebook revealed a privacy mishap, admitting it mishandled millions of users’ passwords for Instagram. Facebook offset the conversation by including it into a blog post. Having yet another privacy scandal essentially trying to let it blow over without much conversation, privacy advocates and other critics see this as the latest sign that the company and its leaders are struggling to learn from past mistakes — and should face heightened oversight. Some of the FTC’s own decision-makers also have aired their support for penalties against executives when their companies are under investigation. Will Mark Zuckerberg be next?